Casting off restrictions
New lines of communication are forming as a result of the restrictions that many of us are dealing with. We might not be able to see people in other countries, in close proximity, but we can have conversations about collaborating across borders in ways we might not have considered before.
Several years ago, I was in tricky situation with a project I was developing in an African country. Some associates involved in the work had managed to upset influential people who pulled strings in government circles. I was stuck in London, unable to get a work permit visa to arrive in the country to rehearse a production of a new show.
I was stuck at home, waiting for the situation to change, so I decided to practise the music well enough to get it under my fingers. I made recordings of each scene on WhatsApp and sent them to the ensemble of performers, thousands of miles away. They were able to use those recordings to learn the music in preparation for my arrival. This process went on for almost two weeks.
Eventually, I was granted a work permit visa and was able to travel into the country. Thankfully, we hadn’t wasted too much time in the development of our show, since the performers had already learnt the music in the interim.
The Covid-19 hiatus requires me to rely on that experience right now, and I’m currently doing something similar with other colleagues in Africa. Who knows what the future holds?
