The New York Times: I have never lived in either London or New York, and thus have next to no experience with the hotbeds of English-speaking theater. Though I frequently travel to those cities, and social media posts of friends with their Broadway Playbills tantalize me, I live with an illness that makes it difficult to remain upright. That makes theater a tough experience: The first time I saw “Hamilton,” after I left the Richard Rodgers Theater I was too sick to remember most of what had happened.
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I read an article about this topic in the last few weeks. While many eagerly await returning to “normal”, and attending live theater again, we have to remember that attending 2-3 hour live performances aren’t available for everyone– just simply is not an option, for any number of reasons. This article is focused on being able to go see performances, and for Esmé Weijun Wang, watching from bed on a laptop is a far superior option than traveling to New York or London to see theater, or going to a local theater. I think this is something that we all need to be thinking about as things return to a new normal– how do we better support everyone’s ability to see theater? Maybe this means keeping some virtual theater even as we go back in-person; I think we have a lot to learn from this pandemic, and we need to keep talking about this.
Wow. I am always talking about how important it is to make theatre accessible to all people, but I never even thought of the way people with physical disabilities may not be able to sit upright in a (often slightly uncomfortable) chair for 2 hours during a production. People, including myself, have been complaining for the entirety of lockdown about how virtual theatre just isn’t the same as the real thing or how much it sucks to not be able to sit in those auditorium seats. I had, ignorantly, never thought of the way that live theatre was exclusive to physically able-bodied patrons and that the switch to zoom theatre only opened the door for the people who are bedridden, hospital-bound, wheelchair-bound, etc. to be able to enjoy it. While I have to say that virtual theatre doesn’t quite match up to real in-person theatre, the way that the theatre industry has been able to adapt to this new medium really has given more and more people the opportunity to see art they might have otherwise never seen before. I do hope that streaming theatre remains an option for those who are unable to attend in person in the future.
This is the kind of positive perspective on digital theatre that warms my heart. A lot of what I see about digital theatre has been negative – and I can’t deny that I too have a fairly negative perspective on digital theatre mediums and productions – and that opinion is laced with ableism. While the digital realm can be difficult for some people to access, it does reach a new field of audience members and, by the tone of this article, makes a positive impact creating a long term audience member. I hope that there continue to be digital productions, or at the very least streamings of performances, in a post-pandemic world. I also hope that the theatre world grows to incorporate disability friendly aspects into their spaces - especially at the broadway level. Commercial theatre in New York City is such a pinnacle of the theatre world, and it is egregiously inaccessible. I also think that there needs to be more captioning in digital performances.
I’ve commented on similar articles to this in the past, but I really feel like this is a point to be emphasized to no end. Theatre is supposed to be an artform for all to enjoy. Over time, as venues like Broadway houses have grown in popularity, their primary audience has shifted towards primarily wealthy, old, white patrons. The primary factors of this are the fact that admission prices are pretty high, and that most major theatre houses are too far from many to access. When Covid hit over a year ago, and entertainment venues were forced to shut down, they were forced to adapt to survive. Many venues began to stream productions virtually, whether they be archival recordings or zoom theatre. Some venues offered these for free, and other charged a small “admission” fee – but nothing like the exorbitant prices of a Broadway ticket. This, combined with the fact that these could be viewed from anywhere, instantly made theatre infinitely more accessible to all. I sincerely hope that even in a post-Covid world, streamed performances will still be an option for partons to enjoy theatre.
I know it is very hard and honestly very privileged at times to be like yes always find the joy and positives within a situation. I do think it is important to do so though. For your own sanity and just mental stability I think it is better to try to see the good in whatever situation you are in and what you can do to make that situation even better. Virtual theatre truly made an art form that was only for the rich and able bodied available to all people. People who cannot sit and watch a show for 3 hours are now able to watch it at their own pace. Families with small children can now watch shows when it fits into their schedule not getting out of a show at 11:30 at night. People can watch these shows in chunks. Most importantly, tickets are not $100s of dollars for a professional show or at least $20 for a high school show. People who typically could not enjoy the art form are now allowed a new way to fall in love with it and then decide if they are willing and able to sit through a live performance. The pandemic provided us a way to change the way we look at theatre and the industry, a way to be more inclusive in every way.
I have seen this angle for theater during covid a number of times, and it was great to see a New York Times article directly commenting on the accessibility of what the pandemic has provided. During the past year, I saw how so many theater companies were raising complaints and requesting funding for their artists and company to stay in business. However, I think that the companies that truly thrived in a survival of the fittest kind of way were those that instead adapted to the new conditions and found ways to deliver their art in a virtual or remote way. Even at CMU, it was up to each of the 15 productions we had this semester to figure out how they would deliver their production to an audience not directly in front of them. Also, even with live theater, unless you throw hundreds of dollars into a ticket that has a seat with a good view of the stage, live performances weren't even always great. If anything, this recognition from the Times will hopefully encourage more audiences to take advantage of having a cheaper, guaranteed front seat ticket to a show from the comfort of their own home.
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