Local performing arts venues might be the last to reopen in pandemic

Live theater arts in the Left Hand Valley were effectively shuttered by the coronavirus pandemic in March, along with most everything else we gather together to do.

While restaurants and shops are starting to reopen under new guidelines, community arts organizations are only just beginning to understand the gravity of the challenges they are facing.

On June 11, the Denver Center for the Performing Arts announced it was cancelling or postponing the entire 20/21 season through June, 2021. Local theater organizations in Boulder County have taken note, and are doing their best to adjust and plan for a very uncertain future.

Scott Moore, co-owner of Jesters Dinner Theatre in Longmont, said, "I'm not sure there's an audience yet. I think there's a lot of fear out there. I don't want to open for the sake of being open until we can get back to something more normal."

Jesters was in the midst of a long run of the show "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" when it had to shut down on March 15. They were forced to cancel five additional weekends of that show, as well as an April/June run of "Oliver!" that was just about to start rehearsals and a children's production of "Peter Pan," with "over 30 kids in the class that had to be put on hold" according to Moore.

In the short term, Moore thought they would be given the green light to open back up again, and his plan had initially been to quickly restage and restart "Seven Brides." However, the outlook is more grim as time goes on.

As restaurants and shops are opening with new restrictions, Moore pointed out that he could theoretically do the same with his audiences. However, he questioned how he could have 21 actors on stage together. "How do you social distance in a dressing room?" he asked.

"I'm not putting anyone in a mask on a stage," said Moore. "We're not desperate enough yet to open just for the sake of being open."

There's a small silver lining for Moore, who said, "I got new carpet in, I'm painting all the walls. We're doing a lot of things we weren't going to have time to do otherwise, so I guess that part is good."

He's also had the opportunity to spend more down time with his wife, Mary Lou Moore, who co-owns Jesters with him. "That's been good for us," he said.

Moore feels lucky that Jesters is largely run by volunteers who have other jobs and livelihoods, and so "no one is out of work, it's just my wife and me." They've had support from family and small amounts from stimulus spending and disaster relief, although their PPP loan application has not yet been accepted.

Other organizations have had to take more drastic steps to respond to the closings. The Dairy Arts Center had only dug out of a large deficit accumulated from a capital campaign to renovate its building on Walnut Street in Boulder. It was "on course to have a $100,000 surplus" in 2020, said their executive director, Melissa Fatham, and "then it was kind of, BAM, the rug was pulled out from under us."

The Dairy went from an operating budget of around $1.6 million to $300,000 overnight, and had to furlough nearly the entire staff, down from an average of around 34 staff members to only two.

Fathom said, "Not only did revenue stop coming in, but we also had to pay out huge amounts - ticket refunds, rental refunds...These were refunds on dates we already hired staff, so we had to pay our staff."

Fathom managed to balance the budget for this fiscal year "only because of the severity of what I had to do," but is looking at an indefinite amount of time before programs and events can start up with enough revenue to bring back the furloughed employees.

The Dairy is continuing to think creatively and come up with programs and events that are either virtual or allow for proper social distancing. There's a new drive-in movie theater series, with the first two weeks of programming sold out through June 20. It is hosting a virtual variety show fundraiser on June 18, as well as a new Free Range Dairy programming, and "Zoomback" online movie screenings followed by live virtual conversations with filmmakers and cinema experts.

The vice president of The Dairy's board of directors, Anita Solick Oswald (a Niwot resident), said, "Until we have clear guidance about how entertainment venues can reopen, it's difficult to project" how soon indoor programming can reopen at The Dairy.

Oswald said, "There's a limit to flexibility for any facility that presents challenges about social distancing" and many questions to answer including, "Do you have the flexibility to accommodate the guidelines and still reopen, and still break even financially?"

"We don't know exactly what that picture looks like or what the future holds. But we never know that," said Oswald.

Joan Harrold, the marketing manager at Longmont Museum, who also moonlights as a performing artist in local theater, said she's having to readjust in a world where she would have been preparing for her next theater production.

Harrold has graced stages in productions on the Front Range for the past dozen years or so, performing in shows at the Longmont Theater, Theater Company of Lafayette, The Rialto Theater in Loveland, as well as at The Dairy Arts Center, and a startup theater called It Grows Wild. Harrold was lucky to have just finished up a project when the coronavirus pandemic hit.

As an actor, Harrold said her mantra in response to social invitations pre-coronavirus was often, "I'm sorry, I can't do that, I have rehearsal."

Now, she has time to devote to other things.

Her work at the Longmont Museum has shifted, as well. The museum normally hosts a busy schedule of performances, classes, and programs. While it is still closed and has cancelled most programs and events, it has spun up a season of virtual concerts and summer camps for kids. The museum is continuing its usual free summer concert series by livestreaming shows to Facebook every Thursday night at 7:30 p.m., starting on June 18, through July 30.

While it seems like it's going to take some time, many months at the least before these organizations return to live programs indoors, most had a positive outlook for the long term.

Moore of Jesters said, "I just hope people don't forget about the arts."

As The Dairy's executive director Fatham pointed out, "We're creative beings, we're never going to stop creating."