The Theatre Arts and Dance Department will be live streaming the play ‘Sonnets for an Old Century’ by José Rivera starting Thursday. Directed by Paul Draper, ‘Sonnets for an Old Century’ tackles the question, “Could you tell your life story in the space of a moment, the length of a Sonnet,” by letting multiple individuals tell their stories in sonnet form, “according to the Sonoma State’s Theatre Arts and Dance event page. 

According to Director Paul Draper, “Well, we had actually selected a different play before covid-land had happened. That particular play, which was by Bertolt Brecht, was going to be really unwieldy on Zoom. So, we were looking for something else that would work better in a Zoom-world, where, because we had to both rehearse and prepare it online.”

The production took a lot of time and effort. According to Stage Manager and third-year student John Ruzicka, “We had auditions in late November and early December, and casting was in progress up until the actors began rehearsing at the beginning of the semester. We spent a lot of time individually with each actor working on the various elements of their piece so that each sonnet in the production was as strong as possible. Once we recorded them, we began to put together the programs that would capture a wide array of emotion and also individual stories.”

Having worked to put this production together Ruzicka “highly recommends going to see both programs being offered as there are wonderful and powerful tales in each program and you will want to see the wonderful production and hard work of all of the actors.”

When asked about what an audience should get from their performance, Santa Rosa Junior College student and actor Alexsander Bravo responded that, “working with Paul opened up my performance to new possibilities to tell the story in creative ways” and that they “had a great time working with Paul and the tech crew to bring this performance to life and it was a new experience that made me ask myself what it means to be Hispanic in America.”

When asked about the lack of audience Bravo responded that as an actor “in a real performance the audience gives you energy but when you’re alone you have to find the energy within yourself and really find yourself in that character you are portraying.” Ruzicka stated that a “key difference is the energy that gets provided when dealing with the space becomes different. In some ways it’s more unique and interesting, but it becomes more like working in film or television than on stage.”

Draper stated that because he and Vocal Coach Marie Ramirez Downing had to find a play that worked in an online setting. “It’s easier to rehearse in some sense because it just me as the director working with the individual actor and the actor working, and we can do that from our own homes. Then at a certain point we recorded it, each of the sonnets, and we have a video editor- he’s really much more than that because he selects a lot of images.”

 “And that they also wanted to do a writer of color, it seemed important to do that this year. So that’s how we came to this particular play. And it’s a very diverse cast. There are a lot of different voices, Black, Asian, Hispanic, Latino, Latinx, and white,” said Draper.

The show will be live streamed on April starting 8 until the 11 with two different programs and different sonnets and at different times so students can watch in the afternoon or evening. There will also be a Q&A after the show on April 9 and 10. Tickets are free for all, including students and faculty members with no code necessary. Please visit https://theatreartsanddance.sonoma.edu/stage/spring-2021/sonnets-for-an-old-century for more ticket information.