Telematic Sublime: anti-racist Zoom play in the time of COVID-19

ABSTRACT In Search of the Sublime (The Sublime) is a telematic play, written and directed by Kara-Lynn Vaeni. Responding to the conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic, The Sublime was staged on the videoconferencing platform Zoom. While Zoom presented Vaeni with ethical issues and technical challenges, ultimately the platform allowed for creative approaches to the hybrid live-virtual performance. In inventive ways, Vaeni incorporated anti-racist production practices and utilized Zoom’s functions and affordances to engage the audience. In The Sublime, telematic technologies challenged the static roles of performers and viewers, producing the cast as spectators and the audience as co-creators of the piece.