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Monday, October 04, 2021
Broadway Theatres In New York City Extend Vaccination and Mask Requirement For Audiences Through the End of the Year
www.broadwayworld.com: The Broadway League announced today that the owners and operators of all 41 Broadway theatres in New York City will continue to require vaccinations for audience members, as well as performers, backstage crew, and theatre staff, for all performances through the end of the year. Masks will also be required for audiences inside the theatre, except while actively eating or drinking in designated locations.
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The Broadway League announced that the owners and operators of all 41 Broadway theatres in New York City will continue to require vaccinations for audience members, performers, backstage crew, and theatre staff, for all performances through the end of the year. In addition to this, masks will also be required for audiences, except while they are actively eating or drinking in designated locations. This is the responsible decision to make, considering all the risks of having that many people in one space. Ultimately theatre is collaborative, but in collaboration needs to be safe amidst a pandemic. Many have a mindset that the pandemic is over and that mandating safety precautions like this is redundant, but it’s not. It’s very real, and in order for it to have as minimal life or death consequences, continuous vaccinations and masks is a good and ethical choice to make.
I'm not surprised that The Broadway League made this decision and I think that it's absolutely the responsible decision for them to make. The COVID 19 Pandemic is not over and it won't be over in the near future. We want to keep our industry open during this pandemic as safely as possible and this is the way that it will happen. I also think that it's the responsible thing for them to do as many organizations look to see what Broadway is doing to base what they should do as far as their guidelines and that's respectable as well. It's very possible that the world might look to be a safer place in a month or too but why chance it? We've all seen how quickly this pandemic can get out of hand and shut so many industries down and ruin careers. I think that it's much safer to extend these rules through the end of the year and see how things are in a month or so and then see how Broadway can operate in the new year.
I can't say that I'm surprised that this is the policy. After all, I'm sure production companies everywhere remember having to shut down for so long. Anything that these companies can do to help stop the spread of COVID makes it more likely that they will be able to stay in business and keep producing content. I'm glad to see that in addition to requiring vaccination by individuals that are eligible, they are also requiring negative test results from individuals that don't meet the minimum age that our guidelines allow.
As a side note. It really does blow my mind how resistant to the masks people are. It's as if they can't get it through their heads that they wouldn't have to worry about the masks at this point if we had followed all of the regulations at the beginning of the pandemic and if everyone would just get vaccinated. It's embarrassing that we are even still having conversations about the mask thing. But I guess these people that are (literally) dying to see live and performing arts don't care whether in person performances can continue.
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