How We Took Advantage Of Zoom During Covid-19 And The Unique Process That We Went Through
The contents of this post are our learning points from producing the play Water Child during the limitations of the COVID-19 pandemic. It's a great accompaniment to the play, but has great insights in itself. Hence our decision to post it on the blog.
One day, we will rearrange this information and supplement it with new learnings to make something entirely new. In the meantime, please enjoy!
— Director’s Note
Personally, Water Child has been a slew of many interesting firsts in an attempt to assume normalcy; by directing a theatre piece through an online medium.
There will be much to garner in evaluating the experiences of theatre making and audienceship at this stage of global quarantine and the ensuing steps if we ever assume a new normal of live performance.
I’ve noticed how in the process for this work, the times in which the employment of directing and cinematography came into play and when the actors’ own practical discourse between ‘screen acting’ and ‘stage acting’ subconsciously were in contention.
How then do you as an audience, consume this placeholder of live theatre, performed live, via a digital medium that also becomes available as a recorded film that is not a film? I have embraced the unprecedentedness of the times by exploring forms, styles and themes within my practice that would seem as a departure of my usual inter-medial and abstract work; returning to the complexity of realistic people, circumstances and conflicts that are explored in this play.
Water Child dives deep into personal confrontations in encountering states of crisis and unfamiliarity; how do we overcome trauma, communicate our fears and connect to a support system to move forward as a community? I believe that all of us have felt some sense of loss in recent times and I do hope that we can find our own Water Child after this experience.