Stage, pixels and the pandemic

Zoom Theater's remediation strategies

Abstract

Since March 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic has been affecting several areas of human life, including cultural ones. The necessary social distancing and isolation protocols to contain the spread of the virus closed theaters around the world; however, on the other hand, they also encouraged digital theater experimentation. Considering the global situation articulated in reaction to the new coronavirus pandemic and theater artists’ migration from physical stages to virtual ones, the present study aims to analyze how the act of seizing Zoom videoconferencing platform’s elements and functionalities motivated a new reconfiguration of three of the five theatrical constituents:
audience, text and time. To undertake this path, we will start from the bibliographic review of affordance theory and remediation theory, applying these concepts to explore two productions: “Caso Cabaré Privê” and “Onde está as Mãos, Esta Noite?”. Then, from the case studies, we will seek to establish not only how media technologies are fundamental to theatrical practice, but also how the theater developed during the pandemic directly reflects the global external conjuncture.