Projection designer Tal Yarden shares how he is coping with COVID-19 closings in this series, "When the Lights Went Out," where theatrical designers discuss what they are doing these days.
Tech was about to begin for The Visitor at the Public Theater. Tal Yarden had been in meetings for the production when he started to feel sick. What was it? It wasn’t good. Could it be that?
“I’ll never know if I had COVID-19, but I was sick for four weeks,” he says. “I was also anxious about my son being in school.” On March 15, after returning from a London workshop on a new Bob Marley musical, he went into quarantine. Tech on “a work-in-progress production” of I Hate Memory by Eszter Balint at Dixon Place would not happen now.
In quick succession, Indecent closed in London, as did Lazarus at the DeLaMar Theater and Mahagonny at the Dutch National Opera in Amsterdam. A Walk on the Moon at George Street Playhouse, Hamlet at the Armory, the West End remount of Sunday in the Park with George as well as Ocean Filibuster and Passing Strange at American Repertory Theater were all postponed. “It was like a giant vacuum had been turned on and then…crickets,” he says.
In these dark days, he’s finished work on a design for Ocean Filibuster and worked with his collaborators, Katie Pearl and Lisa D’Amour, on some of the animations. “I’ve had to do a good bit of re-scheduling and some studio upkeep. I’ve also been training a bit on software and learning advanced techniques for content creation with After Effects and Cinema 4D and programming software disguise and Isadora,” he says.
The slowdown has given him time to focus on some of “my own passion projects,” too. He’s been working on screenplays, consulting with agents, and working with his assistant on research for these projects.
“I’ve also been discussing with colleagues best practices and techniques for multi-cam show streaming and in a lot of discussions about how theaters can come back in real life in addition to online. There are many techniques projection and media designers use, especially for live cinema productions, that may be of use as theaters re-think how to produce work. Online theater shows have been getting much bigger and more diverse audiences which will certainly be part of the future of live theater,” he suggests.
“I have used Zoom, Skype etc. a good bit given that I travel a lot. I am using them more to meet with colleagues. There are a few directors and designers I work with regularly that I meet up with to discuss new projects and development ideas. I’ve enjoyed being home and with my kid and cooking, which I haven’t done for more than two months at a stretch since his birth,” Yarden says.
The shutdown motivated him to buy a car, something he didn’t need before, when accessible transportation could get him to work near his Brooklyn home and to airports. “But I found myself stuck at home, unable to see my girlfriend in person or go shopping, and I wanted to be able to see nature. It also comes in handy for video projects.”
He also reads—“I’ve been consuming too much news”—and watches some theater online. “I have been watching Homecoming and also enjoyed Unorthodox.”
“And now I am very absorbed in the issues around systemic racism in our industry and trying to learn more and engage in this vital transformation of our theater community. I found these books really thought provoking: A Paradise Built in Hell by Rebecca Solnit, Me and White Supremacy by Layla F. Saad, and How to Do Nothing by Jenny Odell.”
Check out what other entertainment design professionals are doing in "When the Lights Went Out."