Shatterbox Theatre

Georgia Papanicolaou: Artistic director, Founder Picton, Ontario

How has the pandemic affected you?

Theatre is such a huge part of my life. I spend many months and hours every day planning, rehearsing and producing theatrical works with my creative team. When the pandemic hit and public spaces shut down overnight, all of that came to a sudden halt. I was extremely anxious, nervous and sad. This was going to be Shatterbox’s biggest season yet, featuring incredibly talented young people that we had been mentoring for almost a year. All the rights for our season had already been paid for and we were almost finished putting our opening musical show together and now we weren’t sure

Georgia speaks with photographer Sean Ferguson on Shattercast

if we were going to be able to proceed with it. We had just put a sponsorship program together to approach potential supporters. As a non-profit we rely on ticket sales and sponsorships and without [these] it will be extremely difficult for us to continue. We have postponed the show and have plans to produce it when the time is right, and are hoping that our patrons and sponsors will step up and support the work we do for our community and young people in the arts.

How have you made technology work for you?

Technology has allowed us to not only stay connected and rehearse, but to delve deeper into the material we are exploring and producing. We have been able to develop characters and themes further than we have before. It is very exciting to see the evolution of the show. I’ve also taken the opportunity to create a new video series while in quarantine for youtube called Shattercast. I wanted to highlight the actors, musicians, artists and tech crew in depth that create the Shatterbox experience. This is a unique opportunity for our community to not only get to know the faces behind the scenes that produce the shows they see but to see what goes into putting a production together.

Where have you found inspiration?

What has brought me the most joy and inspiration is the continued dedication and support of the Shatterbox team. We’ve learned so much more about each other as people and just how resilient we can be. We share our thoughts, our hopes, our fears and our stories with each other at least twice a week when we get together online. I’m very proud of the cast & crew for staying connected and positive, for choosing to continue to work on the show during these difficult times and keeping the art of theatre alive. When we finally get to grace the stage again, it is going to be magical!

Shatterbox Theatre cast takes a bow

How has this experience affected your perception of the importance of art and artists?

The arts have always helped us get through adversity. Artists document our history, our stories, they spark important conversations and empower those in our communities by giving them a voice. The arts are cathartic and healing. They bring communities together during difficult times. We saw that first hand during this pandemic with the theatrical streams online, families playing music together and creating videos to share with the world, the art created in isolation shared in online exhibits, the at home concerts from musicians that we can all tune into online to connect and bring a moment of joy and hope in our lives.

Spring Awakening, delayed poster

Art is more important now than it has ever been and it will always have a place in our communities. We may have an uphill climb to get back to where we were before this all started, but I have faith we will get there and it will be glorious!

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