Theatre in the time of Covid19: Innovations and setbacks

The global pandemic has created massive disruptions in the theatre community, and I was recently asked to respond to this topic. The article that was published online left a lot to be desired when it came to quoting my responses in context. The sub-editors headline "trying to keep the theatre alive" was also sufficiently cringe worthy enough for me to put out this short clarification.

POST SCRIPT: Relieved to report that the article was subsequently edited to keep my quotes in context. The headline was also softened from "trying to keep the theatre alive" to "keep the theatre going". Small victories!

The pandemic has created both positive and negative outcomes: innovations and setbacks...

Innovations:

1. A large proportion of the theatre community has made the transition to online work. We've moved performances and workshops to social and streaming platforms, Zoom, FB, Insta Live etc. Multiple generations of theatre people from experienced veterans to younger digital natives are all grappling with this change.

2. Our sense of theatre community has been reconfigured. We now find ourselves working across multiple time zones and locations. At AEIF, we have had workshop participants from Singapore, Malaysia, Toronto, across India etc.

3. Content innovations are taking place. Some of us have shifted closer towards radio/podcasting as a “hybrid format”.  This is actually quite interesting since there is a sense of visual fatigue that occurs from being online staring at screens all the time.

4. Theatre is about active experience – so we have moved even further away from the sensational visual towards the process of active listenership. This ethos of experiencing a story is totally opposed to “binge watching” content on OTT platforms.

5. Theatre is about a social experience, so “eyeballs and footfalls” are not so important as the building-reconfiguring of our community/audiences/ecosystem in this moment of flux. When we move online we're not looking for millions of hits on YouTube but for those who see value in the story that we are telling and participate with us in the act of storytelling.

Setbacks:

1. Where social disparity and the digital divide existed earlier, it has been made worse. Folk and rural artists are disproportionately hurt.

2. Professionalisation in the arts, which in India was always patchy and uneven, has faced a massive setback through theatre closures. This has hurt independent/freelance practitioners who go from gig to gig quite a lot. The hurt is felt not just by the artists (actors, creative team etc) but the whole creative ecosystem (the theatre staff, the technicians, the backstage crew, the chaiwallah and the dhobiwallah!) all of whom are part of the theatre ecosystem, though sometimes not directly visible.

Key takeaway:

We are seeing exceptional resilience and adaptation in the community, even in the face of gloom and doom all around. The ghost lights kept burning in the closed theatres are a symbol that we are keeping our creative spirits strong!