Garde Arts offers discount for reopening events
The Garde Arts Center is holding special events every Tuesday for the next month, to welcome theatergoers back ... to its lobby.
Those who visit the Garde box office from 3 to 7 p.m. on Aug. 3, 10 or 17 can get a 10% discount when buying tickets to three or more of the live shows on the Garde schedule. Passes, tickets to movie screenings and previously purchased tickets aren’t eligible for the discount.
The events, called “Golden Hours,” began Tuesday night. Garde Development Director Jeanne Sigel reports that there were “steady walk-ups” all evening. “Some people just saw the box office was open and stopped in. There were lots of hugs. People are so thrilled that the Garde is ready to do business.”
She says that, besides the multi-ticket discount deal, there’s a treat for anyone who stops by, regardless of whether they purchase anything. “Their name will go into a hat for a pair of passes to our cinema series.” The drawing will happen on every “Golden Hours” night.
Garde Executive Director Steve Sigel says the discount may “encourage people to take a chance on a show” they might not otherwise have considered.
“It’s a chance to talk to our patrons. That’s hard to do during a show,” he says.
One thing the “Golden Hours” box office events highlight is the return of the theater’s box office staff. The Garde received COVID relief grants from the state of Connecticut and from the national Shuttered Venue Operator grant program, and has been able to rehire for positions that were vacant during the COVID shutdown. Jeanne Sigel notes that one Garde staffer
was working remotely from Virginia during the shutdown, and that being able to work in the building again is one of the happiest aspects of what she calls “phase one” of the reopening process.
The box office will resume its regular business hours on Aug. 2, open Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. as well as two hours prior to performances and film
screenings. Films, live concerts and Olympics
The Garde has over a dozen films on its schedule for August. In September it starts presenting live concerts again, starting with Melissa Etheridge Sept. 5 and a double bill of Joan Osborne and Madeleine Peyroux on Sept. 19.
The larger performing arts centers in the state are only just getting back to hosting live performances. The Garde’s booking of Melissa Etheridge on Sept. 5 is among the earlier ones. The 1,500-seat Palace Theatre in Stamford has Steve Martin and Martin Short on Aug. 26. The smaller Ridgefield Playhouse has been presenting live music and comedy for several months now.
“At a very basic level for us, this is not about how to get the arts back, but how to do what theaters are designed to do, “Sigel says.
While the Garde was unable to operate as a theater during the pandemic, it offered itself as a community resource, including as a drop-in learning center, “a safe space for school kids to study,” he says. Among the private events held in the venue were a funeral and a wake.
Sigel notes that the Garde is “incredibly safe. The inspectors said our air filtration system exceeded the upgrades they have been recommending.”
The Garde has already been bringing audiences in for film screenings. A new locally made documentary, “Those People,” about how the New London Talent Show held annually at the Garde was developed in response to street violence in the city, was screened in early June and drew over 400 people, Sigel says.
This week the Garde received approval from the NBC network to livestream an Olympic event, the women’s basketball game between Puerto Rico and Belgium. One of the members of the Puerto Rican team is India Pagan, a New London native who played on the New London High School girls basketball team. There will be a pre-show “meet and greet” event at the Garde at 8 p.m. on Thursday, July 29, prior to the 9 p.m. game.
More information on Garde Arts Center events is at gardearts.org.