EVENTS AND PRODUCTIONS In 2020 NIDA may have been one of the most active performing arts venues in the world. In response to the COVID-19 crisis, the school postponed its planned June Season of Student Productions, pivoting instead to launch the Digital Theatre Festival, held in August. The Digital Theatre Festival brought the unique vision and expertise of new and established directors to the field of online storytelling. The projects comprised six new works – featuring transmedia storytelling, interactive elements and user-generated content over platforms such as Twitch, YouTube, Zoom and Instagram – written specifically for the online digital space. International collaborators to the Digital Theatre Festival included: → Sean Stewart – Primetime Emmy Award–winning, Alternate Reality Game (ARG) pioneer, who worked with NIDA students from Los Angeles; → Nigel Jamieson – renowned theatre and event director and director of 2000’s Sydney Olympic Games Opening Ceremony; and → Katy Alexander – former resident director at California Institute of Arts, who trained with Robert Lepage and The Builders Association (NYC).
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Australia-based guest artists in the Digital Theatre Festival included: → Leticia Cáceres – multi-awardwinning former Associate Director of Melbourne Theatre Company and Queensland Theatre Company; → Pierce Wilcox – Artistic Director of Crack X, opera librettist, Google Creative Lab collaborator and 2012 NIDA Directing alumnus; and → Deborah Pollard – Australia Council New Media Arts Fellow and former Artistic Director of Salamanca Theatre Company and Urban Theatre Projects. Across six shows, NIDA’s Digital Theatre Festival was attended by over 3,336 virtual audience members – as friends and households gathered around screens. This digital pivot was covered by national media such as the Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and ABC TV, as well as international media such as The Guardian and Forbes. The Digital Theatre Festival established NIDA globally as an innovative, future-focused education institution. As CEO Liz Hughes said, ‘Applying incredible innovation and out-of-the-box thinking at every moment, we might just be seeing the invention of another future for the performing arts.
This future pushes the boundaries of storytelling and technological platforms, embeds the audience in the experience and evokes age-old wonder and surprise.’ At a time where theatres around the world were still mostly shuttered, NIDA was able to reopen with reduced capacity and masked, physically distanced audiences for live performances in the October Season of Student Productions. NIDA production and venues teams adapted quickly as parameters changed – early restrictions allowed for 25% audience capacity, which later changed to 50%. Despite the challenges of these changes, our theatres were consistently filled to over 80% of their COVID-safe capacity, and NIDA safely welcomed 2,585 people to live performances including: → Next to Normal, a landmark musical production by Darren Yap (Diving for Pearls, Jesus wants me for a Sunbeam, Double Delicious) which premiered on Broadway in 2009 and won three Tony Awards with its unflinching exploration of grief, suicide, drug abuse and ethics in modern psychiatry. Celebrated director, actor and NIDA alumnus Yap’s production featured spectacular choreography from dancer, singer and choreographer
