Interfacing Shakespeare in the Era of Covid-19, Shakespeare Theatre Conference, Canada, 2022

“Live” performances used to be distinguished from multiplex film-a more editorialized medium-by their cachet of being “ephemeral” and irrecoverable. These distinctions are going away, because more and more theatrical and filmic performances are mediated by the screen interfaces, especially since the onset of the global pandemic of COVID-19. Interfacing Shakespearean performance.
In her analysis of Covid-era digital performances, Alexa Alice Joubin argues that our interface-driven screen culture has de-centered Shakespeare’s singularity. To further our understanding of Shakespeare in the post-pandemic era, it is important to engage with this interface that informs many works.
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00:10 Welcome
00:30 Interface theory
00:48 Lear streamed during pandemic
01:23 What is liveness?
02:40 Screen interface in Shakespeare performance
03:59 Digital theatre
04:38 Creation Theatre's Tempest
05:01 Royal Shakespeare Company's Dream
10:49 New notion of liveness
10:54 Site-specific epistemology
11:07 Site of performance
12:02 Theory of social space
13:16 Shakespeare as a digital nomad
15:20 Globe Theatre in London
16:47 Donmar Warehouse
16:43 Interface-driven culture
17:00 Conclusion
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Joubin's paper has subsequently been published in the Routledge Handbook of Shakespeare and Interface (2023).
The Shakespearean Theatre Conference was jointly sponsored by the Stratford Festival and the University of Waterloo. The conference was held in Stratford, Onatrio, Canada, 16-18 June, 2022.