Navigating this new theatre landscape is challenging to say the least, for in our wildest dreams, we never could have imagined the stories that are playing out in this world we live in now, AND in our wildest, most outrageous dreams, we never could have imagined a world where it would be unsafe to congregate for theatre.

So here we are, in a dangerous world, where it is dangerous to present theatre inside a theatre.

In the business world, they talk about pivoting: turning towards new markets or services, as a way to bring greater revenue to an organization. But I don’t think that is what we, as playwrights, need to do now.

We need to ADAPT to this new, unexplored reality.

Adapting doesn’t mean turning and moving in another direction or towards a new market.

Adapt according to the Oxford dictionary means a couple of things:

Make something suitable for a new use or purpose; modify:
Become adjusted to new conditions.

We don’t need to move in another direction. We need to modify ourselves and our talents for a new use, and eventually, we will become adjusted to a new normal.

Manhattan Rep is presenting our Second Annual Stories Film Festival streaming online for the month of February and we are only accepting Short Films 15 minutes or less, and short Zoom Theatre videos, 15 minutes or less. I have had the unique opportunity to view a myriad of Zoom Theatre videos that have been submitted and it is fascinating.

Intially, last March, when we went to lockdown in New York City, I was addicted to my belief that Zoom videos were problematic. Actors couldn’t really be in the same room, so plays involving actors in the same room couldn’t really work, and bandwidth and tech problems could literally destroy a live performance online. I nixed the technology and chose not to adapt to this crazy new landscape. I stayed in the pre - pandemic universe theatre model and I pivoted by seeking out more script consultations and playwriting coaching clients, and I started teaching a myriad of Zoom learning seminars about playwriting, directing and more.

As I was watching many of these submissions of Zoom Theatre Videos over the past couple of weeks, I was surprized and delighted. Many of them worked and worked beautifully.

The key to many of ones that worked was that the characters were on a Zoom call, or a telephone call, or in different rooms, or in a context where they weren’t together, or in the same room and being viewed from a different perspective. I talked about this in The Playwriting Podcast #176 - How to Write an Amazing Zoom Play, back in August.

#176 How to write an amazing Zoom Play! Click here to listen now to this podcast!

But seeing these Zoom plays in action where many of them really worked was very exciting, and I smacked myself on the head for being stuck in my head writing off this technology as not being optimal.

So the single person in a different place or perspective really works, but how does one solve the Bandwidth problem? And this is what I saw and saw very clearly.

By creatively editing the Zoom theatre video and not keeping it in the live performance paradigm of live theatre it can work. By accepting that to do it right, to insure it is perfect or the best it can be in this context, you kill the LIVE element, which honestly really doesn’t work that well anyway on Zoom because of the bandwidth dilemma.

So is it live theatre?

No.

Can it tell a compelling or funny story?

Yes.

And done correctly, it can tell a compelling or funny story very well.

So do we pivot now and insist that theatre must be live on Zoom or do we adapt what we do in this Brave New World and make the story work?

I think we should adapt, and make the story work.

We need to do what it takes to continue to tell our stories, adapting to any new technology or strategy that comes along.

Is this giving up on live theatre?

No, absolutely not.

There is nothing like live theatre, and we will never give it up, AND we can adapt to what we are experiencing now, and make our stories compelling and important.

We, as storytellers, can help make an incredible difference in this oh-so Brave New World, with the power of our stories!

It is time to get to work!