Leisure Kennedy Centre cancels live performances through spring; honours are still on, with a different look
WASHINGTON: The John F. Kennedy Centre for the Performing Arts is cancelling all scheduled live performances through April 25 as well as next summer’s slate of Broadway touring shows, pushing its pandemic-related closure into a second year, officials announced Wednesday. The annual Kennedy Centre Honours - already postponed to March 7 - will be produced in late spring using a hybrid format of virtual tributes and live performances.
The cancellations will result in the permanent layoffs of 38 employees who had been furloughed, adding to the 64 who were laid off in July, when the arts centre also eliminated 47 vacant positions. The administrative staff has been cut by 36 per cent since the start of the pandemic, said Kennedy Centre president and chief executive Deborah Rutter. With the new cancellations, the national arts centre has nixed more than half of an already limited 2020-21 season and incurred earned revenue losses topping US$80 million, Rutter said.
“It’s such a complicated, complex and confusing time,” Rutter said Wednesday. “I believe this is clearheaded. We’re confronting reality. We’re doing everything in our power to address the circumstances we find ourselves in. But all of this is beyond our control.”
More than 384 ticketed events have been cancelled starting in January, including the Washington National Opera’s planned productions in May and July of “La Bohème” and “Blue” and the national tours of “Jesus Christ Superstar” (May 25-June 13,) “Freestyle Love Supreme” (June 8-13), “Oklahoma!” (June 22-27), “Dear Evan Hansen” (June 29-July 18) and “The Band’s Visit” (July 28-Aug 8).
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre performances, originally scheduled for Feb 2-7, will be moved to June 22-27.
The arts centre closed in March, when government officials banned large gatherings to prevent the spread of covid-19. Almost immediately, the centre laid off about 800 hourly and parttime workers and furloughed several hundred more. Congress provided US$25 million in relief funding, and the arts centre spent US$19.8 million on salary and benefits for employees for the first six months of the shutdown. Rutter said the US$4 million balance is being used for current salary and benefits costs.
“The Cares Act made it possible for us to get through last year. Without it, I can’t imagine what would have happened,” Rutter said. She declined to say whether the arts centre is seeking additional federal aid.
The centre now has 264 administrative employees, down from 411, 153 musicians in its two orchestras and about 70 part-time workers, including stagehands, theatre managers and ushers, who are hired intermittently, Rutter said. Salary cuts of 25 percent for senior executives and 10 percent for those earning US$75,000 that were implemented this summer will continue. After originally taking no compensation for three months, Rutter increased her salary to 25 per cent in mid-June and began taking 50 per cent in mid-September. Her annual pay is about US$1.3 million.
Details about the upcoming honours presentation are “all conceptual,” but Rutter said the Kennedy Centre and producers are exploring ways to use the mostly empty arts centre to create unique tributes to the artists. The honorees have yet to be identified.
“It’s completely under development,” Rutter said about the presentation, which will be broadcast on CBS. “Rather than fit it into a set period of time in one set space, we are looking at using different venues. We have these extraordinarily beautiful spaces.”