Effective Dreaming in the Time of Zoom Theatre: Reflections on Directing The Lathe of Heaven.

With some critical distance from the sense of urgency and angst that marked much of my life during the darkest days of the theatre shutdown, I am now able to contemplate and appreciate the ways in which the pandemic forced me to interrogate vital questions about what theatre is and what it can be, thereby fundamentally transforming how I view my relationship to making theatre at colleges and universities. Third, as someone who has primarily taught courses in dramatic literature, theatre history, and dramaturgy in recent years, I was eager to see what exploring the play in rehearsals with students might further reveal about the richness and complexities of Jacobs-Jenkins's theatrical imagination. This essay details and examines several of the revelations that directing in new digital modes during the COVID-19 pandemic surfaced about the need for refreshing outmoded theatrical practices and paradigms. McNulty went on to venture several ideas about what distinguishes theatre from film and television, before concluding that, when it comes to the abundance of digital theatre that began circulating during the pandemic, he would know whether it was theatre "when I see it.". [Extracted from the article]

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