NBC New York: New York plans to use extensive coronavirus testing as a way to reopen its struggling entertainment venues that have remained shuttered for months during the pandemic, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Monday.
The coronavirus has crippled the live theater industry, especially in its central hub, Broadway, which has been closed since March.
3 comments:
I am so excited for Broadway to finally open again! Seeing Broadway shows was one of the best parts of living in New York, and was one of the only things that my mother and I could enjoy together. I had tickets to see Company in March, a show I had been waiting to transfer since it opened in the West End, but Broadway closed soon before I was supposed to go. I was sad obviously, but there was nothing I could do about it. The NYC theater pop-ups mentioned in this article are really exciting, but also kind of confusing. Will they occur in theaters? Could they be anywhere, like just a park or something? Either way, if it's just an unannounced thing, it's super interesting, especially as a sort of experimental theater with such big names involved, and also for free, which could make it more accessible for so many people. I would be more than happy to get a Covid test to see a Broadway show, it's an experience I've longed for all quarantine.
Mass testing is certainly an interesting idea to get people back in large groups. Carnegie Mellon of course is doing mass weekly testing, so now that tests are cheaper and easier to come by, hopefully there will be data backing up that testing does decrease cases and keep us under the crucial cap. I’m also curious to see if there will be any sort of at-home testing created in the near future, but that will add complications like result verification. If tests got advanced enough, you could even imagine some sort of test you do in the car right before an event that immediately gives you results. Hopefully this will be one of the many outs for the entertainment industry and it can return at reduced force after being closed for a year. It is fascinating to me though that we were so willing to run right back into having in person sporting events, but we’re not willing to do the same for theater.
The thought of Broadway as well as the rest of the live theatre industry opening back up is exciting and hopeful. And I think that mass testing audience members, as well as cast and crew, is a great and smart way to do so safely. However, I still don’t think that I would be too comfortable going to a Broadway show with anything over a 50% capacity in the house regardless of whether or not every single person tested negative. There are still several confounding factors that need to be thought of. What is the maximum amount of time acceptable for an audience to take a covid test before attending a production? With that in mind, it’s important to remember that it is always possible that someone could contract the coronavirus after being tested and before seeing the show. Even so, you could contract covid and get tested so soon that the test comes back negative. I would love to believe that mass testing would be a great solution to opening the industry again, but there are still too many factors that could keep us from getting back to normal.
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