5 Things Your Community Theatre Can Do to Recover

There is no doubt that the COVID-19 shutdowns have ravaged the theatre industry. But while the professional industry may recover with their big-money producers, what about the local community theatres around the country? How will they recover, reopen, and begin again? While it’s more complex than some might think, it’s not impossible either.

Not everything I’m going to suggest is going to work for every theatre company and I’m also not saying these are the only solutions. For some, this pandemic was too much and permanent closure was the best option. I’m not going to criticize that decision. But others who want a clear plan on how to restart operations, here are some ways you can do that.

Follow the advice of medical professionals for everything

It’s become clear that when it comes to the timing of when to reopen, guidelines to do so, and everything else connected to restarting this country, it’s become a political issue. My thought is, no matter if you’re a Democrat or Republican or anything in between, throw all of that out the window and consult with medical professionals when making decisions on reopening your theatres and how you operate the business going forward.

While you may personally believe one thing, that doesn’t mean any of your staff or patrons will also. So err on the side of medical professionals and listen to the advice they’re giving to make sure you can safely operate your spaces. If that means selling fewer tickets to keep people distanced, do it. If that means hiring a cleaning company to do a deep clean on your spaces after performances, do it. If that means banning people 65 or older, do it. Whatever the trained medical professional is telling you to do, do it. They’re not looking for votes. They’re not going to tell you what you want to hear. They want to keep you and everyone else healthy and alive. Not doing this will certainly put you in a liable situation and eliminate any trust for an actor to ever audition for you again or an audience to walk through your doors.

No joke, I don’t think it’s a terrible idea to have medical professional certify a theatre production and put that notice in the program. When the time comes for theatres to reopen, a good portion of your success will rely on patrons believing it’s safe to come to your performance space. You should be doing everything you can to assure them of that. This isn’t a time to revolt against government control or buy into conspiracy theories. It’s time to make your performance spaces safe and listening to the advice of medical professionals will help that.

Re-evaluate your team from the board to the volunteers

The truth for many community theatres is that they are going to have to work hard and raise money fast in order to truly recover from all of this. If you’re required to hit the ground sprinting, then you need a team around you who are ready and able to do that.

Take some time to truly look at the people you have around you and ask yourself if these are the people who have the ability to work at the speed and diligence you need to get your theatre up and running. If they’re not, then they’re out.

We all have friends in these theatres, but those friendships shouldn’t be a detriment to getting these theatres up and running.

This is also going to be a time when fresh new ideas for everything from production management to budgeting/fundraising are going to be needed, so bringing on new folks with fresh ideas would be a great option right now.

I would even go as far as dissolving old boards of directors(as long as you legally can) and bring in a new board. If you’ve assembled these boards the right way, these people should know how to raise money for your theatre and know who to go to get it. If you’re keeping people on these boards who don’t contribute anything other than they’ve been on those boards previously, ask them to step down so you can get people who can hustle for you.

Double, triple, quadruple check that your show licenses are finalized

Once theatres are able to start performing again, the theatre licensing industry is going to be a mess. Because a lot of these licensing houses promised that theatres could keep their licenses and perform once they opened, there is going to be a tremendous backload of shows that need to be performed. All of a sudden, there might be issues performing shows that there wouldn’t have been before.

So it would be a good time to confirm your licenses are all set with their respective holders and then confirm again. Whatever documents you need to get in order, get them in order. The last thing you want when theatres are able to open is for there to be hiccups with licenses that could delay shows from being performed and revenue coming into your theatre.

Don’t Use Brown Paper Tickets or any other Third-Party Ticket Service

Given the latest news, I would steer clear of using Brown Paper Tickets right now. For that matter, I would avoid using a third-party service altogether, even ones who haven’t reported similar issues. I’m not totally sold on that industry truly working the way they should right now. The safest bet for right now is to do everything in house. If you need to accept electronic payment, go with things like PayPal or Venmo. Funds are more important than ever right now and I think keeping it as close to you as possible is the best move.

Pick the right season and double your productions

If the goal is to make enough money to make up for previous losses and sustain your theatre’s future, then selecting the right season of shows is crucial. Perhaps just as crucial will be the number of shows your produce this coming year.

I normally don’t recommend an entire season of well-known pieces or “chestnuts” but the situation might call for that. You need tickets being purchased and the surefire way to do that is by doing popular shows. So while you might be the theatre that likes to do the more obscure material, maybe picking a Rodgers and Hammerstein or a Sondheim would be the best bet.

I would also select shows that have larger casts. The more families and friends of cast members coming to see your shows, the better. I would also make sure to cast actors that you know bring a lot of people to their shows to see them. I knew a local actress whose family and friends bought out entire rows of theatres to see her perform. Let’s just say she was cast a lot.

I would say the same for the number of performance events your theatre’s host. I would love to increase them. It might not be through mainstage shows but maybe offer open mic nights, musical revues, talent shows. It might mean you offer to rent out the facility to local organizations. I think the wedding industry is going to experience a boom next year, so if your theatre could make for a beautiful venue, offer it up. The more revenue coming into your space, the better.

This is going to be a long road for a lot of community theatres to get back up and running and I hope they all do. Entertainment is going to be needed more than ever after all of this and local theatre can be a huge help in the healing process this country needs. I just hope they make the smart decisions ti ensure their recovery and a bright future.

Photo: Sierra 2 Center