The UK has announced that a Download festival pilot will take place in June 2021 as part of the experimental series of events which have taken place over recent months to track the spread and control of Covid-19 in crowded environments.
I’m impatient. I like movies that are linear and have endings that are explained, and I tend to see things in black and white. I don’t do well with ambiguity. So this whole pandemic has been a real challenge for me owning and running a theater and not knowing when we will be able to come back, how we will be able to re-open safely, and what life will look like when we get back to “normal.” I try focus on what is under my control and stay hopeful that there is a light at the end of the tunnel as vaccines are rolled out in greater numbers and restrictions are eased.
So I’ve done something completely new and totally not what I’d thought I’d be doing, but hey, new lockdown, new me…again….for the third time.
Theatre in 2020, left plenty us asking questions. How would be operate in this climate? What is the future for theatre. It was a period of great uncertainty but led to lots of exploration in new areas. It is period of time that will not be forgotten. In the midst of this uncertainty, I have been thinking a lot about what makes theatre so special.
2020 was anticipated a new year. A new year of theatrical productions in the West End, Broadway and around the world. The stage was set (as the story goes).
It’s difficult to put a year in review, when most of the year was, well, cancelled.
Covid-19 has shut down the theatre industry. Our entire profession has stalled, and thousands of entertainment workers are stuck in forced unemployment. The immediate economic downside of a year-long lockdown is incalculable. Worst of all, there is not much we can do about it.
2020 has undoubtedly challenged the events industry. Phrases like ‘pivot’, ‘platform’, ‘Zoom but not Zoom’ are repeated over and over on calls with clients. Plus, we are all trying to manage other areas of our lives and how to work around COVID-19.
In March this year, when the world moved into its first Covid- 19 lock-down, none of us could have imagined the devastation on the Theatre Industry. As we tentatively stepped back out into the European summer, we didn’t foresee we’d be back for a second lockdown as we head toward the new year.
England entered its second lockdown on Thursday 5th November, which is due to last until 2nd December. The new rules have been put in place due to fears over rising numbers of the virus, which sparked similar preventative measures in other parts of the UK in recent weeks. Just as some areas and industries were starting to feel more ‘normal’, many entertainment and arts organisations have now had to revise their practices to align with the current restrictions, which have been made in an attempt to stop a second wave coming over the festive period.
Rising Covid19 numbers in the late fall of 2020 have caused renewed lockdowns in many countries. This prompts entertainment professionals more than ever to think of new ways to continue to create and perform. Restrictions prompt innovation. In Germany, living room theatre is one such workaround.
My last day of work was March 13, 2020, and I’m still just as confused and anxious about it as the day our industry shut down. Since I was 15 years old, I have never gone this long without working, and I really just don’t know how to feel about it. I work in the arts because it feeds my soul, but can I afford that luxury anymore? Is it fair to ask me to get another job? Getting another job for me would mean getting another career, which would mean starting from zero, but I can’t afford to go back to school or pay for new training while I’m unemployed.
A new campaign #MakeWomenVisible supported by the UK Musician’s Union has the aim of making sure women and girls are not left behind as lockdown is lifted.
Our mission states that ‘ARC is an organisation working from its venue…’ – not that we are a venue. This has felt more important than ever in lockdown. The strength of ARC is its relationships, not its physical assets.
Week 9 of Quarantine. I previously wrote about the Silver Linings of this thing going on in the world. Which I do believe finding the good in this situation is important. But, that doesn’t mean it isn’t difficult.
How has it gone for you? I feel like each week is different.
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