Directing in a time of the plague

We call the medevial times for the dark ages, maybe because we have read about how our view of God was a punisher in those days. Maybe because it is so far away from our time, or maybe it is because of the plague. The "Black Death", sound so frightening, and has until 2020 seemed like something we will never meet again. But with the covid sars 19 virus, we have had to meet the dark ages all over again, in our societies and in our own lives. In our worklives and in our creative business.

Working as a stagedirector in the time of covid 19, is truly a challenge but also an opportunity. I have had the luck to be able to have one premiere for an audience in september 2020 (Jag är Drottning, Månteatern) , but after that, the restrictions hardened, and my production at Norrlandsoperan, V/S, has until now only had an opening for the staff. I got to film the production, which is now in editing. Until then, the opportunity for me, is concentration, deepening ideas and writing. I am currently working with the libretto for the new opera "2021", which is the next production from my own company Freebird Malmö. Composer will be Andrea Tarrodi. More about that later.

For my writing, I have had the great honour and privilege to be chosen for a residency at Hedlandet Residens https://hedlandetresidens.se/

Thanks to Sophie Holgersson at Hedlandet, I now for some weeks in march, april and may, have an inspiring researching place for all the books on women's history that I have borrowed and bought. Fun and invigorating!

So, right now, instead of creating new work with people on a stage, I create new work and deepen my ideas in my head. And try to feel thankful for that, remembering that Shakespeare wrote three of his big ones during the lock down of London in 1605.