The Challenges and Possibilities of Live Children’s Literary Storytelling for At-Risk Audiences during COVID-19

Abstract

This essay maps the dialogue between a professor/director and department chair as they facilitated an undergraduate student children’s storytelling troupe’s mission through live-Zoom performances during COVID-19. The professor/director and department chair struggle together to meet learning objectives, community needs, artistic commitments, and department priorities with the resources available. Together they articulate how the tenets of critical performance ethnographic methodology combine with best practices of telling stories to children, and they share the technical possibilities and challenges of livestreamed Zoom performances. The authors chronicle how and why the troupe continues to be successful with an expanded reach throughout the pandemic. The authors end with plans for how to potentially continue access through virtual performance for those who cannot attend the in-person performances postpandemic.