One of the biggest sources of entertainment for my wife and me over the last decade has been the Otterbein University Theater. We’ve seen My Fair Lady, Oklahoma, and several other musicals, including a spell-binding, heart-rending production of Les Misérables  that left me with damp eyes and weak knees. We laughed at comedies such as The Importance of Being Earnest and cringed as blood flowed in a compendium of Greek tragedies.

Like everyone else, Otterbein’s Theater Department felt the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. When the department canceled their summer plays, my wife and I worried the regular season would suffer the same fate.  As it turns out, Otterbein Theatre will have a Fall 2020 season with four productions all to be presented — online. The flyer we recently received from the university explains how this will work.

First, I must purchase a ticket. Like one for a live performance, this ticket will be for a particular date and time. Second, a receipt and confirmation of the ticket purchase will be e-mailed to me. Third, shortly before the “curtain goes up,” I’ll be sent a link that will allow me to view the performance on a computer, tablet, or similar electronic device. There will also be an opportunity to participate in online pre-show and post-show discussions. The price of a ticket is $15 plus a $4 service fee. That is less than the $30 the university charges for a musical and the $22 they charge for a play or dance concert. That makes sense since a performance viewed on an electronic device can’t really compare to a live performance on stage.

The productions coming up include a dance concert, “The Wild Within,” inspired by Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are; a contemporary musical, The Theory of Relativity; and Henrik Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People. Ibsen’s play promises to be especially interesting since it inspired the plot for Jaws.

As with past Otterbein theater productions, the ones for the upcoming fall season will undoubtedly be well-acted and well-directed.  Still, Becky isn’t looking forward to watching them on a computer screen. When you spend hour after hour every weekday on a computer, sending messages, attending Zoom meetings, and doing other lawyer -related work, you’d much rather be entertained by something that takes you miles away from computers. I have my doubts, too. The magnetic appeal of having the play unfold right in front of me will be missing. So, too, will all the sensory experiences that accompany a live production — the brightness of the stage lights, the vibrancy of the music, the laughter and applause of the audience, the crisp program in my hands.

But clearly, the Otterbein administrators have made the right choice in not having rows and rows of people jammed into a theater where the coronavirus could spread like a flash flood. The theater exit signs are there to allow audience members to escape a fire or some similar emergency. But as we learn anew every day, no one has yet found a door that will give us an exit from the deadly danger posed by this disease.