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Arts Students Lament COVID Shutting Down Practices, Performances

Ruby Rosenthal

   A typical school day for Elon University junior Skyler Sajewski began
   at 7 a.m., starting with ballet, history, economics and tap classes,
   then rehersal for the upcoming musical. She would get back to her
   apartment around 11 p.m.
   Then, the COVID pandemic hit.
   The musical theater major who was used to "constantly running from
   place to place" returned home to Florida to shelter in place. She's
   worried about missing out on "literally all of it" in terms of
   preparing for her future career.
   "To be a well-rounded musical theater performer, you have to have a
   certain set of skills and be really good at them," Sajewski said. "And
   you know, I go to a school to constantly get better. And this year, if
   I reach a plateau of no growth it could be potentially harming versus
   someone who went all their four years."
   Sajewski is not alone in her anxieties for the future. She has friends
   who are considering taking a semester -- or even a year -- off,
   realizing that an online arts education may not be worth it.
   When she returned home, Sajewski and her peers were faced with "Zoom
   University" -- what many students are calling online classes -- as
   musical theater majors. In last semester's acting class, she and her
   fellow "MTs," were "literally screaming in each other's faces" when
   they were working on Greek theater.
   Into the screens of their laptops.
   For a "pretty demanding" class "where you really have to get into your
   body and your voice," moving to remote learning required adjustments.

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