Discussing at least two of our primary sources and two of our secondary sources, explain your opinion as to whether the virtual (and free!) performances offer enough advantages that they might be able to rival in-person theater experiences.

Directions for this activity

Write an essay double spaced and typed, at least 1000 words. Include with your essay a MLA works cited list of the two primary and two secondary sources you will discuss in your essay. Submit your final draft for grading in blackboard. When discussing sources in the text of your essay, use MLA style for quoting, paraphrasing, and summarizing.

In their definition of theater as part of the introduction to Theatrical Worlds, Charlie Mitchell and Michelle Hayford point out how collaborative and personal theater is. “Unlike other solitary forms of art, theatre is often highly collaborative.”

In addition to occurring between people, theater also occurs in the moment:

While it is true that performances can be captured on film or video, the true experience of live theatre cannot be truly duplicated. Once it is finished, it lives only in memory. This transitory quality of theatre is due to the dynamic between the actor and the audience. There is a feedback loop —energy is exchanged. Each produces signals that are perceived by the other, which, in turn, can profoundly affect how the performance evolves.

This desire to interact in a shared moment in part drives Bill Irwin’s production “In Zoom” (2020). During a virtual performance, actors and audience can’t literally reach out and touch one another. They share virtual image and sound, but not sensory experiences such as touch. In addition, actors and audiences can’t look about from any angle they wish as they can in person.

However, streaming virtual performances has the significant advantage of allowing a much broader range of audiences to view performances from many locations and when schedules allow, often at substantially lower or even free prices.

Discussing at least two of our primary sources and two of our secondary sources, explain your opinion as to whether the virtual (and free!) performances offer enough advantages that they might be able to rival in-person theater experiences. Also, might Lynn Nottage be right in “These Truths: Realizing a New Theatre” to suggest that, having had to innovate for pandemic virtual theater, we may find that “we have begun dreaming about what the future can look like in a more expansive and beautiful way”?

Primary sources
Couples (2020) by Sean Grennan 1:05:06
“In Zoom” (2020) by Bill Irwin 15:34
Love in Lockdown (2020) written by Robyn Butler and Lucy Durack, directed by Wayne Hope, Lesson 1 7:37, Lesson 2 7:07, Lesson 3 5:54, Lesson 4 4:31, Lesson 5 4:50, Lesson 6 7:35 / “Behind the Scenes with Lucy Durack in Isolation Series Love in Lockdown” (2020) 9:22 Australian Public Broadcast Service /
“Momma Got a Cough” (2020) [explicit] by Jordan E. Cooper 14:17

Secondary sources
“Education through Drama and Theater” (2015) by Mohammed Awwad 18:13
“Pandemics and Playgoers” (2020) by Kyle Haden 7:00
Theatrical Worlds, chapter 1 (2014) by Charlie Mitchell and Michelle Hayford
“These Truths: Realizing a New Theatre” by Lynn Nottage and Jeremy O. Harris (2020) [selections]

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