How will theater weather the pandemic? Playwright Jeremy O. Harris believes theater, in its more fearless forms, will always adapt to reach audiences.

“The voices that will matter the most right now will be the voices that are radical and that are finding a way to make their voice heard no matter what,” Harris, the playwright and actor behind “Slave Play,” told the PBS NewsHour. “They don’t need a building.”

The pandemic forced theaters to close on Broadway in mid-March, halting productions through 2020. And when — or if — theaters finally do reopen, social distancing rules could make rehearsals more difficult and end up limiting ticket sales.

But Harris is watching what’s happening outside these traditional spaces for live theater, paying attention to the “very obvious theater” that’s happening on social media, on digital stages and “literally in our streets.”

“I’m really interested in how theater, at its core, is about bringing people together in order to do a civic duty. And that civic duty is about engaging with some piece of culture that shifts or reframes how you see the world that you interact with every day. So possibly, you can be a better citizen,” Harris said.

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