The Theatre Times: You pass through a wide doorway to a large space with good air circulation. Inside, an usher behind a screen scans your ticket and sends you onward. Signs on the carpet direct you to the large auditorium, which is arranged in clusters of seats, one per household. In the middle of the room, the stage is set for a full orchestra. Tomorrow the same stage will be used for a theatrical production. The lights go dim; the music starts.
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Reading and writing comments each week has really shown me the variety of articles written about theatre coming back amidst this COVID-19 pandemic. My opinion remains unwavered, and that it’s too early. So obviously this headline: “Performing in Winter,” when it’s nearly October is a little worrying to me. I want nothing more than this pandemic to be over, and not to make it worse. Regardless, I will read on.
Ah. The main problem that every article brings up. The need for space. Social distancing an audience is hard. Especially inside. There are some venues that have succeeded in this, but obviously not all venues can make these changes so quickly and safely. If we REALLY had to bring theatre back right away, performing in outside venues makes the most sense to me.
“Though the initial costs will be significant,” I keep hearing this too. Is the cost worth it? Rather than waiting maybe a few more months for the government to get it’s shit together or for doctors to work on a solution? Nobody can say for sure. All I can say though, is that I hate this pandemic and want it to be over and out ASAP.
I agree with Reiley, that there are so many articles posted here that outline the array of approaches many theatres and groups are taking to revitalize the industry. When I clicked on this one, I naively expected to see a new "method" that had been developed to "bring theatre back". However, I was met with another article about using larger venues to host a multitude of different events within a short period of time. Once again, I agree with Reiley that it's too soon to do something like this, especially with the very creative and (in some cases) completely groundbreaking ideas that I read about in articles from previous weeks. There's a sort of grim acceptance that comes with reopening a theatre, even in a large venue, that says "these are the sacrifices that need to be made". It feels like, to me, not enough problem-solving design strategy is being put into developing new, fresh ways for an audience to experience theatre and that the industry is trying to resort to what it knows, even if it could potentially come at a great cost.
This article was an interesting opinion piece which touched on what is necessary for creating COVID safe super venues and trying to creatively resolve how to keep the performance industry alive through the winter. Unfortunately, it is inevitable that there will be a rise in COVID cases during the winter and the worst part is that outdoor performances will not be able to continue as the winter comes. What I found the most interesting about this article was that the author determined that space was the biggest factor in opening performing venues. He determined conference centers are the most likely solution because they have availability and are able to customize the seating arrangements for social distancing. I really like this idea since its seating is so flexible, and it would be supporting the owners of conference centers.
I understand why many feel as though having venues only filled to less than 50% capacity is pointless, but for many, it's better than 0%. In the financial sense, though this may be cutting it close, it can still be beneficial to have a few audience members for some companies. Though I can see how, for others, considering the expenses that go towards making these shows happen, 20-50% audiences may mean that a lot of money is being spent and not being made back. This is a very tricky situation to handle so I don't think that there can be an industry wide set of new norms. I feel as though each company/organization/etc has to fully analyze every aspect of their business, from the very bottom to the top, look at projections for themselves for at least 5 years out, and figure out what's the best and safest way to go about things. Whether that be finding a temporary way to do things, or just shutting down for a while. There should also be room for everyone to have a say. Not just the people sitting at the big table who will possibly be less at risk. When I think of places like Florida and possibly California, outdoor events may be the way to go. I recently started watching the new season of The Great British Baking Show and they've decided to have everyone involved stay in lockdown in a "Bake-Off" village for 7 weeks. Similar to what's being done with the athletes. For them, this makes a lot of sense. For the entertainment industry, I'm not sure this would work for everyone, especially with touring shows.
I feel like every week I see this or a similar article 2 or 3 times on the green page talking about the biggest problem for theatre companies opening back up during the Coivd-19 pandemic, space. And every week it seems there is at least on article talking about the challenges that are specifically presented by climate and where the theatre is located will no longer allow them to do outdoor theatre. For the past week or two as well a lot of articles I have been reading such as this one have also called upon the local government for help in these matters providing companies with space and the facilities to hold such events. The problem I start to see as it’s almost October and it’s already dropped in to 60s here in Pittsburgh I think it’s all too little too late and perhaps even too much too soon. At this point I don’t know if companies have the time to ramp up a season in this short amount of time and I don’t think audiences are quite ready to sit in massive arenas 6 feet apart to watch a play. I could be wrong in all of this but these sort of plans feel more as a last cry rather than a definitive plan and that’s concerning to me as someone who hopes to soon be apart of this professional world.
I’ve actually been thinking about this for a little bit now, not only in terms of theatre, but elementary things as well and the way in which they are functioning/ how long they can function like that for. Obviously, with the summer time being a heavily COVID popular time, everyone kind of realized that outdoors is the safest as well as the most enjoyable way to spend time during this pandemic. But summer is slowly starting to leave us and I’m not sure how people are planning to keep their spaces at full capacity or even at 50%. I think a lot of companies, especially theatre companies, that are not very well funded are going to shut down either for the winter season or as a whole in general by the result of the winter hitting them so hard. It’s already happened with a lot of places and it’s only a matter of time for a lot of companies to do some business reevaluations.
The issue of what to do this winter is going to be a big problem for a lot of not only industries but also individuals. We’ve been lucky so far in that covid hitting at the end of winter and start of spring has allowed us the outdoors as a safe(r) gathering space. This goes for theatres who transitioned to outdoor shows as well as just for us in our daily lives - restaurants with outdoor seating and sitting outside in parks are deemed by many safe enough for the benefits to outweigh the risks. With colder weather coming, though, people are going to need to reevaluate their stance on the risks of gathering, because inside will be the only option. I think theaters that are looking at restructuring their physical spaces, staging performances in the round with spread out seating, are doing their best to create something and keep their doors open, but I worry about two things. I think that many audiences are not willing to risk their health for an indoor show - as much as I miss live theatre, I wouldn’t be - and I worry about the health of those who do decide to go. These efforts just feel premature to me, but for many theaters, trying to produce some live event is the only way they’ll be able to make enough money to continue running when it is deemed actually safe enough.
This sounds incredibly difficult. Even if we are able to create ideal indoor conditions in a conference center with perfect seating and amazing circulation and whatnot, I’m still not convinced this would be safe. Speaking from experience, even when another group of people are 6 feet away. It's so easy to just gravitate towards them. I seriously doubt that everyone at these shows would have their masks on, that they would stay socially distanced entering and leaving the space, or just walking around. We can choose to believe that everyone would take it as seriously as it deserves to be taken, but in my experience (which definitely is not the experience of everyone), people just don’t take the rules as seriously as they should, and it's hard to call them out on it. I want theater to come back so badly. But it just doesn't seem safe to do so. A safer alternative would be to use the money that would be funneled into transforming these spaces as a relief fund for theater makers in need? I just think this is a risky idea for something that is frankly, nonessential, especially when we have Zoom theater to tide us over
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