Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1231020
maltatoday | SUNDAY • 5 APRIL 2020 5 THIS WEEK CULTURE Raymond "Fight" Beck, Teatru Malta March 2018. Photo by Lindsey Bahia theatre in pandemic time with other jobs. Currently, the central government's emergency incentives and subsidies are the sustained infrastructure you are asking about. As a national theatre company, we cannot just place more public funds available to the artists, just because they are artists, or even worse, because I believe they are. We are not all in this together if we expect to be treated better. This counts for artists too. What Teatru Malta can do is create schemes like Teatru Depożit, whereby we make it possible for artists to either use this downtime to conceive projects or offer their services later. This could compare to buying gift cards from your local shops or pre-buying lunches from your local restaurant. This is quite difficult for the thea- tre sector since it is harder for thea- tre-makers to convince audiences to pre-buy tickets for shows they don't have dates for, or for companies and schools to book a show for the uncer- tain future. That is where we, and oth- er public cultural organisations, should come in. We will hopefully still be here and we need to make sure our artists are there with us. Finally, do you see any potential silverlinings emerging from this crisis that could have a positive impact on the local theatrical scene in the long run? Theatre and the arts survived many a pandemic. I think these situations em- power artists to go back to making art because they have to, not only because they need to. Hopefully, there will also be a stronger sense of community and togetherness, and that will permit more community-based theatre. We need to be better after this. I believe that human- ity as a whole can be so much better, and so will our art. History has also taught us that tragic periods and circumstances have inspired great art and great stories. After the Black Plague came Bocciacio's Decameron; the war inspired Brecht's Mother Courage. Even when you look at more recent history, the HIV pandemic inspired a lot of great theatre; from An- gels in America to Rent. Who knows, maybe COVID will produce the next Tony Kushner?! I am quite sure our art will be better. Let's hope that humanity does better first. For more information on the Teat- ru Depożit, Tele-teatru and Kwarta Kwarntina, log on to: https://teatrumal- ta.org.mt/ Sean Buhagiar: "I am quite sure our art will be better after all this. Let's hope that humanity does better first". Photo by Marija Grech L-Interrogazzjoni, Teatru Malta, February 2020. Photo by Lindsey Bahia Larin a Mekkanika, Teatru Malta, November 2019. Photo by Elisa von Brockdroff Min Hi? Teatru Malta, October -November 2019. Photo by Maria Galea