Local kids theatre group develops online model for rehearsals

For a group of passionate kids at Apex Theatre in Palm Valley, the show must go on, even if the stage is a virtual platform. When COVID-19 closed businesses and limited large gatherings, Apex founder Ian Mairs transitioned instruction in acting, improv, voice and other disciplines to an online model.
“We switched to online pretty quickly,” he said. “My students are used to having a lot of teachers from other places that they take class with on a big flat screen in the studio so this was not like ‘oh my gosh’ it was like ‘OK.’ They’ve been pretty great.”
This summer, Mairs will continue to offer a hybrid version of live performance – together, separately. Summer camp intensives will be conducted virtually and rehearsals begin for Godspell.
“I don’t know what’s to come. We’ve always worked small anyway so we’ll have some small classes again where kids are interacting,” he said. “It’s just a different way.”
Students recently performed a series of live, one-act plays exclusively to an online audience of family and friends.
“We had over 100 people watching a night and they bought tickets and it was kind of a gas. It went way better than we thought it would,” he said.
In July, Apex will produce Moana with the younger students, even though they will be operating at half the normal class capacity.
“It was a little heartbreaking at the auditions but I said ‘Look, kids, we can’t have all these kids,’” he said. “They did their own one-act plays but we shot it rather than do it live because it had a lot of little scenes. They’ve adapted. In terms of just accepting this as another mode of learning, I don’t think that’s such a big deal to them.”
The transition to online classes has offered a few surprising benefits. An advanced group of students was recently treated to an exercise with Emmy Award-winning actor Michael Emerson, who starred on Lost, Person of Interest and now appears on CBS’s Eagle.
“When your scene partner is an Emmy-winning television actor, you learn a lot. And that is something that wouldn’t have happened in the real world. There’s a lot of really talented artists with downtime right now and I’ve been able to access them,” said Mairs. “We’re adapting and that’s what we teach the kids. To be adaptable. It’s part of it.”
Comedian Donald Chang, a Jacksonville native and member of the Upright Citizens Brigade in New York city, has also stepped in to serve as improv teacher.
“It’s been amazing. I never would have had him teaching if it wasn’t for the fact that he had some time in his schedule,” raved Mairs. “Because he’s a Jacksonville boy, he’s planning to come see his family at some point in the summer and the kids are going to get to meet him in person. They’ve really connected with him online."
 Students are excited to see one another and stay on task because they know their time together is at a premium. It offers a welcome respite from the fatigue of online learning and gives them something to look forward to.
“I’ve had parents who text me and email me that say that hour and 15 minutes of Zoom is the highlight of that day for them” he said. “I have it so they can enter the Zoom room like a half hour before class and I’ll sign on and there’s two or three of them waiting.”
The visibility online has inspired some kids to be more comfortable in their own skin because they can’t fade into the background.
“There’s nowhere to hide when everyone can see you. We’ve been able to have more one on one with them. Some kids are like I can concentrate better. It depends on person to person but it’s not all been bad,” mused Mairs. “I wouldn’t want this to go on forever. I think the most important thing is sustaining the community of artists, however how you’re doing that, and that you’re having a conversation with your audience which in this case is our families.”