On Creating New Works, New Forms
I write a weekly column for the website AudienceOutlookMonitor.com which collects audience surveys taken by arts groups from around the world and analyzes the results and tracks the data over time since this spring. Here are some columns over the last few months.
July 3, 2020
By Frank Rizzo for AudienceOutlookMonitor.com
I just finished writing a review for Variety of a new work by playwright Richard Nelson, a continuation of the four-play saga of the Apple Family dramas that were produced for New York’s Public Theater and later filmed for PBS.
No, it wasn’t a stage play but rather a 60-minute work presented as a live Zoom session featuring this fictional family sequestered in their in upstate New York homes and having a virtual dinner as they dealt with issues at home and the world beyond. It was widely available on YouTube and another website and was offered for free for a limited number of weeks. An earlier Zoom work by Nelson was viewed by far more people that would have seen had it been presented on stage.
But what is it exactly? It isn’t quite live theater, nor is it cinema or television. But it’s the most riveting and relevant new work I’ve seen created during the pandemic.
It reminds me of the endless creativity of artists and the importance of staying connected to them as we survey audiences, create returning scenarios and imagine our artistic homes open again.
An article in Howlround talks about the Belarus Free Theatre whose outlawed artists operate in the UK and underground in Minsk and who have created a purposeful connection with their audiences. When the pandemic hit, says its co-artistic leader Nicolai Khalezin, most theaters just didn’t have the technical know-how to continue to operate in such isolating conditions “For BFT, though, stopping has never really been an option.”
Howlround has presented some of the more interesting reports of artists continuing to create art in new forms, including another piece about students at the American Conservatory Theatre. "Clearly [live video theatre] is not live in-person theatre [and] will not replace live in-person theatre, nor will it replace television or film." But it goes on to say special live experiences that connect in a deep way are possible, especially with younger audiences. "The millennial generation learned how to build relationships, intimacy, and community through video and live chats. It’s about time everyone else got on board."
There are many more instances of artists who persevere in a pandemic, creating not only new work but new ways of working. San Francisco’s PlayGround has launched a virtual Zoom Fest, experimenting with…