Abstract
The outbreak of the SARS-CoV-2 and the diffusion of the COVID-19 disease had and still has a huge impact on the world's population. The pandemic has also psychological implications and online activities can help to support people experiencing its consequences. The project COVID-19 LiTraPan aims to contribute to meet the needs that emerged during the pandemic in the field of humanistic higher education and quality assurance of distance learning. The line of research consists of the creation and study of corpora of works inspired and composed during the health emergency, and of their use for distance learning and discomfort management. In the first phase of development of the project, the author's choice fell on the Spanish and Catalan microtheatre production published online as a result of the initiative #Coronvirusplays, launched by the playwright Jordi Casanovas on 13 March 2020, which ran until 8 May 2020. In this contribution, the author synthetizes the first results of the investigation and distance learning activities in the framework of the COVID-19 LiTraPan project.
TopIntroduction
The worldwide outbreak of the SARS-CoV-2 and the global diffusion of the COVID-19 disease had and still has a huge impact on the world's population and radically transformed the life of the planet's inhabitants (Sohrabi et al., 2020; Sun et al., 2020). Indeed, this is an epochal event: the Spanish flu pandemic dates back to 1918-1920, while other epidemics had a heavy but different impact, as was the case with the HIV, the SARS, Ebola, and the MERS (Coronaviridae Study Group of the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses, 2020).
In the present situation, from the very beginning, the infection showed an uncommon virulence and aggression, it soon spread and became a worldwide health problem (She et al., 2020; Cheng & Shan, 2020). Consequently, people had to face with limitations in everyday life, social relationships, leisure activities and ways of working. As to be expected, the pandemic had also psychological implications and issues, such as typical acute stress responses, because it suddenly and unpredictably created a rapid and diffuse uncertainty, undermining the conviction of both our personal and societal sense of safety. The negative psychological impact of a pandemic, of the consequent quarantine and of other measures to combat it is well-known, due to its consequences for subjective as well as collective psychological health; although, this type of relapse is less visible than others (Brooks et al., 2020), and that is why psychological health is probably the most neglected aspect of the actual situation (Schimmenti et al., 2020, p. 41; Marazziti, 2020, pp. 39-40).
From a psychological point of view, the present pandemic needs attention and interventions in different fields of everyday life, such as supporting people in quarantine to cope with reclusion, isolation and other restrictions (Brooks et al., 2020). It also must be taken into consideration the unavoidable long-term psychological disorders and how to prevent them (Xiang et al., 2020; Srivatsa & Stewart, 2020; Marazziti & Stahl, in press) as well as the psychologically negative impact of the resulting economic crisis (Marazziti et al., 2020).
The most evident individual and societal reaction to this situation is the emergence of fear. According to recent studies (e.g. Schimmenti et al., 2020), at a psychological level the experiences related to fears and different forms of anxiety linked to the pandemic are manifested in four domains: corporal, interpersonal, cognitive and behavioral. The survey carried out describes these four domains and their characteristics and proposes some approach methodologies to manage their consequences (Schimmenti et al. 2020, 41). The classification of the four fear domains can be summarized as follows:
Key Terms in this Chapter
Postdramatic Theatre: Performative aesthetic which no longer necessarily focuses on the dramatic text as the medium which leads theatre. Essentially it is a devised, non-literary, theatre/performance that is made collaboratively.
Microtheatre: Small performances, in small spaces—not always intended for theatrical performance—frequently used for political purposes. Flexible format that allows the playwright bringing the audience closer to diverse themes, transmitting values, and achieving positioning.
Monologue: A speech given by a single character. It was traditionally a device used in theatre—a speech to be given on stage—, but in Postmodern aesthetics it refers also to other literary genres and artistic languages (film, etc.).
ICT in Education: ICT enables the use of innovative educational resources and the renewal of learning methods, establishing a more active collaboration of students and the simultaneous acquisition of technological knowledge. ICT can complement, enrich, and transform education for the better.
Audience Involvement: The process of actively involving the Audience in the communication act, in order to increase their engagement with the message. Its aim is to inspire awareness (and dissent), stance and even action.
COVID-19 Pandemic: Pandemic of Coronavirus disease 2019, caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). It was identified in December 2019 in Wuhan, China. The WHO declared the outbreak of a public health emergency of international concern in January 2020 and a pandemic in March 2020.
Political Theatricality: The sense of relations between rulers and ruled, originally (re)interpreted and re-expressed by theatre and performance. It expresses an ethos of theatricality which implies Politics, Society, Identity and Performative Arts.