Response to COVID-19 – losing and finding one another in drama: personal geographies, digital spaces and new intimacies

ABSTRACT

This article engages with the sudden pivot to online learning and research in a Toronto high school drama classroom during the COVID pandemic, revealing a complex portrait of youth, connection, and the digital world at a time of physical distancing. In light of these shifting ‘personal geographies’, we reflect on what drama practices might be mobilised to invite intimacy into online learning.

KEYWORDS:

• Applied theatre
• digital learning
• COVID pandemic
• youth
• intimacy

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1 In Ontario, People for Education is a well-respected government watchdog organisation who produce research and engage in community activism. On their website, they write: People for Education is a unique organisation in Canada: independent, non-partisan, and fuelled by a belief in the power and promise of public education. We create evidence, instigate dialogue, and built links so that people can see – and act on – the connection between public education and a fair and prosperous society (https://peopleforeducation.ca/about/#vision).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Kathleen Gallagher

Dr. Kathleen Gallagher studies theatre as a powerful medium for expression by young people of their experiences and understandings. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and Distinguished Professor in the department of Curriculum, Teaching and Learning and the Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies at the University of Toronto.

Christine Balt

Christine Balt is a doctoral candidate at OISE, University of Toronto. Her research interests include interdisciplinary applications of applied theatre, performance, audience research and drama education in studies of ecologies, place and urban environments. Her current research engages with site-specific performance as a tool for researching geographies of youth in Toronto.

Nancy Cardwell

Nancy Cardwell is a doctoral candidate at OISE, University of Toronto. She is also a Dora Award and Juno Award-winning dancer and choreographer. Her work focuses on arts in education through the lens of critical literacy studies and feminist theory.

Brooke Charlebois

Brooke Charlebois is a doctoral student at OISE, University of Toronto. She is a classroom teacher in the Peel District School Board and former president of the Council of Ontario Drama and Dance Educators. Her research explores the intersection of drama in education and settler colonialism in schools.