Nicholas Berger - Medium: It’s 11 am. Outside, the city is quiet and the high, pale cast of light is in the window. Inside, a feeling of exhilaration shoots through my body. I’ve successfully made it through the New York State unemployment website, a triumph so sizeable I no longer feel the need to do anything that even resembles productivity for the rest of the day. I, like many other theatre artists, have been laid off from the patchwork of employment that pays my rent and have had all artistic projects put on hold indefinitely.
5 comments:
This article so beautifully puts into words a feeling I've had for a while. Theatre is not replaceable. It cannot be transformed into something digital because then it loses its essence. I've often heard it said that the audience is one of the elements of theatre, right up there with the design and the actors. We need people to watch our work and they need to be in the same room as us. Yet it's hard for me to say this when I see others searching, striving to find a way to keep it alive online. I do not feel right thinking or saying that anything is inadequate. But like this writer explains, it's really okay for us to press pause and wait for the real thing. We can take a deep breath and an involuntary sabbatical from the art we love most. Because doesn't everything have a time and place?
I definitely resonate with this article. I know people are working really hard at home to create content, but most of it is hard to watch without being sad. I think videos of actual performances are different, but things that do not at all resemble live theatre are difficult for me to watch. It's not the same. I feel like a bit of a pessimist here. A lot of my friends seem to enjoy these performances, but they don't feel like performances. There's none of the excitement and anticipation of live theatre. I applaud the people who are trying to make the best of a bad situation, and I think we are all doing that in some way. But, I just personally can't get behind it. There's something about knowing that the people around you are experiencing the same thing you are that creates such a sense of connection that just isn't there when you're all watching from home. If people enjoy this new wave of content makes people happy to watch and create, I think that's great, I guess it just doesn't make me feel better. That was quite a cathartic comment to write.
One of the things that I do not understand about this pandemic is why on Earth people think they have to keep up the same life they had before this all started. Like of course, logistically I understand people who are struggling with the loss of a routine, but what I do not get is why people are stressing out and burdening themselves with the false-notion that they need to keep going. Artists do not need to keep creating, but if that is what they want to do, then so be it. Life has to adapt to this. We do not really have a choice. As artists, we must consider whether it is even worth it to continue trying to keep normalcy going in an online setting, or if we should take time to look at other parts of our life that need attention. I personally have been seeing digital performance as a non-essential thing that is more of a kind of sad in-denial reaction to loss than anything else. I know that is cynical, but I would personally rather focus on giving myself time to work on mental health and other things that deal with self, and not with others.
I think this article really hits at something I’ve been thinking about for a while now, that all of these movements for online play reading groups and quickly-organized virtual performances, on one hand, serve their purpose of ‘getting art into the world’, but also have this edge of desperation to them, as though if we aren’t still putting art into the world now that we are failing in some way. And the impulse to do this is understandable, particularly, as the author says, for performances that were already in rehearsal where the team wants to create some kind of product to wrap up the experience, much like our own spring shows. But it’s not the same, and we all know it’s not the same, and it’s not going to replace ‘real’ theatre and ‘real’ art when this is all over. It really is okay to not be constantly trying to perform and create, and to instead slow down and accept that this is not normal and that the expectations of you are not the same right now.
I’m really curious about what a broad spectrum of CMU people think of this article. I, like the previous four commenters, all seem to agree with this message of pause. I think the pressure to create has just been increasing and I think the question of who is it for really strikes a chord. I think this relates to an article I read recently basically saying a similar thing about choirs. Sure the video of Berklee students singing the song about togetherness was cool. But that is not a choral or orchestral experience. Half of the music is listening to the group, this is not that. They were playing to a track alone in their homes and waiting for some computer tech to make it look like they are together. The aspect of togetherness is being attempted through great lengths I personally think in a sense of denial. This is definitely an article to bookmark and look back on when this is all over and see what I think then. I wonder if it will change.
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