Pandemic Lessons

Abstract

In the middle of a graduate cohort’s spring semester of an Applied Theatre program at CUNY School of Professional Studies, a global pandemic crisis catapulted artist-educators into digital space outside the realms and scope of their field and practice. Previously, the learned techniques students used to devise original, participatory and participant-centered theatre required in-person participation. Most devising techniques invite use of the whole body, touch, and movement, or at least being able to see more than the person’s head in a square. In response to the global pandemic, the MA program in applied theatre switched from in-person learning to a virtual platform for distance learning. These unforeseen circumstances created a situation in which students simultaneously learned about Theatre in Education (TIE) and remote devising for TIE. Course instructors formulated techniques to explore the strengths of virtual space and minimize the challenges of remotely crafting a TIE piece for virtual implementation. The pandemic disrupted in-person fieldwork experience, but the innovative techniques for remote play-building and collaborative devising of original works of theatre allowed one student-company to facilitate a virtual fieldwork experience within a field simulation class for Master’s Social Work students whose field placements were also disrupted by the pandemic. Virtual applied theatre in social work education used innovative strategies to stimulate dialogue, interaction and change. Despite the pandemic’s upheaval, this paper details how a group of four students successfully adapted applied theatre education, collaborative devising, and remote fieldwork implementation under pandemic conditions.