Courtesy of The Paramount Theatre
Can you hear it? The sound of applause? Coming not from some ersatz arts space on your computer but from actual theatres, concert halls, and comedy clubs?
Yes, after an excruciating year of having their spaces shuttered and being unable to engage directly with audiences in the intimacy of indoor venues, performing artists are once again opening the doors and bringing people back in to see them play. It s a reunion that s been a long time coming.
From the minute the city went into lockdown last March, performing artists companies and artists began to search for ways to keep making work and stay connected to their patrons. Because they collaborate, they innovate, they improvise (some specialize in it), the artists created alternatives: dances performed in a house with the audience watching through windows; drive-in concerts with audiences listening from their cars; plays told in audio, in letters, in phone calls; and Zoom improv, Z