I looked at James and Lee and said “ thank you .” And they looked at me , and said “ thank you ” back . After months of nothing seeming to be normal , we were now doing something that seemed normal . In the play , Bierce several times says “ nothing matters ,” but many things did matter to him and he was known for writing the truth no matter the consequences . For me and for many , theater matters , too .
How difficult was the process to get an AEA contract for the virtual production ? Very . I ’ d started the process of obtaining contracts back in mid- March , like usual , for our regular season . By mid-April it was obvious that we couldn ’ t start in June , so I tried to obtain contracts for live performances beginning in August . Then , on May 26 , AEA announced that none of its membership of 51,000 would be allowed to perform until further notice . I flipped from seeking live indoor productions with an audience , to Nothing Matters on YouTube . I submitted my first proposal for this in June , that included safety procedures . AEA responded several weeks later with more questions and I quickly answered , and waited for a response . I believe that during this time , now that AEA had a doctor on board , they were putting their own safety questionnaire together because they sent me this in July . I answered the questions , and waited . They had more questions and I answered them . And waited . Questions went from such details as HEPA to MERV and details about deep cleaning . We were finally issued contracts in late August , the week of what would have been pre-production week . Since I needed more time to prepare , and script changes were now happening again since a production was in sight , I moved everything back two weeks .