by Laura Frank | Sep, 2020 | Medium: Do you remember your first concert? Being in a dark space amongst a crowd of people with the music too loud and the lights hitting your eyes creates an almost indescribable feeling. There is nothing quite like the shared experience of a live performance.
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Although I did know about the devastation that COVID-19 has had across the entertainment industry, I personally was unaware that there were many people who were working in entertainment that are now pivoting to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. I personally really liked the Mod Pro Services idea which allowed for hospitals to be built anywhere they were needed. I actually think this would be a good business opportunity for them in the future, too. They could use these MedMod facilities in emergency situations after the pandemic or set them up in countries that might not have enough hospitals to service their entire population. I believe that this MedMod allowed people who normally work in the entertainment industry to cross over to help prevent the spread of COVID-19 which I like too. We have solved two problems with one solution.
The article opens with a rhetorical question about one's first concert. I love seeing live music, live theater, live events and I love helping to create them. While I have invested countless hours into theater, I haven't even grazed the amount of time seasoned theater workers have. People have truly poured their lives into their careers because it is what they love and believe in and it is heartbreaking that so many people in the theater industry are having to find employment elsewhere such as grocery stores. It is very interesting the ways that theater people are shifting to other industries using their skills. There is such a unique skill set that theater technicians have and it is very versatile. I am very curious to see how people will adapt to help the pandemic and hopefully will be able to return to theater with their original jobs they love too.
This article claims that when audiences cannot gather, “life is missing one of the great joys of human experience.” I do not like this statement. Essentially, they are saying that entertainment is a pleasure, a bonus, or a benefit to being human, but I highly disagree with this. Entertainment in any form is essential to maintaining a healthy life as a human. Its essentiality is multilayered because entertainment IS NOT some sort of activity we choose to attend or not attend. Entertainment is people’s jobs and lives, which this article does go on to explore and commend for that. But entertainment is directly correlated with mental health and first introduced by Aristotle who claims that entertainment provides catharsis to keep us balanced and in check, leading to a functional life. Early psych wards in hindsight have provided us with a further explanation that without entertainment we develop mental insanity. This is because as we are human, entertainment provided mental stimulus that maintains appropriate relationships. Entertainment is often chalked up to television, film, theatre, concerts, etc. But we forget that going out with friends, playing board games or other forms of interactive fun is also entertainment. We know that without interaction of humans and this specific stimulus, we in fact go insane which has been used as torture methods in WWII and portrayed in movies like when Tom Hanks talks to a volleyball in order to prevent himself from going insane. This is of course all without the simple fact that entertainment has been woven into society and the greater economy as it maintains relationships with every aspect that the economy has to offer. Entertainment is vital and we need to start treating it as such and in times like the current, it needs to be moving forward in appropriate manners…. But moving forward.
What first stuck out to me about this article was the portion highlighting that groups may be reluctant to experiment with new mediums of entertainment in case a vaccine appears someday soon. I do not think this is a very good idea at all, because even when a vaccine is invented, who knows how accessible it will be. As much as we would all love to rely on a miracle vaccine, the structure of this country forebodes that actually receiving the vaccine may be complicated for certain groups of people, eradicating any chance at a complete reversal back to life before the pandemic; therefore, theaters and entertainment venues should take advantage of the willingness and inventiveness of their workers that so clearly would rather work for them during the pandemic than anywhere else. This would be the only chance they have at making some sort of profit or production for who knows how long. Companies that are allowing their employees to work on developments of new methods are going to be the ones that prevail. I could obviously be wrong about the vaccine, because no one truly knows anything about it at this point, but I think it is a safe bet to say that once the vaccine is found, it will still be a while before it is widely accessible.
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