Campus closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic did not stop BC professor Cody Ganger from directing Mary Zimmerman’s “Metamorphoses.” The play was presented as an audio-only version on YouTube starting May 1 at 8 p.m. until May 3 at 10 p.m. 

Given the circumstance, the performing arts department did the best they could with what they had for “Metamorphoses,” but they could have gone without performing at all. 

Some actors did an amazing job with their parts; they were on point with their emotions, tone and recordings. It was as if they were professionals. 

But, the recording of each actor was not consistent. Some brought the microphones too close to their mouths, causing them to sound breathy and muffled, while others had static and background noise in their recording. This created hard cuts between voices. There were little to no smooth cuts between lines and scenes. 

The music was too loud and it distracted too much from the actors’ dialogue; the music was too overpowering. It was difficult to make out what they were saying at times. 

The sound effects did help their performance out. It made it feel, a tad bit, more realistic, as if there were actions actually taking place rather than actors sitting behind a microphone, recording themselves, reading the script.