Emerson Theatre During COVID
Marieska's final project for JR103 The Digital Journalist, where she dives into what theatre at Emerson looked like at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, and what the lack of in-person education and performance opportunities looks like for those involved in the profession.
How COVID-19 impacts theatre involvement and education at Emerson College
COVID-19 has made an impact for Emerson students, who have been sent home due to the virus’s spread. However, those involved in the performing arts experience a unique learning path.
Jack Darnell, a first-year Emerson student majoring in theatre and performance, said that online instruction has been really difficult.
“Even though we are able to do a lot of our work in our remote environments, I personally have felt like a disturbance in my house because I’m making a lot of noise, and I have to kick people out of a space so I can do what I need to do,” Darnell said.
Much of Darnell’s spring semester consists of hands-on classes, including Movement and Scene Painting, but Darnell said that his professors have responded well to adapting to online instruction.
Professors are also affected by this transition. Courtney O’Connor, an Emerson performing arts faculty member, initially reacted with concern for faculty members who only teach classes part-time, given the fact that she is the Artistic Director for the Lyric Stage Company of Boston.
“For full-time faculty, this is their full-time job,” O’Connor said. “Their job was to look at it and go, ‘How do I translate this online?’ For part-time faculty, I think it was a special challenge because we are the ones balancing multiple plates in our lives constantly.”
O’Connor teaches Graduate Directing, and has praised her students for being flexible with online learning. “It’s allowed us to take a breath and delve into some other parts of directing that we may not normally get the chance to do,” O’Connor said. “My students have been phenomenal, and have been with me every step of the way. It really is something we’re all in together.”
The theatre scene at Emerson College also goes beyond the classroom walls. For some, theatre is considered as an interest or job. For instance, Olivia Lusk serves as a box office representative for ArtsEmerson through federal work-study.
“I don’t have the structure of work, and I don’t have the social interaction because the box office at ArtsEmerson is very social,” Lusk said. “Everyone interacts with each other, and everyone has inside jokes, so it was very weird having to say goodbye to everybody.”
Coming from Pennsylvania where the minimum wage is $7.25 per hour, Lusk had a fear of not being able to work when Emerson announced students to vacate campus.
“The fact that I would come home, and make several dollars less than I did at school was kind of daunting,” Lusk said. “With gas and everything to get to a workplace, it almost doesn’t seem worth it to me to have a job.”
Though people in the performing arts have found ways to make online instruction adaptable, this period of remote learning has made a transformation for later semesters.
“I think that it’s going to add this whole new appreciation to be able to study in these spaces,” Darnell said.