Theaters struggle to find way

Fine Arts Association presenting holiday musical in person, online

Well, to say it has not been a typical fall performance season for our area young thespians is the understatement of the millennium.

Typically this column would be coming off of a very busy fall play performance season in November and looking toward a number of holiday-themed productions as we head to the end of the calendar year. For reasons known to absolutely everyone, that has simply not been the case.

Many high school fall plays had to either be postponed, moved online, or scrubbed from the calendar entirely as the pandemic America does not know how — or, in some cases, care — to deal with rages on and on. If anything, it is worse now than at any time since it started back in March when it took spring musicals across the country down in its wake.

While there have certainly been far worse casualties to the country than the damage done to the arts — namely the loss of millions of jobs, possibly thousands of small businesses, and certainly over a quarter of a million people — there is no denying the fact that the pandemic continues to be an existential calamity to the entire performing arts community.

Performing arts organizations the world over still struggle with how to adapt in this environment. Broadway has already announced it will not even attempt to reopen until June 2021. In this state, Governor DeWine’s cap of 15% of capacity or 300 audience members — whichever comes first — remains an insurmountable barrier to profitability that continues to keep theatres shuttered while just about every other business has had at least the opportunity to reopen.

In short — for the arts — an unprecedented disaster.

Good news on the vaccine front promises some light at the end of a very long winter tunnel. Until then, performing arts organizations at the end of their rope have little choice in the face of complete governmental inaction other than to tie a knot in it and hang on for dear life.

While uncertainty in even the near future makes planning ahead almost impossible, organizations who are still managing to press on have done so with their best asset — creativity.

Among those are The Fine Arts Association in Willoughby, who will present their musical holiday special, “Home for the Holidays” both in-person at limited capacity and virtually for this holiday season.

Haley Gagnon, Greg Gnau, Kyle Lorek, JJ Luster, David Malinowski, Emily Raddell, Emily Stack, and clients from FAA’s Creative Arts Therapies Department will star in the production.

“Home for the Holidays” can be seen at The Fine Arts Association Corning Auditorium Dec. 3-6 and on FAA’s YouTube Channel on Dec. 20. The story revolves around Jingles the elf, who ¯ according to the FAA news release announcing the production — is searching for a promotion at the North Pole. She will help the cast earn “Nice” points by having them share holiday memories and familiar melodies like “I’ll Be Home for Christmas,” “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” “Where Are You, Christmas?,” and many more. This original performance follows all state required guidelines for social distanced performances.

Performances will last approximately 60 minutes without an intermission. Shows are Dec. 3, 4, and 5 at 7:30 p.m. and Dec. 6 at 2 p.m. The YouTube release will be on Dec. 20 at 7:30 p.m. In-person tickets are available for $10. If you are unable to attend in person, and would still like to support FAA, consider purchasing and “Angel Seat” for $15. All tickets are available by phone at 440951-7500 or in person.

While the Fine Arts Association is able to find a way forward, the situation is tougher for schools throughout the county that have been forced to go to remote learning for the foreseeable future. JJ Luster, one of the aforementioned cast members of the FAA holiday production, understands this reality as the theatre director for Fairport Harding High School. For them and many other area schools, live performances are hard to come by.

“This year,” Luster tells me, “Fairport Harding is taking on new challenges and experimenting with the idea of performance. Safety is priority No. 1 for this high school theatre and as a result, no live shows are planned for the year at this time. Instead, we will be rehearsing, filming, and releasing a number of themed cabarets throughout the year. This gives our students the opportunity to perform, without taking any unnecessary risks.”

The young thespians at Fairport already released a “A Harding Halloween,” a Halloween-themed cabaret with everyone’s favorite spooky songs.

“(We) are currently working on releasing a winter holiday cabaret with everyone filming from the comfort of their homes,” Luster says. “While this is not ideal or what we expected, we are all pulling together to still make performance happen during these trying times!”

We will know when our country is recovered from this pandemic when the arts have returned. When they do, they will be more than a pleasant evening out for some. The arts are an economic engine — from Broadway to Cleveland’s own Playhouse Square — that are lying dormant. Hopefully in 2021, that light at the end of the tunnel will be shining on our area stages.

Young Thespians is a regular column that focuses on youth in theater. Do you have a production you wish to see featured? E-mail stevecouch@ windstream.net, follow me @ StevenRCouch on Twitter or join our “Young Thespians” Facebook group and post your show information.