Offering one of the first scholarly examinations of digital and distanced performance since the
global shutdown of theaters in March 2020 Barbara Fuchs provides both a record of the changes
and a framework for thinking through theater's transformation. Though born of necessity recent
productions offer a new world of practice from multi-platform plays on Zoom WhatsApp and
Instagram to enhancement via filters and augmented reality to urban distanced theater that
enlivens streetscapes and building courtyards. Based largely outside the commercial theater
these productions transcend geographic and financial barriers to access new audiences while
offering a lifeline to artists. This study charts how virtual theater puts pressure on existing
assumptions and definitions transforming the conditions of both theater-making and viewership.
How are participatory site-specific or devised theater altered under physical-distancing
requirements? How do digital productions blur the line between film and theater? What does
liveness mean in a time of pandemic? In its seven chapters Theater of Lockdown focuses on
digital and distanced productions from the Americas Europe and Australia offering scholarly
analysis and interviews. Productions examined include Theater in Quarantine's closet work in
New York Forced Entertainment's (Sheffield UK) End Meeting for All I II and III the work
of Madrid-based company Grumelot and the virtuosic showmanship of EFE Tres in Mexico City.
