{"id":7953,"date":"2021-09-11T20:47:40","date_gmt":"2021-09-12T00:47:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/?p=7953"},"modified":"2021-09-11T20:47:41","modified_gmt":"2021-09-12T00:47:41","slug":"stagebridge-explores-an-infinite-digital-landscape","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/index.php\/2021\/09\/11\/stagebridge-explores-an-infinite-digital-landscape\/","title":{"rendered":"Stagebridge Explores an Infinite Digital Landscape"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Teaching Artist Bruce Bierman instructs participants during his virtual devised theatre class, offered through Stagebridge\u2019s Perfoming Arts Institute.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stagebridge<\/strong><\/a> is the nation\u2019s oldest and most renowned theatre company for older adults. Founded in Oakland, CA in 1978 by Dr. Stuart Kendall, the organization\u2019s mission is to enrich the lives of older adults and their communities through the performing arts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When COVID-19 forced teachers and students at Stagebridge to shelter in place, their programming was between sessions. Staff took time to decide how to proceed with their popular Performing Arts Institute<\/strong><\/a>, which offers classes in acting, musical theater, tap and modern dance, devised and playback theater, storytelling, and stand-up comedy. They explored various online education models including online courses at San Francisco Community Music Center<\/strong><\/a> and local universities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finding Unique Adaptations for the Performing Arts<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Devised and Musical Theatre<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bruce Bierman<\/strong><\/a> has taught devised and musical theater and dance at Stagebridge for many years. However, he was uncertain as how to how he might use this technique on Zoom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI wanted to just throw out the computer the first day,\u201d said Bruce. \u201cWe go into the arts to connect with people.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAll of a sudden we had a vocabulary to share. We practiced close-ups, medium shots, long shots,\u201d said Bruce. \u201cIt looks so wonderful in Zoom, all these different perspectives and viewpoints. Everyone found a space in their homes and adjusted their screens so their bodies can be seen. People were moving through their homes in an improvised way, pushing through space.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Dance and Movement<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For his online dance class, Bruce paired up dancers in their own \u201crooms,\u201d where they were assigned to create a movement piece.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One student said that even though they weren\u2019t all in the same space, the music helped them connect with everyone else in the meeting. \u201cThat was heart-warming to hear that they could still feel that connection even though they aren\u2019t in same physical space,\u201d Bruce added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cZoom Burnout is a Real Thing\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

At Stagebridge\u2019s urging, most instructors shortened their classes for this digital format, from two hours to an hour and a half tops because as Bruce said, \u201cZoom burnout is a real thing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every 20 minutes, participants are instructed to take a quick break, find something beautiful to look at 20 feet away and focus on that for 20 seconds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Digital Programming is Breaking Boundaries<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stagebridge is now halfway through their online programs and have retained about 65% of their usual in-person registration. \u201cStudents felt comfortable to say, \u2018This doesn\u2019t work for me, can we figure out a better way to do this?’\u201d said Julius. \u201cIn this way, we are having the students be the catalysts for re-framing classes in this context.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Source:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stagebridge Explores an Infinite Digital Landscape<\/em>. Lifetime arts. (2020, August 13). Retrieved September 10, 2021, from https:\/\/www.lifetimearts.org\/blog\/2020\/08\/13\/stagebridge-explores-infinite-digital-landscape\/.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Comment:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article feels very relevant because of how heavily our society had to adapt and rely on remote technologies like Zoom the past year or two due to the pandemic. It seems like with the pandemic and with people being more familiar with these technologies now, that they won’t be going away anytime soon. Stagebridge is an organization specifically geared towards older adults, so it is cool to hear their adaptations for continuing active classes and social engagement via Zoom during the COVID outbreak. There is definitely a stereotype about older adults not being tech-saavy or able to utilize things like Zoom maybe as well as younger generations. But this article shows that even if there are difficulties in using Zoom (as we all have) it turned out to be a very practical and useful tool for older adults. And may even be a consideration not just for digital mobility, but physical mobility too if people with limitations can still get social connection online without needing to go anywhere. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Teaching Artist Bruce Bierman instructs participants during his virtual devised theatre class, offered through Stagebridge\u2019s Perfoming Arts Institute. Stagebridge is the nation\u2019s oldest and most renowned theatre company for older adults. Founded in Oakland, CA in 1978 by Dr. Stuart Kendall, the organization\u2019s mission is to enrich the lives of older adults and their communities through […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":7954,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-7953","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/42"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7953"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7953\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7955,"href":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7953\/revisions\/7955"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desis.osu.edu\/seniorthesis\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}