In many regions, we’re seeing the first semblance of a return to form for theatres in a year. Festivals are gearing up for outdoor performances that abide by safety protocols, regional theatres are operating at reduced capacities, and with vaccines rolling out over the next several months, institutions like performing arts schools may be able to give students the in-person attention they need. And while there is a sense of a return to normalcy, there have necessarily been some changes in theatre that hopefully will be carried through to future years.

One of the most pressing issues of modern-day theatre when giving it a critical look is its stagnancy. As the century turned over and regional theatres became longstanding cultural institutions, the need to keep the lights on in these monuments of decadent architecture became paramount. With interest in theatre largely dwindling in each passing decade, the largest and most influential pieces of the theatre community became businesses first and artistic pioneers second.

Thus began a reliance on extremely limited repertoires to fill out seasons. Big-ticket titles, musicals, unchanging relics, and anything Shakespearean are the meat and potatoes of the vast majority of programs you’ll find in the western world. And that’s not to say that there is no creative merit in musicals or Shakespeare, but it certainly does make for a narrow spectrum of experience. Jordan Tannahill highlights a multitude of these issues in the aptly titled book Theatre of the Unimpressed, and it is a problem that has seemed to have few theatres willing to remedy. They can either maintain the cyclical seasons to keep the same subscribers entertained, or they can take risks on new theatre and risk their income.

But the nature of the pandemic has forced the hand of so many of these institutions. There is simply no way to pull off the grandiose nature of modern musicals; the latest Broadway hit isn’t making its way from city to city; the funds to secure rights and produce performances in the same way simply do not exist currently. We are poorer, we are sadder, and we are wanting to feel life in us again.

So what can this mean for theatre?

For starters, it can mean a more symbiotic connection between theatre and community. With fresh works from budding and established local playwrights being a much more easily secured resource, there has been a stronger highlight on the works of those within regional theatres’ communities. This not only means more opportunities given for new works but also can mean more representation on the stage. Issues that come directly from a community can be explored on a platform they are not always given.

It also can make for new audiences without some of the risks that may have been previously posed pre-pandemic. While a fresh take on seasons and programming could be a turn off for some more rigid subscribers, it is certainly a draw to those who otherwise may have turned their attention away from regional theatre’s offerings- and with so many of us so starved for the experience that comes from live performance, even those missing their theatrical mainstays are likely not to disparage new offerings after such a long drought.

It is a time for great changes in theatre. There is little that artistic institutions can do currently except adapt to our ever-shifting “new norm”. And while that may be a struggle much of the time, there is certainly some good to gleam from these adjustments. Many of the measures taken by theatres may only be in the need of self-preservation for the moment, but if there is one thing that can be learned from the year of theatrical experimentation, digital performances, and this new beacon of altered seasons, it is that theatre can- and deserves- to change.

Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh and husband of Queen Elizabeth, passed away last week at Windsor Castle, at age 99. The Duke was a patron, president or a member of more than 780 organizations, and continued to support them and various other causes well after his retirement. He is best known for founding the Duke of Edinburgh Award and for steering the World Wildlife Fund. Throughout his life, the Prince was also a dedicated patron of the arts and was even a hobbyist artist.

The Prince, who married Queen Elizabeth II in 1947, enjoyed oil painting, creating numerous landscapes and portraits over the years, some of which were kept in his private collection, others were displayed in the Royal Collection Trust.

His best-known painting is of The Queen enjoying her breakfast and reading a newspaper in the dining room at Windsor Castle from 1965, painted in a strikingly affectionate and informal style. The painting was part of the Duke’s private collection but came to the attention of the public after being published in the book The Royal Portrait: Image and Impact, in 2010, offering a rare and private glimpse into the Queen’s daily life.

The Prince’s friendship with the English artist Edward Seago was formative and influential, both to his own style and his patronage of the arts. The Royal Collection Trust noted of the prince’s painting Duart Castle from the Sound of Mull, that “[t]he atmosphere and light show the influence of his friend, the artist Edward Seago.”

In 1956, Prince Philip invited Seago on a tour of the Antarctic and a number of the artist’s paintings from the journey were then displayed at Balmoral Castle in Scotland. (The late Queen Mother was also an avid collector of Seago’s works). One work by Seago, was once displayed alongside works by Rembrandt in an exhibition at the Queen’s Gallery in Buckingham Palace.

During the Duke of Edinburgh’s world tour, the Prince would paint a portrait of Seago at his easel on board the Royal Yacht Britannia. Seago, in turn, made a portrait of the prince at work with his oil paints. The pair of paintings were shown together in the 2016 exhibition “Portrait of The Artist” at Buckingham Palace.

The Duke’s commitment in the arts extended well beyond his own pursuits. He was a devoted patron, and during his time he acquired works by contemporary artists for the Royal Collection Trust, notably by British and Commonwealth artists including Barbara Hepworth, Mary Fedden, and Sidney Nolan, as well as ceramics by Austrian artist Lucie Rie. He was also known for his collection of political cartoons.

In 1992, after a fire at Windsor Castle, the Prince took on the role of chairman of its restoration committee. According to the Royal Collection Trust, he was closely involved both in the restoration process of the castle as well as the design of the stained glass windows for a new chapel at Windsor Castle, making sketches that he shared with Joseph Nuttgens, the stained glass artist who designed the windows, which were installed in the chapel in 1997.

It’s understandable that many places around the globe won’t see a return to normal theatre festivals for quite some time. With the presence of the pandemic still strongly felt, the notion of large congregations of people hustling from venue to venue and waiting in cramped lobbies seems like a veritable impossibility. And while plenty of theatres and companies are looking towards technology to adapt to the current reality, the 2021 Stratford Festival is connecting to their past with the announcement of a freshly formatted outdoors season.

Ontario’s Stratford Festival is the premiere festival for Shakespeare fans across all of Canada, and like every other theatre festival across North America, they’ve felt the impact of the past year. With the announcement of their latest season, the Stratford Festival states that their plans will “will hark back to the Festival’s founding under a tent in 1953”, using canopies for audiences this summer. This change of format connects not only to Stratford’s roots but also to the energy of traditional outdoor Shakespeare festivals.

“This dream of transformation from our isolated lives informed my choice of theme for the 2021 season: Metamorphosis,” states artistic director Antoni Cimolino, and it’s a fitting title for both the change of structure as well as the content of the lineup. “We are hopeful that the current Ontario lockdown and the vaccination program will enable a successful outdoor summer season…As butterflies shedding their cocoons, we are poised to emerge from this pandemic.”

The 2021 Stratford Festival lineup will consist of six plays (including productions of Romeo and Juliet and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, two plays that deal with their own sets of barriers and distance) and five cabarets- a way for audiences to experience solid musical performances without the large number of individuals needed for traditional musicals. Every aspect of how this year’s productions will be presented seems keenly in tune with the safety of the audience members and in keeping with the health protocols in place.

Aside from the Shakespearean pieces, many of the other pieces of the season aim to be a diverse selection of stories featuring resilience and historical significance, orbiting around this year’s theme of Metamorphosis. Serving Elizabeth by Marcia Johnson examines Princess Diana’s visit to Kenya and responds to the recent television production The Crown from a different perspective; Why We Tell The Story and Freedom, two of the cabarets, showcase black musical theatre and music at large respectively, the former directed by Thom Allison with musical director Laura Burton and the latter helmed by Beau Dixon. Rounded out by lighter affairs such as I Am William which plays with the persistent theory of Shakespeare not writing his own plays, the season appears to offer something for everyone.

Stratford Festival’s summer season is clearly keen to breathe a bit of fresh air back into the theatre scene of Canada. Harkening back to their roots and presenting things in a format often synonymous with summer joys is a wonderful way to take a step back into some form of normalcy for the company. It is abundantly clear that all of us as a species are looking for some sort of metamorphosis to let ourselves step out from under the shadow of the past year, and with vaccinations beginning to get underway and artists finding ways to connect with audiences face to face once more, perhaps the cracks in our cocoon are finally showing.