Living through the pandemic while trying to create theatre has been, well, trying. As you can imagine, an art form that by its very essence is about a group of people gathering in a room to experience a common event has been greatly hindered by a pandemic that prevents that very thing. How have we adjusted? Well, at first, of course, there was the general idea that there was absolutely NO way we could carry on. But, as theatres across the country began to find some kind of footing, Delta Drama followed suit. We began to explore a completely new medium of the art form which has become known over the past few months as “digital” or “virtual” theatre. Is it the same type of work that we had been doing? Certainly not. There are different “rules” and different techniques that can only be discovered in the doing. We started with a radio play reimagined for a streaming platform and continued on to explore two productions that were written specifically during the pandemic and for a this new medium. It remains to be seen how digital theatre will evolve after the pandemic or if it will even exist. It remains to be seen how traditional theatre will be affected by the introduction of the new form. All we can cling to right now is the fact that we came together and built a “virtual” creative space. Was it easy? Nope. But at least we were able to come together, to collaborate and, at the very least, keep each other company from behind our computers. But now we look forward to the next chapter, hoping we learned something about the importance of the work we are all doing and , at the very least, learned not to take it all for granted.
