Theatre
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
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 &
Georgia speaks with photographer Sean Ferguson on Shattercast
Umbrella, Summer, 2020 - 10
