Live AS OPPOSED TO FACEBOOK LIVE
On the 11th of March, Christine Hope and I had our last show before Corona lock down. Bergen, as the rest of the Northern hemisphere, was hit by the Covid-19 outbreak, and the government banned all big gatherings of people.
My friend Nina Scott was visiting Bergen, performing in F Choir. (Check them out, they're brilliant! They do a lot more than sing, they are a great agent for social change, educating audiences on queer politics and theory and facilitating queer spaces shorturl.at/fzHW3). She saw our last performance at Ole Bull Scene, before we had to close.
The following days, as I listened to friends and colleagues, the conversations were desperate. What do we do now? Instantly, the focus was pro-active, but equally instant was the shift towards social media. Suddenly, everyone wanted to create an online presence and reach an audience in lockdown with their theatre work.
I found myself doubtful. Hadn't theatre worked in opposition to the use of screens for the last 20 years? Aren't we all about delivering art and entertainment live, as opposed to facebook live? Of course, all art forms that come out of the fusion virtual and
So I wrote an article that was published on Scenekunst.no, a recognised forum for the performing arts and performance art in Norway.
You can read the full article in Norwegian is here:
http://www.scenekunst.no/sak/i-levende-live-ikke-facebook-live/