A play for summertime
Capital Region arts venues hope state initiative can help launch new season
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo last week announced an ambitious plan to restart the state’s cultural engine. Called New York Arts Revival, the initiative, under which the state arts council and other public resources will partner with community organizations to hold various pop-up events across New York, is due to launch in early February.
The news also prompted arts organizations and audiences to flip a few pages further in the calendar, toward summer, our region’s busiest time for the arts. If Cuomo believes the arts can restart to some degree in midwinter, the thinking went, then conditions should be even better in the warmer months, when more people will have received COVID -19 vaccines and at least outdoor entertainment is likely to be allowed, unlike last year.
The trouble for area arts administrators whose companies produce primarily in the summer is that, in normal years anyway, plans for their seasons, held from late spring through early fall, are largely if not wholly finalized before January ends. In seasons past, Playhouse Stage Company is fully
committed before February to its Park Playhouse shows that start in July in Albany’s Washington Park. The same is true for Opera Saratoga and the Glimmerglass Festival, and the Saratoga Performing Arts Center’s programming is 95 percent finalized, according to executives of the respective companies.
Not so for 2021. The Times Union submitted questionnaires to 10 regional arts organizations known for their summer seasons. Of the six that responded, all expressed strong degrees of confidence that they would present something in the way of live entertainment for in-person audiences at some point between Memorial Day and Labor Day. Where, by whom, in what form and for how large an audience remain at least partially opaque.
“It is basically like planning four or five different summer seasons at once and then waiting to activate the one that fits the moment,” said Owen Smith, producing artistic director of Playhouse Stage. (All quotes in this story are from emailed questionnaire responses.)
“The state is clear they have currently banned indoor performances, but they are very unclear on what parameters exist for outdoor events,” said David Andrew Snider, executive and artistic director of Hubbard Hall Center for the Arts and Education in Cambridge. Hubbard
Hall last summer hosted classes in dance and theater, chamber music concerts and a fully masked, outdoor production of “All’s Well That Ends Well,” which Snider said was one of the few outdoor Shakespeare productions in the country during the pandemic summer. It started fall classes in September and also had an outdoor autumn concert.
Snider said of the 2021 outlook, “We have artists who are willing to perform. We just need to know what the state expects.”
Equally uncertain are this year’s finances, with most institutions reporting that their incomes plummeted by half to two-thirds last summer as a result of state-imposed restrictions related to the coronavirus pandemic.
Elizabeth Sobol, president and CEO of SPAC, said, “Current social-distancing guidelines would reduce amphitheater capacity from 5,200 to 1,200, which would have a big impact on revenue.”
The Glimmerglass Festival in Cooperstown will see its previous years’ budget average of $9 million “greatly reduced,” according to spokeswoman Brittany Lesavoy. But, she added, “(It) must incorporate new areas of expense, such as COVID -related health and safety measures.”
Because many festival patrons donated all or a portion of what they had paid for tickets back to the company, Lesavoy said, it was able to pay all seasonal staff, artists and interns 25 percent of their contractual fees last year despite the lack of a season, and Glimmerglass began its 2021 fiscal year in October on “steady footing.”
Marcus Dean Fuller, executive and artistic director of Saratoga Shakespeare Company, noted that Shakespeare was writing during pandemic times, with outbreaks of the plague in London 1603 and 1610, though the Bard’s plays contain little mention of it.
“Having to write in quarantine and confinement, Shakespeare understood firsthand how much we need each other,” Fuller said.
He continued, “Shakespeare reminds us that although we may be isolated, we are not alone. When the time comes where we can once again gather together to grieve and to celebrate, let us look to Shakespeare’s language to guide us.”
Glimmerglass Festival, Cooperstown
Respondent: Brittany Lesavoy,
communications director
Pre-pandemic annual budget: Approximately $9 million
Estimated income lost in 2020: $3.8 million
Projected annual budget for 2021: Unclear but greatly reduced. Wish-list amount in 2021 government aid to help offset
ongoing challenges: The culture industry accounts for more than 4.5 percent of this country’s gross domestic product. It would be wonderful if this statistic could be taken into account when determining how to support arts and culture institutions in this country.
Percentage of summer season normally finalized or at least planned by mid-january: 100, with all tickets on sale by the end of the month.
Percentage of programming definite or likely for summer 2021 so far: Difficult to quantify. We are moving forward with all manner of planning live performances at the Glimmerglass Festival campus.
Anything to add? The 2021 festival will offer the artistic product for which the company is known while retaining the flexibility to navigate the everchanging landscape of a world battling COVID -19.
Hubbard Hall Center for the Arts and Education, Cambridge
Respondent: David Andrew Snider, executive and artistic director
Pre-pandemic annual budget: $480,000
Estimated income lost in 2020: 50 to 60 percent
Projected annual budget for 2021: $220,000
Wish-list amount in 2021 government aid to help offset
ongoing challenges: $250,000, even if over two years, would be a big help.
Percentage of summer season normally finalized or at least planned by mid-january: 80
Percentage of programming definite or at least planned for summer 2021 so far: We’re now holding until we know more about New York state guidelines for 2021.
Percentage of programming likely for summer 2021 so far: We just don’t know yet. We hope to offer things outdoors if we can’t do inside.
How do you plan a summer season despite so much uncertainty? We know we can do classes like we did last summer. If New York does not allow us to do ticketed events inside, we will need to again rent a large tent and do as much as we can outdoors.
Level of confidence, 0 to 100 percent, that you will have audiences for live performances in summer 2021: 100. We had audiences of 40 people or less all last summer. I think there will be more appetite this year. Anything to add? We were able to do all of the shows and classes we did with zero issues of spread or exposure. We hope New York will engage us in the New York Arts Revival program to discuss and share what we’ve learned in how to do the arts safely and productively during the pandemic.
Opera Saratoga, Saratoga Springs
Respondent: Lawrence Edelson, artistic and general director
Pre-pandemic annual budget: $1.25 million
Estimated income lost in 2020: $600,000
Projected annual budget
for 2021: $950,000, provided we are able to perform in late summer. Wish-list amount in 2021 government aid to help offset
ongoing challenges: We can always use more direct financial support, but, honestly, vaccination availability for performing artists and associated production staff is going to be key. While acknowledging that essential workers and at-risk populations need priority access to the vaccine, it is important to note that performing artists will not be able to return to the stage safely and with full confidence until vaccinations are available for arts workers.
Percentage of summer season normally finalized by mid-january: 100
Percentage of programming definite for summer 2021 so far: Nothing is definite, but we have provisional plans in place.
Percentage of programming likely for summer 2021 so far: We certainly will have a much smaller scale season than the most recent festivals.
How do you plan a summer season despite so much uncertainty? A crystal ball and many Excel spreadsheets. Level of confidence, 0 to 100 percent, that you will have audiences for live performances in summer 2021:
Hard to place a number on this, but we are fairly confident that performances will be possible in late summer, outdoors.
Playhouse Stage Company/park Playhouse, Albany and Cohoes
Respondent: Owen Smith, producing artistic director
Pre-pandemic annual budget: $1.4 million
Estimated income lost in 2020: About $1 million
Projected annual budget for 2021: $850,000
Wish-list amount in 2021 government aid to help offset ongoing challenges: At least $250,000, but it really depends on the length of the continued shutdown.
Percentage of summer season normally finalized by mid-january: 100
Percentage of programming definite for summer 2021 so far: Zero for in-person events, at least right now. We are reliant on state and local regulations allowing for both outdoor and indoor performances that we are planning.
Percentage of programming likely for summer 2021 so far: I am better than 50 percent hopeful that we will be performing in person with a normal schedule, even if with capped attendance. How do you plan a summer season despite so much uncertainty? It means planning contingency on contingency on contingency.
Level of confidence, 0 to 100 percent, that you will have audiences for live performances in summer 2021: A hopeful 75.
Anything to add? We are desperate to get back on stage and connect with our audience again. And the world needs the arts more than ever right now.
Saratoga Performing Arts Center, Saratoga Springs
Respondent: Elizabeth Sobol, president and CEO
Pre-pandemic annual budget: $10 million
Estimated income lost in 2020: $6 million
Projected annual budget for 2021: Impossible to know given uncertainties about whether the amphitheater will be able to be used widely and, if yes, at what capacity. Wish-list amount in 2021 government aid to help offset ongoing challenges: I am trying to balance my response to “wish list” with an attempt not to over