COVID-19

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.

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.

Viviana Vargas shares what it’s been like transitioning their Bogotá-based arts, culture, and healing storefront, Balistikal, into an online space during the pandemic./Viviana Vargas comparte cómo ha sido la transición de su espacio físico en Bogotá, de arte, cultura y sanación, llamado Balistikal, a un espacio en línea durante la pandemia.

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.

Michelle Yemayá notes that while Colombian theatre artists have found ways to face the unexpected changes this year, artists are still struggling to stay afloat. She talks about how she has adapted her practice under the circumstances and shares the stories of three other artists living and working as artists in Colombia right now. / Michelle Yemayá ha notado que, si bien los artistas del teatro colombiano han encontrado formas de enfrentar los cambios inesperados de este año, la lucha por mantenerse a flote es constante. Habla sobre cómo ha adaptado su práctica a las circunstancias y comparte las historias de otras tres personas que en este momento viven y trabajan como artistas en Colombia.

In the intro article to the Colombia series, Carl(os) Roa, a Latinx artist from Philadelphia who made art in Bogotá last year, poses the question “What are the ways in which Colombia’s arts communities are just as fragmented as those in the United States” and shares how uplifting it has been to watch artists in the Bogotanx theatre community adapt to new realities brought on by the pandemic.

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.

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.

Jack Reuler, artistic director of Minneapolis’s Mixed Blood Theatre, reflects on how the pandemic might just be the great equalizer in the American theatre and how it’s time for theatre to move from being something nice to being something necessary.

Tamilla Woodard, co–artistic director of Working Theater in New York, talks about why she makes theatre and offers several “what if” thoughts about how the field should move forward.

Earlier this year, Mark Valdez, hungering for public discourse around the future of the American theatre field, prompted three arts leaders with the question, “What is our purpose now?” This piece kicks off the series of responses.

Sophia Skiles talks about the momentum of unprecedented acclaim and agency for Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) theatremakers this spring, which quickly transformed into an inverse rise of AAPI-directed bigotry and bias for the global pandemic.

Esther Fernández talks about closing the gap that separates classical and contemporary theatre and discusses the piece En otro reino extraño, a polyphonic work composed of scenes from Lope de Vega’s plays; snippets of informal conversations between the actors in Zoom chats; poems transmogrified into electrocumbia, punk, and pop songs; and video montage.

Playwright Hallie Palladino chats with intimacy director Gaby Labotka about how intimacy directors approach scripts, the importance of a well-chosen adverb, and the necessity of innovation, now more than ever, to keep performers healthy and safe.

As artists and companies re-examine the failures of their infrastructures and unconscious biases, Emily C. A. Snyder argues that the lessons learned and challenges faced so far within the field of intimacy direction may be of particular value.