My prayer for theatre is that we listen like we have never listened before. We get out of the way of our own desires to create or be seen and remember that lives were lost. Remember that jobs were lost. Relationships were lost. Economies were lost. We remember that people who “recovered” from COVID-19 may still be struggling in every way for years to come. 

I pray that in our rush to get “back to normal” we listen to our communities. What are their fears? What are their needs? What is their capacity? And I pray that we are ready to use our adaptability and creativity to meet those needs in any way they come to us. Perhaps your community doesn’t need a production of King Lear with lights and designers and pomp. Perhaps your community needs that production money to be spent on local businesses to cater community dinners to create space to talk and decompress and grieve and dream. Perhaps you can hire your artists to serve those meals and entertain and facilitate conversations with your community and truly be a gathering place for the people you serve. Or perhaps your community just needs donations and labor to rebuild and we can provide that too. 

Perhaps this year we don’t need theatre. Perhaps we do. But we can only know that if we gather and listen and tell stories, which is what theatre is at its essence, so perhaps we need theatre after all. I just pray that we really listen and be of service to the communities who support and need us now more than ever.