Of course, remote theatre can be performed through any video conferencing tool, such as Skype, Microsoft Teams or any new tool which has been invented since I wrote this! The main criteria for choosing a tool to work with is that it is cheap (preferably free), user friendly, and accessible for all, in a wide range of locations worldwide. The Hands up Project has been using Zoom to develop the field of remote theatre since 2017. Because of our lengthy experience with it, and because we believe, at the time of writing, that it is the most suitable tool for performing remote theatre, we will use it as an example and model here. Please adapt these notes for the tool that you are working with yourself.

 Screen sharing

The Hands Up Project started using Zoom for its online interactive sessions with young people in Palestine because, at that time, it was the only platform available which allowed simultaneous screen sharing (of PowerPoint slides, videos, or images etc.) whilst the speaker's video was still visible. For remote theatre purposes, sharing visual content, and thereby minimising the size of the speakers' camera, is unlikely to create good theatre. However, the option to share computer sound it's very useful for remote theatre performances as this won't affect what is visible on the screen of the audience at all, and the sound quality of any background music which is shared in this way will be much better than if it is played on an external device.

Recording

 Making a recording of a remote play is useful for three reasons. Firstly, it enables the actors and director to re-watch rehearsals so that improvements in terms of acting, language use, or technical issues may be made. It also means that the remote play can be edited if necessary before uploading it to a video sharing website such as YouTube, so that those who weren't able to watch the performance live can also see it. In the worst case scenario, where an actor loses his or her internet connection during, or just before the live performance, this video can be shown, using the screen share option instead of the live performance.  

The host will end up with an mp4 file on their computer, but there is also the option of having the recording saved to the ‘cloud’, which makes fewer demands on the users disc space. Check your recording settings on zoom.us though if you do choose this option, as it won’t necessarily record things in exactly the same way as you see them. To guarantee the same formatting as what you see, we recommend that you record straight onto your device.

To record is just a matter of clicking on the Record button, but of course, we're all human and we regularly kick ourselves for forgetting. Annoyingly, we invariably remember to record when the most brilliant work has just happened! For this reason we would suggest that meetings are set to be automatically recorded. The recording can always be paused or stopped if required, once the session has started.