LIVE ENTERTAINMENT VENUES READY TO RAISE THE CURTAIN
But readiness to resume shows varies depending on circumstances
For the first time in more than a year, Sarah Craig welcomes audience members to Caffe Lena on April 2.
The return of live entertainment in the Capital Region started small. The crowd, if it could be called that, at Caffe Lena in Saratoga Springs was sold out for both of last weekend’s reopening nights.
Total combined attendance for the area’s first two ticketed indoor concerts since March 2020: 48 people.
Almost 13 months after the state ordered entertainment venues, and indeed much of life as it had been lived for decades, to shut down as part of initial efforts to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus, inperson arts events are starting again in New York state. Beginning April 2, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s office allowed arts and entertainment venues with an indoor capacity of less than 1,500 or outdoor capacity of less than 2,500 to host audiences at 33 percent capacity, with maximum of 100 people indoors, 200 outdoors.
Caffe Lena aside, most indoor shows will not be rebounding quickly on area stages. Leaders of other area performingarts organizations admit to degrees of envy and admiration at how fast Caffe Lena was able to return to its core mission, and they said they passionately wish to be able to follow suit. But for organizations bigger than a coffeehouse currently limited to 34 people but actually seating fewer, matters are more complicated, for reasons from simple and local to complex and national.
The state’s new rules do not require proof of a recent negative COVID -19 test or completed vaccination course for attendance, but other familiar measures remain mandatory. Those include social distancing between individual groups and face coverings for all except performers who cannot wear them when performing. Under the new regulations, if a venue requires that all attendees show proof of a completed vaccination or recent negative test prior to entry, capacity may increase to 150 people indoors, up to 500 outside. Outdoor performing arts venues that hold more than 2,500 can reopen at 20 percent capacity. For arenas and stadiums able to accommodate crowds larger than 10,000, the limit is 10 percent of original capacity.
But while all entertainment before live audiences stopped almost instantly with the proverbial stroke of a gubernatorial pen in the second week of March last year, it will take much longer to figure out how to rewrite the rules necessary to once again start cultural life in a state where the arts contributed an estimated $120 billion to the economy in 2019, according to cultural leaders.
The 61-year-old, 110-seat Caffe Lena is small enough to be able to operate with minimal staffing and is supported by avid donors, many of whom maintained prepandemic levels of financial contributions despite not being able to attend shows in person for the past year, management
said. As a result, it quickly was able, to use the favorite word for adaptation during the pandemic, to pivot to something different. In this case, that was back to something familiar: live performances, mostly of folk music and held most nights of the week.
Lena’s first pivot came right after the executive order banning live audiences last March. Sarah Craig, executive director of the venue for 26 years, and staff almost immediately found performers willing to play from the Caffe Lena stage, compensated only by donations submitted online during livestreams of their shows.
Except for two periods, each lasting three weeks to a month, when contact tracing suggested possible COVID-19 exposure at Caffe Lena, the venue continued its livestreams multiple nights a week starting in March 2020. (During the time without live performers, Lena streamed shows from its archives.) Craig said the donations to the virtual tip jar allowed Caffe Lena to pay at least $100,000 to approximately 600 musicians who performed more than 250 shows over the past year. Donations ranged from $1 to $1,200.
“For anything in the tip jar over $100,
especially if there was an extra zero, we quickly got in touch with the donor before paying it out, to make sure they’d intended to give that much,” Craig said. During a livestream by the popular Irish musician Kevin Mckrell, for example, $10,000 popped into the tip jar from a single person, whose immediate, panicked attempts to reach Lena staff confirmed the tip had been the result of largesse expanded by alcohol, Craig said.
Caffe Lena has been livestreaming its shows for years, usually for online audiences of one to three dozen, according to Craig. During the pandemic, virtual attendance averaged more than 100. The very first livestream was seen by 140 households, Craig said.
“That told us this was going to be a place to maintain some kind of connection and normalcy, and we had to be bold to make sure it continued,” Craig said. No staff member or performer ever tested positive for COVID -19 through an exposure linked to Caffe Lena, she said.
At venues that usually host national and international touring acts, whether bands or Broadway musicals or dance companies
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the prospects of going back on the road,” said Kevin Mckrell, who also noted that several local and regional shows that were cancelled last year are beginning to be officially re-scheduled. “I am concerned because I am sorely out of shape performance-wise, both mentally and physically. Performing streamed events five times over the space of a year or more does not get you to the high energy and confidence level you need to be at to perform a proper live show. We need a musician training camp to get back in shape.”
“I personally am not interested in playing a show under weird restrictions just to play a show, but I’m also not going to try and cram a bunch of people into a room if it’s going to end up putting people’s lives in unnecessary danger,” said Eric Pressman, bassist for punk bands Mystery Girl and Wet Specimens. “I just want people to have a good time and feel safe about being out, whether that’s being safe from COVID or for being who you are as a person. There seems to be a lot of fodder for conflict in the world these days, and I just want any gig I’m involved in whether I’m playing it or booking it to be a couple of hours off from all of that and provide some fun and relief for those who show up.”
“The prospect of performing again live is exciting! I will be fully vaccinated. Playing to a full house is slightly more concerning depending on when that would take place,” said blues singer and guitarist Thomasina Winslow. “I will be fully vaccinated in the month of May so that reopens the possibility of getting back on the horse and bringing music and fun to people. I just hope that people continue to wear masks and take this virus seriously. All in all, I’m ready to get back out there!”
“My feelings on getting back to live shows are split. I very much look forward to returning to live
shows in smaller settings,” noted Alyssa Yaeger, who performs as Rhiannon’s Lark at a smaller scale at senior living facilities and a larger one at national folk conventions. “I expect these (senior) facilities will continue to have some precautions in place (spacing people out, masking) and that the majority of the audience will be vaccinated. On the other hand, returning to large conventions (anywhere from 1000-50,000+ people) concerns me. For instance, at many conventions part of my job is to perform in the hallways. I won’t be masked, I won’t be able to stay distant from people, and large masses of con-goers will be constantly flooding past. Unfortunately, we know that currently, a large part of the population does not want the vaccine, and there’s a lot of uncertainty about variants cropping up, so interaction with this many people in an enclosed space still feels risky.”