A Journey Through Hybrid Theatre

My name is Helen Ibra, and I am a philologist by training, an actor by passion, and a manager by calling. 

In the Theatre in Palm universe I am serving as one of the project managers among other 12 co-managers. But my artistic background makes my participation in this journey two-way.

The world was turned upside down in 2020 during the pandemic, particularly around May when the Cannes Film Festival was canceled. For years, my colleagues from ETFI and I had attended this prestigious event to track innovations in the audiovisual sector, which we later aimed to incorporate into our theatre work. As die-hard fans of interdisciplinary art, we were suddenly faced with the reality that festivals were no longer taking place, and I found myself needing to reflect on how my accumulated experiences in theatre and film could transform into something new and different.

It dawned on me to invite my friends from different countries to join me on Zoom. These were friends from France, Croatia, Turkey, Iran, Uzbekistan (my homeland), Germany, the UK, Japan, and the United States. The pandemic had left everyone in their home countries, and I pondered, how can we create theatre when we are physically separated? This sparked the idea for a platform called Cyber Performance, where we decided to meet once a week to experiment with hybrid and digital theatre.

This initiative became a lifeline for me. Throughout the week, I prepared for our Saturday or Sunday gatherings with my friends and fellow artists from around the globe. The experiments we conducted were unique, waiting to be theorized and analyzed, looking for a scholarly article that could process this experience. Our conversations on Zoom were not just verbal; we also ventured into non-verbal communication, exploring different senses and sensory experiences, striving to overcome the barriers of the internet and distance. 

The most remarkable achievement was when we invited an audience to our showcase on Zoom and welcomed around 200 viewers from various countries. We managed to perform a piece while everyone was in different locations—still appearing on multiple screens—but through various design methods, we created a unified stage on which we performed “here and now.” This principle of theatre—being present in the moment—was adhered to; the audience reacted in real-time, just as if they were seated in a traditional theatre.

As the pandemic began to wane, fate smiled upon me with a new project from colleagues in Finland. They invited us to participate in a project dubbed “Theatre in Palm”. This was a long-awaited extension of the Cyber Performance platform that the ETFI had established during the pandemic. The project aimed to ease the theatre sector gently out of its pandemic-induced stagnation, transitioning through digital interactions, then hybrid interactions, and eventually to physical meetings and performances.

For me, as an artist who embraced hybrid theatre, the second residency of the Theatre in Palm project was a true gift. It spanned two weeks. The first week was a pure reincarnation of our Cyber Performance platform, collaborating with artists from Italy, Germany, Ireland, Hungary, Denmark, and Belgium online. Many exercises created during the pandemic were utilized in this digital week. The following week, in a jubilant return to physical contact, all artists gathered in Belgium for the first time to work on a live performance, which would later be streamed back into the digital space for audiences in Finland, Sweden, Greece, Cyprus, Bulgaria, Romania, Ireland, Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, and beyond.

This was a remarkable affirmation of the ideas surrounding hybrid theatre. Once our performance concluded at the Université libre de Bruxelles, another team from Finland presented their show, and we became their audience—turning this into a kind of theatrical Eurovision! It was spectacular, and I believe that the format cultivated throughout the Theatre in Palm project deserves to continue. 

Even though we may no longer live under strict lockdowns, this format is a wonderful, progressive way to blend physical interactions with expansive reach, making it possible to connect with a much larger audience through the internet. Theatre becomes global, overcoming distances and barriers. It’s exhilarating. Long live theatre! Created over 3,500 years ago in Greece, it continues to thrive, utilizing every technical advancement that arises as an obstacle, transforming these challenges into tools for artistic expression. Thank you.

Helen Ibra (ETFI)