We are well aware that live entertainment is considered as such because it takes place in copresence between an actor and their audience. We also know only too well how important it is over these challenging months, which have seen an interruption in live performances, to show our communities examples of care and attention, and despite being unable to provide theatre, to at least keep alive the desire for performance and for all that surrounds it. A mere approximation of true theatre, undoubtedly, but a sign - in any case - of commitment, and of a “paradoxical” closeness in these times of “distancing”.
Unfortunately, the pandemic is still very much a part of our lives, but we are beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel. The approaching summer and the vaccination campaign currently under way give us hope that we will soon be able to reopen our auditoriums and once again meet with our audiences.
So why, in this period of hope for a return to live performance, should we be setting up an online project? Because perhaps we should not be turning our back on everything that has happened over the past months. Because the world is changing, and we must not shy away from the changes taking place. Because although live performances will finally be able to return, this should not lead us to miss out on the advantages and possibilities that the digital world has provided us with...
Theatre - in other words - will soon return to being a part of our lives. Communities will be able to come together again. However, those strange, suspended spaces that exist virtually, in the only possible dimension for exchange in recent months (we are of course referring to digital spaces), could perhaps continue to exist, to communicate with live performances, providing resonance, an opportunity for further study, a space for reinvention and expansion, and for a study of all that is new. Spaces that offer a new form of freedom to be explored, not to deny presence, but rather to evoke it and examine it from new perspectives. Spaces of great freedom that will, we trust, also allow us to expand our community.
Claudio Longhi