The Globe has recruited six theater artists from around the country to grapple with the question: “What is theater now?”
Tuesday, September 22, 2020
What will theater look like in a post-COVID world? Old Globe launches initiative to answer that question
The Globe has recruited six theater artists from around the country to grapple with the question: “What is theater now?”
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I am so glad I clicked on this article because it is fantastic to see an artistic director embracing the idea that theatre might never look the same or at least not until there is a vaccine and most of the population has agreed to take it (hopefully by fall 2021). I love his positive attitude. I feel like the downfall of CMU’s spring productions will be trying to do “pre-covid” theatre in a new format. We are at such an exciting time! We have the opportunity to redefine and invent the roles we have and what we do. Let’s take COVID as a call to action that theatre can change and needs to change not just for DEIA issues or pandemic issues but because be boast about how innovative, creative, and cutting edge we are. We need to actually accept these things and put our money where our mouth is. Digital art isn’t going away post a vaccine and we need to figure out ways to create a community that people have been craving. People miss the community of theatre and instead of saying we need to do digital art to tide us over till post-Covid, we need to look at the best way to do it. Attitude is everything. I’m really sad to see no managers on this as I think while we are changing things we need to bring managers into the artistic conversation more. People who are “managers” and not theatre “artists” can really add to collaboration and are actually passionate about the arts. I’m really excited to see what this committee comes up with.
Now this is someone taking action about trying to survive in the entertainment industry during the pandemic! I just read an article on how a union just wrote to Congress asking for more funding for their artists who can't find jobs. Though I think this is great, I feel as though these unions and entertainers are just not facing the hard cold facts. We are in a pandemic and it will not be the same post-covid. It makes me really happy and a bit relieved to see how this project is taking action on how to survive while also looking to the future of a post-covid world. This is the only way to be prepared and to survive. One thing I am surprised but impressed with is their action to move things online. Though many companies have done this, they are seeing it as a temporary option. I know many people, including myself, see live entertainment to be missing its spirit without it being live. Hearing the audience right there reacting, feeling the mood and tension, the thrill of performing whether as a stagehand or actor, it just isn't the same online. However, this project is addressing how moving forward, especially in a technologically advancing world, that this is something permanent and something we must adapt to.
Lilian Kim-
I think that it is so important to look at theatre in a different way. My biggest gripe with theatre sometimes is that it is too traditional as it is groundbreaking. Despite the pandemic being pretty detrimental to many productions around the world, it also gave reason for people to create something brand new. I admire these artists for taking up such a task, because I was in a similar situation during the pandemic as well. They are forced to truly think outside the box, as they are limited within the confines of a computer screen and health regulations. However, I believe that art exists in order to tell a story of the world around us, and even though the height of the pandemic was only about a year and a half, so many things happened that art must come out of it. I liked the bit where the article questioned the identity of theatre and its place in the “fabric of the community”. I think these are important questions to ask when moving forward from the pandemic and moving towards a greater future.
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