Meet actor Valerie Gorman, see her in Pandemic Stories

Valerie Gorman last appeared with the 2nd Act Players in its 2019 production of Old Ringers, the last play we did on-stage prior to the pandemic.
In Pandemic Stories, she plays a woman trying online dating for the first time in To The Zoom and Back, a West Texas lunch lady in the play Lunch Lady, and a condo board president in The Birds Are Feeding Me.    

Valerie Gorman
Here, she discusses acting online, the pandemic and her hopes for a post=[andemic theater world.
1. What is the biggest challenge for you of transitioning from acting on a stage to acting online?

My biggest challenge to acting on line has been threefold: eyeline- not being able to look at my scene partners for reaction and having to react purely to them by just listening to their deliveries. Also finding the right energy level for online acting. Stage energy is very big; film is very small; online is somewhere in between.

2. How do you deal with the challenge of playing multiple characters in multiple plays in this production?

Because these are short plays and the arc of the character can be much smaller and can occur in a matter of two lines of dialogue, I have to totally relay on the author and how the character’s voice is written. More obvious choices would be the use of accents and costume pieces.

3. What has been the biggest challenge the pandemic has presented you and how have you coped with it?

The biggest challenge of the pandemic for me has been technology. Because this techno age is nor my world learning filming, lighting, editing and self taping for a person who lives alone continues to be daunting for me.

4. What do you think theater will look like in the post-pandemic world?

I think theater in the future will probably be a hybrid of what we are seeing now. I do think many theaters will go back to live audience, at least in this city but it will happen on a ramped up basis. I also think that there will be more streaming of filmed plays as a means to produce revenue. Blockbuster plays filmed will be streamed online like movies to audiences all over the country. As the technology improves there may be no need for that yearly trip to Broadway.

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