“Violet” will be performed Thursday through April 8 in the Thurber Theatre of the Drake Performance and Event Center. Credit: Hannah Santo | Lantern Reporter
Theater students are looking forward to clear facial cues and unmuffled voices during the Department of Theatre, Film, and Media Arts’ upcoming production of the musical “Violet.”
Masks are now optional at Ohio State, extending to theater students who have rehearsed and performed in masks since the beginning of the pandemic. Student performers are now maskless for the first time as they open their upcoming show “Violet,” running Thursday through April 8.
The musical — based on Doris Betts’ “The Ugliest Pilgrim” with lyrics by Brian Crawley and music by Jeanine Tesori, according to the department’s website — follows a woman in her late 20s traveling to get a scar on her face healed by a preacher.
“She goes through this journey trying to get her scar healed, and in doing so, she figures out that the scar that needs to be healed is in her heart, rather than the scar that is on her face,” Lior Livshits, a fourth-year in economics, said.
Livshits, who will play the role of paratrooper Monty, said the cast’s overall morale took a big hit when they were first told they would have to rehearse for the musical in masks, despite being allowed to perform maskless for a period of time during the 2021 fall semester.
“How can you really express yourself in a song when you can’t see your face?” Livshits said.
Livshits said wearing N95 masks as a performer was especially difficult because it hindered many mechanical aspects of acting and singing.
“When I’m trying to sing, it’s really hard to sing certain vowels when the mask is covering your mouth,” he said. “Acting is all about reacting, so if I’m trying to act off of my partner in a scene and I can’t see their face, can’t see their mouth expressions, can’t see their facial expressions other than their eyes, it really hinders my performance, which in turn hinders their performance.”
Not having to wear masks while rehearsing for and performing “Violet” is newly liberating for the cast, and Livshits said it has allowed actors to rediscover their full acting ranges.
“The energy when the masks were off was off the roof, and I have found so many different ways to act in, like, different scenes just because I realize now that my face is not covered and neither is my partner’s,” he said. “I just found new avenues to use.”
Kathleen Giffin, a fourth-year in theatre and English who will play the role of Violet, said as a performer, she becomes hyper-aware of her facial expressions and where she is looking onstage. She said wearing a mask onstage can make the performance shallow and take away key elements of theater that make the art form compelling.
“When half of your face is covered, you can hide behind that, which I didn’t even realize I was doing until the masks came off,” Giffin said. “When half of your face is covered, it’s hard to bring that same level of vulnerability, which I think is so compelling about theater.”
Giffin said the transition away from wearing masks has been both frightening and exciting.
“At first it was scary just being in a room with people and, like, not having anything to hide behind,” Giffin said. “First it was scary, but now it is so exciting.”
“Violet” will be performed Thursday through Saturday and Tuesday through April 8 at 7:30 p.m. in the Thurber Theatre of the Drake Performance and Event Center, located at 1849 Cannon Drive. Tickets for the performance are free, according to the show’s page, and can be reserved online.
