Confinement, COVID, and the Comedia in Mexico City

Abstract The COVID19 pandemic wreaked havoc on the arts, particularly the performing arts, where live audiences are an important part of the creative process. In spite of the immense roadblocks created by this crisis, artists around the world began to shift their craft online. No where do we see a more rapid shift than in Mexico City, propelled in part by the theater department at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. This paper will look at the ways in which small theater companies were able to move their current productions online in the weeks following the shutdown, and how they evolved over the course of 2020 and into 2021, innovating and creating new digital-theatrical spaces via platforms like Zoom, YouTube, and Facebook live.