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\u201cI<\/span>\u2019m so glad I saw it live!\u201d<\/p>\n That\u2019s what I said after the nerve-wracking Game 6 of the NBA Eastern Conference Playoff Series between the Toronto Raptors and Boston Celtics, which I watched with socially distanced fans at a drive-in parking lot in Toronto.<\/p>\n The Raptors\u2019\u00a0125-122 win<\/a>\u00a0at the end of two (two!) overtime periods was an instant classic.<\/p>\n From within our respective cars, the shared excitement felt a lot like being back in Scotiabank Arena. Of course, I didn\u2019t see the game \u201clive.\u201d But, for a brief moment, there was a palpable feeling of\u00a0\u201cwe\u201d back in \u201cWe the North.<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s been six months since COVID-19 emerged in North America, causing theatres to close. In the United States, Anthony Fauci, the now-familiar director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, recently predicted that\u00a0theatres may remain closed\u00a0until a year after a vaccine is discovered<\/a>. Artists and arts organizations are asking: What is the future of live performance? The\u00a0NBA\u2019s #WholeNewGame<\/a>\u00a0may provide important lessons for performing artists and their organizations.<\/p>\n Decades of researching performance \u2014 and watching basketball \u2014 have taught me how much sports have in common with the arts: dedicated showings (game times), specific costumes (uniforms), and established conventions for both performer and audience behaviours.<\/p>\n One can point to any number of rivalries to see how professional sports blurs into drama. (As Raptor Norman Powell and Celtic Marcus Smart shouted at one another at the end of Game 6, an announcer remarked, \u201cThis is great theatre!<\/a>\u201d)<\/p>\n Theatre artists have often admired and emulated popular sports. German\u00a0playwright Bertolt Brecht<\/a>\u00a0thought theatre\u00a0should work like a boxing match<\/a>. British\u00a0playwright Sarah Kane<\/a>\u00a0envied\u00a0sports\u2019 unpredictability<\/a>, saying, \u201cI\u2019ve never left a football match early, because you never know when a miracle might occur.\u201d<\/p>\n Arts and entertainment enthusiasts miss\u00a0attending public performances and wonder how they will evolve<\/a>. As someone who enjoys both basketball and theatre, I\u2019ve watched carefully as the NBA reopened its season.<\/p>\n Fans like me have followed with some degree of awe and fascination the details of the\u00a0NBA bubble<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 a zone\u00a0for 22 teams on a campus at the Walt Disney World Resort, near Orlando.<\/p>\n The achievements of the enterprise became evident as the playoff games got underway. The bubble games blended theatre and sports to create a hybrid performance space that offered a great \u201clive\u201d experience while protecting performers and audiences. Curtains and video screens masked empty seats in the auditorium. Digital logos and ads, lighting effects on the court, and amplified soundtracks with music, sound effects, and fan noises mimicked the feel of live games both for the players and for those watching at home.<\/p>\n The\u00a0league also created<\/a>\u00a0\u201cvirtual fans,\u201d people who could log onto a designated site and appear as a composite \u201ccrowd\u201d on the courtside screens.<\/p>\n Due to the NBA\u2019s excellent stagecraft, watching bubble games has felt a lot like watching games before COVID-19 closed arenas. Here are four lessons the arts can take away from the basketball bubble.<\/p>\n Theatre and media are often seen as competitors. Early filmmakers distinguished their new art form by rejecting theatricality.<\/p>\n Film artist Hans Richter\u00a0described\u00a0theatre<\/a>\u00a0as a \u201ccontaminant\u201d of film. Yet, today, theatre and film are closer than ever. Just ask anyone who has\u00a0seen a Broadway stage version of a popular film<\/a>\u00a0or the\u00a0film version of a popular show<\/a>.<\/p>\n The NBA used theatricality to replicate the essence of a live game \u2014 fans cheering, sound effects, music \u2014 and gave viewers the opportunity to be visible both to the players and to themselves in the live performance space. As performing-arts venues make decisions about the future, creating hybrid events that include virtual presence and audience recognition will be important for developing investment in their work.<\/p>\n What Brecht and Kane envied among sports audiences wasn\u2019t just their enthusiasm but also their deep and often emotional investment in the stakes of the game as something bigger and more important than itself. The\u00a0NBA players<\/a>\u00a0became involved with the Black Lives Matter movement<\/a>\u00a0and used their games as a platform for social justice.<\/p>\n This engagement was as integral to the sense of audience investment as the digital tools. How artists, like professional athletes, communicate the stakes of their work to dispersed audiences and give them meaningful opportunities to shape hybrid performance and its larger impact will be crucial.<\/p>\n As sports photographers know, the essence of any basketball game is movement. Memorable moments are replayed from many angles, circulating now on both TVs and mobile phones.<\/p>\n Creating both diverse social-media perspectives and dynamic visuals is part of the successful formula. International\u00a0companies such as the United Kingdom\u2019s Blast Theory<\/a>\u00a0have been experimenting with mobile-device performances for more than 20 years.<\/p>\n Live arts will need to innovate not only by using current social-media platforms, but also by building novel and distinctive ones that capture the aesthetic and social dimensions of performances in motion.<\/p>\n The pleasure of the drive-in game \u2014 and of\u00a0drive-in movie theatres across Canada<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 isn\u2019t about seeing the game on a larger screen; it\u2019s about experiencing the game as part of an energetic, focused, and horn-honking crowd.<\/p>\n Many speculate about\u00a0when audiences will return to theatres<\/a>, but both theatregoers and sports fans know the difference between sitting in a packed arena and looking at an empty house. Even in a neighbourhood sports bar, the shared experience of a televised game can be worth the cost of over-priced beer. Theatres of the future will similarly facilitate audience connections with one other before and after the live event.<\/p>\n It\u2019s likely that health and safety will remain challenges for live sports and the performing arts for years. But whereas a basketball game requires 10 people on the court, artistic performances can be staged in many ways: from\u00a0one-person shows<\/a>\u00a0to\u00a0art installations across borders<\/a>\u00a0to\u00a0performers separated by Plexiglas partitions<\/a>.<\/p>\n Theatre, dance, and music can do more than just adapt to current constraints; they can create new productions that rewrite the rules. The NBA has successfully learned how to put on a great digital show. Now, theatres can learn from this success to enhance and sustain the future of the performing arts.<\/p>\n This article was originally published in The Conversation<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n1. The future is hybrid<\/strong><\/h3>\n
2. Audience investment matters<\/strong><\/h3>\n
3. Media is mobile<\/strong><\/h3>\n
4. It\u2019s better together<\/strong><\/h3>\n
#LUDWIGVAN<\/em><\/h3>\n