Drama in the Time of COVID-19

It’s been 18 months since Covid -19 crept into our lives and jolted our expectations and seemed to stop the world. Suddenly we found ourselves starring in some dystopian television series where one by one our liberties were taken away and things we had taken for granted, weren’t available to us. Certainly we have all either adapted or clung on to everything we thought we needed in our lives.

Our Youth Theatre company pivoted and offered online learning options initially until we fortunately were able to see each other without the Big Brother Zoom view. We saw out 2020 with productions and were incredibly blessed to be able to offer the opportunity to our students, particularly those year twelves, who had lost so many opportunities since the pandemic became the fun police.

Now, almost a year on, we have still had a couple of lockdowns to remind us how online learning can suck the joy out of even the most inspired. Let’s face it if kids have had to endure online learning all day, the last place they want to socialise is through cyberspace. Could it be that the generation whose hands were almost an extension of a device, could have fallen out of love with online platforms? Could they have actually discovered that being face to face and in the same room with someone is the most amazing experience? Certainly, I have noticed a shift in the universe.

Yes, the high schoolers still have their devices but now they seem to be glued to each other….. and not always physically! (Although, socially distancing teens has become an incredibly tricky business. ) Are they more in the moment? Are they relishing being in the same room as their peers? You bet! They talk….. all the time. Even students who would never have spoken whilst someone else was speaking, are now injected with intent. They whisper, they laugh, they share, and it seems awful that you have to tell them to be quiet. It’s almost as if they don’t know how long they have in the company of real people, that they want to make the most of every second of socialisation.

I am reminded on these occasions of the little blue hands that come up on zoom when a muted attendee wants to speak. The first time I saw them was in our August 2021 lock down. I immediately thought, “ This is new, “ and wondered how to disable them. They were all over my screen in front of the 11- 12 year olds. They were waiting patiently. When they resumed class, there was another tilt in the axis of the world. The previously energetic and overly enthusiastic younger students had somehow become quieter….. meeker. They sit and watch others quietly. Socially distancing themselves seems like something they can do easily. Of course they come from different schools and social media has not perhaps connected them…… but they seem to be somehow less social.

There is a dichotomy between the younger children and the older teens and it has only developed during this period of COVID-19. Perhaps things will change with time and we will go back to teenagers living on their devices and rarely looking up to speak. There has been something quite refreshing in the way they have made the most of being with each other in person ( even if they are very noisy) and it would be wonderful if this could be maintained whilst focusing when they need to give something or someone their attention. For the younger children, I just hope that the raised blue hands disappear and they rediscover their confidence to meet and mingle with others.