COVID-19 Closures: Nick Eibler ("Fly" at La Jolla Playhouse)

The COVID-19 crisis has caused a devastatingly massive wave of performance cancellations across the country, leaving actors out of work. Broadway, regional theatre, national tours, and more were forced to close much earlier than expected. I’ve been reaching out to the artists affected. Here are their stories.

By Nick Eibler

Since the beginning of January, I had been in rehearsals for a new musical called Fly at the La Jolla Playhouse. It’s a show that is a new retelling of the Peter Pan story, directed by Jeffrey Seller (Prod: Hamilton, Rent) and choreographed by Stephanie Klemons (Hamilton, In the Heights) and Andy Blankenbhueler (Hamilton, In the Heights, Bandstand). It was a world that I grew up with and a new project that, since October, I had been chomping at the bit to get started on.

Working on this show was incredibly fulfilling because the cast was made up of some of the most loving, professional, and talented people I have ever worked with. There was a profound amount of love amongst all of us. Every day at rehearsal was a great time. Everyone involved also cared deeply about the show because not only is it a story we all know and love deeply, but we all felt so strongly about our new take on it and how it was relevant in today’s world.

Our show didn’t come without its challenges. The hardest part of the process for everyone involved was the two week tech process. Not only did we have to restage, light, and mic the show like you do in every tech process, but we also had intricate flying sequences, massive moving set pieces, and other things that took lots of time to implement so they could run smoothly and safely. It was a lot more than I, and most of us, had ever worked with before. Our preview process had similar rehearsals during the day. But, like I said, the team who made this show happen--the cast, crew, creative team, designers, etc.--were all superstars and all wanted to make the show the absolute best it could be.

We were two weeks into previews and probably a week before COVID-19 took hold of everything, when I had a personal hiccup of my own: I had my first ever vocal injury and had to be out of the show for almost a week. It was a devastating blow at first, but thankfully it wasn’t as detrimental as some stories I’ve heard. With almost 100% vocal rest and literally doing every natural supplement I could think of to help, I was able to be back in the show the few shows before we opened.

I don’t think anyone in this cast, myself included, will forget this opening night.

It was one of the most magical, memorable moments of my life thus far. There was a magical energy in the space - some might call it pixie dust - and we all could feel it. The show was stellar, and I’m really proud of the work we did. What was interesting though was--because of the long process and the magnitude of the show we had just done--it had felt more like a closing show rather than an opening. Quite a few of us made this comment to each other, but then moved on to dancing and drinking the night away.

Little did we know that that feeling wasn’t wrong. I think it was the universe telling us that it would be our closing, well almost. We did two shows after that before everything went under. Our last show was on March 11th, my 23rd birthday. It was the last normal day it felt like before everything changed. The day prior before the show we had a meeting with the management team from the La Jolla Playhouse that let us know they were monitoring the situation and that there was the possibility that there would be a few empty holes in the audience over the next few weeks, obviously due to the news that was circulating about COVID-19. Like many others, we didn’t get to finish our show as planned. The morning of March 12th, looking back on, feels like such a whirlwind. As soon as I woke up that morning, I saw the news that Broadway had shut down. Within thirty minutes of learning that news, we received the email saying that we could no longer continue our run of Fly based on the guidance of the California Department of Public of Health. The change was effective immediately so we would not get to do that night’s show. I was shocked. I was also upset because I had just rejoined the show and now it wouldn’t get to continue. I probably laid in bed for a good majority of the day. The days following the 12th honestly feel like a blur now. I was truly living moment to moment and listening to what my heart told me it wanted in order to stay sane and process what had just happened.

All of that feels like a lifetime ago now considering how much has happened since; how much we’ve learned about the virus and how we should go about living our day to day lives. I’m currently still in La Jolla as are a good chunk of cast members. The playhouse was gracious enough to let us stay until our contract ended so we could figure out what our next steps were. I still haven’t figured out mine. I thankfully (and probably by sheer dumb luck) finished the unemployment process online and was able to get through to someone on the phone. That's one thing I can check off my list. Besides that, I’m resting. I love watching everything that people are creating during this moment. It's beautiful to see everyone creating and turning to the arts during this trying time because that’s how they choose to cope and make something out of this societal pause. For me, I’m taking a break from creating for right now. I think a lot of us still here are. I feel it’s what I need to do after pouring so much of myself into a project for such a long time, and then having it ripped out from under us. I’ll get back to it. I have a lot of things that I’ve been working on but haven't had the time to or have yet to start that I’ve been wanting to. But meanwhile I’m taking a break. I’m reading. I’m watching Tiger King and RuPaul’s Drag race. I’m playing Animal Crossing. I’m taking a walk and working out at least once a day. I’m meditating. I’m Facetiming and seeing friends. I’m looking at this time as a positive for myself and society. Do what you need to do to be happy. Take advantage of the copious amounts of time to write that play about your life you’ve been wanting to; or read the entire Shakespeare Cannon; or build that incredible world in Minecraft; make puzzles with your family; have Zoom game nights with your friends. You get to do whatever you want (within reason) and no pressing engagements that are prohibiting you from doing them. So do it. Make yourself happy. Take a nap :)

Nick Eibler is a New York City based artist originally from Atlanta, Georgia. He recently graduated from Texas State University with his BFA in musical theatre. Immediately after graduation and showcase, he went into rehearsals to make his Broadway Debut in The Prom. Regional credits: Fly (La Jolla Playhouse); The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Newsies (Music Theatre Wichita); Twist: An American Musical (Pasadena Playhouse, Alliance Theatre); The World According to Snoopy (TUTS); La Cage Aux Folles (RedHouse); West Side Story (Atlanta Lyric). TXST credits: the Emcee in Cabaret, David in The Rivals, Woodstock in The World According to Snoopy, and Horatio in Hamlet. nickeibler.com Instagram/Twitter: @nickolase77