Theatre Design & Technology - Fall 2020 - 52

CHANGEOVER

COMMUNITY POINTS OF VIEW

On Pause
By Margaret Mitchell

e stand in a new and uncertain
place. We have come down from
our ladders, the grids, our booths.
We have switched off the sewing machines,
and makeup lights, and we have turned on the
ghost lights, illuminating ... emptiness.
From the kitchen table, bedroom, or closet, artists are managing their children, partners,
parents, pets, and what's left of their theatres
and careers. If we are fortunate enough to encounter one another periodically, there are no
hugs, hand slaps, or high fives. Most of us really
need a hug. We gather in little rectangles that
unpredictably freeze or drop. Our computer
screens tell us we have unstable connections.
We are retooling or inventing virtual worlds as
we leave our physical stages to collect dust.
More the exception than the rule, a few of us
have ventured gingerly back onto the boards
with a limited audience and a host of pandemic
practices, but the financial burdens of doing so
cannot be carried by most producing bodies.
Jobs, internships, plays, and productions are on
pause or have simply vanished.
Yet here we are.
COVID-19 has exposed the fact that we
retain our commitments to work together even
if the work has changed from making art and
entertainment to making PPE and pandemic
supplies. Theatre people were some of the
first people in the country to mobilize because
we have the skills, spaces, and organizational
prowess. Our suddenly dark seasons have
given a space of time for us to aid the country
in numerous ways. If anyone knows how to assemble resources and work in a crisis (in the
literal and metaphorical dark), we do.
In the United States, our profession attracts people who don't always fit into society.
We're misfits. The same could be said of people who slide into a vortex of isolation and turn
destructive. Sociologically, there is a fine line
between people who want to build community

52 | THEATRE DESIGN & TECHNOLOGY | FALL 2020

and people who want to destroy it, between
those who opt for aggression or choose compassion. That fine line may sit between acceptance and rejection-of others and ourselves.
Indeed, Oscar Brockett spoke to this dynamic decades ago. His words resonate even
more now as our humanity is being challenged:
" Of all the arts, theatre has perhaps the greatest potential as a humanizing force, for much
of it asks us to enter imaginatively into the
lives of others so that we may understand their
aspirations and motivations. Through roleplaying (either in daily life or in the theatre) we
come to understand who and what we are and
to see ourselves in relation to others. Perhaps
most important in a world given increasingly to
violence and tensions among ethnic and other
divergent groups, the value of being able to understand and feel for others as human beings
cannot be overestimated because violence
depends on dehumanizing others so that we
no longer think of their hopes, aims, and sufferings but treat them as objects to be manipulated or on whom to vent our frustrations. To
experience (emotionally, imaginatively, and intellectually) what it means to be human in the
broadest sense ought to be one of the primary
goals of education and life; few approaches
have greater potential than the theatre for
reaching this goal, since humanity is its subject
and human beings its primary medium. "
While we are somewhat " on pause, " we
have been gifted extra time away from production (and yes, extra struggle). We now have
an opportunity to assert or reassert ourselves
into American life and to do and say things that
might make us, the theatre artisans and artists,
more relevant and important in our complicated cultural future. We are wounded as a nation
and a profession, and it seems we need the escape provided by the entertainment industry.
Rising streaming subscriptions have proven
entertainment is in high demand. However, our
audiences may need more than pure entertainment. COVID-19, intense political divisions,
the current and impending economic catastrophe, and natural disasters are all causing us to
confront our place in our culture.
The resources and developments that
have been shared at USITT are those of a
wealthy country driven by the entertainment
industry driven by money and free enterprise.
Almost all of us look forward to coming to the
annual conference and geeking out togeth-

er. But do we, as we stand on the expo floor
amidst the new tech toys of our industrial machine, ask the hard questions about how and
why we put the newest bells and whistles to
good use?
While technology has connected us in
so many positive ways, we are still an art form
that requires physical communion. The Internet is only a mediator in the context of a performance. When we crawl out of the virtual
world, when we lift ourselves up back into the
physical, we will be bringing with us the reality of the virtual experience. Like painters who
were confronted with the photograph and theatrical actors and technicians who were confronted with radio, film and later television, we
will either compete or innovate.
After long periods of isolation and closures, we may look upon live performance
with increased gratitude. In our cyclonic world
of crisis upon crisis, our audiences may need,
more than ever before, the expression and
exposure of societal truths. The American
populace doesn't often recognize artists as
commentators, prophets or healers. In many
other cultures, artists are held in high esteem
because the public recognizes that artists expose and express the true soul of a nation. We
don't really garner that cultural esteem, and
the soul of our nation may be hard to pin down.
Nevertheless, we are forced to circumnavigate
the fictions we create-while at the same time,
we must mine the truths. Before we ask our
audiences to engage in empathy, to question
the status quo and, yes, to possibly change, we
might ask ourselves anew how and why we
create theatre in a post-pandemic world. We
will tumble out of the Zoom box and land on
our dusty stages, formulating new questions
about our purpose and our relevance to our
audiences. Who better to ask these hard questions than a group of people who have cast
themselves in roles outside the cultural norms?
Hopefully, our gaze into the future will be long
and thoughtful as we consider the power of
being physically together again.
Margaret Mitchell is a professor of theatre at
the University of the Incarnate Word. She is a
co-author with Dr. Oscar Brockett and Linda
Hardberger of the book Making the Scene:
A History of Stage Design and Technology in
Europe and the United States, and a 32-year
member of USITT.

Theatre Design & Technology - Fall 2020

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