Re-Thinking "Theatre" During Social Distancing

Abstract

In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic required most of the world to adhere to the practice of social distancing, remaining in our homes and coming into physical contact only with members of our immediate household. Young peoples’ lives were profoundly disrupted. Schooling and professional labour shifted from purpose-built spaces of learning and work into the physical space of the home, collapsing the boundaries between educational, professional, and domestic spheres. During this historic moment what it means for young people to make and watch theatre shifts; the live, embodied co-presence that defines the discipline is a public health risk. This chapter examines what theatre is and can be in this unprecedented historic moment by focusing on live, embodied performances created and watched within an intimate and domestic context. It reads a five-year-old girl’s performance for her parents in relation to an episode of Cosmic Kids Yoga as intermedial, procedurally authored theatre, using this as a point of departure to theorise what it means to make, watch, and study theatre performed by young people in a time of social distancing.