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TEACHING THE PERFORMATIVE ART IN A 

PANDEMIC-PRONE ERA: CRITICAL ISSUES AND 

CHALLENGES, PROSPECTS AND PROGNOSIS 

                                                                     

Ekweariri, Chidiebere S. PhD. 
Department of Theatre Arts, Alvan Ikoku Federal College of Education 

Owerri, Imo State. elderses5@yahoo.com 
 

Iwuoha, Emmanuel. A 
Department of English Language And Literature 

Alvan Ikoku Federal College of Education 

Owerri, Imo State. iwuohae22@gmail.com 

Abstract 

Performance is an aggregation of people who are drawn together 

to enjoy the communion of life which is the theatre experience. 

Their appetite for art and the insatiable quest to communicate, 

educate, entertain and provide useful information requires that they 

must comingle, interact physically, engage in rehearsals and 

associate with the audience. Indeed, it calls for many hands, for 

teamwork during which everyone involved feels, thinks and 

utilizes the imagination to bring results. This interaction and 

comingling are not without risks and challenges, especially given 

the number of persons and materials involved in the pre and post-

production processes. An investigation by the writers reveals that 

since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, performative 

studies have suffered a setback. Rehearsals are no longer conducted 

effectively as there are mutual distrusts amongst everyone. 

Scepticism has set in, the fear factor has increased and the 

confidence to practically comingle again has been at the lowest 

ebb. Even the use of face masks as advised by the government and 

international agencies has not done much because of its potential 

to affect the respiratory efficiency of actors as rehearsals are 

usually vigorous and involve energy-sapping activities. However, 

it is the opinion of the writers that new approaches and innovations 

such as digital theatre and online teaching with segmented 

mailto:elderses5@yahoo.com


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rehearsals, expansion and well-equipped classrooms, reduction of 

new intake and total overhaul of the teaching methodologies should 

be employed. These in the long run will provide the magic wand 

that will revitalize the performative art and ensure its continuous 

survival. 

Keywords: teaching, performative arts, critical issues, prospect 

and prognosis 

 

Introduction 

Whether theatre arts, creative arts, communication arts or 

performing arts, we refer to a discipline of creative artistry and 

performance. The nature of performance involves a 

conglomeration of people who are saddled with the responsibility 

of harnessing artistic talents through rehearsals and productions for 

the satisfaction of the audience. Nwamuo (2006:p.14) argues that:  

a theatre audience is a group of people drawn to a theatrical 

event by the appetite for art at a certain time and place and 

that is aware of itself as a homogeneous group of art lovers. 

The theatre audience is drawn together by the social as 

well as the artistic experience called the theatre and is a 

group that has come to the event of the live performance.  

 

As a collaborative art form, it “produces artistic goods and 

services” (Ekweariri, 2014. p. 96) and further concerns itself “with 

the presentation of the real or imagined event by actors to a specific 

audience at a specific place” (Nwamuo, 2017: p. 10). Through this 

process, mutually beneficial ideas are shared for artistic gains while 

serious attention is given to knotty theatrical issues. Going by the 

above, artists and collaborators comingle freely without inhibitions 

and engage in diverse pre and post-production processes. Within 

this period, artists’ imaginative impetuses and creative abilities are 

stretched to the limit in an attempt to authenticate or reflect societal 

happenings and challenges.  Most times, rehearsals drag for weeks 



Ekweariri & Iwuoha: Teaching the performative art in a pan 

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depending on the nature of the play and the calibre of artists 

involved.  

However, the prevalence of the COVID-19 pandemic 

changed very many things in the performative art discipline. 

Indeed, the COVID-19 insurgency has placed very serious 

constraints on the coming ability, associability, collaborativeness 

and practicability of performative courses on one hand and the 

involvement of audience members on the other hand. Such 

constraints have not only become antithetical and debilitatingly 

suffocating but have also posed a great obstacle to the survival of 

live productions. Nowadays, rehearsals are no longer conducted 

effectively as there are mutual distrusts amongst everyone. 

Scepticism has set in, the fear factor has increased and the 

confidence to practically comingle again has been at the lowest 

ebb.  

Be that as it may, this paper is poised to find ways possible 

to navigate these constraints and probably channel them to better 

advantage of the performative arts. For this research, therefore, 

performative, creative, communication and theatre arts are going to 

be used interchangeably.  

 

Theoretical framework 

This paper is anchored on the Theory of Constraints (TOC). 

It was propounded by Dr Eliyahu Goldratt and introduced to a wide 

audience through his bestselling 1984 novel, “The Goal”. Since 

then, it has continued to evolve and has influenced manufacturing 

processes and production. The core concept of the Theory of 

Constraints is that every process has a single constraint and that 

total process throughput can only be improved when the constraint 

is improved. A very important corollary to this is that spending 

time optimizing non-constraints will not provide significant 

benefits; only improvements to the constraint will further the goal 

(achieving more profit). Thus, the Theory of Constraints seeks to 

provide a precise and sustained focus on improving the current 



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constraint until it no longer limits throughput, at which point the 

focus moves to the next constraint. The underlying power of TOC 

flows from its ability to generate a tremendously strong focus 

towards a single goal (profit) and towards removing the principal 

impediment (constraint) to achieving more of that goal. Goldratt 

considers focus to be the essence of TOC. The Theory of 

Constraints takes a scientific approach to improvement. It 

hypothesizes that every complex system, including manufacturing 

processes, consists of multiple linked activities, one of which acts 

as a constraint upon the entire system (i.e. the constraint activity is 

the “weakest link in the chain”). Indeed, the ultimate goal of every 

manufacturing company is to make a profit – both in the short term 

and in the long term. The Theory of Constraints provides a 

powerful set of tools for helping to achieve that goal, including The 

Five Focusing Steps (a methodology for identifying and 

eliminating constraints); The Thinking Processes (tools for 

analyzing and resolving problems) and Throughput accounting (a 

method for measuring performance and guiding management 

decisions) (https://www.leanproduction.com/theory-of-

constraints/). 

One of the appealing characteristics of the Theory of 

Constraints is that it inherently prioritizes improvement activities. 

The top priority is always the current constraint. In environments 

where there is an urgent need to improve, TOC offers a highly 

focused methodology for creating rapid improvement. Constraints 

are of course anything that prevents the organization from making 

progress towards its goal. In manufacturing processes, constraints 

are often referred to as bottlenecks. Interestingly, constraints can 

take many forms other than equipment. Indeed, it has always been 

argued that every process has a constraint (bottleneck) and 

focusing improvement efforts on that constraint is the fastest and 

most effective path to improved profitability. It argues that the most 

common form of constraint (by far) is the policy constraint. Since 

policy constraints often stem from long-established and widely 



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accepted policies, they can be particularly difficult to identify and 

even harder to overcome. It is typically much easier for an external 

party to identify policy constraints since an external party is less 

likely to take existing policies for granted. When a policy constraint 

is associated with a firmly entrenched paradigm, a significant 

investment in training and coaching is likely to be required to 

change the paradigm and eliminate the constraint. 

Theatre is a manufacturing plant where artistic goods 

and services are produced. These products may not be in 

tangible form as espoused by Gondo (2008. P.11), yet, they are 

aimed towards satisfying the audience, who are often regarded 

as the better half of the performance. With the prevalence of 

COVID-19 pandemic, there have been serious constraints on the 

production of artistic goods and services. The situation is 

further exacerbated by the policy of the government that social 

distancing must be observed, face masks must be worn and 

constant washing of hands strictly adhered to if performances 

must take place. Theatre involves the gathering of actors in a 

confined space called theatre, and with the above directives, 

coupled with the way most theatres are structured, it becomes 

practically difficult to engage in rehearsals without running into 

problems. However, this paper desires to find ways possible to 

navigate the constraints and ensure the survival and sustenance 

of theatre practice. 

 

The Nature of Performance in the Pandemic Era 

The period of the COVID-19 pandemic was a serious 

and challenging era not only for the artistic discipline but also 

for every aspect of humanity. It ravaged the economy and 

ridiculed the ingenuity, expertise; intellectual sophistry and 

mental prowess of the world elites. It demystified the meaning 

of existence as there appeared to be no meaningful ways to 

combat it. At a point, people felt tired of staying indoors amid 

lack, hunger and deprivation, and in a desperate act of survival, 



AMA: Journal of Theatre and Cultural Studies 

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decided to take their destinies into their hands. This act of 

survival also manifested itself in the performative discipline. 

Therefore, it will be illogical to argue that theatre productions 

died completely during the pandemic era, rather the point of 

argument is that the frequencies with which performances were 

mounted were on a lower ebb. The injunction that events 

involving a larger number of persons should be jettisoned while 

smaller crowds should maintain physical distancing and ensure 

the adornment of face masks affected the production of artistic 

goods and services. In the words of Gondo (2008, p. 2) 

The theatre produces artistic goods and services and this 

comes in the form of performances. A performance is a 

service consisting of a bundle of intangible attributes 

that satisfies the audience and it is received in exchange 

for money... (this bundle) gives the theatre audience 

certain psychological satisfaction that may even be more 

important than the functional satisfaction... a 

performance is the cornerstone of any theatre 

organization. 

 

Indeed, most departments downed tools and lecturers and 

students merely came to the department for coming sake. Those 

who defied the odds temporarily and engaged in rehearsals did 

so skeletally and with scepticism and were equally very 

conscious of the perilous circumstances of the time. Feelers on 

the ground and from personal experiences indicate that the 

adornment of a mask during such rehearsals presented huge 

respiratory challenges to the actors as rehearsals involve 

laborious activity. Rehearsals “call for many hands, for 

teamwork during which everyone involved feels, thinks and 

utilizes the imagination to bring result” Nwachukwu-Agbada 

(2011, p. 133). During such skeletal rehearsals, the face mask 

became a jaw mask because most actors and actresses preferred 

to put the mask on the jaw instead of having it cover their mouth 



Ekweariri & Iwuoha: Teaching the performative art in a pan 

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and nose thereby increasing the chances of theatre workers 

infecting themselves. On account of this, many rehearsals and 

productions were called off and those that continued simply left 

their chances of contracting the virus to fate. 

However, some departments succeeded in mounting 

some productions but very many of them were not successful 

because of the absence of an audience. Indeed, the success of 

any theatrical production is dependent on the number of persons 

who have come to watch such a performance. Nwamuo (2003, 

p. 24) affirms that “...theatre is a performance in which an actor 

and audience are physically present and sharing the events at 

the same time, it uses live actors who impersonate and who must 

be physically present.” As earlier stated, the period under 

review had debilitating economic challenges and potential 

audience members were busy trying to provide food for 

themselves and large families, and as such, did not care much 

about entertainment. Of course, they were expected to adorn 

face masks which they must buy. Regrettably, face masks that 

used to be sold at the rate of fifty nairas, one hundred naira or 

less before now, became a luxury and a class thing. There was 

also a serious restriction on movement with military and police 

roadblocks here and there. Those who were caught violating this 

directive were not only beaten up, humiliated and made to part 

with huge sums of money but were equally quarantined for two 

weeks. Social media then were awash with cases where people 

who were guilty of this infraction were thoroughly 

dehumanized and given a beaten-off life. The resultant effect of 

the above was that government succeeded in instilling fear in 

the people and made them become withdrawn and recluses in 

their homes. This also affected the patronage of live 

performances because there was this understanding that it’s 

only a man who is alive that thinks of tomorrow. Audience 

members, therefore, became reticent and aloof to anything 

theatrical and amusement. Therefore, the COVID-19 pandemic 



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presented a crisis of opinion on the future of live theatre in 

Nigeria and the need to keep it afloat.  

 

Navigating the Constraints for Survivability and 

Sustainability 

Theatre is one of the performing arts but differs by its 

particular relationship to time and space, its principles of 

organization, the nature of its audience, and course, its mode of 

presentation. It is a business enterprise and every business has 

its downturns which the owner must navigate to survive and 

make appreciable progress. In the face of the present reality 

occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic, theatre practice needs 

to be “repackaged if it has to breathe a breath of fresh air in the 

realm of artistic entertainment (Ayakoroma 2016, p. 5). What 

the theatre needs, especially in this post COVID-19 era is “a 

new renaissance in the creation, distribution and sharing of 

information, knowledge and creative work” and a “move from 

industrial content production towards community-based inter-

creativity (that) holds the potential for severe and controversial 

disruptions to the established status quo” (Bruns, 2008, pp.16-

17).  

Overhauling the status quo entails a marriage of the old 

and new methodologies of wooing the audience to the theatre. 

It has often been said that one cannot be using the same method 

and expect different results. Stakeholders in the artistic 

discipline must think beyond the box and innovate. Innovation 

has always been a very important survival strategy in business, 

particularly in a period such as this. As stated by Albert Einstein 

“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and 

expecting different results” (cited in Downey, 2016). 

Innovation is business, and creativity which contributes to 

organizational value. This value may be cost savings, increased 

profit or doing the same thing differently, greater market shares, 

or new ways of marketing a product. There is an imperative for 



Ekweariri & Iwuoha: Teaching the performative art in a pan 

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Nigerian theatre artists to innovate particularly at the level of 

packaging the product for greater appeal and effective 

marketing. Part of the innovation being talked about can include 

the use of new and emerging platforms such as YouTube, 

Instagram, Facebook and other publicity approaches with new 

communication devices. Indeed, the surges in Social Network 

Sites (SNSs) have transformed information sharing in today’s 

society...the social network site or social media is one part of 

the technology-driven media that have witnessed great 

patronage in the past ten years (Udenze, 2018, pp.117-118). 

Furthermore,  

 

If the theatre is not patronized by the people, it is 

therefore expedient of it to explore other measures that 

will attract the people to it thereby getting the 

wherewithal to be able to carry out performances and 

earn a living. One of the surest ways of generating 

patronage for the theatre is by synergising with new 

media to attract people and possibly sell theatrical 

products to them using new media platforms such as 

social networks (Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn), 

media sharing networks (Instagram, Snapchat and 

YouTube), Social shopping networks (Polyvore, Etsy 

and Fancy), and sharing economic network (Airbnb, 

Uber and Tasrabbit) (Asen 2019, p. 67). 

 

In this way, theatre can be in a better position to interrogate 

societal issues dispassionately and accommodate a wide 

audience especially those who are technology-driven. For 

instance, as part of the awareness of the dangers of the COVID-

19 pandemic, the Department of Theatre Arts, Alvan Ikoku 

Federal College of Education, Owerri did a three-minute film 

skit which was posted on the college portal and Instagram page. 

The department received ovations for it, and this could be 



AMA: Journal of Theatre and Cultural Studies 

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further explored to serve as a money-making venture for the 

department. Exploring the dynamics of video games and 

animation will also broaden the perspectives of new 

methodologies in the teaching of the performative arts in the 

post-COVID-19 era. Esuh (2016, p. 107) writes that “video 

games offer virtual reality experiences and are becoming a more 

popular advertising medium.” Indeed, digital theatre can reach 

a wider audience across the globe at once through the 

deployment of technology. 

Even with the seeming decline of the COVID-19 

pandemic, there is however a dire need for artists to be cautious 

in the conduct of rehearsals and other activities related to 

teaching and learning. Part of the ways to navigate this 

challenge is to ensure the segmentation of rehearsals especially 

where very many persons are involved. This segmentation is  

different from special rehearsals because it does not concern 

itself with problematic scenes which special rehearsals 

accommodate. Rather what is espoused here is a system of 

ensuring that crowd is minimized which will at the same time 

make us become responsible adults and comply with the 

COVID-19 protocols. However, this segmentation requires a 

well-equipped and spacious studio for interaction. With this 

arrangement, good and effective distance will be maintained 

between and amongst actors and the sweating of several bodies, 

synonymous with rehearsals with its inherent hazards 

(Ekweariri 2015, p. 103), would have been reduced thereby 

making the use of face masks during rehearsals compatible.  

Furthermore, theatre as a course of study needs to be 

effectively taught to dispel the myth and misconceptions 

surrounding it. The period of the COVID-19 pandemic was 

antithetical to the effective teaching of the performative art, and 

indeed, made many persons redundant. To keep the system 

going and stakeholders busy, institutions in Nigeria, within the 

period, adopted online teaching which these writers applaud as 



Ekweariri & Iwuoha: Teaching the performative art in a pan 

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a welcome development and a right step in the right direction. 

Even with the obvious difficulties associated with online 

teaching, performative art should sustain it and make it part of 

its curriculum. This has become necessary because of the 

peculiar nature of performative art which requires constant 

interaction and cross-examination. 

 

Conclusion 

The COVID-19 pandemic is a quasi-inevitable 

phenomenon given the fact that it has ravaged countries that 

ordinarily have the proclivity to combat it. Based on this, most 

informed people and experts view COVID-19 as a kind of 

fatalism or the end of the world but also as another challenge to 

overcome, through appropriate survival strategies. The theory of 

Constraints implies that every process has a single constraint and 

that total process throughput can only be improved when the 

constraint is improved. Indeed, the underlying power of TOC flows 

from its ability to generate a tremendously strong focus towards a 

single goal (profit) and towards removing the principal impediment 

(constraint) to achieving more of that goal. The paper has identified 

the COVID-19 pandemic as a constraint to live performances and 

has outlined viable ways of surmounting this challenge. This, 

therefore, justifies the choice of the theory for this research.  

Therefore, in times like this, players in the theatre 

business should think outside the box and come up with 

innovative strategies to remain relevant and survive the 

pandemic. Rehearsals should be repackaged such that they will 

accommodate fewer persons. Pockets of rehearsals in the form 

of special rehearsals should be maintained in the interim. Online 

teaching and Google classroom opportunities should be 

vigorously pursued as this encourages students and lecturers to 

become computer-compliant which is necessary in the 21st 

century teaching methodology. Artists should not wait for 

audience members to come to them; rather they should take 



AMA: Journal of Theatre and Cultural Studies 

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their products to the targeted audience. This should be done 

through streaming their plays online using the myriad of 

advertising platforms available. Every theatrical idea must be 

developed and channelled into a productive venture in the 

theatre. In the words of Fosudo (2008, p. 265) “...the theatre is 

validly an idea, and ideas can be transformed into valuable 

services which can be provided to satisfy the needs of a segment 

of the consuming public.” Therefore, the challenges of the 

COVID-19 pandemic should not be seen as an end to live 

theatre productions but rather as an avenue to broaden the 

horizon of theatre practitioners and students alike through 

ethical reorientation, innovative thinking and practical 

application of acquired skills.   

 

 

References 

Asen, M. (2019). Towards effective marketing of theatrical 

performances through new media in Nigeria. The CRAB. 

No. 14. 64-83. 

Bruns, A. (2008). Blogs, Wikipedia, second life, and Beyond: 

From Production to Produce. New York: Peter Lang. 

Ekweariri, C. S. (2015). Theatre hazards and safety: An 

introduction. Owerri: O’Desy Concerns Ltd.  

Ekweariri, C. S. (2014). Marketing the arts through effective 

branding and packaging techniques in Nigeria: The Role 

of designers. In S.  Ododo & O. Fosudo (Eds.),. 

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entertainment. Maiduguri: SONTA. 

Gondo, D. E. (2008). Performing arts development: A 

marketing approach. Makurdi: St. Kalemba Educational 

Marketing. 

Nwachukwu-Agbada. J.O.J. (2011). Teaching for development: 

Approaching the learning of language and literature 

from new prisms, Nka. No. 13. 



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Nwamuo, C. (2003). Essentials of theatre administration. 

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Accessed March 2022. 

Downey, J. (2016). “Innovation: Your key to success and 

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