bhpace2u60a6042-550?v=1

Creativity in the Time of COVID

Masks and social distancing haven’t slowed creativity among the student-artists and faculty at Pace Academy; instead, the new normal offered opportunities for innovation and imagination to thrive. 

In December, Pace’s Upper School theatre department premiered As You Like It, a film adaptation of Shakespeare's comedic classic. Directed by Visual and Performing Arts Chair Sean Bryan and filmed by Emmy Award-winning producer Andrew Riley, a member of the Pace Class of 2010, the full-length production used the school’s expansive campus on West Paces Ferry Road to reimagine a classic while abiding by COVID regulations. 

“Given the pandemic, we couldn’t put on a show with an audience, and we needed to tackle a piece in the public domain in case we had to pivot,” Bryan recalls. He settled on Shakespeare. It had to be a comedy; “I didn’t want to do a tragedy in the middle of 2020,” he says. As You Like It’s humor, pastoral setting and small cast made it the perfect fit, and shooting outside with appropriate distance between actors made it doable.

Following weeks of rehearsals and six days of filming, Riley and his team at K&A Entertainment culled the final cut from more than 30 hours of footage. As You Like It made its debut at a socially distanced event for the cast and crew and was released publicly at PaceAcademy.org/arts 

Related Businesses

Museum at Prairiefire

Museums + Art Galleries

Museum at Prairiefire

Overland Park, KS

The Museum at Prairiefire provides ACCESS FOR ALL to understand and celebrate natural history and science. The Museum is open...

Nashville Zoo

Botanical Gardens

Nashville Zoo

Nashville, TN

Nashville Zoo is a progressive and dynamic zoological park serving Middle Tennessee, southern Kentucky and hundreds of...

Powell Gardens

Botanical Gardens

Powell Gardens

Kingsville, MO

Powell Gardens, Kansas City’s botanical garden, is set on 970 acres of lush, rolling hills. Known for its contemporary...

See More

Related Articles

See More