FEATURE
THEATRE MAGIC AUTHOR Elizabeth Amin , MD
True is it that we have seen better days And therefore sit you down in gentleness , And take upon command what help we have That to your wanting may be minst ’ red . William Shakespeare As You Like It , Act 2 , Scene 7 , 120-126
March 2021 was a month like no other in recent memory . Yes , spring and daylight savings time arrived on cue , whether or not we were prepared , whether or not we even noticed . But this year , the month of March brought with it an anniversary that we would have preferred not to have had . It marked the one-year point of what we now know as the COVID-19 pandemic . Throughout this year , we have individually and collectively mourned the loss of loved ones , watched jobs and livelihoods collapse , feared for our own health and the health of those around us and reeled under the constraint of no unnecessary contact or unprotected interaction . When adversity strikes , it is human contact that sustains us . It may be practical help that gets us through difficult days , expressions of sympathy , empathy , a shoulder to lean on and someone willing to listen . We have had to reconfigure these basic expressions of mutual caring and , as human beings do , we have , by and large figured out the new ways . The effort has been draining and even those of us with all the luck on our side have had to find new ways to re-energize so that we could be the helpers and not impose our burdens on the already overburdened . People are asking each other , what are you looking forward to ?
I missed live theater – all the long year .
The performing arts have been hit hard by the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic during the more than 12 months since spotlights were darkened and doors were locked tight . Performers , support crews , venue operators , have seen their lifestyles radically changed , perhaps lost altogether . Creativity has slowly bubbled to the surface , but we won ’ t know for some time what the long-term effects will be . Our own Actors Theatre of Louisville ( ATL ) moved fairly quickly to create online performances and discussions . There was a modest cost , either subscription or per performance . These continued throughout the year and as of March 8 , 2021 , ATL is advertising the online Humana Festival of New American Plays .
Probably my favorite source of live theater performances this past year has been the National Theatre at Home . These are archived plays that were filmed during live performances from various theaters in London . Originally , they were broadcast to cinemas in the US , in real time through the medium of Sky Arts and the support
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