Theatre | The Guardian: In the past six months, theatre has offered us comfort, provocation and entertainment. Not always live theatre, of course, but a virtual subgenre emerging out of pandemic darkness in the form of online dramas. These productions have ranged from splashy, multi-camera films of existing shows to quick-response plays made on a shoestring and beamed into our living rooms as dramatised video calls, aural dramas, interactive Zoom plays and monologues about lockdown life. Where is the place of such drama now that live theatre is whirring back into motion?
7 comments:
It's really interesting. Since the pandemic hit, its only been a sad song being sung from theater people and other large event creators. One silver lining that I think came up is that theater turned into movies due to companies like the National Theater Institute and shows like Hamilton. The downside of this is that it archives the entire art form and you miss the rush of the actual experience of watching a show. The solution to this is a relatively cheap one, zoom theater or live webcam experiences. Every time a company I knew of were putting this on or when my friends were choosing to put something like this on, I couldn't help but think- this kind of sucks. I avoided this because it really brought me down and forced me to think about how sad it is that my job has been demoted to a person who clicks a space bar with absolutely no risk.
I have really enjoyed a lot of the online theatre this article talked about, especially the National Theatre Live recordings that were put on YouTube, I watched almost every single one. I do think that there are so many benefits to online theatre experiences like this, mostly accessibility to people who would not have been able to see the show live. I think that come the end of the pandemic we will see an increase of online experiences offered for audiences alongside the live productions that I really have no doubt will come back eventually. I do think that theatre companies need to be charging for tickets though. I don’t think they need to charge a lot, but the work they are sharing is worth paying for, and people will be willing to pay for it. It does make me really sad to see how little (if at all) people are getting paid for their work on online theatre work. I really hope theatres get the resources to start paying people more soon.
I have really enjoyed a lot of the online theatre this article talked about, especially the National Theatre Live recordings that were put on YouTube, I watched almost every single one. I do think that there are so many benefits to online theatre experiences like this, mostly accessibility to people who would not have been able to see the show live. I think that come the end of the pandemic we will see an increase of online experiences offered for audiences alongside the live productions that I really have no doubt will come back eventually. I do think that theatre companies need to be charging for tickets though. I don’t think they need to charge a lot, but the work they are sharing is worth paying for, and people will be willing to pay for it. It does make me really sad to see how little (if at all) people are getting paid for their work on online theatre work. I really hope theatres get the resources to start paying people more soon.
This article made me think a lot about how we define both theatre and film. In a virtual world, theatre is not happening in actual theaters very often. I would eliminate theater from my definition of theatre and now simply ascribe the definition of a live performance. This is a much more flexible definition for today’s world. I do hope we can return to the theater soon, but I do not want to put a single life at risk in doing this. The article discusses that eventually, post - Covid, “virtual theatre” and theatre in the theater will exist simultaneously. It is not something we are doing just to get through the pandemic, it is now and will continue to be an aspect of the entertainment industry for years to come. Recorded theatre performances are an interesting concept as well. I was very excited when Hamilton was released on Disney+. I set an alarm in order to download it at 3am, right when it dropped, just in case the servers crashed from everyone watching it. My dad and I made program books and tickets for a physically distanced showing on our garage with a projector. It brought us together when the pandemic is keeping people apart. I loved this, but I do see how recording and distributing tapes is not financially viable for companies without Disney’s or the Nation Theatre’s capital. At the same time, people are recording it with their phones illegally and people pay them for that. Theaters might as well take advantage of the demand and try to record if they can do it. It does not always need to be a pro shoot like Hamilton or Newsies, even just a one camera recording would be incredible and audiences would pay.
-Ariel Bernhard
I think that decentralization of theatre will do amazing things for the entire industry. Not only will it help with bringing new performers and audiences to it but it will help allow underrepresented stories to be shared. It also will help democratize the topics and company concepts.
By also moving it to a medium like the internet we they are 100% correct that we can see amazing turnaround time on art reflecting current events. I would be amazed to see if a company could figure out how to write, rehearse, and produce content at the speed of written television shows.
Regardless I think this is a great time to stop thinking that theater HAS to be performed in one type of building for one type of experience. Pandemics are good for helping expose flaws and creating new watts of doing things out of necessity.
I seriously believe one of the only positives of the pandemic is the expansion of who can experience theatre. Theatre, if it is to survive and grow, absolutely needs to reach more people so those people and go and make new forms of theatre themselves. The elitest ideas surrounding theatre is the absolute worst thing about it, and it leads to the racism and biases that we find in the industry. By NT Live making their shows free for a limited time weekly, millions of people would would not have been able to see the shows otherwise have seen them! Even for something like Hamilton where it's a part of a streaming service, or like Spongebob: The Musical, which is $10.00 on Amazon Video. And, for those who argue that making shows available online will decrease ticket sales, I know folks who was not interested in seeing Hamilton live, but because they watched the movie, now they would!
This article discusses one of my main worries about theater moving forward. I do firmly believe that theater should be made more accessible. But relying on donations is worrying. Most of the “professional” Zoom productions I have seen so far have either been offered for free or at a very low cost. I’m just wondering how we can continue to produce theater online but still fairly compensate everyone involved in its creation. It seems like we are starting to set a precedent that online “theater” is either free or close to it. While Zoom is inherently less expensive than putting on a show in person it still costs time and effort. At a time when almost every theater maker is out of work, shouldn’t compensation be one of our top concerns? I completely understand that it feels weird to be buying a ticket to a Zoom call. It feels weird for me to. But everyone in the world of theater is struggling, and charging a small admission instead of relying on donations is a tangible way to help.
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