Datebook: Allison Page was supposed to get one more chance to perform here.
She’d given “two years’ notice,” she jokes, at her job as executive artistic director of sketch comedy company Killing My Lobster. Her long-planned move from Oakland to Nashville was set for April, and despite the pandemic and its constant uncertainty, postponements and disappointments, she’d lined up one last gig.
2 comments:
This article is very upsetting to read because of the emotional despondency of these theatre makers. Now, I am all for theatre’s remaining closed until Covid has passed because if they don’t, Covid will continue to run rampant. As a matter of fact I actually get upset when companies get too eager to reopen for financial sake, because they will just end up closing down again and making this pandemics worse; however, I cannot help but feel for the people in this article and how even after promising opportunities, they continue to be shut down and out of work. In my opinion, it honestly worse when show is postponed rather than cancelled, because if something is postponed, we will naturally hold on to the hope on that even happening, as if something is cancelled it is certain that it is not going to happen and the grieving process can begin rather than holding onto false hope.
The performing arts community, along with the rest of the world, is struggling to survive under the trauma of COVID-19 generally and especially with Omicron, and I don’t think it is stated enough that this has been extremely traumatic for our industry. We are living in this push and pull cycle where we have to make the best decisions to protect ourselves and patrons, while simultaneously trying to be creative and make art, all on top of the state of the world in general and the failure of government and ineffective leadership. This precarious state of the industry has led to many shows being postponed or canceled, which is traumatic for all the artists who have to deal with the loss of both their creative project and livelihood, which is what this article highlights. This isn’t just a little bit of sadness from a project getting canceled, but rather a mourning experience and one that’s extremely rough on us as creatives.
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