Performance is intrinsic to Life. We all perform to survive.
Performance is intrinsic to Life. We all perform to survive. This is a human, thus Cultural, need.
Theatre will never disintegrate. The pandemic was a transition, a palate cleanser to neutralize the taste fatigue that overwhelmed our productions. Pandemics and major disruptions far worse than what we have gone through have hounded Human History. Many of Humanity’s best works were created during these times: Macbeth, King Lear, Anthony and Cleopatra, Newton’s “Theory of Gravity,” the iconic “The Scream” by Edvard Munch, Bocaccio’s “The Decameron,” among many others.
Crises allow us to see beyond our satiated conditions, rousing us from our apathies, allowing us deeper meanings, and making us realize that life is a constant struggle.
Like our complacent lives suddenly jolted, the pandemic confronted conventionality, our Theatre staled by repetition and contentment, pandering to mere entertainment. The disorder opened life’s meanings exploring innovation through new modalities. New meanings, new representations. So will be our Theater in the post-pandemic.
Expressions will merge, new mediums appropriate to new meanings. The digital and virtual realities integrating with live action, settings both real and mythical, characters imagined and seen, experience in and out of the imagination — a “trans-brid”.
As Medium is meaning, the merged forms that are real, mythic, and virtual navigate. Our engagements in performance will be simultaneously real, virtual, and even mythic. The pandemic allowed us to mix, and experiment in attempts that were crude. This rawness we have slowly shaped, learned, and added to our storehouse of expressions. Theatre will thrive in the post-pandemic — richer, the explored rawness of new means now taking a course towards refinement.
STEVEN PATRICK C. FERNANDEZ, DFA
Founding Artistic Director