by Daniela Cavallaro, Luciana d’Arcangeli, and Claire Kennedy
This article describes our collaboration in creating a book containing plays on violence against women and interviews with the theater practitioners who wrote and staged them. The plays included in the book premiered between 2014 and 2018 in London, Sydney, and Rome. The three editors of the book are Italianists who work in Adelaide, Auckland, and Brisbane. Colleagues who have translated some of the plays are based in Melbourne and Sydney. The project began at the end of 2019. After a few months, when the Covid-19 pandemic closed our countries, we were not sure how the project would continue. But as it turned out, with all live theatrical activities stopped, the authors, directors, and producers of the plays we had chosen had more time to devote to our questions. Although disappointed at not being able to interview them face to face, we discovered the capabilities of Zoom, in addition to Skype and WhatsApp. The connectedness was much more than technical: we found that working together on a joint project during the pandemic, each of us locked in her home, promoted a particular kind of well-being and community of purpose.