Sintomas de teatro, sintomas de cinema: a remediação do teatro em ciberteatro

Abstract

The present dissertation aims to analyze, in an interdisciplinary manner, the relationships between theater and remote presence technologies. With the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020, most cultural institutions adopted consequent confinement and distancing measures that ultimately led to indefinite closures – or drastically reduced services – interrupting and canceling residencies, rehearsals, and performances throughout the cultural sector, thereby encouraging/forcing artists to create their works in this scenario, (re)embracing connectivity and the use of so-called dematerialized technologies. However, the intersection of theater and such technologies did not begin in the pandemic period, hence this dissertation historicizes this aspect by reclaiming the experience of the Theaterphone, carried out between the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Reinforcing the importance of this reclamation, we also bring to the forefront artistic experiences and debates surrounding the naming of this "new language" – undertaken since the 1990s – bridging theater and contemporary digital media. Finally, we propose that theater, in these circumstances, undergoes a process of remediation to be characterized as cyber theater. Based on the proposal of some categorical elements, we analyze the Brazilian works "Camming – 101 Noites" and "Desfazenda – Me Enterrem Fora Desse Lugar."