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Thursday, September 03, 2020
There’ll Be a Theater Season. But How and Where and When?
The New York Times: In April and May, as reliably as cherry blossoms flower and songbirds lay over in Central Park, the season announcements appear. To announce a theatrical season, which runs from September through May, give or take, is to broadcast values, bolster a brand, woo a subscription base. Each poised message operates as an advertisement, a promise, a reiteration of artistic and commercial creeds.
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7 comments:
It is uplifting to see how many theaters are managing to make work right now, in whatever manner that may be. I think the drive in style is something that is really promising and could have a life beyond the era of covid. I am more sceptical of other season’s that are planning to go ahead with in person performances. I do not think I could engage in that kind of work in good conscience - really anywhere. At my small town community theater, they have been having shows on stage with people in the audience pretty regularly since July, which is something I still can not wrap my heart around. I do not see how people can ignore what is happening right now like that. Sure, small town America does not have as many cases as bigger cities right now, but it is still there and it is still killing people. It would be nice to see them taking the lead from some bigger companies who are figuring all this out with new, creative solutions rather than just pushing through the season as they always have...
I admire all of the energy that is being put into trying to find how theatre can fit itself into the pandemic. But I certainly can't blame those who have postponed their seasons entirely and honestly talking spring/summer of 2021 doesn't feel unreasonable to try and really think through their season and weigh their best options. I do wonder about the expenditure of energy on the "hoping" for live performance in the near future though. It seems like the hypothesizing and contingency planning might be draining on resources that might be better shifted to figuring out completely remote options but that is coming at it from a safety angle and there's so much more to consider than that. Optimistically maybe we can move forward in the industry with increased efficiency and more update to what has largely been and antiquated system.
Given how everything has been for the last few months for the entertainment field in particular, it feels great reading this article because it presents a ray of hope where people might be able to enjoy theatrical performances in their true essence soon enough. The work that has been put into creating such seasons, despite being surrounded by uncertainty on all sides, is commendable.
However, it makes equal sense that a few of theater companies are choosing to be pragmatic rather than optimistic given how everything has been and continues to be in terms of the pandemic and its impact on the general public. It is definitely a lot of work and requires a lot of money to conduct these performances/ seasons in an in- person environment, and if these companies cannot invest such resources, for whatever reason, it is better that they open shows when they can, in a way where the full scope of the show is achieved without compromising on anything.
This article I feel helps some up how a lot of us in industry are feeling about theater in the pandemic and what it’s going to look like. There is wide mix of optimism and spectrums on simply how we can operate and share stories with our communities. With all the varying degrees of issues from company to company and city to city it becomes to find a solution when it feels each company is on their own and has to decide for themselves. With the shifting sands of what each company faces every week with what may or may not happen I think sometimes the whiplash of will they won’t they is the hardest part of working in this pandemic. I think the public theatre’s artistic director said it best when declaring whatever the public decides the stuff they announce is what they will do. No one knows what the “right” thing to do is right now they have ideas and even for how fast our industry works this pandemic can change even faster so the best we can do right now is whatever we can do to the best of our abilities.
When you read the title of this article, you get hopeful - maybe the world will return to normal so soon! But as you read, you realize... there is no certainty. The questions poised in the title are left unanswered, the messes that have been made out of the typical and traditional theater seasons are yet to be figured out. Yet, even with all the insecurity that remains, it's nice to hear that some theaters, like Baltimore Center Stage's "contingency plans have contingency plans."
It's interesting to see the issue of "traditional" seasons posing a problem when live theater returns, because I would've thought this to be a prevalent problem even before all in-person performances ceased. Does this mean that the social changes that our country has gone through over the past few months will make an even greater impact on industries like entertainment that had to be shut down for this time?
The range of responses by theatres to COVID has been fascinating to me. In some cases, I find the optimism inspiring and uplifting, but, lately, the rosy colored glasses have kind of gotten old. As much as I would like to keep that inspiring attitude, I have come to respect the realistic and more conservative approaches. I would much rather hold off, better the institution itself in a remote fashion, and then bring back the season in full force when it is safe to go all the way back in to it. However, all of that being considered, there is a realistic factor of institutional finances that must be considered because there is no point if the institution cannot return at the end of this because of financial challenges. This is a point where I believe the government has failed the arts in a catastrophic manner. So many people who carry our industry are struggling because they are in the same place.
This article really drives home the point that no one, not even the most experienced people in our field, have any answers. I have been searching for months for someone to “tell me what to do” and how to create art in this new setting. But no one has any answers. At first I was terrified by this. How am I supposed to teach myself how to be a theater artist when every rule that has ever been set has now been thrown out the window? Where will I fit into this field that is now fundamentally different from what it used to be? But this article helped me realize, this disruption is not something to be afraid of. It’s not putting me at a disadvantage. It’s leveling the playing field, maybe even giving me a head start.
Designers who have been in their fields for decades are now just as clueless as I am. We all have to learn this new art form together, starting from square one. And I have the advantage of not having to unlearn decades of traditional work. I am still afraid, but now that the people who used to have all the answers are starting at square one with my generation, maybe we can all work together to rebuild theater to be a more equitable, sustainable field when things get back to “normal.”
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