Resource Guide for the Classroom: "Rock Out with Your Schnoz Out: The COVID Play" Main Menu Historical Context Comedic Performance During the COVID-19 Pandemic Selected Scenes and Experiences during the COVID-19 Pandemic Script: "Rock Out with your Schnoz Out: The COVID Play" Bibliography

Introduction

42942 Historical Context
In March of 2023, the play Rock Out with Your Schnoz Out: The COVID Play by Dr. Naomi Bennett debuted in the HopKins Black Box performance laboratory at Louisiana State University. The play can best be described as a variety show-esque performance providing a satirical view of the COVID-19 pandemic and experiences associated with it. In the scene "Masc for Mask," written by PhD doctoral student Seth Knievel, the play breaks down the difficulties of pandemic dating, as well as the parallel between the advice given by the government during the COVID-19 pandemic and the AIDS crisis. The play unpacks many of the unsavory aspects of the pandemic, including the pressures placed on essential workers and the impacts of isolation, in a way that's both funny and relatable to anyone who lived through the pandemic. To the audience and those involved, the play functions as almost a method of coping with some of the lasting trauma of the pandemic. 

This guide aims to provide the resources necessary to situate this play within the historical context of the COVID-19 pandemic and other comedic performances created during the pandemic about the pandemic. This guide also includes the full script of Rock Out with Your Schnoz Out: The COVID Play, as well as an in-depth analysis of several important scenes. It is limited in that it focuses on the time period between January 2020 to April 2021 and is centered on the geographical area of the United States. 

This page has paths:

  1. Resource Guide for the Classroom Naomi Bennett