In March 2020, the rapid spread of the novel coronavirus COVID-19 led to global shutdowns and stay-at-home orders. The closures lasted months, with some countries and localities reopening only to close again within weeks when new variants of the virus would begin to spread. The closures triggered a recession in the global economy. Countless lives were lost, and many continue to suffer the lasting health effects of COVID-19.

During this same period, the murder of George Floyd, a Black man killed by the hands of police officers in Minneapolis, led to international protests and the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement. Right-wing extremism in several countries, including the United States, fueled violent racism against Asian and Pacific Islander communities.

In the performing arts profession, the pandemic had devastating and unprecedented impacts on the livelihoods of artists, organizations, and staff. Some theatres closed permanently. The pandemic triggered a cascade of changes in leadership, with many long-serving artistic and managing directors stepping aside. In the United States, a subset of the Black Lives Matter movement called We See You White American Theatre, or #WSYWAT, pushed for change that would address longstanding systemic racism within the industry.

Some individual artists changed careers while others tried to find alternative ways to create. Artists used social media and video communication tools like Zoom to create virtual readings and performances. Some theatre companies tapped into their archives of performance recordings to offer virtual audiences streaming content while their buildings remained closed.

That all of this was happening in the digital age reflected a new challenge of documentation and preservation for what is already an ephemeral art form. In October 2020, the Ransom Center launched the Theatre 2020 project as a way of documenting the impact of the pandemic and related events on the performing arts profession. Through social media, the press, and direct invitations to artists and organizations around the world, participants registered for the project online. The Ransom Center provided a link to participants that they could use throughout the collecting period to upload digital files that reflected their experiences of the pandemic. It should be noted that the majority of direct invitations went unanswered, or with a brief response to say that staff reductions at theatre companies meant there was nobody who could take the lead in participating in the project on behalf of the organization--reflecting the challenge of collecting in moments of crisis.

The collection includes emails, photographs, virtual performance recordings, publicity material, press releases, news articles, personal reflections, and other records of the time. Some participants expressed frustration that they wanted to participate but didn’t have digital documents that reflected their experience. Oral history interviews were recorded over Zoom to try to fill this gap. Some participants granted the Ransom Center permissions to make their files available through the digital collections portal. The remaining files are accessible in the Ransom Center’s onsite Reading and Viewing Room.

The collecting phase ended in November 2022. After two years, over 200 participants, primarily from the United Kingdom and United States, submitted over 3,000 digital files to the project.