Open AccessNew Forms of Communities? The Constitution and Performance of Audiences in Digital Theater during the COVID-19 Pandemic
Author(s) -
Kai Padberg
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
pamiętnik teatralny
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2658-2899
pISSN - 0031-0522
DOI - 10.36744/pt.861
Subject(s) - space (punctuation) , covid-19 , dimension (graph theory) , media studies , action (physics) , visual arts , hybridity , pandemic , art , sociology , aesthetics , history , literature , computer science , medicine , physics , mathematics , disease , pathology , quantum mechanics , infectious disease (medical specialty) , pure mathematics , operating system
The Covid-19 pandemic plunged many theaters around the world into a temporary crisis and favored the rise of digital theater forms. This article investigates how the reception of theater changes in the digital space and, above all, how audiences as a social dimension of theatrical performances must first be constituted separately there. Based on performance analysis of the digital theater productions Homecoming and Sterben from Germany, the significance of the digital infrastructure for the assembly, performance, and action repertoires of these theater audiences is discussed. The author examines how audiences can be formed into different temporal communities in the digital space. These temporal communities are characterized by hybridity and have the potential to enable intense theatrical encounters across spatial boundaries.