COVID Production Protocols and Explanation of Remote Presentations
Dear Students,
After months of work and input from CU health experts, production staff, and faculty, I’m pleased to present two documents that will hopefully help you make sense of our spring semester.
Theatre Support for Remote Presentations. The theatre world has combined its creativity with the speed of technology to create new ways for people to enjoy theatrical presentations while staying safe from COVID. Our Production team has been doing a bunch of research on what’s happening in the field and crafted a framework within which 2nd year productions can explore this type of theatre. If you are doing a remote presentation for your 2nd year project(s) or classwork, this document will explain how the Program is thinking about it and what resources it can offer.
COVID Production Protocols. Again, thanks to serious research into industry standards and consultation with Columbia’s COVID Task Force, this document details exactly how Theatre Program auditions, meetings, rehearsals, and productions will happen (live or remote). It is an intense document chock full of details, so make sure you read it carefully.
A wicked lot of work went into writing these guidelines. We put in this work to:
- Decrease the risk of anyone in our community catching COVID-19
- Provide as much creative opportunities as possible
- Help students make informed decisions on playmaking in this topsy-turvy time
- Ensure we don’t make any promises we can’t keep
These reasons are listed in order of importance. So the #1 goal of the Program right now is to keep everyone as safe as possible during this worldwide pandemic. If smarter people than us say that we need to institute more stringent protocols, that’s what we’ll do. It also means that we will always work with students to help them realize their artistic vision (as we’re so excited to see what you come with), but please understand safety will never be sacrificed for art. Finally, if there comes a point where creativity can’t realistically be fostered within the safety guidelines, the Program will revisit the enterprise.
Big thanks to the Theatre Program COVID Task Force and the Program Production Staff.
If you have any questions, please reach out.
Thanks,
Dr. Lauren Britt-Elmore
Director of Academic Administration, Theatre
she/her/hers