Making Theatre during COVID-19

Abstract

ABSTRACT Social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic prevents audiences and actors from interacting in what used to be the normal way of making and sharing productions. Actors, directors, and designers faced numerous challenges throughout rehearsals while creating “something-that-isn't-exactly-theatre” to livestream Athol Fugard's Statements after an Arrest under the Immorality Act. Focused on an interracial affair obliterated by South Africa's apartheid laws, Fugard's drama eerily evokes dynamics in today's America: structural racism; government regulation of private behavior; the chasms of understanding—even those we love—across lines of race; all of which occurred against the backdrop of Breonna Taylor's killing in Louisville, the city where the actors and directors had first met and worked together. While most of these dynamics were familiar to us, the novel challenges of virtual work were not. However, by the end of rehearsals, tech, and two virtual performances we had learned to appreciate intrinsic attributes of this new form.