A Theatre Guide to Technology (or How I Learned to Live with Corona)
from Broadway Unlocked • Innovation for any Stage
Dear wonderful humans, artists, entrepreneurs and educators,
You are heroes. Fuck this shit. Let’s make things, shall we?
Deep breaths, follow the bullet points, and when you feel confident enough…
Get creative. It’s what we do best. Right?
You got this.
CEO & Founder,
p.s. Comment on the article with additional ideas, use cases and creative hacks and we’ll incorporate as we go. Tweet @bwyunlocked if you have questions that aren’t answered here. We’re reaching out to companies on this list who haven’t offered a COVID discount/free license. We’ll start updating each entry with the details on their offer.
Addendum: We’ve been asked quite a bit about consulting. We’re available to help.
NEW ADDITIONS:
Updates on Zoom + Meet
5 Step Process to Mastering Technology for Theatre Artists:
- There’s nothing more important in this guide than adopting these strategies.
- When this gets overwhelming (and it will), try and concentrate on the outcome. It’s going to feel like “you have to learn Poll Everywhere to be able to teach and that sucks because it’s hard to understand”. But we think the opportunity is actually pretty exciting! “Poll Everywhere gives me this opportunity to add an interactive element to my presentation, which will ultimately make people *actually enjoy their experience, and see how our puzzle pieces fit together in this insane new world order”
- Be at peace with the tech — It won’t ever work the way you expect it to and something will go wrong
- Assume someone else has run into the same problem as you and there’s an answer/workaround (there’s always an answer or workaround on this big old internet)
- Google search the most likely phrase someone else would have used, to look for a solution to the problem you’re facing
Resources
First and foremost, here is a Google Doc that’s keeping track of technology products that are free for educators and non-profits during this crisis. Only look at this if you want to search for something specific. It will probably make you poop your pants, otherwise. It’s insane.
Video Publishing
Vimeo
WTF DOES THIS DO 👩💻
If you need to publish video for the foreseeable future, do yourself a favor — grab a 30 day free trial of Vimeo. It only goes up to $7/month after that.
WHY DOES IT MATTER ❓
If you need to publish and organize video, it will save you a shit-ton of time
THE CLIFF NOTES 📓
- You can upload your video once here, and then push out to other social platforms including YouTube and Facebook. Lots less work
- You can create “Showcases” of videos that all live on one web page. Might be great for multiple videos on one lesson plan.
THE INSTRUCTIONS 📝
COVID LICENSE 🐛
None found
Livestreaming
StageTEN
WTF DOES THIS DO 👩💻
Folks, we think this is best used for performers who are trying to take performances online that include more than one person (nightlife in particular), or anyone that needs to livestream to an existing platform with a screenshare
WHY DOES IT MATTER ❓
It’s one of the best ways to stream to multiple platforms simultaneously, with multiple people in the stream
THE CLIFF NOTES 📓
- Stage TEN allows you to pull up to four different people into your livestream via tons of different layouts
- You can also add people and take people away without interrupting your livestream
- You can automatically push your livestream out to FB, YouTube, Twitch, Periscope and any RTMP connection from this one place (multiple accounts too!)
- If you’re really fancy, you can add music, lower thirds, persistent audio, screenshares and all kinds of fun stuff
THE INSTRUCTIONS 📝
Quick Start Instructions for setting up StageTEN
Starting a StageTEN livestream
Join StageTEN as a Guest (via laptop)
Join StageTEN as a Guest (via mobile)
Hooking YouTube up to StageTEN
COVID LICENSE 🐛
We’re getting on a call with their team in the next two days to discuss licenses for live performers. If you’re interested, email jess[at]broadwayunlocked.com and we’ll get back to you.
Other Livestreaming Ideas
If you just need to set up an iphone and stream a performance of something, here’s a few options:
Gotta budget?
Vimeo, at the $75/month level, lets you livestream and push out to multiple destinations simultaneously
If you fancy, this guide to livestreaming from our favorite camera/gear shop, Adorama, is a great one
Don’t gotta budget?
Instagram Live — did you know you can add another person into your Insta Live? Lots of fun potential there. Super easy.
HowlRound has been doing great work on the livestreaming/arts front — they have an awesome article out about what in sam hell you’re supposed to do right now
Already livestreaming?
Consider submitting to The Social Distancing Festival: an online artist’s community made to celebrate and showcase the work of the many artists around the world who have been affected by the need for social distancing that has come about due to the spread of Coronavirus (COVID-19).
Need some help on a virtual gala, online classes or other technology-related pivots?
Screencasts
Loom
WTF DOES THIS DO 👩💻
You can get this as web-based software or as a desktop app. It allows you to record your screen and your audio with the handy-dandy bonus that a little cute video of you appears in the corner.
WHY DOES IT MATTER ❓
If you’re dependent on “projections” for class, it’s an easy way to get the same effect when everyone is remote. If you’re a performer, it opens up some really interesting ways to get creative in sending out digital content, but keeping your “personal image” at the center of it
THE CLIFF NOTES 📓
- It’s great for teaching viewers how to use a piece of technology, replacing whatever you’d send to someone’s chromebook or put up on an airplay — could even be fun for doing audio commentary over a video
- It allows you to add timecode bookmarks in the notes underneath the Loom — great for an “outline”
- It also tells you when people have viewed your loom and how much they watched — ahem, STUDENTS YOUR TEACHERS KNOW!
THE INSTRUCTIONS 📝
Embed your Loom onto a Webpage
COVID LICENSE 🐛
Through July 1, 2020
- Remove the recording limit on our free plan — what was 25 is now unlimited
- Cut the price of Loom Pro in half — what was $10/month is now $5/month
- Extend all trials of Loom Pro from 14 to 30 days
Video-Based Interactive Learning
YouTube Premiere
WTF DOES THIS DO 👩💻
This is a (new-ish) awesome way to stream a video and make it a bit interactive by allowing folks to chat during the premiere. Facebook has a very similar feature
WHY DOES IT MATTER ❓
If you are facing a video-based life now, we figure this is the closest way to try and get a bit of the interactive nature of a classroom or performance space into that paradigm
THE CLIFF NOTES 📓
- After you schedule a ‘Premiere’, you get the link to a public watch page
- You can interact with the audience via chat/comments in real time
THE INSTRUCTIONS 📝
COVID LICENSE 🐛
N/A
TikTok
WTF DOES THIS DO 👩💻
Guys, one of Jess’s two best friends is a prominent historian and professor of the freaking MUGHAL EMPIRE IN INDIA (esoteric, much?) and is using TikTok to interact with her online classes at Rutgers. If she can do it, you can do it!!!! TikTok lets you upload short-form video-based lessons, or conversely, ask your students to create TikToks as a demonstration of their understanding of a topic
WHY DOES IT MATTER ❓
During this upheaval, buy-in from young audiences is likely to be a dream if you can get creative about how to use TikTok. We think this is a HUGE opportunity with a little flexible thinking
THE CLIFF NOTES 📓
- The upside: TikTok is huge with young folks anyway, short form is a great way to demonstrate you *actually* understand something, and adding creativity into your lesson is ALWAYS advisable (theatre folks, We’re not even going to bother on this with you — get to work, get creative, holy crap there is so much gold here for us, we’re LOVING what you’re already putting out!)
- The downside: There are very real privacy concerns. There’s also a “duet” feature that allows someone to essentially ‘respond’ to a TikTok in a side-by-side. Used responsibly, holy cow, lots of creative potential. Used to bully, not great.
- Use case! Check out this kiddo who uses TikTok to demonstrate his understanding of the East India Company’s imperialistic footprint — set to the cast album of SIX! #AllIKnowAboutHistoryILearnedInMusicalTheatre
THE INSTRUCTIONS 📝
Here’s a good (and fair, it seems) article about the ups and downs of TikTok for educators
COVID LICENSE 🐛
N/A
Interactive Information
Poll Everywhere
WTF DOES THIS DO 👩💻
Live interactive audience participation. From multiple choice, to word cloud, to clickable image, brainstorms and maps, this tool lets you SUPER EASILY send out poll-based interactions (or embed them in powerpoint/keynotes).
WHY DOES IT MATTER ❓
God, moving all this in-person stuff to screens is next to impossible and disheartening. Poll Everywhere, when used with some creativity, gives us the opportunity to grab back just a little bit of that “we’re all together’ feeling. It also doesn’t hurt that you get great analytics from it.
THE CLIFF NOTES 📓
- Folks, we have used this in so many ways. For Theatre of the Oppressed in NYC, we created a few polls for their Legislative Theatre, embedded it in Powerpoints and airplayed it to screens so 200 people could add their legislative suggestions in real time and see which recommendations had the most traction. We’ve used it to upvote (Reddit-style) suggestions during a talk (which also made it WAY less boring). The possibilities are limitless — and again, it’s really really easy.
- Offhand, we think this would be really interesting as an addition to any livestream content you’re sending out as a theatre/performer — you pop up a link to your poll everywhere and get real time feedback which you can then respond to. As educators, it’s obviously an awesome addition to any lesson plan.
THE INSTRUCTIONS 📝
5 Ways to Support Your Students
COVID LICENSE 🐛
Complimentary 90 day Education plan
Conferencing
Zoom
WTF DOES THIS DO 👩💻
Host a webinar (you present, lots of people “attend”) and online meetings.
WHY DOES IT MATTER ❓
Upside: Absolutely the best video/audio quality for webinars, super simple setup, ability to add in fancier equipment if you’re into that. Also, we tagged along with the incredible Coterie Theatre in Kansas City as they pivoted their classes for kids online — and they found Zoom more suitable for their needs than Google Meet.
Downside: As you’ve probably read, Zoom has enormous vulnerability issues. As of today (4/4), Zoom now requires permission for anyone to be admitted to a Zoom session — assumedly in response to the “Zoombombing” that’s been going on. However: This is not the first time Zoom has run into issues like this, so we say it’s safe to expect it to keep happening.
THE CLIFF NOTES 📓
- Use Zoom to present to a bunch of folks via the internet and screenshare
- This is hands-down the best solution for big groups that need to watch you present
- It allows fine-tune settings for allowing chat, questions, “raising your hand”, etc
- Downside: It’s only free for K-12 during #CoronaCrisis. Otherwise, you have a 40 minute limit unless you pay for it
THE INSTRUCTIONS 📝
Add Zoom into your calendar invite
Zoom’s a real d%&k (send help!)
COVID LICENSE 🐛
They are lifting the 40-minute cap on free accounts for schools affected by the coronavirus. Learn more here.
Google Meet
you don’t even have to sign up if you have a Google account 👏🏽
WTF DOES THIS DO 👩💻
Same thing as Zoom, basically
WHY DOES IT MATTER ❓
They’ve made their pro version free til July, which buys you up to 250 participants per call, live streaming for up to 100,000 viewers within a domain, the ability to record meetings and save them to Google Drive, and there’s no software to download when you send someone a link to join (as opposed to Zoom). Ultimately, if you have a G Suite account, we prefer this over Zoom. Check out our Guide to Meet(ing) here.
THE CLIFF NOTES 📓
- Same as Zoom, basically
THE INSTRUCTIONS 📝
COVID LICENSE 🐛
Google is waiving the fees on the premium version of Hangouts Meet to assist businesses and schools operating remotely.
Writing
Writer Duet
WTF DOES THIS DO 👩💻
Collaborative screenplay/musical/teleplay writing that’s WAY cheaper than Final Draft
WHY DOES IT MATTER ❓
No time like the present to get that screenplay done. Or issue a collaborative writing challenge. Or work on story structure with your students.
THE CLIFF NOTES 📓
- Templates for nearly any kind of written script format
- Multiple people can collaborate simultaneously
- It has great tools for outlining and revisioning — an outline board, ghost mode, time lapse mode, line alts, and more.
THE INSTRUCTIONS 📝
COVID LICENSE 🐛
Email help[at]writerduet.com for more information
Link Shortener
Bit.ly
WTF DOES THIS DO 👩💻
Take your very long URL/Link and make it short and customized
WHY DOES IT MATTER ❓
Remember up above, when we said things like Poll Everywhere are fun to add into your livestream or videos? Those tools require you to show people a share link, and if it’s in text, and it’s super long, it’s pretty much useless, since you can’t copy titles in a video. Use bit.ly to create customized “shortlinks” that are easier for folks to re-type
THE CLIFF NOTES 📓
- Paste your long link in
- Edit the bit.ly link so you can customize it
- Check out analytics so you can see exactly how many people clicked it and where they came from
- Call it a day
THE INSTRUCTIONS 📝
COVID LICENSE 🐛
No information
FloDesk
WTF DOES THIS DO 👩💻
Let’s you make beautiful emails super easily and then helps you create automated delivery of them
WHY DOES IT MATTER ❓
If you’re like us (and most creatives), email marketing is mind bogglingly out of reach. FloDesk was created for us, and after using it in beta for the last few months, we are here to tell you — — it delivers on its promise. For our podcast, Take Me To Coffee, we made two super simple email sequences that deliver over a month and a half or so — one to welcome new subscribers and one to keep in touch with our former guests. The possibilities for you are endless! It’s also WAY CHEAPER than MailChimp. And if you click that link above, you get it half off FOR LIFE!
THE CLIFF NOTES 📓
- Make stupid beautiful emails
- Use their existing workflow templates as a base for you, and then trick/hack it out
- Create email communication that is automated and keeps your audience engaged
- Use it to get personal with your list!
THE INSTRUCTIONS 📝
Sign up here to learn more about Take Me To Coffee and go through our welcome workflow
COVID LICENSE 🐛
No information
Want us to show you how we have our workflows set up for creative content?
Click here to schedule a time to chat about your needs and find out about our consulting packages.
Podcasting
WTF DOES THIS DO 👩💻
We all have so much time off. Please for the love of god, use it to make things. We’ve decided to release the guide we developed for podcasting muy gratis. If you love it, listen to our mentorship podcast for the digital age, Take Me To Coffee, as payment.
WHY DOES IT MATTER ❓
We researched making a podcast for two full years. It is STILL more difficult and more work than we could have ever imagined (but way worth it). Save some time and brain space. Use this as a starting point.
THE CLIFF NOTES 📓
- It’s a general outline for getting started, pre-production, production, post-production, and a few other handy things we learned along the way
Digital Filmmaking
WTF DOES THIS DO 👩💻
All you need to know to film high quality video on your phone
WHY DOES IT MATTER ❓
If you are low on funds and needing to create, you can make nearly anything look fancy on your phone these days
THE CLIFF NOTES 📓
Equipment recommendations, text animations, teleprompter and other essentials for shooting high quality video on your mobile devices
Other Fun Apps We Love
WHY DOES IT MATTER ❓
Subscribe to the Breakthroughs magazine for incredible inspiration you can carry into any profession
WHY DOES IT MATTER ❓
Friends, we use this to manage EVERYTHING — from productions Jess is directing, CRM for actors, mentors and partners we meet, we built a dashboard that automates our podcast workflow. It’s what you wish Excel was in 2020.We build Airtable bases and we’re obsessed with it for creatives, so let us know if we can help
WHY DOES IT MATTER ❓
We’ve tried a lot of social media scheduling platforms. Loomly is by far our favorite — mainly because you can upload one “base” post, and then tweek it per platform, including the platform-specific usernames for anyone you mention in the post, and changing the asset as needed (i.e. you want a 16:9 video for FB, but a 1:1 video for Insta)
WHY DOES IT MATTER ❓
Here’s the deal. Acuity was originally developed for spas, etc. But if you find yourself needing to schedule absolutely anything, we can tell you without a doubt, this is the platform you want — and it will work for you. After a lot of trial and error, (we refer to Calendly as our mortal enemy) this guy does it all.
WHY DOES IT MATTER ❓
We are nightmares about calendars over here at BU. Again, we landed on Timepage only after trying about a million calendar apps. This one is by far the best in between of robust and not overwhelming; it has an integrated to-do feature we love, and it syncs beautifully between devices. Also it’s pretty. We’re theatre people. That matters.
WHY DOES IT MATTER ❓
Ya’ll VO peeps who got effed by the Mac OS update that killed Audacity, this app is the way to go. You can record on any of your mobile devices, it does everything fancy that Audition does, and is a bit more simple to use
WHY DOES IT MATTER ❓
If you have time on your hands, dive into the HitRecord community — you can contribute anything to projects on this Joe Gordon Levitt-founded site: voiceover, animations, compositions, you name it. And everyone who contributes to produced projects gets a piece of the pie!
Ideas! Ideas! Ideas!
CHALLENGE:
I have to use PowerPoint slides through a YouTube livestream with voice. I have a youtube account and a mic. Any suggestions?
IDEA!:
If it has to be livestreamed, sign up for the free account of STAGE TEN. It will allow you to stream a screen share. It will look complicated but deep breaths and we’ll work on a guide.
If it can be recorded and uploaded afterward, use Loom instead, and then upload to YouTube. Bonus points — if you make a Vimeo account, you can upload the video there and then push it out to multiple platforms. Saves you time.
CHALLENGE:
How do we bring together 25 people attempting to rehearse Hamlet digitally since being indefinitely postponed the day of our preview? 👻💀
IDEA!:
The biggest challenge you’re going to face is persistent audio — most platforms that let multiple people on at the same time are only able to handle audio from one source at a time.
Of course nerd us is like — Everybody get a Vive and get in a virtual space together!!!!
Given that that is probs impossible (but maybe you could use Google Cardboard, see below?), we suggest taking some time to decide what is most important at this moment. Is it just running lines? Is it seeing everyone in space and time?
For audio — Think about using Zencastr (for podcasts) where everyone can at least join in via audio (and this won’t have that persistent audio issue). See more on that below.
If you all need to see each other —We say look at Google Meet. They just made their pro version free til July. If it were us, we’d get a gorilla pod, frame up a shot of ourselves in the living room where there is open space, join meet. Then a director can look across all the feeds to see each of the individual blocking. Zoom is good too, but at least for now, you only get 40 minutes for free.
CHALLENGE:
I’m wanting to stream a live watercolor class from my home. I’d love to be able to answer questions and also see the students work. What would you suggest?
IDEA!:
This feels like a hybrid situation — but there’s two options. Well, technically three, but I’m guessing folks wanting to watercolor from home are not going to be into Twitch 😉.
#1: You can go straight Instagram Live and
A) ask people to DM or email you photo/video of their work. It just feels a little clumsy because you have to download the photo to your camera roll in order to pull it in to your live stream or
B) You can pull people into your IG Live (1 at a time), so if you feel confidant in your audience, they could comment with their handle once they have something to show and can pull them in and out
#2: We know this is going to feel weird, but you could also livestream on IG and then push people over to TikTok. With TikTok, they can make a 60 second video, and then you can “Duet” with it — which is essentially a splitscreen video response
We think both ways are really fun and should work pretty well.
Here’s the Later guide to IGLive — https://later.com/blog/instagram-live/
Here’s a decent article about creating private TikToks: https://www.dailydot.com/debug/how-to-duet-tiktok-disable/
Tweet us your challenges and we’ll give you ideas/add them here!
WHY DOES IT MATTER ❓
A super affordable VR solution — is this a way to bring folks together for virtual rehearsals? We’ve been having a conversation about it in a thread on social media. Let us know if you have thoughts
WHY DOES IT MATTER ❓
This is primarily a tool for podcasters, but I mentioned to someone looking for digital rehearsing hacks that it could be a great way to run lines with lots of people at the same time. I’m also bandying around the idea that this could be a very good tool to produce audio theatre with, quickly and efficiently. Is it a way to replace one of your cancelled shows and still deliver to your subscribers? Stay tuned.
COVID LICENSE 🐛
No limits on recording hours or participants for Hobbyist users. We’ll keep this in effect through July 1, 2020.
Broadway Unlocked is a startup pushing the boundaries of theatre past the footlights. Set at the intersection of the theatrical skillset and entrepreneurship, its portfolio includes The Giveback Concert, Take Me To Coffee, Full STEAM, Storytelling for Leaders and The Salon, among others. The company is at the forefront of innovation in the arts and delivers powerful collaborations, content, products, and partnerships across business, cause, and culture.
Jessica Ryan is a recovering polite midwestern girl from Kansas City who’s now happily bi-coastal and working as a mad scientist across the arts, entrepreneurship, technology and activism. She has performed at Goodspeed & Berkshire Theatre Festival, written for some of the biggest companies in the world including Amazon and GE, directed digital content with Tituss Burgess and Kirstin Maldonado, voiced spots for Starbucks and Old Navy and (probably most importantly) once sang a jingle for an adult superstore in North Dakota (true story, Annabelle’s, look it up).
In case you’re not exhausted yet, Jess is the CEO/Founder of Broadway Unlocked, an ambassador for the Summit community, member of the Zuckerberg Institute and Creator and Co-Host of the Take Me To Coffee Podcast with Hamilton’s Andrew Call as well.
Currently accepting extra hours in the day, inquire within.
Hey! A few of the ‘sign up here’ links are affiliate links, which means we may receive commissions when you click them and make purchases. However, this list was compiled entirely based on tools we actually love and use. The affiliate link is just a bonus. We try our best to keep things fair and balanced, in order to help you make the best choice for you.
