Authors

The article is devoted to the activities of cultural institutions during the pandemic of COVID-19. It should be taken into account that this question is largely unexplored so far. The article consists of content analysis of official websites of theatres and their pages on social networks, as well as numerous statements by representatives of the authorities and leading figures of culture and theatre during the period of spread of the new virus around the world. The scientific hypothesis is that such communicative mechanisms of culture as visualization, digitalization, and netting have arisen and proved their full potential and a general therapeutic function that is vital for this period. Moreover, it turned out to be saving for people who were forced to stay self-isolated. In the process of analysis of the situation in which the cultural arts community found itself, the prospects of international cultural cooperation, as well as the consequences of a sharp step towards digitalization and forced Internet existence of theatres in an unpredictable epidemiological environment, are considered. The theoretical basis for the work are the works of M.M. Bakhtin, N. Bol’ts, A. Maslou (the so-called “hierarchy of needs”), M. McLuhan, and U. Maturana.