The Health of Live Theater: Practices under Pandemic Conditions Public

Abstract

This document contains Ruth Puryear’s reflections on directing and producing a live musical theater production safely during the Covid-19 pandemic as a resource for the theater community when returning to in-person endeavors. Her production of The Last Five Years, written and composed by Jason Robert Brown, rehearsed in a hybrid Zoom and in-person format and was performed by two casts as a drive-in musical at Emory University on March 18th-21st, 2021.

Navigating her two priorities, the safety and well-being of the actors and artistic quality, Puryear finds that emphasizing safety, trust, and respect in the rehearsal room increases creative capabilities, and sacrificing well-being for the sake of art is counterproductive. Throughout the process, she also questions the definition of “live” theater and finds that an element of liveness is in the community effort behind every theatrical endeavor. She concludes that the pandemic should awaken leaders within the industry to confront and rethink common practices, in part by encouraging intentional wellness practices in rehearsal rooms and increasing respect for the cast and crew’s time and well-being when planning rehearsal schedules. 

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Proposal......................................................................... 1

Introduction................................................................................... 1

Material.......................................................................................... 2

Format............................................................................................ 3

Documentation and Success............................................................. 6

Chapter 2: Process........................................................................... 7

Chapter 3: Lessons Learned.............................................................. 27

Lessons in Producing, Directing, and Priorities...................................27

Lessons in Live Theater.................................................................... 32

Moving Forward.............................................................................. 35

Appendix A: Production Plan........................................................... 37

Appendix B: Budget........................................................................ 40

Appendix C: Scene Breakdown......................................................... 41

Appendix D: Rehearsal Schedule...................................................... 42

Appendix E: Program...................................................................... 44

Bibliography................................................................................... 45

About this Honors Thesis

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School	Emory College
Department	Theater Studies
Degree	B.A.
Submission	Honors Thesis
Language	English
Research Field	Theater
Mot-clé	Drive-In Theater Musical Theater Pandemic Theater
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor	Lisa Paulsen, Emory University
Committee Members	Lydia Fort, Emory University Caitlin Hargraves, Emory University Jia-Chen Fu, Emory University

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