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Tuesday, October 27, 2020
How to perform a musical during the pandemic? Masks and microphones
Datebook: To learn the venue address for Youth Musical Theater Company’s production of “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee,” audience members had to agree on an online form that they’d wear a mask during the whole show and submit to a health screening before being seated.
I think the mental health conversation surrounding the pandemic and particularly theater during a pandemic is something that I think about often and I think I probably have the unpopular opinion on it. The article touches on how parents were eager to send their kids to do this socially distant, mask wearing version of theater that is basically only open to their parents sort of. They said that theater was very necessary to their personal growth- which is great. I see a similar thing with the theater company that I grew up with and what they're currently doing with highly stylized zoom showcases and productions. It gives the kids something to do. For someone whose at a college age and is about to do this professionally full time, this ain't it. I think that it has the opposite effect on my mental health and that working in masks under these conditions just makes me annoyed and depressed. So I'm not discounting the positive effects of mask theater for younger people, I just don't think that it should now be a universal thing in the theater industry.
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I think the mental health conversation surrounding the pandemic and particularly theater during a pandemic is something that I think about often and I think I probably have the unpopular opinion on it. The article touches on how parents were eager to send their kids to do this socially distant, mask wearing version of theater that is basically only open to their parents sort of. They said that theater was very necessary to their personal growth- which is great. I see a similar thing with the theater company that I grew up with and what they're currently doing with highly stylized zoom showcases and productions. It gives the kids something to do. For someone whose at a college age and is about to do this professionally full time, this ain't it. I think that it has the opposite effect on my mental health and that working in masks under these conditions just makes me annoyed and depressed. So I'm not discounting the positive effects of mask theater for younger people, I just don't think that it should now be a universal thing in the theater industry.
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