VIRTUAL EVOLUTION
While some in the performing arts community have embraced online offerings in an effort to reach audiences, others are seeking ways for in-person shows to go on, as Liane Faulder explains.
Even as Alberta enters Stage 2 of the provincial relaunch, Edmonton arts organizations — large and small — know their collective debut is anything but assured.
“As much as Stage 2 said theatres could open with restrictions, the physical distancing and number of restrictions made it impossible for us to open,” said Citadel Theatre’s executive director, Chantell Ghosh.
The Alberta government notes on its COVID-19 website that in Stage 2, indoor seated/audience events can include a maximum of 100 people, with physical distancing of two metres.
As Ghosh points out, crews scrambling behind the scenes of a production can’t remain six feet apart. Seating patrons six feet apart means the theatre could only reach 10 per cent of its maximum capacity. She says the Citadel’s two mainstage venues must run most shows at 80 to 90 per cent of their roughly 700-seat capacity to cover costs.
“I couldn’t make the math work,” said Ghosh, who runs a Citadel budget of roughly $13 million a year.
As a result, the Citadel postponed the upcoming 2020/21 season to 2021/22. Several shows shuttered this past spring will reappear come spring 2021, including the much-anticipated The Garneau Block, followed by previously announced hits that include Network and The Sound of Music.
Ghosh’s concerns are echoed by other arts leaders, and balancing the books with physical distancing in place isn’t the only challenge. Even if the government removed restrictions today, many patrons may not be comfortable returning to theatre for quite some time.
According to a May survey of 127 people by Workshop West Playwrights’ Theatre, while 67 per cent of patrons say they are “very likely” to return to the theatre, the sticking point was “when.”
Just over 42 per cent of respondents said they would return “right away” for a show they really wanted to see. About 57 per cent said they would wait between one month and one year before returning, with most of that group taking “a few months” to get back.
A threatened second wave of the virus puts another crimp in plans for any venue that relies on bums in seats.
Arts organizations — even small ones like Workshop West, with a yearly budget of $350,000, mostly from government sources — can’t risk that plans they make today may be shelved come fall.
“If I’m going to invest in producing a new Edmonton playwright before very small audiences, there is something about what you get back on your investment,” said Heather Inglis, Workshop West’s artistic director. The theatre focuses on the development of new Canadian plays. “But it’s also about what experience the playwright is having and how our work matters to both of those groups. That’s a deciding factor me.”
Inglis has pledged to mount one show this fall, but she’s designing it to be unstoppable, regardless of what happens with COVID-19. The show — as yet to be announced and which may take place outside — will “use the limitations of COVID-19 as theatrical conventions,” said Inglis.
Getting creative with what’s possible is the mantra for many arts administrators.
Annemarie Petrov, the president and chief executive of the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra and the Winspear Centre, says she aims to reduce her budget for next season by 50 per cent.
The Winspear normally hosts 80 concerts a year, featuring more than 125 visits from guest artists. Much of that programming is threatened.
“We’re thinking now about much shorter concerts repeated more frequently before a smaller audience,” said Petrov. “We’re asking, ‘What’s the opportunity to present before possibly no audience, to rehearse and record, and make it available to the public depending on the circumstances of the pandemic?’ ”
Petrov says the symphony will host online performances until a more stable point has been reached. There will also be a series of small, outdoor pop-ups in Edmonton neighbourhoods this summer. Expect more details on upcoming plans come September.
Scott Leithead, founder and artistic director of Kokopelli Choirs, takes a “wait-and-see” approach.
“Right now, all eyes are on Europe,” said Leithead, whose group has 400 members in seven choirs that haven’t met in person since March.
European centres are ahead of Canada in re-opening arts venues and entire economies, and Leithead has been meeting virtually with conductors overseas to gain advice on how best to move forward. Regardless, vocal concerts are off the table in Alberta until Stage 3.
Leithead says he’ll announce Kokopelli Choir’s future plans in August. One option is to meet in smaller, alternating ensembles, in both virtual and live settings.
Arts leaders hope that digital plays, online concerts and virtual workshops will engage audiences and artists until their favourite means of soulful expression can be enjoyed once again in a viable group setting. The Citadel’s website boasts a hopeful series of digital choices including its [esc] — or Electronic Story Creations series — which features top local artists in online performances throughout July.
While dire circumstances have forced the arts community to go digital, some now see that medium as a key tool for the future.
“The industry as a whole is understandably resistant to digital and online programming, but this has allowed us to recognize there is a gift in offering some things digitally,” said Ghosh.
Online programming provides access to people who can’t otherwise get to a theatre or concert venue.
“If we can find a way to deliver programming digitally that still has enough of the heart and soul of live theatre, and that kind of programming, then that’s better than not coming at all.”
If we can find a way to deliver programming digitally that still has enough of the heart and soul of live theatre, and that kind of programming, then that’s better than not coming (to see a production) at all. Chantell Ghosh, executive director, Citadel Theatre