The coronavirus may be a world pandemic, but creatives aren’t letting the virus interrupt their workflow. The team at local organization TheatreSquared has curated “Play On,” an educational and instructional series that will highlight T2 staff and teach viewers how to DIY certain theatre projects at home.

Most videos will include a prompt for students to create something on their own, and T2 will encourage them to share. The Idle Class talked with Morgan Hicks, T2 co-founder and education/program development director, about what “Play On” is all about. 

How did the concept for “Play On” come about? 

TheatreSquared has a wonderful relationship with theatre teachers around the state, and we’ve been  working on creating content for years.  We have a summer Professional Development Institute and we share lesson plans and curriculum.  We also spend a lot of time in classes through In-school residencies.  The “Play On” concept, though, absolutely came out of a response to COVID-19. We were already trying to figure out how to migrate the residencies that we had planned for the spring into a format that could be delivered remotely when we began to hear from teachers all over the country who were being thrown into this new world of delivering distance learning and were looking for help. We decided that we were in a great position to create some content that could be helpful during this weird new time.
What is the goal/hopeful outcome of this project?
Our goal is to provide a daily engagement high and high school theatre students. We are planning to introduce them to members of the team at a professional regional theatre and also provide some prompts for projects that can be done at home. Our biggest hope is that this content is helpful to the teachers who work so hard to foster a love of theatre in their students.
What’s the main focus?
Our focus is on serving teachers and students while highlighting the incredible team of artists that we have working at TheatreSquared. This is a strange time for everyone, and we feel that it is the job of a theatre to bring people together. This is one way that, even while we can’t invite people into our physical home, we can still invite people to learn a little bit more about the work that we do.
TheatreSquared will post a new video every day at 9 a.m. Follow TheatreSquared on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.
Here’s what the schedule looks like: 
Monday Meetings With Morgan:  A check-in with teachers and a plan for the week
Tech Tuesdays:  A tech tutorial with a “make it at home” activity for students
Writing on Wednesdays:  A visit with a writer with a creative writing prompt for students
TheatreSquared Thursday:  Learning about the business of a professional theatre
Performance Friday:  An interview with a professional performer with a guided activity for students