Three months have passed since our last account without a classical stage. Classical, because there were some performances. Without question, we have worked hard and never before have work and vacation been so intertwined as this year. Worked on the near future and did performances adapted to corona.
On several occasions, we have pulled into Leuven shopping streets to alert people to coronagraphic measures with a street-theatrical touch.
We created and performed a new Thematic IMprovisation performance (about corona, what else) Bubble in Bubble out.
For this, we worked both in the studio of 3 High where a limited audience can also sit (ideal for hybrid performances), as we experiment and learn with our own virtual video base to play from home.
We are in full swing with various organizations for (semi-) digital events in the fall.
We made video material for our own training sessions that can also be used by other trainers.
Things didn't stay quiet in the other rooms of Inspinazie either.
The Living Impro series that was abruptly cut in March was finished in July, to grateful trainees. Handling cases via online role-playing in training courses proves to work very well, even in groups.
We co-hosted Wisper's online presentation day.
The XS team provided a live conclusion to the oddest year ever for our teens with catch-up classes in June.
And hooray! On August 28, the our very first physical live performance place since the lockdown, as one of the city of Leuven's 300 Anderhalve Meter Sessies. We then play the family performance Speak right out.
A lot of bright spots, then, and yet we can't ignore the fact that the cultural sector is treated as a stepmother. The flexibility of improvisational theater plays to our advantage. Yet we know that much more would be safely possible than is currently allowed, and we miss the connection with each other and with the audience. We also clash with the fact that we like to see our audience interact intensely with each other. That still requires a lot of creative adjustments in physical performances.
And of course we are concerned about the professional future of our individual players, for whom statutes and situations are very different.
We also find what has happened to some theater companies, the sudden cancellation of performances already adapted to corona in every detail, often at great expense, absolutely unheard of. We fully support the current protest actions. Like the one in which cultural organizations replaced their logo with a soccer logo, as a criticism of the different sizes and weights used for different sectors.
And so hop, long pass toward month 6!
