Should American theater return to a broken normal after the COVID-19 pandemic?

Should American theater return to a broken normal after the COVID-19 pandemic?

By BRIAN KOKENSPARGER
Creighton Digital Storyteller

Stephanie Kidd misses the intimacy of theatrical productions before the COVID-19 pandemic, but in the same breath says she hopes we never go back.

She concedes that her current creative works as a freelance theatrical director and managing director of Radio Theatre Omaha “look a lot different” than her pre-COVID-19 productions did, but she hopes the result is an American theater that is no longer “systemically broken.”

Theater as we knew it largely shut down nationally in the U.S. as the facts became clear that the COVID-19 infections were going to reach pandemic proportions. In an article written in The New Yorker, staff writer Michael Schulman laments “the idea of Broadway — a $1.8-billion industry and a major part of the city’s (and the country’s) artistic lifeblood — disappearing like a soap bubble was hard to fathom.”

In Omaha, theaters shut their spring 2020 seasons down and made pessimistic statements about the fall season. The Theatre Arts Guild Omaha website provided both suggested guidelines for how and when stage productions may be done safely, including links to Omaha-area theaters and their current safety and wellness policies.

Like other theater professionals, Kidd found herself sitting alone in her apartment, watching theaters where she had worked professionally (like the Rose Theater) shut down one-by-one. However, she was able to direct two online productions (with the help of Zoom software) for Radio Theatre Omaha, and now that shutdowns in the Omaha area have lifted a bit, she is working on a staged production at Duchesne Academy — albeit with a number of restrictions. They are rehearsing in small groups, socially-distanced, with masks. They are putting together a plan to safely manage costuming, hair and makeup, and staging the show with social distancing. They will perform for only a camera and sound crew, and sell tickets to the recorded production.

“That’s what theater looks like right now . . . everything is impacted,” Kidd said. “Every little thing is impacted.”

A lively discussion on Reddit shows that many theater professionals are desperate to get back to stage performances, with live audiences — to return to normal — as soon as possible. However, Kidd asserts that American theater is systemically broken, and suggests that the COVID-19 pandemic may be an opportunity to fix it.

“It took a global health pandemic for . . . the majority of white America [to] finally [be] ready to look at [the injustices] and address them,” Kidd said. “I think the majority of black and brown America knew that they were there and had been talking about them for years.”

Kidd said those injustices range from casting disparities to a lack of diversity in leadership and creative positions.

“Those things have got to change all across this country,“ she said.

Even Schulman, in his story about the Broadway theater shutdown, agreed.

“No one is cheering the prolonged pause, but the shutdown might help to open up space for a deeper reckoning than would be possible with Broadway in full swing,” Schulman wrote.

“I look forward to moments when we can . . . connect with and empathize with what’s happening [on stage] again,” Kidd said. “It’s missing right now when we just do Zoom theater.”

But she is adamant that the heroic task of fixing a broken American theater system will be worth the wait.