Facilitating students’ theatre productions during a pandemic

Abstract

The surge of Covid-19 pandemic came unexpectedly that it caught most nations unaware. Not only did the health and wellbeing of the populace become  a concern, preventing the spread of the deadly virus was paramount. Subsequently, restrictions were placed on physical contacts, human movements  and interactions and in some cases there were total shut down for a period of time. This in no small measure affected several sectors of human existence,  prominent among them is education, where the practice of educational theatre is not left out. Following the outbreak of Covid-19, teaching  and learning of theatre, especially practical courses took a new dimension bringing to the fore, challenges, innovations, restructuring and reorganisation  of students’ theatre productions. It is on this premise, that this paper attempts a study of how students’ productions survived the heat of the pandemic in  a teacher training institution. It specifically beams light on an educational theatre domiciled in Lagos State University of Education with the intention of  sharing experiences of coordinating students’ productions in a pandemic era. The research is based on experiences gained during the experimentation of  teaching practical courses online through a specific study of a group work that culminated in a stage production.