Theatre enthusiasts around the world know a thing or two about the power of a dark room. We get to sit shoulder to shoulder with strangers, friends, and family to forever be connected by the experience of a story illuminated on a stage before us. The pandemic temporarily ripped those moments away from us. Suddenly, it was uncertain whether we would get the chance to return to the theatre, where for a few hours nothing else mattered other than the people in the room. Within this uncertainty, theatre-goers everywhere were forced to consider what being in the theatre meant to them, and what it would mean to form connections through theater without the intimacy of a dark room and a stage. Our desire to maintain connections with other theatre enthusiasts birthed many attempts at reestablishing a common space. These attempts included live streams and prerecorded theater, all of which gave us solace in our little corners of the world.
These reinvented methods of sharing theater also gave us the gift of accessibility. Prior to the pandemic, the theater was seen as a very exclusive place to be. A lot of people were very unaware that they had any interest in drama. However, the pandemic forced all of us into the consumption of any media that we could get that wasn’t the news. This led to the rediscovery of theater, a phenomenon evident in the popularity of shows like Hamilton by Lin Manuel Miranda. Hamilton is arguably the most successful show to be produced within the last two years. Without the pandemic, it is highly unlikely that as many people would have been able to see the show, nor is there any evidence that they would have been interested. Now, there are hordes of fans lining up to witness the show’s return to Broadway, seeking the opportunity to sing the iconic songs along with the cast and an audience in the same room. The cast will no longer have to attempt to project emotions and ideas through one end of a screen, nor will the audience be reaching for them alone on the other side. We will all be back in a dark room, with all the incredible lights and staging, singing the loneliness of the last few years away. Most importantly, we will get to have this experience shoulder to shoulder, with the lights dimmed in an epic tribute to the return of in-person theatre.