New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Hepburn center sets stage to reopen
After closing for a year because of COVID-19 pandemic, ‘The Kate’ plans live show
OLD SAYBROOK — As a band was practicing on stage last March 13, staff members of the Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center learned businesses would soon be closing due to the COVID pandemic.
The show went on that night, but the stage has gone mostly dark ever since.
“Going to that to, for a while, nothing, was really a change,” said Brett Elliot, executive director of the cultural arts center.
But the cultural arts center, commonly known as The Kate, is about to be rocking again.
The Kate will host its first live music shows in more than a year when the Beatles tribute band, Ticket to Ride, performs on March 26-28.
“It will be approximately 70 people in the audience a night, which is about 25 to 30 percent of our theater,” Elliot said. “Between now and the summer, it will be sort of a slow figuring it out as we go.”
Elliot said the venue held approximately 280 live events in the year before the pandemic. He said in the months leading up to the closure, the venue was booking events into last summer and beyond.
“We were kind of putting the finishing touches on summer and booking into the fall pre-COVID last year,” he said. “Then, over the course of about two weeks it went from, ‘What’s going on?’ to closed.”
Elliot has since rescheduled more than 300 event slots.
“It’s been kind of a wild ride,” he said. “After a while, we did try to do some things virtually.
When Phase 3 happened last fall, we put two shows on sale — two nights of comedy.”
But only limited tickets were available for the comedy shows and pianist George Winston’s performance was canceled as COVID cases began to rise again.
He said The Kate also screened some films when movie theaters were allowed limited-capacity viewings, as well as simulcasts of the Metropolitan Opera House and the United Kingdoms National Theater.
“We primarily acted as a movie theater in that way,” Elliot said. “We are still doing those now.”
Elliot said The Kate held its 2020 Gala virtually, in which they honored the singer Cher with the Spirit of Katharine Hepburn Award.
“There are platforms now that are, basically, bridging the gaps between artists and venues,” he said. “We’re working together to promote their virtual shows, and we get a percentage of that and the rest goes to the artists.”
Elliot said The Kate, a non-profit, operates off contributed dollars from sponsorships, memberships and grants, as well as earned income from ticket sales.
“The earned income portion is down about 99.5 percent,” he said. “The contributed is significantly down, but not nearly as far. Those contributed dollars have allowed us to keep the full-time staff together during this.”
Elliot said the cultural center has also received funding from the federal Paycheck Protection Program and through state grants. He also noted loosening the coronavirus restrictions on venues will not impact the capacity due to social distancing guidelines still in place.
“When we are abiding by all of those regulations, we’re sort of stuck until distancing is either reduced or goes away,” Elliot said. “We anticipate more changes coming as we move through April, May and into June.”
Elliot said losing a second summer would be devastating to The Kate. He said a big factor is that members continue to support their work.
“I think 75 percent of members have renewed their membership in the last year, knowing that those benefits were not exactly there in the same way, but because they wanted us to be here after this ends,” he said. “The frightening this for us is, does that start to decline if we go into a second year of this.”
Elliot said starting to reopen in a safe way is important, so supporters remain connected.
“We are hopeful that summer sees a bit of normalcy,” he said. “We are ready to get there, because there are a lot of shows, really good shows, coming up. We look forward to seeing everyone.”