Access

Lindsay Aycan

The theatre community, like the rest of the world, came to a crashing halt in the spring of 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Lockdowns and physical restrictions shut down theatre performance and rehearsal spaces, forcing creative artists to pivot to digital platforms. This shift was rapid, with many companies and individual artists looking to reimagine theatre and performance through a “digital landscape” (Variety Magazine 2020), creating works audience members could access, quite literally, from the comfort of their living rooms.

The idea of accessibility (or inaccessibility) in terms of theatre is not new. Theatre has long been criticised for limiting its audience members to those who can afford to attend (Artefact 2022). Likewise, the way many older theatres have been built or restored are often inaccessible to physically Disabled audiences, with “even the disabled toilets […] tucked into tiny, pokey spaces” (The Guardian 2021). Patrons who are deaf or neuro-divergent are also “part of the socially excluded”. Few theatres offer closed-captioning or interpreters, or consider how the light and sound of a production might impact audience members with Autism or Sensory Processing Disorder (The Guardian 2021). Further, marketing and ticket sales might not be digitally accessible by all potential audience members, nor are performance times always convenient for those who are caregivers or responsible for dependents (clwstwr.org.uk 2023).

Needless-to-say, with the rapid emergence of digital and virtual performance, many creators and artists welcomed the opportunity to make theatre more accessible to greater audiences. Along with better “pricing flexibility”, online theatre often made it possible for audience members to have access to close-captioning and audio description, and enabled patrons who may not otherwise be physically able to attend to have access to performances (Variety Magazine 2020). At a time when we quite literally thought the world was collapsing in on itself, having access to theatre and performance, for so many, became a means of survival. Over the months and months we were physically distanced from each other, digital and virtual theatre, for both creatives and patrons, became a way to stay connected.

There is a difference, however, between creating theatre through digital platforms for virtual performance and streaming performances which are meant to be viewed live. So, although the pandemic brought with it access to theatre on a greater scale than ever before, it also imposed questions and challenges around theatre access as a shared performance. Jessica Watkin, a Blind and Disabled performance scholar, appreciates the “possibilities for access that arise when watching a musical at home”, but highlights that what can be missing from certain “relaxed performances” is the transformative magic that happens during in-person live theatre. She writes: “When I sit in an in-person theatre venue, I can feel the rise of energy and action as performers are in proximity to the audience, feeding off spectators’ energy and delivering it back to us”. Watching theatre via a virtual medium often “isn’t interesting as theatre” (Watkin 92). What Watkin gets at is that in order for digital performance to be fully accessible as theatre, it must engage with its audience as a shared experience.

To make this adjustment, Watkin argues, companies must look for ways to engage with their audiences that transcend the screen. Factory Theatre’s premiere of Daniel MacIvor’s House, a live-streamed performance by Kevin Hanchard, achieves a level of shared experience that Disney+’s Hamilton does not for Watkin. Hanchard picks up his laptop camera and addresses the audience, lending them access to the same “narrative about isolation” as his character, breaking the fourth wall. Watkin writes that what makes this production so successful as a virtual performance is that it, “did not pretend it was in a physical theatre with an audience; it knew that it was a weird and different experience, it acknowledged this, and it worked” (Watkin 93). Joshua Gelb’s “I Am Sending You the Sacred Face” provides audiences with an accessibility similar to Hanchard’s. The performance takes place in Gelb’s repurposed hall closet and is filmed live, highlighting both the physical distance and isolation of the pandemic’s lockdown. Jesse Green, theatre critic for the New York Times writes: “What Gelb couldn’t have guessed is that these theoretical, emergency restrictions would become emotionally meaningful to viewers trapped in their own emergencies and closet-like spaces” (Green 2001). Both Gelb and Hanchard create theatre that is accessible not just by its virtuality, but by the way in which it transcends the spatial boundaries of the cyber world. Their theatre permeates the hearts and minds of its audiences, moving beyond, as Watkin suggests, the limitations of virtual performance.

Other limitations of digital performance include those of the technical variety. In part, access to digital theatre is limited by virtue of its medium—Watkin writes about having access to a Zoom link to view House but then being “kicked out” once the app had reached its viewing capacity (Watkin 92). Technical glitches can disrupt a virtual experience and equipment can be costly, especially if access to virtual reality or mixed reality performances require the use of personal equipment such as the Oculus headset (Fung et al. 75). From a socioeconomic standpoint, digital theatre can be seen to be just as limiting as in-person theatre if one considers that access to technological devices requires access to funds, which demographically, may be more difficult for some audiences. The team organizing the Performance and XR Symposium (PXR2020) worked to address some of these disparities and committed to “devoting a significant portion of their budget to subsidizing the cost of VR headsets for attendees” during their conference (Fung et al. 75). Also noted by Fung, Jacobson, and Pike (2022), familiarity with and an understanding of VR technology also presents as a barrier to XR theatre accessibility. As a means of reducing these limitations, prior to the symposium, PXR2020 provided training opportunities where conference participants could practise with VR technology, demonstrating that as technology continues to evolve, digital and VR performance theatre developers must be prepared “to take on a pedagogical role with their audiences” (Fung et al. 75). In order to sustain a level of accessibility and equality for all audience participants, consideration of how audience demographics, including “potential generational and economic divides,” (Fung et al. 75) impact familiarity of and comfortability with evolving technology.

Works Cited

Cox, Gordon. “’All Arts Organizations Are Media Companies Now’: How the Pandemic Is Transforming Theater.” Variety, Variety, 24 Nov. 2020, https://variety.com/2020/legit/news/digital-theater-pandemic-broadway-1234836759/.

Fung, Stephanie, et al. “PXR2020: Re-Seeing the Possibilities of Theatre in Virtual, Augmented, and Mixed Reality.” Canadian Theatre Review, vol. 189, 2022, pp. 73–75., https://doi.org/10.3138/ctr.189.013.

Green, Jesse. “A Fun Place to Play, If The Show Fits.” The New York Times, 2021.

“Performance & XR Virtual Reality Symposium 2022 – Electric Company Theatre.” Electric Company Theatre – Everything You Wanted, Nothing You Expect, 20 Sep. 2022, https://www.electriccompanytheatre.com/show/xrperf2022/.

Sumi, Glenn, et al. “Factory Theatre Presents Isolation Version of Season Closer – Now Magazine.” NOW Toronto, 3 July 2020, https://nowtoronto.com/culture/factory-theatre-house-daniel-macivor-kevin-hanchard/.

“Taking Flight: Merging Physical and Digital Theatre to Improve Accessibility.” Clwstwr, https://clwstwr.org.uk/taking-flight-merging-physical-and-digital-theatre-improve-accessibility.

“TiQ / I Am Sending You the Sacred Face.” YouTube, YouTube, 19 Dec. 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9jGmhHFO6o.

Wallace, Robert. “Theatre’s Back, but Digital Access Is in Danger.” Artefact, 11 Oct. 2022, https://www.artefactmagazine.com/2022/03/09/theatres-back-but-digital-access-is-in-danger/.

Watkin, Jessica. “Meditations on Mediations: Feeling Digital Performances.” Canadian Theatre Review, vol. 186, 2021, pp. 91–95., https://doi.org/10.3138/ctr.186.016.

“’We Know They Can Do It When It Suits Them’: Theatre Became More Accessible during Covid. Will It Last?” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 15 Oct. 2021, https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2021/oct/15/we-know-they-can-do-it-when-it-suits-them-theatre-became-more-accessible-during-covid-will-it-last.