Breaking out of the box(es)Traumatic times have heralded new directions and forms of art, such as the development of the twentieth-century avant-garde movements of Constructivism, Bauhaus, Dada and Surrealism in the years immediately following World War I. Whether the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic will bring about comparable artistic paradigm shifts remains to be seen. But at moments of historical crisis, artists look to transform the harsh realities of the day into representations of a quite different and more visionary future. As the pandemic of the early 2020s divided people physically, artists sought new ways to bring them back together, strengthen their bonds and establish new creative modalities for their interactions.One such initiative was Collaborative Solutions for the Performing Arts: A Telepresence Stage, led by telematic artists and researchers Paul Sermon (Principal Investigator, University of Brighton, UK) and Steve Dixon (Co-Investigator, LASALLE College of the Arts, University of the Arts Singapore), together with research consultants Sita Popat Taylor, Satinder Gill and Randall Packer. It responded to the crisis in the live performing arts following the closure of theatres and the inability of performers to devise, create and rehearse together in person during lockdowns. The Telepresence Stage project countered both by providing a new and highly 'theatrical' stage platform for live performances online, and by designing visually immersive stage settings where remote individual performers could meet, rehearse and perform together in a digital 'third space' using videoconferencing tools.