The Dormant Art
By Elena Marsh

Lights up.
Theatre is ephemeral. It exists when it happens, and then it does not exist again. Theatre must be live. It takes place in a shared space and calls upon those particular circumstances to create art.

Ent. Anna Hibbert, Wake Forest Alumni, Studio Theatre Employee, Washington D.C.
“There is power in proximity,” says Hibbert. “Theatre isn’t anything unless it is being viewed in a shared experience.”

Exeunt.
   

 Since mid-March, the theater world has seemingly halted throughout the country. Broadway is closed along with 7,000 theatres in the United States. The seasons are shutdown. Costumes are hung. Lines are left in the back of the actor’s memories to slowly deteriorate. As other art forms persist, theatre is left behind. Theatrical actors have no choice but to wait for the world to reopen. Until then, stage lights are getting cold, and curtains collect dust.

Ent. Victoria Harget, Wake Forest Senior, Theatre Major
“Theatre is more than a subject,” says Harget. “It’s about collaboration and performing something that can’t ever be conceived the same way again.”

Lights up. Scales Fine Arts Center, closed, empty
Every four years, the Wake theatre department offers Acting II, an advanced acting class for majors and minors. It boasts primary character studies, scene work, and the experience of performing dream rolls. Online classes destroyed the desire that many students have for taking the class at some point during their college career.

“You can try to block a scene online,” said Harget a student in Acting II. “You can think of new ways to create the situation as it would be on stage, but the camera takes it all away. I thought I had more time, after college, I won’t be making this art again, I just thought I had more time.”

Ent. Ria Matheson, Wake Forest Senior, Theatre Major
“I can read all the books on the process of creating theatre I want,” said Matheson on the subject of online learning. “But I need to learn my process in all this. I can’t control all the things that could happen, I have to learn how I am going to deal with all the things that could happen.”

Ent. Yaser Salamah, Wake Forest Sophomore, Theater Major
“A huge part of acting for me and for any actor is the body,” said Salamah. “But when you can only see me from the chest up, you can’t see my hands moving, or my foot bouncing. Acting for the screen isn’t like acting for the stage.”

Ent. Cassidy Nobel, Wake Forest Junior, Theatre Major
“Something I really enjoy about theatre is the finished product,” said Nobel. “When it comes to art and theatre, it has so much life and meaning. You can’t replace it, there is nothing like it.”

Exeunt.

Excellent theatre will chew you up and spit you out. This art must be perceived in a particular way. If you have never seen good theatre, it is all-encompassing. Designers and directors work to generate an area where the audience can feel immersed in the emotions the actors are portraying.

Lights up. Quiet D.C. apartment.

Ent. Anna Hibbert, monologuing,
“I recently watched a taped performance of Pass Over. At the climax of the story, the two black men, overcome with adversity, are lying on their backs looking up at the sky. The camera is positioned above them at this moment. That is how I watched it. On the screen, with the two men looking up at me. The scene was filmed in close up shots. To this day, I will not say I saw Pass Over. I didn’t get to sit in the room and feel their loss with them on stage. I didn’t see it for what it was meant to be. Yes, I watched it, but I didn’t see it.”

Every human everywhere is a performer. You wake up, and you wear a costume. You speak to various people in complex ways. You have a history and a narrative about yourself that you are trying to tell. To take part in the world is a theatrical endeavor, but what happens what the world is no longer there to take part in? It takes a toll on us as people.

Hibbert resumed on her experience with lockdown, “The actors I watched in Pass Over were performing to the camera and targeted their energy to it. That is something I think is so difficult about talking over a video to loved ones. Yes, I get to look at them, but I can also see myself. There is a difference between your perception of self in every day versus seeing your physical manifestation on screen. Looking at yourself makes you wonder how you look to other people at that moment. It is not a freeing experience.”

Exeunt.

And yet, it all persists. Theatre companies’ film and release work to the public. People donate their money instead of asking for refunds. Immersive theatre is being created for audiences to enjoy at home. When the sage curtains rise, and the dressing rooms are full, the world of live performance will welcome home its followers, and it will probably feature a lot of COVID-19 existential plays.