COVID-19 has forced performing arts theaters across the country to halt productions and close their doors. And the communities that depend on these theaters have, at least temporarily, lost essential spaces to come together and interact with one another.
Most theaters don’t know when they’ll be able to reopen to audiences. Many aren’t sure they’ll be able to stay afloat until then.
But even if theaters are able to reopen within the year, it’s far from guaranteed that audience members will be quick to return. A recent poll by the market research company Shugoll Research found that only about 36 percent of theatergoers in the U.S. say they would go back to their old theatergoing routines once performances resume.
So, it will be a long time before many theaters can return to business as usual.
To learn more about what COVID-19 has meant for local theaters across the country, The Takeaway spoke with Paige Price, producing artistic director for the Philadelphia Theatre Company and Snehal Desai, producing artistic director for East West Players, the country’s oldest Asian American theater company, in Los Angeles, California.
https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/takeaway/segments/theaters-plans-survival-amid-covid19