fbpx COVID-19: Theatre During the Pandemic | HowlRound Theatre Commons
a person teaching
Essay
23 March 2020

Tracy C. Davis talks to instructors at Northwestern University about how they are preparing to teach acting and dance—quintessentially embodied forms dependent on human-to-human observation and whole-body involvement—online.

three people looking at a large projection of a person's face
Essay
30 March 2020

Alex Ates speaks with Whit MacLaughlin—the experimental theatremaker who ventured into the online realm before it became our norm—about the intersection between digital technology and live performance and pedagogy.

stage view of an actor
Essay

What Could Have Been

1 April 2020

Kristin Idaszak and Kristen Osborn invite you to pay tribute to the work you have lost due to the recent theatre closures.

zoom screenshot
Essay

Continuing to Create at the Intersection of Coronavirus, Crisis, and Care

9 April 2020

Theatremaker Asif Majid talks about adapting his show, Snapshots, for a digital space after COVID-19 shut down theatres across the country.

two actors onstage
Essay
7 April 2020

Jonathan Mandell examines the new theatrical landscape brought on by COVID-19 and discusses the emerging aesthetic—one that is low-tech, low-key, one-on-one, close-up.

Kaja Dunn holding one of her sons
Essay
8 April 2020

Kaja Dunn reflects on how quickly the world turned upside down with COVID-19 and offers a simple idea before rushing into to creating new work: take a breath and allow for a moment to process all that is happening.

Essay

Interviews on the Future of our Field

16 November 2020

Janice Rabian shares the discoveries she made during her summer research project about the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the theatre field and how leaders are pivoting after the murder of George Floyd.

a group of actors onstage
Essay

What We Can Learn from Career Transitions Between Medicine and Theatre

24 November 2020

Amelia Parenteau examines the essential nature of both artists and medical workers—who heal body and soul, mind and spirit—and shares how some have navigated their career transitions between the two fields.

The marquee for the San Diego Civic Center
Essay

Job Loss for New Graduates and Young Professionals

7 December 2020

Concerned with how the lockdowns have affected recent theatre graduates and young professionals, Kristin Perkins spoke to eighteen such artists across the United States about what it’s been like for them and offers some suggestions for the months ahead.

a group of actors onstage
Essay
8 December 2020

Allie Marotta discusses how a new realm of accessibility opened up with remote performances but argues that the rush to return to in-person events is leaving disabled and high-risk populations behind.

two actors onstage
Essay
15 December 2020

Patrick Myers speaks with managing directors Emika Abe and Sarah Williams about how their experience managing the impact of the pandemic has shaped their views on art in virtual spaces, leadership amidst crisis, and the future of the American theatre.

a large colorful mural
Essay

A Playwright's Response

21 April 2020

Playwright Noelle Viñas reflects on the grief she’s experiencing during the current global pandemic and talks about reframing theatre as an art of the now rather than an art of futurity.

black and white photo of two people in different masks facing each other through glass
Essay

Making Performance with a "Lockdown Aesthetic" / Haciendo las obras con un "Lockdown Estética"

2 December 2020

Cris Tengono talks about how, thanks to the pandemic, a virtual artistic world has begun to develop in Colombia—one of infinite possibilities and without borders, where nationalities do not matter—and shares some of the work that has come out of it.

Video

Panel Discussion with Hallie Gordon, Barbara Pitts McAdams, Michael Rohd, and Willa Taylor

Tuesday 15 December 2020
United States

#ENOUGH presented The Inciting Incident: Art Activism, Social Justice, and Youth Theatre after COVID livestreamed on the global, commons-based, peer-produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Tuesday 15 December 2020 at 12 p.m. PST (San Francisco, UTC -8) / 2 p.m. CST (Chicago, UTC -6) / 3 p.m. EST (New York, UTC -5).

image of dancer in green with white text coping with covid
Video

An online workshop with Creative Capital to help artists better understand how to livestream their work to virtual audiences

Tuesday 31 March 2020
United States

Creative Capital presented Coping with COVID: Livestreaming for Artists livestreamed on the global, commons-based, peer-produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Tuesday 31 March 2020 at 1 p.m. PDT (San Francisco, UTC-7) / 3 p.m. CDT (Chicago, UTC-5) / 4 p.m. EDT (New York, UTC-4) / 9 p.m. BST (London, UTC+1).

Grantmakers in the Arts Logo
Video

a conversation hosted by Grantmakers in the Arts

Tuesday 16 June 2020
United States

Grantmakers in the Arts presented the conversation Coronavirus Response: Building a future that reimagines systems for justice livestreaming on the global, commons-based, peer-produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Tuesday 16 June 2020 at 11 a.m. PDT (San Francisco, UTC-7) / 1 p.m. CDT (Chicago, UTC-5) / 2 p.m. EDT (New York, UTC-4).

a hand reaching toward a laptop open to a zoom video call
Essay
21 July 2020

Nisha Sajnani, a drama therapist and educator, offers a few tips to other theatre educators who may be feeling overwhelmed about the prospect of teaching online or in person again this fall.

an actor laying onstage
Essay

Exploring Trauma-Responsivity and Self-Care

21 January 2021

Claire K. Redfield shares why it’s important for theatremakers to create trauma-responsive rehearsal spaces and offers four Rs—realizing, recognizing, responding, and resisting—as a way to approach the process.

a group onstage
Essay

A Conversation with Complex Movements

15 January 2021

In the last conversation of the Performing the Internet series, curator Kate Bergstrom sits down with three members of the Detroit-based artist-activist collective Complex Movements—Sage Crump, ill weaver, Wes Taylor—to talk about intentional engagement in a virtual world.

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