Tales from a Time of Covid 19 – Second in a series

ALL ABOUT THE ARTS

Many of the tales being told to me are not completely devastating, some actually showing glimmers of hope for better things to come, coupled to remarkable survival instincts, as this one from E.F. – a young actress friend shows:

COVID has essentially completely halted everything. No healthy theatre business for at least another 6-8 months… no money or resources to produce work virtually… my day job as a nanny is gone. So I’ve moved back home. It feels like a huge step back and it has been demoralizing that the government openly considers this business and our livelihoods non essential.

I feel especially bad for working artists that have families, partners, and health insurance that has just been made harder to keep. I’m fortunate that I am young enough to still be largely not tethered by responsibility. But the feeling of lost time is huge. A year not spent pursuing my dream feels like a huge loss.

I’ve been remotely collaborating on writing two different shows, taken up water-coloring, baking bread, making kimchi… cooking a lot. Having a break from theatre has given me the spark and interest in it back again. It feels like something playful and light again, as opposed to something bogged down by career expectations

I am currently getting certified to become a holistic health coach. I plan to make that my day job as I continue to pursue performing. This pandemic has made me realize how unhappy I was in my day jobs, and that I can supplement my acting career with something I’m passionate about and that doesn’t take away from theatre or make me less of an artist.

Other stories come from artists not on the way up but already there at the top of their game, yet still hopeful for better times to come. Such is the case with O.D.L.M., a conductor and composer and friend- a fellow Cuban living in the UK…

Hola Rafael! The pandemic has affected me in that in the UK we were shut down for a long while, thus not allowing me to go out. I wasn’t so much affected financially, but ended up having to order everything food, etc. on line. However, being shut down gave me a chance to concentrate much more on my composing and other projects that had been waiting for my attention. This has been very rewarding.

We will continue to share these as they come in.

Rafael de Acha http://www.RafaelMusicNotes.com

Published by ALL ABOUT THE ARTS

Rafael de Acha has enjoyed a distinguished career in the arts as a performer, stage director, producer, and educator. He was born and grew up in Cuba. At the age of 17 he moved to the United States to study Drama at the University of Minnesota, and later Languages at L.A. City College, Music at the Juilliard School of Music, at the University of Cincinnati’s College Conservatory of Music, and at the New England Conservatory of Music, from which he received the Master's degree. He has taught courses on the History of Music at the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music and at Florida International University, and contributed writings and reviews to Seen and Heard International (www.seenandheard-international.com ) and to this blog. He co-founded the award-winning New Theatre in Coral Gables, Florida, where he produced and staged twenty seasons of classical and contemporary theater, including fifty world premieres of plays that went on to have international and national productions on and off Broadway, including Ana in the Tropics by Nilo Cruz (Pulitzer Prize for Drama 2002 and Tony Nomination 2003.) In 2006 he was presented with a citation from The Dade County Cultural Affairs Council for “trailblazing contributions to the arts in South Florida.”