Music theatre 2.0: re-imagining musicking in the zoom space

COVID-19 has invariably changed the way that musicking occurs in our communities, and yet it has also signalled an increased need for activities that foster connectivity, health, and creativity. The pandemic highlights challenges of the digital divide, including engaging with and supporting older adults in online forums (see, for example, Adams et al. 2005; Selwyn et al. 2004; and Siriaraya et al. 2012). In this paper, we report on the creation of an online music theatre program for older adults in a mid-sized Canadian city from February to June, 2020. Using Zoom, we introduced singing, dancing, improvisation, and community in weekly gatherings with this group of non-professionals. Along with the usual challenges concerning access and participants' technological facility, liveness, and audio and video latency, we nevertheless made several discoveries about the unique possibilities of community musicking with older adults over Zoom. As we discovered, translating the acts of singing and dancing from live to digital meant re-defining them. Sound, silence, movement, synchronicity, immediacy, and space all took on new meaning. Following the work of Nina Eidsheim on sensing sound (2015), we ask, what does it mean to ‘see’ singing? What does silence mean in musical interactions in this medium? What contributes to a sense of ‘realness’ in this medium? How does the fluidity of space and place contribute to the experience of performing as part of a group in this environment? How can one sing and dance responsively in this medium? Through an exploration of some of the unexpected gains of creative music theatre making with older adults on Zoom, we suggest that creative initiatives that engage our aging population over Zoom may offer the opportunity to re-define the very way we conceive of these creative acts.