Live Theater In A Pandemic: A One-Woman Show For An Audience Of Four

WUNC | By Frank Stasio,

Published October 20, 2020 at 11:54 AM EDT

Laura Lillian Baggett in the Burning Coal Theatre Company production of "A Hundred Words for Snow" by Tatty Hennessy, directed by Jerome Davis.

Burning Coal Theatre Company’s only in-person performance this fall opened last week to a rapt audience of...four. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, the live production of “A Hundred Words for Snow” is being performed before drastically-reduced audience sizes, creating an intimate atmosphere.

Host Frank Stasio talks with Burning Coal Theatre Company artistic director Jerome Davis and actor Laura Lillian Baggett about producing live theater during a pandemic.The show has another unconventional feature — the audience spends a portion of the play blindfolded, while sound design and dialogue from the play’s sole character help convey images of plane rides and the snowy landscape of the Arctic. “A Hundred Words for Snow” tells the story of 15-year-old Rory — played alternately by Laura Lillian Baggett and Kimmy Fiorentino — who sets off on a journey to scatter her father’s ashes at the North Pole. Host Frank Stasio talks with Baggett and director Jerome Davis about creating live theater in a pandemic.

Frank Stasio

Longtime NPR correspondent Frank Stasio was named permanent host of The State of Things in June 2006. A native of Buffalo, Frank has been in radio since the age of 19. He began his public radio career at WOI in Ames, Iowa, where he was a magazine show anchor and the station's News Director.

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Kaia Findlay

Kaia Findlay is a producer for The State of Things, WUNC's daily, live talk show. Kaia grew up in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in a household filled with teachers and storytellers. In elementary school, she usually fell asleep listening to recordings of 1950s radio comedy programs. After a semester of writing for her high school newspaper, she decided she hated journalism. While pursuing her bachelor’s in environmental studies at UNC-Chapel Hill, she got talked back into it. Kaia received a master’s degree from the UNC Hussman School of Journalism, where she focused on reporting and science communication. She has published stories with Our State Magazine, Indy Week, and HuffPost. She most recently worked as the manager for a podcast on environmental sustainability and higher education. Her reporting passions include climate and the environment, health and science, food and women’s issues. When not working at WUNC, Kaia goes pebble-wrestling, takes long bike rides, and reads while hammocking.

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