Athlone Little Theatre may be closed due to Covid-19 but that will not stop members from bringing drama to the people of the town this winter!
The group’s latest six-part venture, ‘Dramatic Recording’ will go out on Athlone Little Theatre’s website and social media channels every Friday at 7pm.
While there is nothing like live theatre, Covid-19 has required us to think differently about the way we do things, according to Director Joe MacCarrick, who came up with the idea for the multimedia initiative, the first episode of which aired on Friday last and has already clocked up hundreds of views on the theatre’s social media channels.
“This project is about presenting theatre outside the physical space we are used to and asking our audience to engage in a completely new environment,” Joe explained.
The first episode saw members of Athlone Little Theatre have fun with Shakespeare in a variety of settings, all filmed remotely in recent weeks.
“We are taking texts that are out of copyright so that excludes most works written in the last 100 years. But that said, there are thousands of works we can draw from and bring them into a contemporary setting. This is both challenging and exciting,” Joe added.
Welcoming the new initiative, Athlone Little Theatre Chairperson Chrissie Killian encouraged the public to log on to www.athlonelittletheatre.ie or the theatre’s Facebook/Twitter pages every Friday to see the latest episode.
“Here at Athlone Little Theatre, we thought hard about how we might perform or deliver theatre and drama to Athlone and its surrounds during the coming months. The fact that our audience can’t come to us has left us with no option but to take it to them and we intend to do this in whatever way we can, through video and sound recordings and perhaps some street theatre when the weather improves.
“We all agreed it’ll be different, it will be challenging and it just might be exciting. Joe MacCarrick has produced and directed a wonderful series of videos that will be available on social media in the coming weeks. It’s fun. It’s drama like you’ve never seen us and it’s great. So, in the words of Lady Gregory, start ‘Spreading the News!,” Chrissie concluded.
The first episode can be viewed here or on any of the theatre’s social media channels.