Creating Art During Coronavirus: Looking back on "The Host Will Let You In Soon"

A picture from my pre-recorded original piece about Ottoman Queen Safiye Sultan

When in-person classes were called off for my acting program back in March, many of us had thought that our semester would be put on hold indefinitely or canceled altogether. Imagine our surprise when our school announced that we would be moving to Zoom classes. How would this work? Can we do this? How can we act online? Despite not knowing the answer to any of these questions, we went in with open minds. And, what we discovered, was actually pretty fascinating.

Creativity is limitless. Creativity can happen anywhere.

As long as there is a person in front of you – whether physical or virtual – you can connect with them. Acting has a lot to do with making a connection and acting in the moment to get what you want. You can do that through Zoom, you just have to be a little bit more patient.  

Once the rest of the semester had played out online, a small number of our program decided that we wanted to put something together. We ultimately landed on doing a virtual variety show of work that we did in class that would be streamed online on YouTube Live.

My first reaction? I was excited. The idea was a great way to make our own work and to highlight our strengths. Most of the decisions made came from group discussion and brainstorming. We came together beautifully to decide on what we wanted to do for this show.

But, doing this show was not without its challenges. There were still people who sent in their stuff late, or who canceled rehearsal at the last minute. We also had to figure out a medium that none of us were familiar with, and act on days that we really just felt like curling up in a ball and not leaving our beds. But guess what? We still did it. The challenges may have been different, but they were not necessarily worse.

All this is to say, don’t stop creating during this time.

For this show, I was able to do two pieces. The first piece I did was a scene from the play “Graceland” by Ellen Byron. This was a fun, comedic scene to do where I played Rootie - a naive, Southern girl who believed that everything in her life would be fixed if she was the first person to enter Graceland when it opened. I acted opposite Rachel Ruth, who played Bev - a woman who had her own reasons for getting into Graceland first. While funny, it was a heartwarming scene of two complete strangers forging a connection between themselves.

My second piece, however, was a lot tougher. I performed our Private Lives assignment from class where we were supposed to research a historical figure and then write a monologue that they could have said at some point in their lives, which was followed by a two-minute improvised Q&A in character. I chose Safiye Sultan. She was an Albanian-born Ottoman queen who originally came to court as a slave but, through her intelligence and cunning, was able to rise through the ranks and become one of the most well-known figures in Ottoman history. (Fun fact: She and Queen Elizabeth I often exchanged correspondence and gifts). This piece was tough, not only because of the circumstances and the subject matter, but I had to dig into a place that I don’t often go as an actress. To be completely honest, I don’t think I was able to fully get there, but this profession is a practice and I certainly went past my comfort zone. For that, I’m proud of myself, and I know that I will be able to go even further next time.

This coronavirus pandemic is unlike anything we’ve experienced before. Be kind to yourself. Don’t sell yourself short. You can do anything you put your mind to.

You’re doing your best.

 xx Selma

You can view nights 1 and 2 of “The Host Will Let You In Soon” in the "videos” tab at the top of your screen.