The portrait project
What’s it like making art in a pandemic?
by thomas gallagher,
contributor
The Portrait Project, the latest work from the University of Regina Theatre Department, premiered on YouTube near the end of last semester. Envisioned by Kathryn Bracht, Theatre Department head, based on work she saw early in the pandemic, the idea was to have students choose a portrait and then write and perform a monologue based on it at home. And as a recent graduate of the U of R film program, I got to help theatre students learn about filmmaking and edit the piece, getting a first-hand taste of the strangeness, excitement and loneliness of making art in the middle of a pandemic.