Shakespeare in Love	Kit Marlowe	People's Light/Dir. Matthew Pfeiffer
Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time	Roger/Voice Two	Round House Theatre/Dir. Ryan Rilette & Jared Mezzochi
Henry IV part 1	Sir Walter Blunt/Mortimer	Folger Theatre/Dir. Rosa Joshi
Oslo	Ahmed Qurei	Round House Theatre/Dir. Ryan Rilette
Oil	William Whitcomb/Mr. Farouk	Olney Theatre Center/Dir. Tracy Brigden
King John	Salisbury/Austria	Folger Theatre/Dir. Aaron Posner
Small Mouth Sounds	Rodney	Round House Theatre/Dir. Ryan Rilette
The Invisible Hand	Bashir	Olney Theatre/Dir. Michael Bloom
Murder on the Orient Express	Michel/Head Waiter	Hartford Stage/Dir. Emily Mann
The Book of Will	Henry Condell	Round House Theatre/Dir. Ryan Rilette
The Price	Victor Franz	Arena Stage/Dir. Seema Sueko
Timon of Athens	Alcibiades	Folger Theatre/Dir. Robert Richmond
Murder on the Orient Express (World premiere)	Michel/Head Waiter	McCarter Theatre/Dir. Emily Mann
Disgraced	Amir	Milwaukee Rep/Dir. Marcela Lorca
Disgraced	Amir	McCarter Theatre/Dir. Marcela Lorca
I Call My Brothers	Amor	Forum Theatre/Dir. Michael Dove
The Invisible Hand *	Bashir	Theatre Exile/Dir. Matthew Pfeiffer
The Pillowman	Katurian	Forum Theatre/Dir. Yury Urnov
The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife	Mohammad	Theater J/Dir. Eleanor Holdridge
The Liar	Alcippe	Gulfshore Playhouse/Dir. Cody Nickel
Mockingbird (World premiere)	Dad	Kennedy Center/Dir. Tracy Callahan
Julius Caesar	Casca, et al	Folger Theatre/Dir. Robert Richmond
The BFG *	Meatdripper/Queen of Sweden/Sam's Dad	National Theatre/Imagination Stage/Dir. Kathryn Chase Bryer
The Last Days of Judas Iscariot	Judas Iscariot	Forum Theatre/Dir. John Vreeke/td>
Water by the Spoonful	Professor Aman/Ghost	Studio Theatre/Dir. KJ Sanchez
Edgar and Annabel (US premiere)	Nick	Studio Theatre/Dir. Holly Twyford
The Container (US premiere)	Jemal	Center Stage/Dir. Johanna Gruenhut
A Few Good Men	Daniel A. Kaffee	Keegan Theatre/Dir. Jeremy Skidmore
A Man, His Wife, and His Hat	Meckel	Hub Theatre/Dir. Shirley Serotsky
Boged (US Premiere)	Col. Danni Rotem	Theater J/ Dir. Joseph Megel
Bengal Tiger at the Bagdad Zoo	Musa	Round House Theatre/Dir. Jeremy Skidmore
Side Man	Jonesy	First Stage/Dir. Michael Dove
Klecksography: Ghosts of DC	Lt. JL Sprinkle	Rorschach Theatre/Dir. Matt Ripa
After the Quake	Takatsuki/Katagiri	Rorschach Theatre/Dir. Randy Baker
The Ramayana	Vibishana	Constellation Theatre/Dir. Allison Stockman
Bobrauschenbergamerica	Becker	Forum Theatre/Dir. Derek Goldman
Klecksography: Home for the Holidays	Mo	Rorschach Theatre/Dir. Kara Gabriel
Scorched	Nihad/Ralph/Militiaman	Forum Theatre/Dir. Michael Dove
Partition	Srinivasa Ramanujan	A.H.Spotlighter’s/Dir. John Sadowsky
Sex and Desperation: Something for Everyone	Alexander	A.H.Spotlighter’s/Dir. Lynn Morton
Deep Belly Beautiful	The Devil Jose	The Hegira/Dir. Danielle Drakes
As American As (World premiere)	Pascal	Journeyman Theatre/Dir. Shirley Serotsky
Take Me Out	Darren Lemming	Fells Point Corner Theatre/Dir. Terry Long
True Blue	Jeffrey	Single Carrot Theatre/Dir. Giti Jabaily
Fear Up: Stories from Guantanamo and Iraq	Shafiq	NY Fringe Festival/Dir. Joe Brady
Hamlet	Sailor/Soldier	RepStage/Dir. Kasi Campbell

* Barrymore Award (Winner) - Outstanding Leading Actor in a Play, The Invisible Hand, Theatre Exile
* Barrymore Award (Winner) - Outstanding Overall Production of a Play, The Invisible Hand, Theatre Exile
* Barrymore Award (Nominee) - Outstanding Ensemble in a Play, The Invisible Hand, Theatre Exile
* Helen Hayes Award (Nominee), Outstanding Ensemble in a Play, The BFG, Imagination Stage

Jessica Jones (#206)	The Jeweler	Marvel / Netflix
Imperium (starring Daniel Radcliffe)	Abdul	Atomic Films / Lionsgate
Sally Pacholok	Dr. Praveen Kumar	PCAFilms
Polk Audio (Commercial)	Rock Climber	Digital Cave Media
The Company We Keep (Industrial)	SFC. Jason Howe	WILLinteractive
C-47	Nielan	MaySun Productions
Buckskin Jack (and the Tale of the Fully Grooved Axe)	Goldfeather	L. Violette Productions
Management Strategies (Industrial)	Kalib	Fuel Creative
TSA (Industrial)	Mr. Mohamed Farjadi	Rock-Creek Productions
It’s Okay to Ask (Industrial)	Dr. Jason Parker	South Side Regional
As Safe as the Bank	Auguste Dupin	C83 Productions
New Workspaces (Industrial)	Brandon	Touchpoint Media

Full Article on DCMetroTheaterArts.com

How does ‘Homebound’ happen? A peek behind the screens

The techies are the actors. Their homes are the set. The series is addicting.

May 30, 2020

There has been oodles of well-deserved praise for Round House Theatre’s homegrown Homebound, an original ten-installment web series exploring life under stay-at-home orders. Penned by some of the DC area’s top playwrights and performed by a top-notch nine-member cast, Homebound is a vivid, transfixing addiction. Week after week, it tells personal stories that take on major in-the-moment issues of our times through both comedy and drama—issues well beyond being isolated at home because of COVID-19.

If you’re like this theater fan—hooked on the series so far—you might well be wondering by now about this fundamental technical question: How in the world do they do it?

‘Homebound’ screen shots (left to right, top to bottom) from Episode 1: Maboud Ebrahimzadeh (as potato) and Craig Wallace; Episode 2: Maboud Ebrahimzadeh and Alina Collins Maldonaldo; Episode 3: Craig Wallace and Chinna Palmer; Episode 4: Jamie Smithson and Maboud Ebrahimzadeh (inset).

To find out, I went directly to three of the theater artists assembled by Round House Artistic Director Ryan Rilette and Associate Artistic Director Nicole A. Watson: Matthew M. Nielson, who does Homebound’s sound and music composition; Howard F. Burgess II, who serves as lighting advisor; and Round House resident artist Maboud Ebrahimzadeh, who plays “Maboud” and also took on responsibility for video production and cinematography. These three had not only technical know-how from live theatermaking but also skill sets in digital production to turn words on a page into a handsome viewing pleasure.

As I quickly learned, the critical set of techies on the production were the actors. Given the DMV stay-at-home orders, it was the actors who, without the aid of a crew, recorded all the video and audio themselves from their own homes. The Homeboundactors not only delivered dialogue but became the streaming Zoom lens for viewers.

So how was all of this accomplished while not being in the same physical close spaces as is usual for live theater?

Matthew M. Nielson, sound and original composition, ‘Homebound.’

The timing for producing each episode of Homebound is very compressed—it is just a few days from script delivery to developing the technical aspects to shooting to final edit of what viewers see and hear. As Matt Nielson told me, “For theater, we have weeks—sometimes months—of discussion. Then, during the four to six weeks of rehearsal, we’ll get notes, all leading up to roughly a week of tech and a week of previews, during which things can change significantly. Not so with Homebound.”

Nielson needs to balance sound from actors who have recorded in different locations under different conditions; and for him, the credibility of the ambience and making the recorded dialogue clear, streamlined, and similar-sounding are critical. “One of my biggest jobs on Homebound,” he told me, “is the painstaking work of the dialogue edit—taking all of the recorded dialogue tracks and in effect ripping them from one another and the visuals—stripping them of all background noises. I make them all sound as pristine and related to each other as possible, and then add back in ambiences that help tell the story.” Nielson must work with Zoom’s latency (delay and lag) so that “dialogue is balanced to have a similar sound,” which is no simple feat. He also develops Homebound’s original music and drops in transitional music and underscoring.

Harold Burgess II, lighting advisor, ‘Homebound.’

Early on, I learned, there were at-a-distance video walkthroughs of the actors’ homes to see what lighting and sound existed and what might need to be added so that the production would appear effortless and natural to viewers. Harold Burgess II chatted with me about the additional equipment provided each actor to support the filming of each episode of Homebound following that virtual tour of their home “to see how it looks and its lighting.”

For Burgess, that means evaluating what the actors have available for color balance, artificial versus natural lighting, and even the time of day for the final shoot—then deciding where additional lighting is necessary. “The primary goal with this equipment was to have on hand some functional lighting, in addition to a sound recorder and other items that help to enhance the existing environmental light within each location, which was typically the performers’ homes.”

As for the equipment itself, it was to be “affordable, lightweight, and relatively simple in setup and operation. Since each episode takes place in two distinct locations, we have two tech kits that are delivered directly to the performers each week. The equipment is cleaned after or before each weekly shoot.” Typically, Burgess told me, Homebound equipment kits for the actors include additional sound and lighting instruments such as Zoom recorders to enhance the audio, various LED lighting, as well as reflectors and tripod units, with Round House staff including electricians always available to assist the actors.

Round House Theatre resident artist Maboud Ebrahimzadeh, ‘Homebound.’

Beyond his Homebound acting, Maboud Ebrahimzadeh has responsibility for video production and cinematography. That includes blocking not for the eyes of a live audience but for the lens of a cellphone camera. That means storyboarding and other pre-filming work to position the camera and other equipment. He also had editing responsibilities.

Ebrahimzadeh has a previous history with film work that gave him “an understanding of the difference between film and theater storytelling, and the details involved that are accomplished in a matter of days from script to final edited work for streaming.” That included making sure that scene changes were not jarring from one scene to another, that each episode was “tied together.” For the streaming Homebound web series, there is storyboarding, technical walk-throughs, notes taken and provided to the actors, then more walk-throughs and filming for the final editing to tie things together into the final product.

Ebrahimzadeh made clear some of the differences between a live theatrical production and a film. In theater there is a live audience within feet of the actors and the stage. The audience enters the live performance through their eyes. It is a multidimensional experience that includes the imagination. For film, the viewer enters the production through the lens of the camera. The camera lens focuses audience attention. “The camera helps to provide subtext.”

Chinna Palmer in ‘Homebound,’ Episode 3.

Screen time of 20 seconds or less might take hours to shoot and then develop into the final scene that viewers see and hear, Ebrahimzadeh said. As I rewatched Homebound episodes, I had a new appreciation for what it takes to create a scene in which, say, Embrahmzadeh is on the phone with the unemployment office in Episode 2 or wearing earbuds talking to his mother in Episode 4. Or in Episode 3 actor Craig Wallace playing “Craig” is chatting on his front porch and Chinna Palmer is dancing in her bedroom. I had a richer appreciation for all the technical details that went to the scenes, from Robocall voices on a phone, to bird songs and neighborhood activity, to actor Jaimie Smithson in Episode 4 in his actual basement being rather clumsy.

Maboud Ebrahimzadeh in ‘Homebound,’ Episode 4.

Ryan Rylette added: “Our first impulse was to edit Homebound internally. The experimental nature of the project, however, means that we are continually fine-tuning the process week to week, and it quickly became clear that the tight production timeline would require some external resources. Maboud connected us to Digital Cave Media, an award-winning collective of filmmakers based in Baltimore, who have provided us incredible professional support.” Digital Cave is responsible for the editing and post production of episodes.

If you haven’t already, take the opportunity to put Homebound on your calendar. You will be well rewarded. The little details make it feel so real, and multiple viewings have left me in awe of the actors and the technical team who make the web series so addicting. All associated with Homebound should be very proud.

Tuning it late? READ Michael Poandl’s episode-by-episode review, “Catching up with Round House Theatre’s ‘Homebound’ “

Round House Theatre’s Homebound premiered April 27, 2020. New episodes are posted on the Round House You Tube channel every Monday through June 29, 2020. All episodes are archived for viewing.

Homebound is part of Round House at Your House, free digital programming that is funded by new contributions from the Round House Board of Trustees.

George Washington's Headquarters Museum at Morristown NJ	National Park Service
Lights Up: The DC Theatre Podcast	mindthechasm.com
TEK Systems	Digital Cave Media
Aerotek	Digital Cave Media
Veolia	Defining Entertainment
Central Intelligence	Defining Entertainment
Mintbrook	Digital Cave Media

MABOUD EBRAHIMZADEH

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