With stages closed, Court launches virtual conversations featuring UChicago faculty
For Court Theatre executive director Angel Ysaguirre, the magic of the stage exists in the actors’ ability to connect with the audience—to see their smiles and their tears, and to hear their laughter, gasps and applause.
But the coronavirus pandemic has forced all large gathering spaces to close, putting “the electricity of theater,” as Ysaguirre puts it, on hold for the indefinite future.
Angel Ysaguirre, Court Theatre executive director
Instead of shutting its doors completely for the upcoming academic year, Court will transition to an all-digital platform, allowing audiences to reinterpret productions from their own computers. Court begins its virtual programming with this month’s launch of the Theatre and Thought series, four online conversations with University of Chicago faculty and theater experts about classic works. While there will be no in-person productions, scholars will discuss the plays in detail—examining their historical context, contemporary and thematic relevance, and possible artistic interpretations.
By selecting works such as August Wilson’s American Century Cycle and Lorraine Hansberry’s Les Blancs, Court Theatre hopes to offer audiences a way to consider both the tumultuous state of the current pandemic and ongoing movements for racial justice. What connects the entire series is the phenomenon of losing one’s identity through a personal or collective crisis, but ultimately finding it again.
Read the full article at UChicago News.