Surviving Quarantine as a New Artist
Wow. So this is weird huh? This is a real weird situation for a number of reasons. The first is, you know, the obvious. Second is being a theatre artist during a global pandemic. Third is being a now newly graduated theatre artist during a global pandemic. If anything this situation has forced me to somehow buckle down and create because that's really all I can do to stop going insane.
You know, lots of negatives came from this situation. I had big plans for the second half of my last semester in the theatre department at Butler. I was acting and assistant directing a Beckett piece. I was doing an Undergraduate Research Conference presentation on my senior project, a one-hour production based on Sarah Kane's "4.48 Psychosis." I was planning our end-of-year awards banquet and we had secured a really cool venue to make this banquet our first one being held off campus and I was SO excited for it. Immediately after graduating, I was heading back to Russia for an advanced summer acting intensive. Every last one of these got cancelled one after the other over the course of about a week and that was on top of finding out that graduation was cancelled, that I wouldn't get to see some of my favorite people at Butler maybe ever again.
BUT
There were some positives. COVID-19 led to so many opportunities to watch some quality theatre, most notably in my opinion the new National Theatre At Home series. We did still have our awards banquet, which I still got to plan and put together, over zoom, and it was actually very fun. And I had lots of time on my hands to work on this website.
It's hard though. I don't know when this situation will be over. I don't know when I can legitimately start pursuing the art I want. I've seen a number of my artist friends making cool art during this time. Ian Hunt, a friend of mine from Butler, starred in an instagram live series about dating while in quarantine and it was adorable! The student-run theatre company on butler's campus, Sandbox Student Productions, did a series of short readings on zoom which they posted on social media. Seeing people still manage to create quality art during this difficult time that has been making it difficult to do daily mundane tasks let alone organize a production is incredibly inspiring.
If anything this pandemic has made everyone kind of band together and be more supportive of each other. More or less. I'm choosing to focus on the positive people I've seen rather than the opposite. I don't know what my future plans are for myself as an artist but for now I'm focusing on staying mentally stable and getting this website looking nice and fresh for when that time comes.
Stay safe everyone!
-RJM
