NEW YORK – Eclipses Group Theater NY (EGTNY) presents Shelter in Love, which opened on February 12. The online event is an impressive piece, highlighting the creativity of the talented artists involved in the project as they explore the effects of prolonged social isolation on love and artistic expression.

From the mundane aspects of living day after day in quarantine to lyric passages, poetry, songs, and flights of fancy drawing the viewer into dream-like sequences and scenes from a variety of post-pandemic futures, Shelter in Love also offers the viewer options in how they experience the project, depending on which thematic group they click on first. Viewers can also choose to watch the video clips in just about any order.

As one might expect, each of the artists brings a unique perspective to the challenge of creating amid the pandemic. From different countries and artistic backgrounds, the artists began working on the project in May 2020, finding “shelter in love and creativity,” as noted on the EGTNY website.

“Through regular, virtual meetings, we formed an artistic community, exchanging ideas and creating a trove of original, quarantine-inspired content that blends a broad variety of artistic disciplines,” they noted on the site. “We worked with limited means- no professional recording studios, expensive cameras, rich costumes, fancy shooting locations and so on- but an abundance of confidence in the power of artistic creativity to overcome obstacles.”

Shelter in Love, as it now appears on EGTNY’s website, is a work-in-progress presentation- the artistic fruits of more than 10,000 hours of collective work over 10 months- organized in six thematic groups. The ultimate goal is a live, in-person presentation once theatrical performances resume.

While there is no ticket to watch online, EGTNY encourages and appreciates donations, which will go entirely to the project’s artists:

Katerina Alexaki, Costas Baltazanis, Sarah Bitar, Demetri Bonaros, Penny Fylaktaki, Marina Gkoumla, Dorothea Gloria, Ioanna Katsarou, Fritz Leonard, Handan Ozbilgin, Alexandra Skendrou, Chrysi Sylaidi, Marilena Triantafyllidou, and Arturo Wong Sagel.

The project coordinators are Ioanna Katsarou, Handan Ozbilgin, and Demetri Bonaros.

As EGTNY said in their announcement of the project, “We are embracing 2021 with Shelter in Love! 2020 was a year full of challenges and hard times but we survived through love, art, and creativity.”

Shelter in Love presents the audience with perspectives on the pandemic, on isolation, and on love that are unexpected and as varied as the artists who created them. With some humorous moments here and there, and a short excerpt from one of my favorite speeches from Shakespeare’s Richard II which is so appropriate for these times, Shelter in Love showcases creativity and connection through the efforts of these talented artists. Running the gamut of emotions, it is a thoughtful chronicle of its time, raising important questions, and also offering hope for the future.

EGTNY, established in 2011, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit theater company that serves as a cultural bridge between the United States and Greece, promoting all forms of Greek drama, music, poetry and literature.

More information is available online: https://egtny.com/shelter-in-love.