CMU School of Drama


Thursday, March 13, 2025

Digital Theater 5 Years Later. ACTA 2025

New York Theater: Five years ago today, the then-Governor of New York ordered all Broadway theaters closed because of Covid-19, which within days spawned a pioneering era of digital theater. The shut-down lasted 18 months. Digital theater continues to this day.

1 comment:

Jo Adereth said...

I thought this article was going to be more informative of the evolution of digital theatre, but that’s okay. The four “digital theaters” they highlight really hit all of the definitions of “what is digital theatre?” I wouldn’t consider 54 Below to be a digital theater just because they broadcast all of their performances. They still host an audience, so it’s almost like a live recording rather than digital theatre. To me, digital theatre is almost like a TV show in a way. In my high school, freshman year, we put on a production that was broadcasted called “Facetime Continuum.” It was a compilation of different, student-written skits that were edited together. There were no person-to-person interactions. For all of these, they just define it as having a really small-venue and/or broadcasting their productions. I disagree that these are digital theatre, but I am glad to hear that they are doing well post-pandemic.