Quick note: This was not an easy piece for me to write. I started this article the day Broadway shut down and it was just going to be me stating how disappointed I was and telling people to wear masks and follow social distancing rules. Then I stopped writing it and I would come back to it in April, December of 2021 before finishing it and posting it right now. Here are just some thoughts I had throughout the pandemic.
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| Katrina Lenk Company |
Time: 2:12pm
I am getting dressed to catch the train to New York City with my Father. We had tickets to see a performance of the Broadway revival of Company and I was super excited to see it. I pull out my phone to tweet my excitement and the first thing I see is a tweet from Playbill that announces that all Broadway theatres will close that day due to COVID-19. I am absolutely crushed (and to be quite honest extremely angry.) I had been looking forward to this show for months and it was my annual tradition to see a show on Broadway during spring break with one of my parents.
Date: April 13, 2020
Time: 12:28pm
The Broadway shut down was supposed to end today and now it is likely to continue until June. Theatres around the world have shut down including the U.K. and Australia. These closures are understandable because theatres are ground zero for spreading germs with the close proximity everyone is in. Many shows have been either postponed, cancelled or closed early and even the Tony's have been postponed.
Date: December 18, 2020
Time: 4:42pm
Coronavirus has lasted longer than anyone expected it to. We had all assumed we'd be back to our normal lives by May. Australia, Korea, Japan and several other countries have all reopened theatres or have begun to reopen theatres with social distancing measures or safety protocols in place. Meanwhile those of us in the U.S. must deal with bootlegs, filmed or virtual
theatre events. Trust me, I get that it is not the same...
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| Empty street with empty theatres |
I miss live in person theatre.
I miss sitting in those seats for two hours.
I miss battling the person next to me for the right to use the arm rest.
I miss the stage door.
I miss the applause.
I miss the lights.
I miss going deaf from the ridiculously loud speakers.
I miss the people you meet.
I miss nearly getting hit by cars while walking through the parking lot after a show.
I miss that commute home where you might listen to the cast album on repeat.
I miss it.
Date: January 24, 2021
Time: 9:10pm
I'm now back at college and quarantining before my final semester of school. And I'll admit I have started feeling what so many other people are feeling. I feel a bit hopeless as if theatre will never return... I hate myself for feeling that way. Theatre is not gone. Theatre CAN NEVER BE GONE. I feel that as a society we have gotten into the mindset that theatre is a building, but it's not. Theatre is the subway performer. Theatre is reading a bedtime story to a child and using voices. Theatre is playing Dungeons and Dragons. Theatre is cosplaying. THEATRE IS WHATEVER YOU MAKE IT. The only thing you need is yourself. I am so sick and tired hearing people say, "I can't practice my art form." or "What are we going to do without theatre?" I absolutely hate that mentality because it's ignorant and stupid. If you say "Theatre is gone" okay then it is gone... for you. Not for everyone else. I repeat... THEATRE IS WHATEVER YOU MAKE IT! Last semester I took a course and one of the readings was titled "After COVID-19, What?" which had a variety of theatre professionals answering that exact question. I specifically want to talk about Fawzia Afzal-Khan (Playwright and current professor at Montclair University.) and the response she gave. Afzal-Khan believes that COVID-19 is a way for artists to grow and sees it as a way for artists to enhance theatre and allows for:
More work that experiments with online performances, that connects with remote audiences will surely also emerge and become part of a new way of 'doing theatre' and music and other performances as a result of the social distancing imperatives that will stay with us for a long time to come.
A perfect example of these experimental works can be seen with The Virtual Stage Co. whose first project was back in August 2020 and it was a zoom production of Seussical titled Seussical: A Virtual Musical! which featured performances from a variety of stage performers. These performers created their own costumes and props. They cleverly recorded in various places around where they live. It also featured clips from the various original Dr. Seuss cartoons of the works featured in Seussical and was cleverly edited to have wacky, zany and
creative transitions in the style of Seuss that worked. What The Virtual Stage Co. did was theatre! The artists involved in this piece didn't say "Oh what are we gonna do?" They said "Okay, there is an obstacle how do we get past it?" (That is what a true artist, in my opinion, does. They don't sit around accepting defeat, they fight and continue to make art!) Virtual productions of shows are now becoming more and more common especially in academic settings.
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| Company members of Seussical: A Virtual Musical |
Date: December 14, 2021
Time: 1:08pm
I'm sitting here at my job (I'm on a break, calm down) and I was going through unpublished posts that I had on here. I found this post, which I honestly forgot. I was thinking about just deleting it, but I revisited it and said "No... This is perfect for what it is." This article is just a menagerie of feelings that I had randomly throughout the pandemic. Broadway is now open again, I recently saw The Phantom of the Opera and tours are touring again. However, I hate when I hear people say "Theatre is back" because theatre never left us. Theatre was always here. It wasn't in the medium we have gotten accustomed too, but it was there. There have been some truly brilliant works that have come out due to the pandemic. There have been truly creative works that pushed the boundaries as to what theatre can be. I don't know what the future holds in store for theatre. What I do know, is that theatre will never leave me. Theatre cannot leave me unless I tell it to. Whether that means I'm seeing a big budget Broadway mega musical, or if I'm just sitting in my room and making my goldfish talk to each other and create an entire 5 minute play. (Go ahead and judge me, I don't care.) Theatre is never gone. Theatre will preserve.
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