Reevaluating intergenerational performance in the time of COVID-19

Given the specific ways in which COVID-19 has transformed communities, it is perhaps unfortunately timely that this special issue of Youth Theatre Journal would have as its focus intergenerational performance. Over the last year, the world as many of us know it has changed drastically. As we write this, resurgences of COVID-19 infections are sweeping again over parts of the world. In some European countries the total number of known active infections totals more than when there were government-mandated lockdowns and quarantines in the spring. Indeed, some countries are reinstating lockdowns. The United States is experiencing a so-called third wave of infections as residents tire of restrictions and mixed messages from a troubled government. And even in those countries where COVID-19 has been relatively contained, the performance of daily life now includes the ubiquity of mask wearing, hand sanitizer, and the choreography of social distancing.