“Come to the theatre!”: Why the survival of the arts post-Covid relies on us
The Covid-19 pandemic - and the lockdowns that were introduced to curb its spread - has taken a wide-ranging toll on individuals, companies, and even entire industries – with the field of creative arts no exception.
For instance, even as many of us have returned to a mask-free existence that comes close to our pre-pandemic lifestyles, those working on Opera Australia’s latest season of productions are still following strict precautions – just so that the show can go on.
Shaun Rennie, assistant director of Il Trovatore, tells OverSixty that while a “more relaxed” view of Covid is great for audiences, catching the virus can be particularly devastating for those putting on the show.
“It's a really interesting time in the arts, because I sort of feel that, for the most part, the rest of the world has become much more relaxed about COVID, and is getting on with things and has a lot less fear around COVID, or even going out, or catching it,” he says. “That’s great, because audiences are confident and then coming back.
“The challenge is that in the arts, if Covid does get into a company, it can still be really devastating. And so I still find there’s quite a bit of a disconnect between my life outside the theatre and coming into work.”
Warwick Doddrell, assistant director of La Traviata, was the staging director for Turandot at the start of 2022 and says they didn’t expect to have to face a Covid outbreak.
“With Turandot at the start of the year … we thought that COVID was kind of over, naively,” Doddrell recalls.
“But then very quickly we started to lose people. And just by the nature of how the state government policies and work and health recommendations were at the time, it was all very serious, [with] very serious impacts on [the] rehearsal schedule, so we would lose days at a time because we had to do … all the risk management. So we would lose multiple days at a sudden notice.
“For us, that meant we had to be really adaptive. And we had to suddenly try to get through as much content as we possibly could at a bare minimum kind of level because … this might be the only day that we have to do Act Three. So let's do Act Three as best we possibly can. Let's get to the end. So that at least next time we've got you, people have some idea of where they're going and what the story is that they're telling, even if it's not as detailed as perhaps we would like it to be. But that there is something there; that there is some semblance of a story that we're telling.”
Mask-wearing, daily RATs (Rapid Antigen Tests), and even keeping the cast members, musicians, and crew separate between productions are normal aspects of work now, says Shane Placentino, revival director for Madama Butterfly.
“It's become the norm to test every day, to wear a mask, to sanitise your hands, to wash your hands, all those sorts of things, and that's impacted everyone from makeup and hair especially, and wardrobe, mechanists, stage crew, and orchestra,” he says.
Having worked as revival director and choreographer for The Merry Widow, which marked the return of operas to the stage in 2021, Placentino says the rules that were initially met with some resistance are now routine, with the emphasis on reducing the risk of clusters and ensuring that audiences feel safe enough to come back and watch live performances.
“We're finding that more and more people are coming back to live theatre,” Placentino says.
“I think people are feeling comfortable now that the majority of the population are vaccinated or at least double vaccinated.”
With many of us turning to streaming entertainment during lockdown, Placentino says it’s shown that the demand for the arts has still been there throughout.
“It seemed to be a mix of people that were craving to come back and see live theatre. The thing that I found quite interesting during those lockdowns was how much streaming of the arts, through social media and internet and on TV, there was quite a lot of access to the arts,” he says.
“Companies around the world gave access to productions that had been filmed or videoed and I thought that really indicated that people want to come back. They're just waiting for it to be safe – or safer.”
Coming out of the lockdowns, Doddrell believes there’s an appetite for the arts but that companies have had to become more flexible and adaptable, which can come with some new costs.
“I think it's going to be interesting to see [what] long, major or lasting changes this has on the industry,” he says.
“Particularly because a lot of smaller companies, smaller work now had to have understudies and covers and such things, which was never something smaller companies did before, but now it's kind of your requirements. And it just makes things more expensive. And … if those costs are going to be permanent for the foreseeable future… that will drive up the cost of tickets … I think it's a really tricky situation. Because obviously, theatre is quite expensive compared to some of the other entertainment options people have these days.
“And so I think the last thing we want is for prices to go out in such a way that it keeps audiences away.”
Interestingly, many industry members were forced to find alternative work at the onset of the pandemic as show after show simply shut down – and yet many haven’t returned despite the curtains rising once more.
“We have lost a lot of people in the industry at all levels,” Doddrell says. “People who couldn't just make it work, you know, so they had to find other jobs, they had to move on to something else, and they haven’t come back, which is, you know, good for new people to come in. But it's also [meant that] we've lost a lot of knowledge and a lot of expertise and a lot of history from people who've just had to move on.”
Placentino says audiences continuing to come and watch operas, musicals and other live events as they return is crucial for people to come back to working in the arts and for these events to continue.
“Initially, [attendance] numbers weren't as high as pre-COVID levels, but we're finding that now it's getting stronger and stronger. And obviously we hope that people feel really safe to come to the theatre and that they do,” Placentino explains.
“The more the audience comes to see us, the more people we can employ. That's what we want to happen… so come to the theatre!”
Image: Jeff Busby