State’s safety guidelines won’t determine when venues open
Owners say rollback is encouraging, but arts industry still struggling
Connecticut arts and entertainment venues are largely unaffected by Gov. Lamont’s Thursday’s announcement of new COVID-19 guidelines. Indoor theater capacity had already been set at 50% in February, and has not changed. Large outdoor venues were given a chance to reopen at reduced capacity as well.
But the leaders of the venues are not able, or not interested, in reopening just yet. Considerations go beyond the state guidelines, involving the state of the arts industry nationally as well as the readiness of audiences to return.
David Fay, president and CEO of The Bushnell, responded in an email that “the changes announced yesterday, regarding the lifting of many of the restrictions related to restaurants, outdoor venues, retail, etc., are encouraging. They do not, however, significantly change The Bushnell’s plans to reopen for performances. Not only are we still limited to 50% capacity, we also must also continue to observe proper social distancing, which reduces our capacity to about 25%, which makes financial feasibility impossible at this time. And The Bushnell is one part of a much larger entertainment ecosystem. Broadway shows and major entertainment artists and attractions will need venues across the country to open in order to give them the confidence to return to the road.
“That being said,” Fay continues, “we welcome the governor’s announcement and are encouraged to see businesses reopening their doors and people getting back to work. The relatively smooth rollout of now three approved vaccines is speeding the recovery of our state and our country. Our confidence continues to increase that wewill be back and opening our doors to our very patient and supportive patrons for private events later this summer and for performances this fall. As soon as we have more details we will let everyone know and we look forward to seeing our community back at The Bushnell.”
Leaders of other performance venues echoed Fay’s opinion that while the governor’s actions are encouraging, realities of the arts
industry means that no venue can just throw open their doors overnight after such an announcement.
“Thisisastep,” says CynthiaRider, managing director of Hartford Stage. “Each step is good. We know things have to keep improving in termsofpublichealth. Wecan’triskreopening, then having to close again three weeks from now because things have changed. We also need money to be secure when we reopen.” Thatcouldmeanwaitinguntiltheycanoperate at 100% capacity. Rider estimates that, given the configuration of Hartford Stage’s auditorium and the 6-foot social distancing rule, the theater couldoperateatless than20% of capacity under the current regulations.
The state of Connecticut is not the only one setting rules. “Unions are looking out for their members, and there are lots of rules around that. They have to feel confident.”
“Also, when is the audience willing to come back?,” Rider says. That has been a steady refrain of arts leaders throughout the crisis: they knowtheiraudiences, andarenotgetting clear signals that theyarereadytoreturntolive performances en masse. “Wehope that by the fall, indoor live theater events will be possible again. Everyone is excited for that.”
Meanwhile, Hartford Stage is continuing to prepare virtual events, including a newworks festival this spring. Virtual theater education programs have been particularly popular.
David Byrd, the new managing director of Goodspeed Musicals, said in an email that “We continue to monitor the changing nature of the COVID pandemic as vaccinations roll out and guidelines are updated. It is important to Goodspeed that we reopen thoughtfully and responsibly, when it is most safe for our patrons, artists and staff, and at a time when it is fiscally prudent as well.”
Two smaller-capacity theaters in the area, Theater Works Hartford and West Hartford’s Playhouse on Park have been producing irtual shows throughout the pandemic and sticking to a season schedule. Both theaters plan projects given the best methods available at the time, and are looking to transition back to live performance when it becomes viable.
Playhouse on Park Managing Director Tracy Flater says “Yesterday’s announcement doesn’t change anything for the Playhouse except to boost our confidence that our existing plans are on track. We hope to produce productions outdoors from June through August and reopen indoors later in September. The governor’s announcement doesn’t help us for the here and now but alludes to the future, which will help us tremendously.”
In Thursday’s announcement, Lamont said outdoor event venues can reopen at 50% of capacity, capped at 10,000 people, and indoor stadiums could reopen at 10% of capacity.
Jim Koplik, president of Live Nation Connecticut, notes that two of the large venues he oversees, the Oakdale in Wallingford and the Xfinity Theatre summer amphitheater in Hartford, are currently in use as COVID vaccination sites. “I never thought I’d be in the vaccination business,” Koplik says. “We’ve done over 14,000 vaccinations there.” He’s hopeful to have concerts by midsummer, but explains that “you need a 90-day window” for them to happen, including time for booking, promoting and ticket sales.” Koplik says the governor has his “full support,” but that the venues are “not yet” ready to reopen. He says they are currently “checking on capacity” at the theaters.
The governor’s announcement mentioned “Summer Arts Festivals” under the category “Planning Ahead to Open.” Shelley Quiala, the new executive director of the International Festival of Arts & Ideas in New Haven — one of the top summer tourist attractions in the state — says the festival had already been “planning on multiple fronts, for a hybrid experience.” That includes outdoor events and virtual ones, but not indoor ones, with the exception of “maybe one venue,” Quiala says, where the event will also be livestreamed. Last year the main festival events were all virtual, plus some distanced backyard concerts and curbside pick-ups for food-related events. Arts & Ideas also holds smaller community festivals in New Haven neighborhoods prior to the main festival. It has not yet been decided whether the neighborhood festivals will be live or virtual, but the thinking is the same, Quiala says: it’s about whether the community feels ready.
The governor’s announcement “doesn’t change our plans,” Quiala says. “It gives us another marker. But even if laws and policies say we can safely gather, how does the community feel?
A life hack: If you’re 63 and she’s 25 and you’re her boss, the flirtation is always, every time, definitely unwanted.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, facing sexual harassment accusations from two former aides, released a statement Sunday acknowledging that his interactions at the office “may have been insensitive or too personal.”
“I acknowledge some of the things I have said have been misinterpreted as an unwanted flirtation,” his statement reads. “To the extent anyone felt that way, I am truly sorry about that.”
In a New York Times story published online Saturday and on the newspaper’s front page Sunday, Charlotte Bennett, 25, said the three-term, 63-yearold governor asked her questions about her sex life, whether she was monogamous in her relationships and if she had ever had sex with older men.
Bennett was an executive assistant and health policy adviser in Cuomo’s administration until November.
“He asked me if I believed if age made a difference in relationships, and he also asked me in the same conversation if I had ever been with an older man,” Bennett told the Times.
“At one juncture, Ms. Bennett said, the governor also noted that he felt ‘he’s fine with anyone above the age of 22,’ ” the Times reports.
Cuomo’s statement called for an “outside, independent review” to look at Bennett’s allegations, as well as allegations by former aide Lindsey
Boylan, who accused the governor of proposing a game of strip poker on a government airplane and stopping her as she was leaving his office one day to kiss her on the lips.
Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, New York’s two U.S. senators, and U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have also called for an independent investigation.
It’s hard to imagine a bright political future for Cuomo at this point, especially with the FBI and U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York investigating his administration’s handling of COVID-19 in nursing homes. He may be toast. I don’t know. I’ve never been good at, or all that interested in, predicting the future.
But I do find one detail in this whole sordid saga particularly troubling, and that’s the fact that Cuomo told The New York Times he believed he was acting as “a mentor” to Bennett.
I’m reminded of a 2019 LeanIn.org survey that looked at the impact the #MeToo movement had on workplace interactions. The survey found 60% of male managers were uncomfortable participating in a common work activity with a woman, such as mentoring — a 32% jump from a year prior. Thirty-six percent of surveyed men said they had avoided mentoring or socializing with a woman because they were nervous about how it would look.
Senior-level men said they were more hesitant to spend time with junior
women than with junior men in a range of capacities: They were 12 times more likely to hesitate to have one-on-one meetings with junior women than junior men, nine times more likely to hesitate to travel for work with junior women than junior men, and six times more likely to hesitate to schedule work dinners with junior women than junior men.
Those statistics are obviously lousy news for anyone interested in women advancing in the workplace — which should be everyone, since workplaces, families and communities all benefit tremendously from women’s voices, talents and financial security.
Which is why Cuomo imagining himself as Bennett’s mentor, even as he acknowledges interactions that had little to do with Bennett’s professional growth and everything to do with the maintenance of his ego, is just galling.
“At work sometimes I think I am being playful and make jokes that I think are funny. I do, on occasion, tease people in what I think is a good-natured way. I do it in public and in private,” his statement reads. “I have teased people about their personal lives, their relationships, about getting married or not getting married. I mean no offense and only attempt to add some levity and banter to what is a very serious business.”
Mentors help you understand and navigate the unique culture of a place. They advocate for you in meetings, whether or not you’re there to see it. They coach you on asking for a raise and point you toward opportunities you may not have the confidence to pursue without some nudging.
They are invested in your professional success. Your sex life is none of their business. Their sex life is none of yours. This is true whether there’s a one-year age gap or you’re the same age as your mentor’s twin daughters. (Eww.)
It seems like this would go without saying, but maybe we’re not there yet. Maybe there’s still a persistent, moldy style of power broker who needs to be reminded that female colleagues and subordinates are humans, just like you, showing up to do their jobs and use their brains and contribute to the cause — which is never, not ever, not even once, your sex life.
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