Third-year Alexa Bolanos discusses her experience resuming competition during the pandemic

After months of postponed seasons, competitions for many sports such as track and field have commenced. As her season returns to a more normal schedule, Alexa Bolanos, a third-year sociology—organizational studies with an emphasis in business and communication double major, discussed her daily activities as an active long-distance track and cross country runner as she prepares for her track season. 

Bolanos begins her mornings early, usually waking up between 6:45-7:00 a.m. She likes to have a slow start while she drinks coffee, catches up on emails and completes class assignments. Currently, her schedule revolves around her 3:00 p.m. afternoon practices, and she tends to take most of her classes in the morning.   

For breakfast, Bolanos tries to have a well-balanced and filling meal that always includes coffee and ranges from avocado toast, oatmeal or peanut butter and banana toast. For Bolanos, it is especially important to eat a satisfying, high-calorie breakfast as afternoon practice can make it difficult to eat a heavier lunch. As an athlete, Bolanos said, it is necessary to eat healthy meals because it impacts her productivity and achievements on the track. 

“Nutrition is a huge part obviously in sports and especially running,” Bolanos said. “That’s definitely something that we have to prioritize as it directly correlates to our performance at practice and in racing.”

She spends the morning and early afternoon catching up on work before heading to the training room where she prepares for her afternoon practice. As a long-distance runner for UC Davis, Bolanos usually runs 6k races for cross country in the fall season and pivots to mid-distance races like the 800s, 1500s and sometimes the 3k for track and field in the spring. 

Due to her constant training and year-round preparations, Bolanos said that her workouts have not changed much during the pandemic. For her, the largest shift was when her cross country season was canceled in the fall and the team had to quickly pivot to begin training for track. When returning to Davis after Spring Quarter in 2020, Bolanos also had to transition from training on her own to practicing with her teammates with restrictions and regulations due to the pandemic. 

When her afternoon training concludes, Bolanos returns back to her home where she makes dinner, spends time with her roommates and finishes her homework. According to Bolanos, dinner is important after strenuous practices. In order to have nourishing meals, Bolanos determines what she wants to make each week and prepares her meals in advance.

Due to regular training, she emphasized the importance of consistently eating healthy throughout the year.

“I try to keep a balanced diet year-round,” Bolanos said. “[There isn’t] really off season with track and cross country.”

After dinner, she takes time to relax, complete her coursework and stretch after practice. Ideally, she is in bed before 10 p.m. in order to be well-rested in the morning. 

According to Bolanos, she and her teammates are excited to resume racing as the wait has made them more motivated during practice. 

“Just having practice and races put on the schedule has definitely increased all of our excitement and love for the sport again in a competitive way,” Bolanos said. 

During the pandemic, Bolanos stated that running became an important outlet for her. 

“Being able to [practice], even with so much uncertainty around us, was really important,” Bolanos said. “[It] refueled our love for the sport and reminded us that we are passionate about it and that we don’t always need races to be reminded of that.”

Until recently, Bolanos’ only form of competition was inter-team racing which featured competitiveness but, according to her, did not sufficiently prepare the team for competition. As she begins to race again, she noted that she and her teammates are having to adjust to competing after not participating in formal races for months. 

“I think it is a little bit of a shock to the system and also just daunting,” Bolanos said. “You’re going into a stadium with other athletes that you don’t know where they’ve been necessarily. Obviously there are a lot of safety protocols with COVID-19 so you can take comfort in that, but it still is a foreign feeling since none of us have been in that environment in quite a while.”

Bolanos stated that competition is currently limited to tournaments to which the team can drive. Flying is not permitted, so the team must drive to places as far as San Diego in order to compete. To maintain further safety, a negative COVID-19 test is required 72 hours prior to competition in addition to weekly COVID-19 tests. 

A year into the pandemic, Bolanos said that many activities, including team practice, have grounded her. Despite her busy schedule, she tries to prioritize self-care and movie nights with her roommates. In addition, through her sport, she has gained a community of friends who have provided solidarity and support. 

“Having a good community of people that support you and also have similar passions to you is really helpful,” Bolanos said. “I know all my teammates are going through the same kind of experience and will have the same hardships to some extent.” 

Though sports are a significant aspect of her life, Bolanos also emphasized the importance of maintaining friendships and balancing schoolwork with team practice.

 “Just making time for yourself and knowing that there is more to college life than just the sport that we do [is important],” Bolanos said. “Knowing that even though that is such a big aspect, it’s not the only aspect for me.”

Written by: Farrah Ballou — features@theaggie.org

Female faculty and a graduate student offer advice for young female leaders

This article is the second in a two-part series in honor of Women’s History Month in which The California Aggie interviews a few of the many distinguished women across campus who have made an impact on their community. These women discuss their various achievements, female influences and offer advice for young women as they pursue their goals. 

Michal Kurlaender 

Professor and department chair at the UC Davis School of Education 

Achievements 

Michal Kurlaender has been studying the educational system from grade school through college and into the labor market. Kurlaender’s work focuses on the economic public policy, sociology and social psychology associated with the education system. 

“I am really interested in integrating different disciplinary perspectives to answer questions about how to reduce inequality in the education system,” Kurlaender said. “A lot of my work is focused on trying to understand whether policies can reduce some of the gaps that we see in educational attainment by race, income, gender and other characteristics.”

During the pandemic, Kurlaender has also done work to help students who have had to suspend their education and career plans due to COVID-19. Her efforts include helping students reach their educational and economic needs as well as gain mental health support during the pandemic. In addition, Kurlaender takes great pride in helping the graduate students she mentors navigate through their career paths. 

The female experience

Kurlaender discussed how being a woman has had an impact on her career.

“I think being a woman is part of my strength,” Kurlaender said. “I feel proud of what I have been able to accomplish as a woman and there are so many people who have supported me to get to where I am today. I am fortunate that I was mentored by both men and women who really believed that I could have a productive career and a family.”

Kurlaender gave some further insight into the gendered power imbalance in her field of study. 

“I think even in a field like education, which is often considered more feminized, we see some of the same inequalities,” Kurlaender said. “Inequalities in promotion, acceleration or advancement in the field are somewhat gendered. I think we still have a long way to go to equalize and understand how to support women academics in a way that honors their professional work and recognizes the societal demands that challenge those rights.” 

Advice

Kurlaender offered some advice to women who are about to enter the workforce. 

“The first thing is to uplift each other,” Kurlaender said. “We can really help or hinder further advancement, and one of the best things you can do is support other women.”

She also encouraged students to seek out mentors. 

“The other thing is to utilize female mentors,” Kurlaender said. “Your generation is going to have more and more of them and there are a lot of women out there who are just eager to convince young women to enter their profession and help them succeed. Our job is to not have you go through the hardships that we went through as a working woman. We want to make sure that the workplace is a hospitable place for all kinds of people.”

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Joanna Mazet 

Professor of Epidemiology & Disease Ecology 

Former director of One Health Workforce — Next Generation 

Achievements 

Joanna Mazet is a professor of epidemiology and disease ecology at the UC Davis veterinary school and was the former director of the One Health Institute. Mazet noted that mentoring the next generation of health leaders has been one of her proudest achievements. 

“I am extremely proud to say that the majority of the graduate students and postdocs I have worked with have been women in STEM,” Mazet said. “I am pleased to have been able to contribute to their growth and to have learned from all of them, including the men.”

In addition, Mazet has led multidisciplinary teams to work on global health problems using a One Health approach. 

“I have worked on issues of pathogen pollution and conservation for sea otters and other marine species,” Mazet said. “I have also been a part of projects that try to identify issues before they become available to make people sick and cause epidemics and pandemics. Over the last decade, I have led the predict project, which was building the capacities around the world to have resilient systems to respond to virus outbreaks and help identify and characterize viruses before they make people sick.” 

The female experience

For Mazet, being a woman has impacted her approach to her work.

“Being a woman is part of who I am and it shapes the way I think about the world and approach my job,” Mazet said. “Being a mom has also been instrumental in shaping my frame of reference and perspective of the work. Being a woman has also shaped my approach to bringing people into the fold to work together collaboratively. I know men do that as well, but what I am trying to say is that the way that I approach the process of science and education is shaped by my femininity.” 

Influences 

Mazet cited former Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg as her greatest female influence. 

“Ruth Bader Ginsburg was an amazing role model for me because of her work in the civil rights for women, and civil rights beyond women or BIPOC,” Mazet said. “There have been so many women throughout my career who have inspired me and supported me by helping me navigate throughout various obstacles, and I am incredibly thankful for them as well.”

Advice

Mazet offered advice to women who are about to enter the workforce. 

“Be strong, be enthusiastic, and most importantly be yourself,” Mazet said. “Reach out and make connections with supportive allies who can help you. You don’t have to learn everything fresh, and I think that’s a mistake that I made. Women are a driving force in our society, including our academic community. We must be supportive of one another.” 

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Jennifer Gross 

Head coach for the UC Davis Women’s Basketball team

Achievements 

Jennifer Gross has been an Aggie since she was a student athlete in the ‘90s. After graduating from UC Davis, Gross went on to be an assistant coach at the university. She has been the head coach for the Women’s Basketball team for almost 10 years now. This past year, with the help of Gross, the team won their fourth straight Big West championship. 

“I work with amazing individuals and students at UC Davis,” Gross said. “I get to coach bright, driven and passionate young women at UC Davis, and I absolutely love it. They make this job so rewarding, and my goal is to give them the best experience possible and to have them graduating saying, ‘Wow that was the best four [or] five years of my life.”

Influences 

Gross cited her mother as being one of her greatest female influences. 

“My mom used to live by this mantra, which I continue to live by, she would say to ‘Treat people with kindness,’” Gross said. “My mom was kind of the epitome of that, people love being around her because she’s warm and inclusive and a really kind person.” 

In addition, Gross noted that many of her coaches, male and female, had a great influence on her career choice and advancements. 

“When I got to college, I played for a woman named Jorja Hoehn, she was this very strong personality,” Gross said. “She was the first female that I saw in that role that stood up for whatever she believed in even though there were a lot of times she was surrounded by a male-dominated administration. It was really inspiring to get a chance to play for such a strong woman who taught us how to speak up and provide the best possible experience for the student athletes I coach today.”

Advice

Gross offered advice to women who are interested in joining athletics or about to enter the workforce. 

“Reach out and connect with people,” Gross said. “I try to tell our student athletes, the bigger your network, the more opportunities will present themselves. There is this network of women who want to help the younger generation be successful, and I think sometimes people are afraid to reach out and ask for help from someone they don’t know. But there is no harm in reaching out, the worst thing that can happen is that they don’t get back to you, but just know that the next person will. I think it’s really important to kind of step outside your shell and connect and listen to other people’s experiences. You will be amazed to find out how many people are willing to help.”

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Caro Novella Centellas 

Ph.D. candidate in performance studies, DE in feminist theory and research and DE in practice as research 

Founder of Oncogrrrls 

Achievements 

Caro Novella Centellas is a Ph.D. candidate in performance studies with a designated emphasis (DE) in feminist theory and research. Centellas is currently a Catlan performing artist-researcher. Her focus has been on the incorporation of several forms of contemporary and community dance, community health and engaged performances that address health and politics. 

“I have pursued health and social change through communication and art-making both in academia and the social justice worlds, and each has nuanced my different approaches to the practice,” Centellas said. “Over a decade of participatory and community health work in Spain, Burkina Faso, Colombia, Ecuador and the U.S., I attended to designing spaces for community dialogue, awareness and health education.”

Centellas is the founder of Oncogrrrls, a research and creation performance project with women and queer and trans individuals that aims to address questions surrounding cancer. 

“Through live performance art, poetic actions, art installation, video-dance pieces, fanzines, public screenings and conferences, Oncogrrrls centers activism through art inquiry,” Centellas said. “Oncogrrrls creates new oncological publics and has fostered more extensive discussions on cancer politics, moving conversations beyond individual stories of survivorship and into environmental health, bioethics and social justice artworlds.”

Being a woman 

Centellas discussed how her femininity has influenced her work. 

“Many times I wonder how much more direct access and support I would have if I had not been a woman,” Centellas said. “It’s not easy navigating [the] expectations of cuteness and domesticity, as well as constant harassment and misrecognition, over-extended work, self-doubt, perfectionism and never being enough. As I got older, and as I got more and more entangled with transfeminist networks, it has gotten better: not as in easier opportunities or recognition, particularly in the art world, but much better in the ability to be in emotionally nurturing, intellectually interesting and politically committed environments.”

Influences

Centellas cited the women in Oncogrrrls, her oncologist and her grandmother as her biggest influences. 

“I was inspired by the Riot grrrls and the Guerilla grrrls,” Centellas said. “Women art movement collectives [that] center women’s critical voices and hope to call in responses of resistance, collective power and critical art. My oncologist, Dr. Alonso treated me and my grandmother for ovarian cancer. Getting her to be my doctor was very reassuring.” 

Advice

Centellas offered some advice to young women. 

“Stick with the grrrls,” Centellas said. “Keep joy at the center, and cultivate relationships with people whom you can be as tender and witty as you feel like. Something that I wish I had trained earlier in life: giving time and space to clarify my intentions and practicing setting stronger boundaries.”  

Written by: Sneha Ramachandran — features@theaggie.org

UC Davis students share their experiences watching “The Bachelor” and participating in “Bachelor” culture

“The Bachelor,” a romantic reality television show with the end goal of engagement, has been airing on ABC since 2002. The show has since expanded to include “The Bachelorette” and “Bachelor in Paradise,” along with other series as it accumulates viewers who tune in to the show year after year. 

In fact, the term “Bachelor Mondays” was coined for the routine airing of the show on Monday nights for each season. Amid the drama and roses lies a “Bachelor” fanbase made up of people across the country, including those in Davis.

Dana Lawrence, a fourth-year environmental science and management major, was introduced to the show during her freshman year at UC Davis. This year, Lawrence is more committed to watching the show and has created traditions with her six housemates. 

Every week they gather together with a glass of wine and watch the newest episode, chatting all the while. Lawrence shared that on some nights, everyone dresses up for the episodes. For instance, she and her housemates dressed up as their parents for the hometown dates episode in which the final contestants introduce their families.

She shared that her watching experience exceeds each episode’s duration as everyone in the house recaps the dramatic events afterwards.  

“There’s usually about 10 minutes of all of us laughing, bringing up things that happened in the previous episode, definitely more of a discussion part,” Lawrence said. “There’s a lot of yelling that goes on, a lot of excited talking and definitely predictions about what’s going to happen the next week.”

Moreover, Lawrence shared that the pandemic did have an impact on her renewed commitment to the show this year. 

“I’d say that having more free time and being home in the evenings is definitely why I’m watching it,” Lawrence said. “Especially with seven people, it’s crazy that schedules can align that way and so I think the pandemic [has] played a role in that.”

Looking at the show broadly, Lawrence shared her opinions on why “The Bachelor” franchise has retained such a dedicated audience over the years. 

“On a basic level, I think that a lot of viewers want to see people succeed in finding love,” Lawrence said. “It’s a very simple concept that you can create your own characters in and then have these recurrent characters that people can root for.” 

Julia Phalen, a fourth-year sociology—organizational studies and communication double major, started watching the show with her sister during her freshman year. As she got more interested in it, Phalen began watching with her friends as well.

Although Phalen always tunes in to “The Bachelor” and “The Bachelorette,” her favorite series from the franchise is “Bachelor in Paradise,” a spinoff that involves people from both shows. She shared that it’s interesting to follow her favorite contestants from previous seasons as they embark on a new love journey. 

“You see people that you liked from one show meet another person and then fall in love,” Phalen said. “And that’s super entertaining to look back [on] and be like, ‘Oh, I remember when he was on that season.’”

Phalen said that her favorite part about watching the show is getting to share the experience with her friends. 

“I like getting to talk about it with my friends afterwards and having it be a thing where we all get together,” Phalen said. “My housemates and I have all been watching it together, so it’s been kind of fun to watch with them and talk about it with them. And none of them have been super into it in the past, so it’s been kind of fun to explain all the little traditions that the show has to them.”

Maddy Stein, a fourth-year human development major, is a long-term viewer of “The Bachelor” franchise. Stein began watching at the age of 11 and hasn’t missed a season ever since. While her initial watch was motivated by her love of reality television, Stein is now attracted to the social aspects of watching the show. This includes watching the show with her friends and exploring social media online to learn more about the contestants. 

“As I got older, it turned into more of this whole franchise through social media and the contestants that I really liked I now follow on social media,” Stein said. “It’s sort of learning about their lives through social media, and I just get really invested in it.”

For Stein, one of the best parts of watching the show is participating in funny memes and TikToks about the show to laugh about with friends. 

“We’re all just busy with school, and all we do is school, school, school,” Stein said. “But then Tuesday nights are our night to come together, hang out and watch the show.”

Stein foresees herself continuing to watch the show as long as she has a community to watch it with in the future. She recommended those who haven’t watched yet to start the show, stating that it has many intriguing qualities. 

“It’s very dramatic, but also has this way of drawing you in and makes you want more, especially when they do the previews at the end of the episode,” Stein said. “It’s interesting to follow this journey of 25 girls trying to get one guy to fall in love with them. I would say it’s a light-hearted, funny, dramatic show.”

Written by: Nora Farahdel — features@theaggie.org

UC Davis faculty discuss the possibilities of epigenetics and the capacity to alter one’s rate of aging

This article is the third installation of The California Aggie’s Mind and Body series which discusses nutrition, physical wellbeing and mental health.

Age 25 has been pegged as one of the most pivotal points during one’s aging process as it is the starting point for collagen breakdown and slower cell division. 

Robert Hackman, a research nutritionist at UC Davis, clarified these claims of aging and cell division. He emphasized that once one reaches their mid-twenties and early thirties, the cell division process will slow down but never stops.  

“The rate of cell division slows down,” Hackman said. “[But] cell division is happening throughout your life.”

Reduced cell division is a normal process and is responsible for making us more prone to fat production and muscle retention. As people age, the burning of calories and fat loss ultimately becomes more difficult as their metabolism slows.

“Our metabolic rate, the amount of calories we’re burning, whether it be while we’re sleeping or during our daily physical activity, those generally slow down after or around the age of 30,” Hackman said. “They can be mitigated, to some degree, by regular, lifelong physical activity.”

Though a slower metabolism can be alleviated with exercise, Hackman mentioned that it becomes increasingly difficult to maintain muscle mass while simultaneously keeping body fat down. After one’s mid-twenties, a healthy diet and exercise can aid in slowing the rate of decline within one’s body, but this process is inevitable and cannot be halted. 

Recently, however, the term epigenetics has gained popularity online for claims that one’s lifestyle has the ability to dictate certain aspects of aging over genetic predispositions. Hackman explained that although studies on the subject have been limited, promoting healthy habits can influence the way one’s genes are read and possibly impact aging in the future. 

“Epigenetics has to do with whether your lifestyle can alter your genetic code, your genetic predisposition,” Hackman said. “You can’t alter your DNA, but the DNA gets interpreted or read by the RNA. The RNA then is the code that tells the cells how to reproduce and what proteins to make. In that translation from the RNA to the cell, a healthy dietary pattern and healthy lifestyle can certainly increase one’s chances.”

Hackman emphasized that there are no clear answers in the study of epigenetics, but that professionals do know that a healthy lifestyle with no smoking can have positive long-term impacts on one’s health. 

A caveat, however, is that some genetic predispositions are too “well programmed” to be solely pivoted by diet and exercise. He offered the examples of cholesterol and heart disease as possibly being genetically predisposed in one’s body. Thus, pharmaceuticals, according to Hackman, are the most effective way of controlling their impacts.

Dr. Joseph Shen, an associate professor of clinical genetics for UC Davis Health, also noted the possibilities and constraints within the study of epigenetics. Shen specializes in the study of single-gene disorders and mutations among genes. He stated that geneticists have been able to investigate and draw conclusions from genetic disorders like sickle cell disease or cystic fibrosis, yet have difficulties toward observing genetic traits like diabetes, ability to lose or gain weight and athleticism. 

“We are nowhere near as knowledgeable about the latter compared to the former form of genetics, just because of the interrelationships and complexities of gene-gene interactions within the human body when you are dealing with thousands of genes at a time,” Shen said. 

Ultimately, according to Shen, the genetics are too complex to make definitive claims about altering the way one’s genetics are read; people may be born with certain genetic codes that may be too entrenched to override with lifestyle changes. 

“We control what we can control,” Shen said. “As an example, there may be a genetic predisposition to earlier heart attacks [or] higher cholesterol based on what we know about a person’s relatives and their history of medical issues. You cannot control that.”

Despite continuous research toward more conclusive results, both Shen and Hackman state that exercise and healthy diets may have the capacity to reduce the restrictions of certain genetic codes. 

Hackman further explained that people should also attempt to avoid inflammatory, processed foods which may be the cause of some chronic diseases. For skin preservation, he recommends a plant-based Mediterranean diet that is filled with dark green, yellow and orange vegetables. 

These lifestyle changes contribute to short term payoffs which Hackman stated correlate to the reduction of long-term risks. 

“This will help you sleep better at night,” Hackman said. “This will help you with your mental focus, so you can do school better. This will help you feel light so that you can do exercise and recover more quickly.”

Written by: Farrah Ballou — features@theaggie.org

Despite pandemic restrictions, the Department of Theatre and Dance has continued to produce shows over Zoom

COVID-19 has had a “devastating impact” on the theatre industry; national financial losses are estimated to be $14.8 billion. Broadway and regional theaters have been closed for almost an entire year since early March of 2020, and venues will not be able to reopen until the fall at the earliest. This has left not only actors, dancers and musicians out of work, but it has also greatly interfered with training the next generation of performers. 

Mindy Cooper, a professor of theater and dance at UC Davis, said that teaching any class is challenging over Zoom, but in the arts it has proved to be somewhat impossible. 

“It has been incredibly difficult,” Cooper said. “What I do is so hands-on. I find that you need to be able to embody a character and physicalize, and that helps you often find your way in. So my class is incredibly frustrating to retrofit my teaching style, my technique and my syllabus to ‘Brady Bunch’ boxes on a computer.”

Like most classes at UC Davis, every course in the Department of Theatre and Dance has been completely virtual since the start of Spring Quarter in 2020. Cooper said that by transitioning from in-person to online classes, a lot of her material had to change and that she has had to work 10 times harder to produce her class. 

“There are aspects that we have had to just leave by the wayside and hopefully pick those up next year,” Cooper said. “I have a whole running list of stuff I couldn’t really explore with my students, and so I will fold it in as best I can hopefully next year, when we can be in person. You lead with what you can. You really concentrate on the stuff that you can hone in on, and for me personally, that has been the creativity and the cerebral, the thought process of acting.”

Ann Dragich, a first-year Master of Fine Arts (MFA) student in the performing arts, said that her professors have found ways to make virtual classes effective.

“There have been really creative ways that educators have [made virtual learning] work,” Dragich said. “Rather than learning movement by simply watching and copying, which is a very standard way to do it, there’s been very creative meditations and directed improvisation. Coming at something in different ways is really valuable for a learning experience, so that’s been a great thing to explore.”

Even with adjustments and new curriculum, Cooper said that a lot of her classes focus on ensemble acting where students work off of each other’s energy to produce scenes, which is nearly impossible over Zoom. She also explained that in many of her courses, she will have students go out into the community and immerse themselves in the atmosphere of a scene on which they are working. She used to send students to the zoo for an acting exercise based on animals, but with lockdowns and restrictions, her students have had to make do with internet research and prior knowledge. 

According to Cooper, in addition to classes being more challenging online, it has been hard to drastically scale back the university’s performance schedule for the year. 

“We had to cancel a lot for the department,” Cooper said. “We have scaled it back quite a lot and that’s tough because so often, students learn so much by being in rehearsals, on stage, working, as opposed to in the class. It’s been hard to not have as many performance capacities.”

This year, UC Davis is putting on just three shows. The Department of Theatre and Dance presented “Clique” in the fall, “FOOD” premiered on March 5, and they will be putting on “Juliet and Romeo, A New Musical” later in the spring. All of these shows have been and will be completely virtual, Cooper said, which has meant that they have had to take creative measures in the production process. 

Cooper explained that each student who has a role in the shows has been sent an “actor kit,” which essentially creates a 10-foot-by-10-foot greenscreen stage that they use to record their own performances from their homes.

“We give them these massive kits, and then there’s a video that teaches them how to set up their kits,” Cooper said. “A lot of them are doing it in their apartments or at home with their families. Some students have to take it down every day and put it back up because the footprint is 10 feet by 10 feet, and some people don’t have that much space to just designate to [their] actor kit.”

Although this innovation has allowed performances to go on in some capacity, actors in the shows have said that it has been a challenging experience. 

Dragich, who was in the March 5 and 6 productions of “FOOD,” said that she struggled with how long it takes to make the technology of her kit work correctly. 

“It’s been a very rigorous time […] editing video and putting things together and figuring out computer systems to make things work,” Dragich said. “Managing those things, and just trying to make sure I hit the button at the right time on my computer, is much harder than it sounds. These things are not that simple, and they don’t always work the way they should. So it’s been actually a lot of work and very stressful, and that’s taken away from time I would like to be spending practicing my performance of it.”

Joseph Fletcher, a first-year MFA student in the performing arts who also features in “FOOD,” agreed that filming the show from home has been challenging. 

“Communication is hard, especially in a large group because you’re all trying to say something and respond, and people’s internet becomes unstable or they can’t show their faces or people are talking over each other and getting cut off because [of] how Zoom works,” Fletcher said. “It adds more layers to the process and more difficulties to getting good communication and getting a vibe, especially in theater where being in a room together creates an energy.”

Despite these challenges, Dragich did say that the cast has been able to bond in the virtual space.

“I feel very close with the cast because it was a devised process,” Dragich said. “We spent a lot of time doing dramaturgy together, just throwing out ideas and basically explored all of our relationship to food, and the show kind of ended up in this space where it’s an exploration of consumerism, wastefulness, selfishness of people and selfishness of societies. We were able to share those issues with each other and really formulate our ideas about how we feel about the world around us.”

Dragich is also hopeful that the pandemic might ultimately lead to more access to the theater community in the long term. 

“We are reaching more people,” Dragich said. “There’s people who live in places that don’t have access to the arts who are seeing what’s going on right now in the artistic community that they were never able to see before. And I think it’s really wonderful. I’ve heard so many people being overwhelmed and having their minds opened and thinking in new ways about art and life. The art itself […] is very ordinary to me. However, I also see how if it’s not something that you’re around, it can be altering to one’s perspective, which is amazing.”

For information about the Department of Theatre and Dance’s upcoming and past virtual productions, visit their website.

Written by: Katie DeBenedetti — features@theaggie.org