Airness

by Chelsea Marcantel

UTK Department of Theatre/Clarence Brown Theatre 2021

Director: Steve Sherman
Scenic and Projection Designer: Carrie Ferrelli
Costume Designer:  John Merritt
Lighting Designer:  Bill Miller
Video Production Supervisor: Joe Payne
Editor and Post-Production Sound:  Chandler Oppenheimer

"When Nina enters her first air guitar competition, she thinks winning will be easy. But as she befriends a group of charismatic nerds all committed to becoming the next champion, she discovers that there's more to this art form than playing pretend; it's about finding yourself in your favorite songs, and performing with raw joy. Airness is an exuberant reminder that everything we need to rock is already inside us. A comedy about competition, completion, and finding the airness inside yourself." 

Our production of Airness was cancelled just before tech in spring 2020 due to the pandemic. With a completed set, costumes, and light rig sitting in wait for almost a year without the ability to bring in an audience, we decided to videotape the production. We re-rehearsed the scenes and filmed them on StreamYard. Then, we filmed each air guitar performance, one or two actors at a time, with a very limited crew and three cameras.  After some fun editing, we had a short and successful online run.



Cast: Callie Bacon, Malik Baines, Davion Tynarious Brown, Brady Moldrup, Celeste Pelletier, Jordan Gattoon-Bumpus, Andrew Shipman