Performers have responded to the pandemic in many ways: Ghost Light is a poignant video response by Leenya Rideout, whose Broadway credits include War Horse. So when a mutual friend, lighting designer Mike Baldassari asked if I would take a look at it, I did, and felt it was worth posting.
Rideout explains her inspiration:
"The day that Broadway closed down, I walked past the St. James Theater where Frozen was playing and saw a little girl in a pink tutu staring at the now locked doors with tears running down her face. When every theater I've ever worked at over the past 25 years closed down in 2020, I tried to make lemons into lemonade and sat down to write my next musical, but as days of isolation turned to weeks turned to months, I felt lost and every song or scene remained unfinished on my desktop as I judged myself and questioned everything I'd thought was real about art and the world. But as I thought about these dark theaters, I pictured the little light on the middle of all their stages, the ghost lights, the ones kept lit for safety, and how now there are all these little lights shining everywhere around the world, just holding these sacred spaces until we can come back together. But how could I illustrate such a concept? Then, like I did when I was the same age as the little girl in the tutu, I found myself in the basement, cutting up cardboard boxes and creating, from nothing, a story, my story, our story... and Ghost Light was born… This is dedicated to all you storytellers and believers of magic…"
Take a look: I think we can all relate: