As the year comes to an unsatisfying close, we must adapt to accommodate the coronavirus' demands on our way of life, including how we experience live performance.
There is perhaps nothing more communal than the air we breathe. Now that the oxygen entering our lungs can carry an invisible infection capable of sickening and even killing us, we have lost the very foundation of trust that public space is built upon.
Delta tempered reopening plans but it did not stop them. The digital performances that big and small houses had polished over the summer could be extended just a bit longer. By fall many of us had come to terms with the fact that the virus was becoming endemic and that we would have to find a way to live alongside it. Hiding ourselves away was no longer a reasonable option. Armed with newly abundant N95 masks and brandishing wrinkled vaccine cards, we headed back to our seats in the audience.
I went to my first live performance of the pandemic in early November. Even though everyone was required to show proof of vaccination and wear a mask, I still felt vulnerable. At one point during the show I had to ward off a rising panic as I gazed around me at all the humans, breathing. I had to squash an urge to run for the nearest exit. A mask-muffled cough made me flinch. I could not wait to step outside.
While writing this story, I reached out to my colleagues, Times theater critic Charles McNulty and classical music critic Mark Swed, for their thoughts on what it currently feels like to be an audience member. Swed mused about how masks — whether seen during a livestream from Milan of La Scala’s opening night or in the Los Angeles halls of the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion — are often worn incorrectly.
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