Is Online Theatre Really Theatre?: Teaching and Researching During a Pandemic

Abstract

Abstract At the beginning of the 2020 pandemic, I grew concerned and also curious about how theatre educators would transition theatre and drama instruction to an online platform. I began a research study interviewing theatre artists while they shifted their formerly in-person summer camps to virtual spaces. One of those instructors, Flannery, was initially hesitant to accept online learning, but through her experiences teaching camps and our conversations, she came to embrace Zoom, an online platform, for its strengths. Through this exploration, I, too, grew more confident that online platforms during this time could be an effective teaching, learning, and performance tool for theatre.