While I'm one of the group of currently sitting with no active projects or predictable income stream, and as much as I'd love to get back behind a
desk at a live event and wow the socks off an appreciative audience I'm left pondering a couple of sticking points with our industry. Take as a
base the thought that our industry relies on density. The basic thought behind a
producer picking up the
tab on a show is, "can I get enough butts in the seats". How will that thought be handled in a post-COVID society where many venues may see occupancy placards cut by 1/3 and/or getting rid of the GA center floor sections in music venues - in short, how much seating capacity can be removed from a
venue (in order to engineer social distancing) before producers just say, "Na, not gonna make back the
nut"? Also consider concessions - if our audiences are being responsible and
masking, how do they do beverages or snacks? And if only 300 people can be in a traditionally 1000 seat
venue, with no beverage service, at a ticket price 3x higher than last year - who will be in the seats?
I know here in Chicago, with a lot of off-loop storefront (i.e. found spaces) theaters that were already cramped at 75-100 patrons, the thought of maxing out at 30 patrons per performance may really affect the shows chosen, or even if shows go on. How much harder hit will some of this city's music venues be without the over packed GA pits? The latest I've heard is that for summer 2020 don't plan on any large scale music events to occur, including Lolla and the traditional Ravinia
park concerts.
So, I guess, my thoughts at this time are not so much "when can we open" but more about what will the industry look like for the next year until a vaccine is available or the larger society has demonstrated that we've achieved a
level of herd immunity where gatherings of 500+ people don't
spike a local infected count?
Perhaps this is all just a sign that I've had too much time sitting around thinking.
Ok - next
line of questions - even as I'm pondering our audiences, it occurs to me that I've ignored our casts. Will they need monthly health screenings? Everyone walking around backstage in masks to
hand off to an ASM "Mask Minder" while they're on
stage? Will we need to partition off dressing rooms into cubicles? Just really hitting me that our industry was never much for social distancing.