How theatres have kept us entertained through lockdown
heatres across the country have been busy keeping audiences entertained – even while the doors have remained locked.
Many venues have shown creativity and resourcefulness in their efforts to entertain the public.
Darlington Hippodrome has stocked up on digital activities for its audiences, including a virtual tour of the theatre, as well as quizzes, puzzles, colouring sheets, and theatre heritage resources, exploring key themes and characters in the theatre’s history.
Sunderland Culture, including Arts Centre Washington, has joined forces with the city’s university and local council to deliver a programme of online culture to residents. Children’s activities, a student ‘take-over festival’, homeschooling, and a project for socially-isolated older people have been among the digital offerings.
The Oxford Playhouse team continues to entertain the local community with Playhouse at Home, to encourage creativity and keep audiences connected during
Tthe period of closure. The Palace Theatre, Newark, has teamed up with the neighbouring National Civil War Centre’s learning team in a new project to mark its centenary through an online community quilting project to build up a picture of the front of the theatre, illustrate past performances from the public’s memories.
Northampton’s Royal & Derngate has launched Royal & Derngate at home, a digital platform packed with creative content for audiences to watch, join in with and share from their homes.
Scarborough’s Stephen Joseph Theatre has teamed up with the National Literacy Trust for a new project, Our Stories, an online story creation adventure for five to-12-year-olds to encourage creativity through story creation for young people along the North Yorkshire coast.
Sheffield Theatres has been offering creative activities and performances online for its audiences and recently launched a new online programme to support local artists, including a small commissions fund to enable artists to develop workshops and skills sharing sessions during the lockdown.
Watford Palace Theatre has launched Palace @ Home which including Panto @ Home for families, poetry readings, and ‘ask a theatre professional’ sessions.
Pitlochry Festival Theatre is sharing useful and joyous content across its social media channels three times per day using #LightHopeJoy.
London’s Old Vic has launched In-Camera a new artistic initiative combining a run of socially distanced ticketed performances of the acclaimed play Lungs followed by a major series of rehearsed play-readings, all streamed live from the stage of the Old Vic, with the empty auditorium as a backdrop.
And elsewhere in the capital, Greenwich Connects is a new initiative from Greenwich Theatre, which has been offering interactive theatre opportunities everyone to express and expand their creativity and engage with other members of the community through a series of weekly events.
It’s more evidence of the hard work venues have been doing to keep going – and keep theatre alive.