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Friday, March 12, 2021
Protesters Occupy French Theaters, Demanding Reopening
The New York Times: Dozens of protesters stood outside the La Colline theater here on Wednesday, waving signs. “Better ‘The Rite of Spring’ than a massacre until spring,” read one; “We want to dream again,” said another.
4 comments:
Jacob Wilson
said...
Although it may seem like the protesters are protesting for theatres to open up immediately, I do not think that is the case. It seems as if what these people want is a clear timeline for when they will be allowed to perform again so production companies can start planning, hiring, and rehearsing upcoming content. Clearly these actors, theatre workers, and students understand that it takes a lot of planning to put on just a singular production and they want to be able to start to plan with some certainty. They also seem to feel as if the government is ignoring their requests to open. All they seem to want is a little bit of attention and certainty for the coming months. Although I do want that as well, I feel as if we set a hard timeline for when venues should reopen, we may have a hard time actually accomplishing this goal and we will end up having to move this date around and make things even more complicated than they need to be.
These kind of article always give me mixed feelings. First of all, I was surprised to see how this kind of situation (bars being higher for the theaters to re-open) was happening in France as well. It has been a big issue in Korea as well, and I think this kind of incidents are happening since many people just tend to perceive theaters as source of entertainment and neglect the fact that there are so many employees behind them whose lives depends on theatrical businesses. I feel like what people are the most afraid of at this point is gradually changing, from the pandemic to the uncertainty of the future. I totally understand what led to this , but also think people would all agree that this kind of demonstrations is not the most ideal way to restart the theater. I think they should quickly find the compromising point soon by either changing the theater policies with the number of audience or setting the certain date for reopening.
Is France okay? Why are people occupying theaters to get them to reopen? The pandemic is not over, and it is not safe to reopen. I understand their unemployment benefits are being changed, but the solution to potentially losing unemployment is not go to back to work in live theater. It’s to lobby the government so they don’t cut unemployment. They should be protesting at the government buildings. Also, I understand that they also just want a reopening date, but that’s rather a loaded question. They already had a reopening date of December 15th which then had to be scrapped because the country was unable to get the pandemic under control. It seems idiotic to me to ask for another reopening date, because then all you get is a constantly moving goalpost. Until the pandemic is under control and the government is on track to vaccinate everyone, there is nothing gained from planning for a reopening date, unless you want a very conservative estimate. I mean I would if that’s all they really want, just tell them May 2022 so they can go home.
Similarly to Jin I have many mixed emotions about this whole situation. Let me start by saying, while I do love theatre and want it’s return, I don’t want it to open until it’s truly safe for people. That being said I can’t really understand how they are feeling because my income doesn’t rely on shows right now. Looking at the title, I was a little concerned that they wanted them open at this very moment. In reality, they just want a timeline and better unemployment. As for the timeline as much as it sucks, I understand why they can’t have one. Coronavirus especially with the new variants and people going out against guidelines is not easy to predict at all. We are still at a point where things can get worse, so it’s difficult to put a date that might just get moved. For instance, they were supposed to open mid-December but the number of cases they had were too high for it to be safe.
4 comments:
Although it may seem like the protesters are protesting for theatres to open up immediately, I do not think that is the case. It seems as if what these people want is a clear timeline for when they will be allowed to perform again so production companies can start planning, hiring, and rehearsing upcoming content. Clearly these actors, theatre workers, and students understand that it takes a lot of planning to put on just a singular production and they want to be able to start to plan with some certainty. They also seem to feel as if the government is ignoring their requests to open. All they seem to want is a little bit of attention and certainty for the coming months. Although I do want that as well, I feel as if we set a hard timeline for when venues should reopen, we may have a hard time actually accomplishing this goal and we will end up having to move this date around and make things even more complicated than they need to be.
These kind of article always give me mixed feelings. First of all, I was surprised to see how this kind of situation (bars being higher for the theaters to re-open) was happening in France as well. It has been a big issue in Korea as well, and I think this kind of incidents are happening since many people just tend to perceive theaters as source of entertainment and neglect the fact that there are so many employees behind them whose lives depends on theatrical businesses. I feel like what people are the most afraid of at this point is gradually changing, from the pandemic to the uncertainty of the future. I totally understand what led to this , but also think people would all agree that this kind of demonstrations is not the most ideal way to restart the theater. I think they should quickly find the compromising point soon by either changing the theater policies with the number of audience or setting the certain date for reopening.
Is France okay? Why are people occupying theaters to get them to reopen? The pandemic is not over, and it is not safe to reopen. I understand their unemployment benefits are being changed, but the solution to potentially losing unemployment is not go to back to work in live theater. It’s to lobby the government so they don’t cut unemployment. They should be protesting at the government buildings. Also, I understand that they also just want a reopening date, but that’s rather a loaded question. They already had a reopening date of December 15th which then had to be scrapped because the country was unable to get the pandemic under control. It seems idiotic to me to ask for another reopening date, because then all you get is a constantly moving goalpost. Until the pandemic is under control and the government is on track to vaccinate everyone, there is nothing gained from planning for a reopening date, unless you want a very conservative estimate. I mean I would if that’s all they really want, just tell them May 2022 so they can go home.
Similarly to Jin I have many mixed emotions about this whole situation. Let me start by saying, while I do love theatre and want it’s return, I don’t want it to open until it’s truly safe for people. That being said I can’t really understand how they are feeling because my income doesn’t rely on shows right now. Looking at the title, I was a little concerned that they wanted them open at this very moment. In reality, they just want a timeline and better unemployment. As for the timeline as much as it sucks, I understand why they can’t have one. Coronavirus especially with the new variants and people going out against guidelines is not easy to predict at all. We are still at a point where things can get worse, so it’s difficult to put a date that might just get moved. For instance, they were supposed to open mid-December but the number of cases they had were too high for it to be safe.
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