{"id":322,"date":"2020-11-30T10:26:27","date_gmt":"2020-11-30T10:26:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/22\/?p=322"},"modified":"2026-06-22T10:33:06","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T10:33:06","slug":"not-here-not-now-liveness-revisited","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/22\/not-here-not-now-liveness-revisited\/","title":{"rendered":"Not Here, Not Now? Liveness Revisited"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Ma\u0142gorzata Sugiera<\/strong>*<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Abstract<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Taking as its point of departure two video projects created by Polish theatre artists at the time of the COVID-19 crisis and presented on YouTube<\/font>, my article intends to revisit the concept of digital liveness, presented by Philip Auslander in 2012. Both projects explicitly take up an important issue of liveness as supposedly characteristic of theatre performances as such. Referring also to such recent performance-installations as Rimini Protokoll\u2019s Situation Rooms<\/font> and Nachlass\/Pi\u00e8ces sans personnes<\/font>, as well as Mapa Teatro\u2019s Of Lunatics<\/font>, or Those Lacking Sanity<\/font>, the article claims that the COVID-19 crisis has not so much jeopardized the ontology of theatre as a communal form of art but rather put in question the notion of co-presence of performers and their audience \u201chere and now\u201d as the core of this art.
Keywords:<\/strong> Jacek Dukaj, Ambasada, Usta Usta Republika, Wojciech Wi\u0144ski, Auslander, site specific, Internet<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amid the COVID-19 crisis (May 2020), Into the Night<\/em>, inspired by Jacek Dukaj\u2019s novel The Old Axolotl<\/em>, premi\u00e8red on Netflix. During an interview about this work, the well-known Polish science fiction writer was asked to comment on the lockdown and its social effects. For the most part, his answers were quite predictable. Dukaj underlined our dependence on technology that created \u201ca situation wherein corporeality and social interactions have been visibly reduced.\u201d Just like many other science fiction artists, he envisioned our future in a dystopian way. However, while commenting on the effects of this \u201cglobal digital experience\u201d in the domain of culture and values, Dukaj made an interesting observation: \u201cThe virus has only accelerated changes which were to happen in one way or the other.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Ambasada 2.0<\/em> by Usta Usta Republika. Directed by Wojciech Wi\u0144ski. May 22\u201324, 2020. Online via Zoom<\/em>. Photomontage: Dariusz Zakrzewski.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

I would like to employ his perspective and take up a more specific topic in relation to today\u2019s theatre by drawing on Ambasada <\/em>(Embassy<\/em>), a site-specific performance which after almost fifteen years was re-made in May 2020 as an online performance (Ambasada 2.0)<\/em> by the Polish theatre group Usta Usta Republika (Mouth-to-Mouth Republic). This example will hopefully help me tackle, from a more global perspective, the issue of what kind of changes, accelerated by the virus, could be identified on theatre stages, and how they may influence the ways of watching, engaging and writing specifically for performance studies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Polish government implemented a total lockdown in mid-March, 2020. Shortly thereafter, many institutional theatres opened their archives for free or organized frequent streamings of recent or well-known performances. Soon, new projects, designed specifically for the Internet, cropped up. Often, they allowed Internet users to comment on and share video-performances available on Facebook<\/em> and other platforms. Many of the new projects represented the harsh, sometimes dull, reality of the lockdown, showing predominantly digital forms of human relations and communication. However, only few of them included, as an inherent part of their structure, various forms of digital interaction with the prospective participant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My understanding is that this was not necessarily done for technological or artistic reasons. The critical aspect of these performances was the very mode itself which has remained unchanged for the Western theatre: namely, the mode of co-presence of active performers and their \u201cpassive\u201d audience; passive in the sense that their only activity was, and still is, the psychodynamics of identification with the protagonists. The lasting influence of this understanding of co-presence is particularly striking in view of the fact that, as Nick Couldry argues, interactivity has become \u201ca key-feature of the contemporary media ecology, which makes it very different from earlier phases in media history\u201d (27).<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Ewa Kaczmarek as Little Girl who celebrates her birthday. Ambasada 2.0<\/em> by Usta Usta Republika. Directed by Wojciech Wi\u0144ski. May 22\u201324, 2020. Online via Zoom<\/em>. Photo: Laura Leish<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

In other words, today\u2019s digital media, as a fundamental infrastructure of our connection and participation, creates new spaces for interaction and interpersonal communication which were marginalized and underestimated in the traditional theatre. With reference to Ambasada 2.0<\/em> and with Dukaj\u2019s quotation in mind, I subsequently want to argue that the recent lockdown with its \u201cglobal digital experience\u201d has brought to the foreground the need for a more visible affective turn in performance studies, focused on the audience\u2019s affective experience as a new locus of liveness. <\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Przemys\u0142aw Zbroszczyk as Partygoer. Ambasada 2.0<\/em> by Usta Usta Republika. Directed by Wojciech Wi\u0144ski. May 22\u201324, 2020. Online via Zoom<\/em>. Photo: Laura Leish<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The online performance of Ambasada 2.0<\/em> seems pertinent in my context for one particular reason: here, performers, connected via Zoom<\/em>, interact live with the participants sitting in front of their computers, who are assigned the role of asylum seekers in an undefined country. In a short invitation to its prospective participants, Wojciech Wi\u0144ski, who directed the performance wrote:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You will see Ambasada 2.0<\/em> online, on a cloud platform. This means that we want to entrust the success of our undertaking to the quality of internet connection as well as to performers and participants, both scattered all over the world (literally, for many will be virtually present from abroad). Probably, it will be the first theatre online, live, live. Not streamed, but performed live, on a cloud platform, in interaction with performers and other participants. Will it succeed? We want to try. Have your internet connection ready. Be with us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This quotation clearly demonstrates the intentions of the theatre group which re-designed one of its best-known performances for live interaction online. In June 2020, I took part in Ambasada 2.0<\/em> to see whether the digital form met the hopes expressed in the invitation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shortly after filling out the online application form, I received an email from the First Secretary of the Embassy not only with detailed instructions on how to connect through Zoom<\/em>, but also asking me to prepare a drink and some sweets of my choice for the meeting scheduled the following evening. It turned out that I was one of three asylum seekers, each introduced and visible in the speaker\u2019s view option. During the performance, all three of us had to answer many competitive questions from Embassy officers in order to get asylum. To make our definitive decision about staying in the Embassy easier, we were introduced to various residents. One by one, addressing us by our first names, they told us their (mostly tragic) life stories which lead them to seek asylum and then to stay in the Embassy. Our drinks and sweets became props in their enacted narratives. Lucky to be chosen as the only one prospective resident, in the final scene of the thirty-minute performance I had to write a farewell letter, explaining my reason for staying in the Embassy to a person closest to me, whose first name I gave in the application form. The first sentence was already there on the screen; my daunting task was to finish the letter. However, no matter what I did, nothing appeared on the screen. I got a strong feeling that it was my fault. Beyond any doubt, it had to be me who could not write a simple letter on my computer\u2019s screen and who interrupted the smoothly-going interaction, being unable to meet all the requirements. Nevertheless, while saying goodbye, the First Secretary left me with a glimmer of hope that somebody from the Embassy might contact me in the near future.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Artur \u015aledzianowski as Frist Secretary of the Embassy. Ambasada 2.0<\/em> by Usta Usta Republika. Directed by Wojciech Wi\u0144ski. May 22\u201324, 2020. Online via Zoom<\/em>. Photo: Laura Leish<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

During and long after the final scene of Ambasada 2.0<\/em>, I felt like a computer game player who had to quit, having committed a grave mistake. Still, thanks to slow accumulation of experience, I could hope to be closer to reaching a higher level next time. Participating in Ambasada 2.0<\/em> was unlike any previous experiences in theatre because I felt directly and affectively engaged in the staged fiction. That is why I decided to take a closer look at how the performance had been re-designed for Internet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Already in 2006, the participants of Ambasada<\/em> were asked to fill out an application form on the theatre\u2019s website, giving personal details which were then used during the performance to personalize the experience. However, any participant could also provide this information via a phone call. Only up to four people took part in each performance, which started in a small caf\u00e9. One late evening, the participants clandestinely met with the First Secretary there, and were transported in an unmarked car through a deserted city of Pozna\u0144 to monumental Imperial Castle. There, they were guided through labyrinthine corridors and introduced to numerous residents who recounted their fates, dreams and fears. The visitors had to do their best to answer many questions, as only one of four seekers could get permission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ambasada <\/em>is arguably the most famous performance of the theatre group. However, in almost all their projects, the group similarly experimented with a non-theatrical situation and space. For instance, Driver<\/em> (2004) was the first car-play in Poland, which offered a late-night drive through different urban spaces in an old American cruiser. In interactive Alice 0-700<\/em>, performed in a typical phone booth one year later, the participant, by pressing the receiver\u2019s buttons, had to decide about the future of the main character, to whose story she listened after choosing the number given in the title.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Ewa Kaczmarek as Little Girl who celebrates her birthday. Ambasada<\/em> by Usta Usta Republika. Directed by Wojciech Wi\u0144ski. May 2006. Zamek, Pozna\u0144. Photo: Marta Bruszewska<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Seen from today\u2019s perspective, these two performances, together with Ambasada<\/em>, demonstrate that the term site-specific does not fully apply to this theatre group. Rather, it is the specificity of communication that defines Usta Usta Republika\u2019s projects. The site was important in so far as it demanded a specific form of face-to-face interaction. That is why even Ambasada<\/em> was successfully staged in other places than the Imperial Castle in Pozna\u0144. No wonder, therefore, that already at that time reviewers classified this performance not only as a \u201cKafkaesque thriller,\u201d but also as a kind of interactive computer game, albeit relocated into live dimension (Moroz). Setting the same goal for all the participants was key for this analogy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, what also mattered was that video games are actions\u2014\u201cthey exist when enacted,\u201d as Alexander Galloway argued in the same year (2). Fourteen years later, these game-like features of Ambasada 2.0<\/em> became even more visible. The artists made every effort to ensure active participation of asylum seekers in the only way possible in the time of the COVID-19 crisis; that is, via a technologically mediated temporal co-presence of performers and participants within a fictional situation. Thus, this performance calls for a reassessment of Philip Auslander\u2019s notion of liveness once again.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
A Kafkaesque scene. Ambasada<\/em> by Usta Usta Republika. Directed by Wojciech Wi\u0144ski. May 2006. Zamek, Pozna\u0144. Photo: Marta Bruszewska<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

In his Liveness<\/em> (1999), Auslander posits that liveness is not an ontologically defined condition. What counts culturally as live experience, he argues, is rather a historically variable effect of mediatization. Therefore, the current way we conceptualize liveness should change since the beginning of the twenty-first century, when the distinction between the live and the digital has become increasingly visible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his 2012 article \u201cDigital Liveness,\u201d Auslander returned to his previous idea. However, this time he was more interested in \u201cour engaging with machines and virtual entities as live\u201d (7) than in liveness as a contingent effect of mediatization. Yet, participating in Ambasada 2.0<\/em> did not involve my engagement with machines and virtual entities. All the time, I remained an active participant in the imaginary world of Ambasada 2.0<\/em>, able both to act and to see myself acting. Each activity was intimately connected to the socially plausible scenario of a visit to an embassy during the pandemic. Thus, the diegetic and the nondiegetic dimensions (like switching on and off my microphone) became quite indistinct. Although all situations were demonstratively pre-arranged, my decisions could influence the action, and they were integrated in the live interaction with humans and more-than-humans, the digital architecture and infrastructure included.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hence, I became more inspired by the author\u2019s preliminary remarks based on the audience\u2019s experience as a possible locus of liveness. \u201cThe emerging definition of liveness,\u201d Auslander writes, \u201cmay be built primarily around the audience\u2019s affective experience\u201d (\u201cDigital Liveness\u201d 6). Indeed, \u201caffective\u201d is how I would call my experience of participating in Ambasada 2.0<\/em>. Yet, in performance studies more attention has been paid to the affect on the stage rather than among the audience members. This resulted in a relatively mild impact of the affective turn on performance studies in comparison to other branches of the field of arts and humanities.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thanks to the pandemic, as Dukaj puts it, not only have digital media evidently become the key infrastructure of our everyday connection and participation, but also emerging forms and formats of the theatre online have brought about a need for new definition of liveness premised on the audience\u2019s effective experience, which Auslander presented as emerging a few years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
A Kafkaesque scene. Ambasada<\/em> by Usta Usta Republika. Directed by Wojciech Wi\u0144ski. May 2006. Zamek, Pozna\u0144. Photo: Marta Bruszewska<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Once new spaces for interaction and interpersonal communication online will open in theatre, it may necessitate new methods of watching, engaging and writing about theatre online. As Ambasada 2.0<\/em> demonstrates, it is not too early to start seeking them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bibliography<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Auslander, Philip. \u201cDigital Liveness: A Historico-Philosophical Perspective.\u201d PAJ<\/em> 102, 2012, pp. 3\u201311.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014\u2014\u2014. Liveness: Performance in a Mediatized Culture<\/em>. Routledge, 1999.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Couldry, Nick. Media: Why it Matters?<\/em> Polity. Cambridge, 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dukaj, Jacek. \u201cWirus przyspieszy\u0142 zmiany, kt\u00f3re mia\u0142y nast\u0105pi\u0107<\/a>.\u201d 10 May 2020. Accessed 15 Sept. 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Galloway, Alexander R. Gaming: Essays on Algorithmic Culture<\/em>. U of Minnesota P, 2006.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moroz, Agnieszka. \u201cCzy J\u00f3zef K. to naprawd\u0119 ja?<\/a>\u201d Dzienniki Teatralny<\/em>, 7 July 2014. Accessed 15 Sept. 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wi\u0144ski, Wojciech. \u201cAmbasada 2.0<\/a>.\u201d Accessed 15 Sept. 2020. <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

*<\/a>Ma\u0142gorzata Sugiera<\/strong> is Full Professor at the Jagiellonian University in Krak\u00f3w, Poland, and the Head of the Department for Performativity Studies. Her main research fields are performativity theories, cultural and decoloniality studies. She published twelve single-authored books in Polish and co-edited works in English and German, most recently a multi-authored volume Emerging Affinities: Possible Futures of Performative Arts<\/em> (2019).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Copyright \u00a9<\/strong> 2020 Ma\u0142gorzata Sugiera
Critical Stages\/Sc\u00e8nes critiques<\/em> e-ISSN: 2409-7411<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Creative<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

This work is licensed under the
Creative Commons Attribution International License CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":329,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-special-topic"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/22\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2020\/10\/image7-3.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":300,"url":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/22\/ceci-nest-pas-un-theatre-theatre-in-the-age-of-covid\/","url_meta":{"origin":322,"position":0},"title":"Ceci n\u2019est pas un th\u00e9\u00e2tre: Theatre in the Age of COVID","author":"Ma\u0142gorzata Sugiera","date":"December 2, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Mark Brown* Abstract The response of many theatremakers to the crisis ushered in by the coronavirus pandemic has been to turn to making work on the internet. Some have seen online theatre simply as a necessity, a lifeboat in which theatre can survive until conditions allow for a return to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Special Topic"","block_context":{"text":"Special Topic","link":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/22\/category\/special-topic\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/22\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2020\/10\/featured-1.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/22\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2020\/10\/featured-1.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/22\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2020\/10\/featured-1.jpeg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/22\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2020\/10\/featured-1.jpeg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":389,"url":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/22\/lockdown-verses-and-anxieties-of-presence-how-polish-theatre-rhymed-a-case-for-its-purpose-on-the-pandemic-stage\/","url_meta":{"origin":322,"position":1},"title":"Lockdown Verses and Anxieties of Presence: How Polish Theatre Rhymed a Case for Its Purpose on the Pandemic Stage","author":"Ma\u0142gorzata Sugiera","date":"December 4, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Kasia Lech* Abstract Liveness and co-presence are romanticized in Polish theatre as linked to its status as a platform for performances of Polish freedoms. Therefore, the outbreak of COVID-19 and the subsequent decision to close all theatres from March 12, 2020, have created very particular challenges not only to the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Special Topic"","block_context":{"text":"Special Topic","link":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/22\/category\/special-topic\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/22\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2020\/11\/featured.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/22\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2020\/11\/featured.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/22\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2020\/11\/featured.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/22\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2020\/11\/featured.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":194,"url":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/22\/arts-journalism-and-theatre-in-the-pandemic-era-mutations-redefinitions-and-challenges\/","url_meta":{"origin":322,"position":2},"title":"Arts Journalism and Theatre in the Pandemic Era: Mutations, Redefinitions and Challenges","author":"Ma\u0142gorzata Sugiera","date":"December 11, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Zoe Ververopoulou* Abstract This paper seeks to explore the new landscape that has emerged during the period of the so-called \u201ccorona crisis\u201d within arts (cultural) journalism, focusing specifically on theatre reporting and theatre reviewing. Drawing examples from the Greek and international print and online media, I aim to show the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Special Topic"","block_context":{"text":"Special Topic","link":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/22\/category\/special-topic\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/22\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2020\/10\/image5-1.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/22\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2020\/10\/image5-1.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/22\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2020\/10\/image5-1.jpeg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/22\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2020\/10\/image5-1.jpeg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":484,"url":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/22\/some-reflections-on-theatre-in-a-post-pre-pandemic-moscow\/","url_meta":{"origin":322,"position":3},"title":"Some Reflections on Theatre in a Post (Pre-) Pandemic Moscow","author":"Ma\u0142gorzata Sugiera","date":"December 3, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Alla Shenderova* Trans. Yana Meerzon and Aisling Murphy Abstract From the end of March to the end of April 2020\u2014that is, the first month of quarantine\u2014I wrote three critical interventions which focused on the issue of liveness in theatre. Having watched numerous archival recordings of theatre productions on screen, I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Special Topic"","block_context":{"text":"Special Topic","link":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/22\/category\/special-topic\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/22\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2020\/11\/featured-2.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/22\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2020\/11\/featured-2.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/22\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2020\/11\/featured-2.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/22\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2020\/11\/featured-2.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":310,"url":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/22\/chilean-crises-lead-to-experiments-in-online-theatre\/","url_meta":{"origin":322,"position":4},"title":"Chilean Crises Lead to Experiments in Online Theatre","author":"Ma\u0142gorzata Sugiera","date":"December 10, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Pablo Cisternas,* Milena Grass Kleiner,** Andr\u00e9s Kalawski,*** Cristi\u00e1n Opazo**** Abstract In Chile, street protests and COVID-related public health emergencies have ravaged live theatre over the past year. While the political protests starting in October 2019 simply \u201climited\u201d live theatre programming, the pandemic forced actual cancellation of whole theater seasons. As\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Special Topic"","block_context":{"text":"Special Topic","link":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/22\/category\/special-topic\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/22\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2020\/10\/featured-2.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/22\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2020\/10\/featured-2.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/22\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2020\/10\/featured-2.jpeg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/22\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2020\/10\/featured-2.jpeg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":905,"url":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/22\/editors-comment-theatre-criticism-the-day-after\/","url_meta":{"origin":322,"position":5},"title":"Editors\u2019 Comment: Theatre (Criticism) the Day After","author":"Ma\u0142gorzata Sugiera","date":"December 14, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Yana Meerzon,* Savas Patsalidis,** Aisling Murphy*** Pandemic: from the Greek \u201c\u03c0\u03b1\u03bd=all\u201d and \u201c\u03b4\u03ae\u03bc\u03bf\u03c2=people\u201d: something which spreads widely, affecting all people.\u00a0 In just ten months the world has changed. New words have come to dominate our daily lives: \u201clockdown,\u201d \u201csocial isolation,\u201d \u201cself-quarantine,\u201d \u201csocial distancing,\u201d \u201cend of humanism,\u201d \u201cstay safe,\u201d \u201conline theatre.\u201d\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Special Topic"","block_context":{"text":"Special Topic","link":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/22\/category\/special-topic\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/22\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2020\/11\/image3-6.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/22\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2020\/11\/image3-6.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/22\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2020\/11\/image3-6.jpeg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.critical-stages.org\/22\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2020\/11\/image3-6.jpeg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=322"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1767,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322\/revisions\/1767"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.critical-stages.org\/22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}