New Voices with New Opportunities
New Voices, a festival of original work by the Ryerson School of Performance Acting graduates, now in its 17th year, has always adapted to the varied and innovative needs of its productions. New Voices 2021 continues this tradition by celebrating this capstone work with live virtual performances, films, readings, a website, music and more.
The online nature of New Voices this year has allowed the actors and 4th year creatives to expand beyond the typical limitations of past New Voices festivals. Shows produced in 2021 aren’t limited to a theatre format – the boundaries are as wide as the imaginations of writers and producers.
The New Voices Gala will take place on April 23 at 7:30pm. The gala will showcase each producer's work through a series of interviews and talkbalks that highlight their process and vision before the films and productions are available for streaming at the end of the evening. Films will be available online until May 2.
The 4th year actors have created pieces that are performed by 3rd and 4th year actors. These student-developed works will be posted online for 10 days, providing Ryerson audiences an extended period of time to engage with these exceptional virtual performances.
The following is an interview conducted with 4th year production student Zev Shoag:
What has been your job on the New Voices Gala team?
On this show, I’m head of video, so I’m helping facilitate all of the media assets for the show. Along with my team, we’ve been creating the slide show and the trailers. Earlier in the process I helped some of the actors with their editing process and any video issues they may have encountered. Basically I just manage and make stuff.
Can you speak to some of the accessibility measures that your team has been putting in place for the digital performance?
For most of our promotional videos, we’ve been adding audio descriptions to them. So anywhere there isn’t speaking, we’ve written what’s being shown on screen, had someone record that script, and placed it overtop. We have these available as an alternate version, so for those who are visually impaired, they can enjoy the experience as well. For all the recorded shows, we’ve been captioning them. We have a team of people who have been using a Google captioning feature, and tweaking any mistake that the program makes, in order to have accurate captioning available for those who want them. Additionally, we’ve been playing around with a new Zoom function, where it can create auto-generated captions for live digital events. This function is available in meetings, and for webinars as well. Long way of saying audio descriptions and captioning, that’s been our focus on accessibility.
Why do you think It’s important to have those accessibility measures in place?
Everyone has different struggles, and we want to ensure that everyone can be a part of the show, be a part of the art, regardless of any limitations. It’s something that’s very easy to implement, and can ensure that an entire new audience can view and interact with the art that’s been created. It’s a simple addition, and it means everyone can see the art.
From your perspective, what do you believe is the overall themes and ideas being presented in the New Voices Gala?
This is a time for the fourth year actors to learn more about themselves as artists. The intention of New Voices as a whole is so the Fourth Year actors learn more about the production process, for them to put together their own team, and to create a show. Although it’s a little abnormal this year, they’re still learning those skills and being able to create something of their own. They’re not performing someone else's work, they’re performing, creating, producing and directing what they want to make. At this point it’s beyond acting, it’s more.
What kind of audience do you think will be interested in the New Voices Gala?
Friends and family for one. But I also think people who will be interested in looking at new work. These are people who are just starting their careers, and this is what they want to make.
What do you hope that the audience takes away from the New Voices Gala?
I hope they get a better understanding of the process, the people and the pieces. The Gala itself invites the producers to speak about their work, and I think being able to learn more about their process is really interesting. The ability to hear firsthand about the process behind the art that the actors have been working on for months, and then go view the projects, it gives you a better understanding of what went into them.
What has been your favourite part working on the New Voices Gala?
I think in a time where we don’t see people in the regular, having this really great team and communal environment we’ve created. It really feels like we’ve replicated that sort of community you feel just sitting with friends in Kerr Hall. I really miss that peer-to-peer connection, and so to be able to feel that again, as well as being professional and getting work done, I like that a lot. At the point we’re at currently, it doesn’t feel as stressful because we’ve already had part of our show, we’re not crunched for time, it's nice to have that time to really talk and just support each other. I’ve also found it really exciting how people are experimenting with their art. Generally, with New Voices you see amazing plays, but it’s limited to one format. But in the COVID environment, it’s really allowed the producers to play and experiment with different formats. We’ve seen some live shows, we’re seeing experimental pieces, we’re seeing movies now too. Someone does a cooking show, someone created the beginning of a podcast, it’s really cool seeing what people do when the possibilities expand.