Living Room Cruise Lines
by Hank Green & EJ Cameron
Directed by Chad Rabinovitz

In The Box Entertainment
Performed entirely on Zoom
November 4th - November 14th, 2020
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Music: Beth Hyland
Video Design: Brian Nappi
Scenic Design: David Wade
Lighting Designer & Production Management: Erika Johnson
Sound Design: Brandon Reed

Cast:
Cruise Director: Michael Turrentine
Voice of Pirate: Thomas Tiggleman
In the fall of 2020 as many theaters are attempting to figure out how to move their seasons online, a collaborator and director I've worked with in the past, reached out to me about a new adventure he was embarking on. Rather than performing the typical play readings on Zoom that most people were doing, he decided to dive headfirst into creating a new form of online performance. Combining Zoom with interactive technology, Chad transformed his home theatre Bloomington Playwrights Project into a multi-media studio by the name of In The Box Entertainment completely decked out with green screens, video cameras, and sound equipment. Anyone who purchased tickets would be mailed a physical box that contained props to allow them to interact with the show as it happened on Zoom. The show would also be sold to other theatre companies to present as part of their season as well. The production would be performed live every night.

Bringing me on as the sound designer, I worked with Chad and the rest of the production team to create this new interactive performance involving a blend of live acting, recorded video, and called cues. Ranging from reinforcement for our sole actor into the Zoom feed, creating soundscapes, underscoring, adding sound to video, and providing mixing and audio restoration for guest performances in between scenes. Playback was vastly different from just the typical QLab setup. It involved a mixture of QLab, Wirecast, blending cues in both programs separately, and sometimes together. This blend into both programs was dependent on the complexity and need to allow the entire production to be run by a single operator and stage manager.

Our first venture into this new medium was Living Room Cruise Lines, a live interactive performance involving a Cruise Director wishing to recreate the many cruises that his own parents produced in his childhood. The audience embarks with our director on a lengthy voyage involving show tunes, high jinks, unruly audience members, towel animals, yoga, and other things you would find on your typical cruise vacation.


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​Let's Set Sail

The first five minutes of the show demonstrate right away what this performance will entail. We go from a show tune that involves our actor singing over a track, then shattering that illusion as we transition to different sections of the cruise ship with different video elements that have soundscapes attached, as well as cue'ed sound effects. All while our Cruise Director explains the interactivity and how to use their boxed props as well as his back story of his character to the audience. The first five minutes demonstrates not just the humor, but how all these different elements tie together.


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​Vibe Design

This section showcases how our actor Michael combines improv with scripted content all while interacting with the audience on Zoom. We can also see overlays and video content layered with sound design in both QLab and Wirecast to give Michael the playground he needs to shine as the charismatic Cruise Director.


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​Equator into Spa

With the cruise not going entirely the way our Cruise Director imagined it would as well as the loss of our navigation device the Good Vibe Slider, he sings a somber ballad to lament our situation.

Showcasing the comedic tone of the production he breaks the fourth wall as he sings along to a track. Afterwards sparked by a renewed sense of hope, he decides to help our audience relax by taking them to a spa. Showcasing more interactive video and sound design. Keeping them engaged.


​Underwater Adventure

As our show comes to a close, our Cruise Director helps the audience learn how to deal with their worries in life with everything going on in the world. Afterwards we discover our Good Vibes Slider that was lost earlier in the show drifting in the ocean. He jumps in after it in order to help guide our audience home and off the ship.

This moment blends the live aspect of the show with pre-recorded content. He speaks off screen as we watch an animated video of him jumping into the ocean. The underwater section is a voiceover layered with sound design and underscoring I created in response to what Brian Nappi our video designer created.