I got the email from The Arts Club Theatre Company. They are trying to get the word out about their Fall Theatre Trio Package: bargain prices, extensive safety protocols, and two convenient “watch online” viewing options…just please, please, buy a ticket. Any kind of ticket. Please let us entertain you.
It’s a cliché and an understatement to say that there’s a lot of heart in the theatre, and I’ve been witnessing such courage in my theatre community since March of this year. There are days when I think my heart might break from it.
Back in the spring, there was the award-winning actor-director offering free math tutoring for his colleagues’ kids, because he understood the strain on theatre families suddenly home-schooling while trying to find work. “I was pretty good at math when I was in school. Let me help.”
And the fight director-lighting designer who wrote a beautiful online post about how he realized that he would have to find a different way to earn a living for a while, until we get through the pandemic. He described his good fortune and relief at being hired at a small boat-building company. There was poetry in his description of the work there, comparing boats with backstages, complete with achingly beautiful photographs.
All through the summer, the actors and singers and dancers posting reminders on social media “hey folx, please wear a mask!” even as all their work contracts were melted into air, into thin air. Actually, no: nothing so gentle as melting. More like massive stone dominos, crashing down, one onto the next. Inevitable.
But the creativity. So many people trying so hard to make theatre in whatever way we safely can until major medical intervention arrives. Yet how can that happen, with anti-maskers stamping their feet and whining about their “freedom”? Refusing to behave with basic, common decency or respect for their own communities.
In England, the government recommends that the same artists who have moved and delighted audiences for decades should now re-train for work in a different sector. Recycle yourselves into something useful, please. Meanwhile, on BC Ferries, the rabid anti-maskers on their way to a large rally of their lunatic fringe, assault fellow passengers who are wearing masks.
The Canadian performer’s union informs us that, regretfully, they can no longer defer basic dues – the organization is struggling, it has only been receiving 15% of regular revenue, no other funding sources. They acknowledge that dues payment ($90) will create hardship for some members, and they offer options for temporary withdrawal.
I’m a Gemini - the Janus face, the sign of duality, so I usually enjoy contrasts. But right now I feel something different. I would call it rage, but at my age that would be unseemly.
I hear the weariness in my friends’ voices, I see it on their faces, as they shoulder the weight of these heavy times. I’m angry when I hear about the selfish behaviour of people who should know better. As you are old and reverend, should be wise.
“So, what specifically do you want the audience to do?” That’s what I say all the time as a public speaking coach. Well, I’ll put this call-to-action out to my friends, family, and colleagues who do NOT work in the arts: the theatre needs your help. Performers in Canada are hustling, and pivoting, and learning, and striving, and creating, and in these rare, rare instances now when they get to perform, they will leave it all out on the well-sanitized stage for you. Don’t turn away. Lend them your ears: The Arts Club Fall Theatre Trio.
