Thanks to the world wide pandemic and the subsequent lockdown, theatrical plays and theaters around the world took a huge hit. Now, theater practitioners are planning to follow the footsteps of filmmakers and are finding ways to bring plays to your home, by teaming up with popular OTT streaming platforms.
Theatrical plays are stories acted out to a live audience. By recording the performance beforehand and then making it available for anybody to consume anytime, anywhere makes these plays a whole new version of the artform. Playwrights and stage directors around the globe have now adapted to this new style of the artform and creating new plays accordingly.
This new style has brought on mixed reviews from multiple theater directors. Atul Satya Kaushik, theatre director and founder of The Films and Theatre Society, is not a fan of this new “fad”, as he puts it. He does not like watching plays through a screen, and prefers to watch the performances live. He is, however, not against this new artform as it still promotes theatrical performances to a new audience. English playwright and director Mahesh Dattani also sees advantages in “theatres going online, on OTTs”. Due to the versatility offered by the digital platform, people can watch plays on the go, pause if need be and continue where they left off in their free time.
With theaters and auditoriums still closed around the world, play directors have no choice but to take up this new style of theatrical plays. There are three possible outcomes for these new digital plays; One – they do not actually do well on OTTs. Theater fans will watch these new plays as they roll out on the digital platform but then will return to theaters as soon as it becomes safe to do so. Two – this new artform attracts/ creates a new niche audience for these plays. Hardcore theater buffs will return to auditoriums once it is safe to do so, but now with a new target audience, theater directors will continue to release plays on OTT platforms. Three – this new artform becomes a resounding success among most theater buffs. Its new popularity might pose a danger to the release of plays in old school auditoriums, but OTTs platforms will likely return with better deals and offers for playwrights and theater directors to expand the artform on the digital stage.
Most likely we will see a version of two and three happening simultaneously. There is still time before theatrical auditoriums can be opened (or fully opened), so theater directors should take full advantage and try to attract as many new fans for the artform as possible. Continuing to release on OTT platforms will diversify their revenue streams as well as open up the possibility for creating an entirely new fanbase.