Individual and Community Crises in a Pandemic: The Social Theater of Ambulatory Care

Abstract

This article offers a preliminary diagnosis of Polish social theaters with regard to the crises of the individual and the community during the Covid-19 pandemic. The interpretive framework is Lidia Zamkow’s concept of the theater of ambulatory care, which allows us to locate the activity of social theaters in the context of Michel de Certeau’s tactics and Jack Halberstam’s low theories. The theater of ambulatory care recognizes the needs of individuals and communities in a pandemic crisis and reacts to them in different ways. We distinguish and describe three ideal types of diagnoses and the resulting treatments that theaters of ambulatory care use in a pandemic: therapy, conjuring, and revolution. The article is based on materials collected during two studies: a funded research project on the anthropological and social activity of the Węgajty Theater, carried out at the Institute of Art of the Polish Academy of Sciences, and a survey among theater staff during the pandemic, initiated by the Zbigniew Raszewski Theater Institute in Warsaw. (Trans. K. Kułakowska)

A Community in Quarantine: The Social Worlds of Alternative Theater During the Pandemic

“…An example of such action is the group that -even before the nationwide campaign of sewing face-masks emerged -had mobilized over forty people in its community who were willing to help, could sew, and had sewing machines. "We came up with initiatives that could revolve around making connections in order to start with things that could bring Initiating theatrical activities online proved to be a helpful strategy for maintaining bonds between people (Kułakowska et al 2020). In this context, as one of the respondents said, "being together was taken away from us, but at the same time -rebuilt" (FGI_1).…”

“…Based on the same research, we also wrote an article on selected online and offline initiatives undertaken by "the social theaters of ambulatory care" during the pandemic(Kułakowska et al 2020). …”