TOWARDS A POST-COVID-19 ASIAN THEATRES

One of the most affected institutions during the onslaught of COVID-19 is the theatre. To date, many performing artists and scholars still wonder whether the live events will return to its nature of being a community based on the relationship between the performance and audience members through a social act of immediacy and intimacy?

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When the pandemic is over, will we ever return to the theaters? At the end of this global health crisis, will we ever go back to musical theatres, concerts, operas, plays, traditional forms such as kabuki, noh, bunraku, wayang kulit, wayang goleng, komedya, sarsuwela, sinakulo, kathakali, jingju, pansori, among other forms, and other live events? Will National Theaters from different cities reopen such as the National Theater of Korea in Seoul, the National Bunraku Theater in Osaka, the National Theater of Japan in Tokyo, the Cultural Center of the Philippines in Manila, Vietnam National Puppetry Theater in Hanoi, or the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing?

Today, some theatre houses in Asia have opened, such as the case of Singapore, but maintained physical distancing and requiring the public to get vaccinated before entry as health protocols. Some Asian communities have returned to performances but outside the auditoriums and with limited audience members. Others continued online performances and strategically publicizing their works as part of the “new normal.” Ultimately, what kind of future are we seeing in Asian Theatre vis-à-vis this global health crisis?