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According to Sheridan Thomas, teaching comedic timing is nearly impossible through a computer screen. Thomas, a teacher of acting and directing at Tufts University, is 70 years old and never had to teach online before COVID-19. She had to adjust to tools like Zoom to conduct her comedic Shakespeare class, and lagging WiFi made a mess of the course.
“People are recognizing that we artists live off this to a higher degree, versus the assumption that we do this just for fun.”
“I’m concerned for the economic welfare and health of our artists, but I’m not afraid and not nervous about what creativity is actually taking place right now.”
While the Afro Flow crew usually attracts around 40-50 attendees at a regular class, after just one week of streaming, they have more than 7,000 views on Facebook alone. Salmon Jones says she's had attendees from as close by as Northeastern, to folks tuning in from Barbados.
Here she is, boys! Here she is, world! Here’s Rose!
And in Lucy Kirkwood’s extraordinary play The Children, this Rose shows up out of the blue at the ramshackle seaside cottage ...
In Max Posner’s The Treasurer, a middle-aged man who doesn’t love his mother—and seems to hate himself for it—finds himself in the position of having to take charge ...
It’s all about symbolism. And if you can get past the Shakespearean speech and structure, it works.
To show how far these artists have come even over the past few months—through Boston Music Awards wins, headline performances, and national media attention—we brought them together for a special shoot, Vanity Fair-style.
Besides the voices, the sound effects, like wind or foot-stomps and the open-tuned guitars, Bodkin introduces his shows with the sort of accessible yet scholarly lore that eases listeners into his worlds.
“A lot of people in Boston don’t associate Malcolm X with being a Boston figure. They don’t claim him. Let’s rediscover our own heroes and reclaim them and understand the complexities of who they were.”
