Digital Report on Quarantine Performance:

This asynchronously published digital report will present a preliminary analysis of findings from the project: Quarantine Performance: Global Responses to COVID-19 in the Performing Arts. The project uses interviews with independent and company-based artists from Canada and around the world to gain a better understanding of differences and similarities in lockdown conditions in the performing arts and how artists are adapting their practices. In comparing experiences from a variety of countries, it becomes possible to get an initial global snapshot of the impact of COVID-19 in the performing arts. The project also aimed to foster dialogue and support among the artists through an online roundtable, which produced additional insights on COVID-19 experiences. The analytical report will focus on three central COVID-19 effects on the performing artists, including: logistical differences in lockdown conditions, specific challenges experienced by each of the artists (in performance, teaching, or otherwise), and innovative artistic adaptations to lockdown conditions. The findings will serve to suggest lessons learned from COVID-19 on the performing arts, and new best practices as artists look to the post-COVID-19 future.

Bios

Matt Jones writes about the politics of war, terrorism, and racism in performance. He is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Toronto’s Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies. He is currently Project Manager of "Gatherings Archival and Oral Histories of Performance" and Project Supervisor of “Quarantine Performance: Global Responses to COVID-19 in the Performing Arts.”. His dissertation, "The Shock and Awe of the Real: Political Performance in an Age of War and Terror," is a transnational study of theatre, live art, protests, and digital media projects about the recent conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. He teaches in the English Department at the University of Toronto. www.mattjones.space

Nae Hanashiro is a PhD candidate in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at University of Toronto. Her dissertation project “Il/legible Acts: Feminist Resistance Through Performance in Chile and Peru” takes a transnational approach to analyze how feminist performances become platforms that bring new legibility to violence against women in the context of neoliberal democracies.

Sebastian X Samur is a performer and SSHRC doctoral fellow at the Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies (University of Toronto). His primary research interest is actor training and he is currently studying the role rhythm plays in the work of SITI Company, Dairakudakan and Mime Omnibus. His writing can be found in Theatre Research in Canada, Asian Theatre Journal, Canadian Theatre Review, Stanislavski Studies, and Jeu, among other publications.