Relocating Learning Delivery in Acting and Directing from the Traditional Performance Space onto Cyber Space during the Covid-19 Lockdown in Nigeria.

Abstract

The March to October 2020 lockdown, occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic, crippled learning delivery totally in acting and directing at the 
University of Ibadan. Where other courses swiftly adapted and moved online, it was very tough to relocate acting and directing because the 
traditional methods of facilitating the courses privilege physical contact, sharing and teamwork above all else. Performing arts, theatre, music 
and dance, which had thrived in in-person engagement, suffered greatly. The Covid 19 pandemic necessitated a total lockdown of the universities, whereby all students were to observe social distancing, so they could not gather in the same space for any of these kinds of interaction. This paper examines the manner in which the transition from actual to virtual spaces was effected and its impact on learning delivery in acting and directing. It gauges the effectiveness of the online substitutes against traditional interactive sessions by examining what is lost and gained in the absence of embodied enactment and instinctive material interactivity central to the performing arts. This study further interrogates the threat the lockdown poses to acting and directing training delivery and examines the practicality of online learning and the breaking of the spatial barrier between acting and directing in classrooms and the digital learning workshop. The study finds that accessibility to online performance spaces, especially in under-served communities, was a major challenge for the students. With poor internet service and high data costs, many students lacked working access to adequate data and digital resources and, as such, received inadequate learning and online support. It is concluded in the paper that whether watching a performance or performing, those who share the space are not just in space; their interrelationship shapes the shared space. This shaping of shared space and associated embodied exchanges are at the heart of the challenge to reimagine the performance space in the context of COVID-19 or any future pandemic.