Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, ASHTAR Theatre started presenting its productions free for the audience online on its social media platforms, in order to keep the link with its audience and students alive and vibrant. After 6 months of quarantine and zero live cultural events, and null support from the Palestinian Government towards the art and artists; ASHTAR is trying to compensate the loss of its tickets sale through an online crowd funding.
As result of "COVID-19" pandemic and the declaration of the emergency situation in Palestine and the world, ASHTAR Theatre closed its doors to its students and public. This affected its projects, activities and workshops of the different programs: Professional Theatre, Community Theatre and Youth Theatre, that were scheduled between March and August 2020, causing the theatre a large financial loss.
ASHTAR looks at theatre as an important tool for social change, resilience and development, and believes that each and every person has the right to see plays. Therefore, ASHTAR developed a new approach to keep its connection and relationship vibrant with its audience during the quarantine; by activating its Facebook with live streaming of its former plays.
According to our Facebook statistics: 26,622 viewers followed the ten plays that were projected during the pandemic. And the number of ASHTAR followers increased from 5,780 to 7,577. This encouraged us to invest more in the digital appearance of our work. Thus we are continuing to present our plays online and preparing new productions, suitable for live streaming and online projection.
This project has provided additional documentation in a PDF file (projdoc.pdf).
