A Pandemic, The Arts, And A New Beginning

A baby enjoying Treehouse Shakers' Hatched in February 2020 at BAM in Brooklyn

It has taken me a few months to truly come to terms with what this new pandemic-era means for

my family, for NYC, for the country, for Treehouse Shakers, and the performing arts as a whole.

I haven't written as much as I normally do, nor have I wanted to. But it does feel important to

document this time. One day we can look back and have perspective on what we have learned,

how we adapted and where our shortsightedness failed us. 

By January, I was worried. Treehouse Shakers has partners in China, so we were hearing 

from colleagues in late December that we needed to prepare for what was coming. I followed 

their advice, but by the beginning of January, in NYC, we couldn't find gloves or masks. I was 

already trying to stock up. I didn't know at that point that some small mom and pop stores in 

NYC, were still the places to find necessities. I never thought that our neighborhood would run 

out of soap, cleaning supplies, frozen food, tortillas and hot sauce and eventually toilet paper.

In the beginning of the year our company was busy touring, producing and working in schools. We also had a very busy and a robust touring season still ahead. The company was excited for 2020. The virus was seemingly far off. Or so we thought. Still, we over-cleaned dressing rooms, rental cars and our rehearsal props. I was constantly reading reports from overseas, trying to figure out what exactly were we to expect. When would the virus be here? We continued performing, touring and teaching in the schools. On my last in-person teaching job on March 11, I was driving the company's rental van too worried to take public transportation. When I turned down my favorite road, on the way to the school, I was met by the National Guard which had entirely blocked off the town of New Rochelle. That was the distinct moment that I realized this was so much bigger than anyone was admitting. The first case in NYC was supposedly from New Rochelle and a small cluster had emerged. But little did the public know that NYC was already inundated with cases.

From our Family Workshop Day, following Hatched in February 2020

Soon after, our beloved city began quickly shutting down. My husband and I both began working 

from home and we had pulled our daughter out of school. By March 13, none of my family was 

traveling beyond our neighborhood border. Our company by this point had also lost all of our 

spring touring, school residencies and NYC performance seasons. At first, we tried putting some 

of our programs off until May, then June, and then everything was permanently canceled. By the 

the end of March the city felt like some strange war zone. The sound of sirens was constant. 

The drone of medical helicopters were heard overhead. Day and night. My family was living in the epicenter of the epicenter. Queens. Every day there were reports of long lines at testing centers, lines to 

be seen by doctors, which quickly turned into longer waiting times for ambulances, hospitals, and then sadly, refrigerator trucks and places to be buried. Our city was under attack. We were living in sadness, trauma and fear. Every doorknob to get out of an apartment building was a nightmare. Every button to push in the elevator became uncertain. Grocery shopping was an urgent mission. Shelves were empty. I made many meals out of ingredients I had never tried. We crossed streets far away from dear neighbors, avoiding contact. We wished each other safety and health from our balconies, doorways, and windows, distanced from each other. We wrote messages of hope on our apartment doors, on our windows, on rocks. Trying desperately to lift each other through the horror of the moment. What I knew then. What our company knows is; what gets people through life's difficulties, is the arts. After 9/11, Treehouse Shakers immediately went into a family homeless shelter close to the Twin Towers, to comfort children and their families with performances, laughter, workshops. And now was that time again for us to meet the needs of our communities in new ways. I felt such a powerful urgency to confront the moment, our children, our families with support through art.

Company in Albany, NY (End of February 2020) with The Boy Who Grew Flowers  

with book author Jen Wojtowicz (3rd from right)

By the time March 15 had hit, our company was building an artist fund for our company members. Unemployment didn't seem like an immediate option, and definitely not enough for our company members. We continued our residencies and taught our arts programs remotely from preschools to elementary schools. We offered mentor programs to other non-profit companies and one-day workshops. We began selling videos of our work to Performing Arts Centers, along with classes and additional materials for their communities. We partnered with Broadway on Demand offering our two shows for the youngest audiences, Hatched and Olive & Pearl on Saturday mornings. We sold tickets to our own online virtual theater, and partnered with some of our lowest income schools, giving them free or discounted video content. We began getting requests from schools across the country for more arts programming, and gave them what we had. We made a new dance piece entirely through zoom, which my business partner, Emily Bunning, so ingeniously devised. We applied for grants and searched for foundation support, we met weekly with our company members, and then began rehearsals again via zoom (not an easy task), we offered virtual birthday parties, we made a virtual community day, and created virtual summer camps that enrolled campers from across the country. And that's where we are now. We understand how important it is to truly meet this moment. People of all ages need the arts. Currently, we are making a new web-series, that we will release this fall. We will meet the requests of families and schools across the country for After-School performing arts programs, virtually. Young people still need the arts. It is still a time of uncertainty. We continue to figure out new ways of sharing our work with the populations who need it the most.

Treehouse Shakers' Final Day of Playwriting Virtual Camp, July 2020

Slowly, NYC transmission rates have become lower and lower. There are no more constant 

siren sounds, and masks can be found in abundance in our neighborhood stores. We stop for 

longer talks with our neighbors, and there are many more of us laughing and smiling on the 

streets. New Yorkers now watch the rest of the country struggle with the virus, as we did in the Spring. Our hearts break for the health care workers, families isolated away from dying loved ones, parents unsure to send their kids outside or to school, for communities under siege from this invisible enemy.

As a company we miss performing live. We miss being a company that tours together. We miss 

being in rehearsals together in the same room. But this moment is met with many new beginnings. We have reached new audiences we wouldn't have reached had we not shifted to virtual content. And we have created new content to meet this new moment. We have worked together as a company, every week discussing how we can move forward through these uncertain waters, both personally and creatively.

One of our young playwright campers, watching from home, her play being performed by

Treehouse Shakers' company member Ashley Chavonne, July 2020.

And I have hope again. A hope I haven't felt for many months. We see that our colleagues in Asia have pulled off live performances again, successfully, and more importantly without any outbreaks. My hope is that those of us in NYC can pull off live performances again by the Spring of 2021. It is my hope. Until that time, we will continue to listen to our communities and meet their needs as best we can through the arts.

Thank you to everyone who has donated to our company during these past few months. We truly appreciate your donations. We also want to thank our board president, Geri Pell for her immediate donation to jumpstart our Artist Fund, and to all of the board members and donors who followed. We also want to thank the Marta Heflin Foundation and Nat R & Martha M Knaster Charitable Trust. We truly appreciate your support through these unprecedented times.

If you would like to send a tax-deduction donation to Treehouse Shakers, and/or to read more about our programs, you can make a secure donation at paypal.com/us/fundraiser/charity/72859