Local Theater Company Announces Creation of CO-LAB DAILY

In response to the COVID-19 crisis, Local Theater Company (LTC) announces the creation of CO-LAB DAILY, a project that engages members of the local, national and global communities with daily creative prompts. Every weekday morning from Mar. 30-Apr. 30 participants receive a prompt in their email inbox, on LTC's website (localtheaterco.org), or on the company's social media streams (Instagram, Facebook). The project is offered to the general public for free, and participants are invited to respond and share with the CO-LAB DAILY community on LTC's website. The prompts are open to interpretation, and LTC encourages participants to respond in whatever medium they see fit, including, but not limited to, written word, song, image, filmed performance.

Founding Artistic Director Pesha Rudnick said, "All art-including theater-begins with an impulse to express oneself and with CO-LAB DAILY, we wanted to provide a forum for the community to create and share during these disorienting times. Our theater may be dark but our collective imagination is thriving right now. If people choose to examine the COVID-19 crisis and its consequences, we welcome that. However, it's not a requirement. CO-LAB DAILY is a forum to play, process, or escape-whatever the desire. The beauty is that it provides different things for different people."

On CO-LAB DAILY's premiere, Monday, March 30, over sixty people from across the United States and abroad submitted responses to the prompt, "Write a COVID-19 haiku." Since then, nearly two hundred individuals have "opted in" to receive the prompts by email. Rudnick said, "we're excited this is taking off in the greater community. The engine of the project is the public. This isn't a theater industry project, per se, although we warmly welcome our fellow professionals. It's for everyone, because this is a universal experience."

Other CO-LAB DAILY prompts include "One thing you can't tell just by looking at me..." a question LTC asks every ensemble member on the first day of rehearsal for a new play. On Tuesday March 31st, the prompt generated dozens of submissions, including one in the form of an original song.

"My hope is that CO-LAB DAILY will provide a creative ritual for people at home. Brew coffee, read the prompt, reply. Perhaps even as a family event. Yesterday we received a submission from an eight year old!" Rudnick said.

LTC, host of the annual new play festival, Local Lab (canceled on March 12th), is discussing how to develop the material that's created over the next month. Ms. Rudnick said, "Lab is where we nurture new work. I see a world in which we incorporate CO-LAB DAILY into next season's Local Lab."

To join CO-LAB DAILY visit LocalTheaterCo.org anytime between now and April 30th 2020.