The Business of Theatre in Covid-19 and Post Covid-19 Environment (original) (raw)
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The COVID-19 emergency has had a profound impact on the artistic and cultural sectors, and on performing arts in particular. The lockdown required the suspension of all live performances and rehearsals, including the cancellation of seasons and festivals. Because physical proximity is an essential component of live shows, this sector will be on pause longer than the others. Since the early stages of the lockdown, Italian theatre has developed several online initiatives to counterbalance the suspension of its activities. These efforts have aimed at maintaining contact with the remote theatre audiences, by extending the presence of artists, theatres and performances in the online context. However, they have also provided an opportunity to reflect at large on the digital transformations of performing arts. The following contribution reflects on how we are researching the online response of the theatrical sector from the perspective of sociology and media studies. The paper aims to contextualise the phenomenon within the processes of theatre mediatisation and digital transformation of liveness, and to present what we think are the most urgent research questions in this direction. The first part of the article introduces the theoretical premises of the investigation. We present the frame of theatre mediatisation by analysing three interrelated processes: the mediatisation of dramaturgy through the concept of transmedia; the mediatisation of theatrical presence, with the debate on digital liveness, and the mediatisation of the theatrical relationship through social media. The second part will analyse some of the main online initiatives of the theatre sector, observing how they fit into the previously introduced mediatisation processes. The third part will observe how users have responded to the initiatives presented on social media by some of the main Italian theatres. In the conclusions, we will discuss which research questions we consider crucial to connect the analysis of this critical moment to the main themes of sociological and media studies research on performing arts.
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This essay reflects on a practice-as-research project at the intersection of stage translation, live performance and documentation, culminating in an audio recording intended for dissemination in the UK and US. Departing from a brief examination of previous English translations and productions of Decomposed Theatre by award-winning French-Romanian author Matei Vişniec (also known as Matéi Visniec in an international context), the essay engages with the process of workshopping the text and creating a performance version specifically for radio. The discussion focuses on the importance of fusing the different facets of creative practice with contextual and transcultural considerations, and addresses synergies between theory and praxis. It shows the fluidity between processes of writing, translation, directing and acting, drawing attention to the non-hierarchical ethos governing the collaborations involved. The project, created at the height of the Covid pandemic, came about as a response to the restrictions experienced by live performance, and offered an insight into the ways in which theatre artists tried to adapt to this unique status quo in terms of form, content and their relationship with audiences.
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This study discusses the transition of performances dramaturgy during the Covid-19 pandemic from analog to digital formats, from live performances commonly called staging to mediated performances which can be called performance streaming. The aim of study is to understand the application of ‘dramaturgical tactics’; and the reasons. Applying the dramaturgical analysis method investigation is directed at the transformation process from the basic concept of the performance to the practice of its presentation. The research departs from the premise that a dramaturgical process, namely the pre-production, production, and presentation of performance is permanently connected by a dramaturgical awareness. The analysis was carried out: (1) the idea of streaming; (2) performance technique; and (3) the form of performance streaming. Research shows that the critical changes in dramaturgy during the pandemic were triggered by the necessity to shift the mode of performance from staging to streamin...
http://www.critical-stages.org/22/arts-journalism-and-theatre-in-the-pandemic-era-mutations-redefinitions-and-challenges/?fbclid=IwAR2J9qYmfuuSRO6LD4U\_le01tTtlm-zJ3hqMfuBqPKj0VwkVHfp1kxFF3ZA This paper seeks to explore the new landscape that has emerged during the period of the so-called "corona crisis" within arts (cultural) journalism, focusing specifically on theatre reporting and theatre reviewing. Drawing examples from the Greek and international print and online media, I aim to show the extent to which the sudden pause of artistic life and the rules of social distancing have reshaped not only the contents, formats and genres of journalistic writing for the arts, but also the very essence of the notion of cultural event and cultural news. The paper will consider the importance of the role of theatre journalists and critics in identifying and highlighting urgent issues within the arts in the context of the pandemic. It will also explore the new challenges that have emerged during (and, indeed, as a consequence of) the pandemic. Finally, it will ask if the changes in media coverage of the arts are only temporary, or if arts journalism is entering a new era.
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The outbreak of the COVID- pandemic has had an unprecedented impact on the arts. Deserted theatre venues were one of many signs that the time, as Hamlet would have it, was out of joint. The pandemic struck at the heart of theatre and performancetheir liveness. As many of us followed these developments (mostly) glued to our screens, theatreas institution, concept and practicebegan to undergo another seismic change. Its very presence had to be redefined. Various theatre archives began to open for publics around the world. Streaming services and digital plays made theatre available to new audiences. At an early stage of lockdown, the National Theatre in London, for instance, launched the National Theatre at Home initiative, thus enabling audiences to view performances from the theatre's archive on YouTube for free. In June and July , the Old Vic produced a series of special live performances of their show Lungs, starring Claire Foy and Matt Smith, as part of their newly launched OLD VIC: IN CAMERA series. Other institutions and companies, like the Oxford-based Creation Theatre, produced entirely new shows for Zoom. Of course, such and similar endeavours had been under way even in pre-COVID- times. Over the past decade, we have seen the rise of live-to-cinema broadcasts: the National Theatre, for instance, began the NT Live initiative in and the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford in . 1 Online livestreaming of the performing arts, which audiences typically watch from their homes, 2 has developed in parallel. Livestreaming has also been used by theatre festivals, such as the Berliner Festspiele, which put on Forced Entertainment's Table Top Shakespeare in . During the pandemic, livestreamed and pre-recorded performances, as well as those specifically designed for Zoom, became the standard, and often the only possible, format for putting on a show. Despite the severity of the circumstances that had brought about this change and exacerbated existing precarities in the theatre sector, the pandemic-related restrictions and lockdowns also provided practitioners with the opportunity to experiment with new forms of theatre-making and explore alternatives to in-person theatre. This moment of crisis was, thus, also approached as an incentive to innovation, as a motor for creativity and heightened improvisation, particularly since the theatre industry had to reinvent itself in order to maintain an economically feasible position. It was also a moment that spotlighted theatre's role in (virtual) community-building. In an article
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