How will theatres react to Covid-19?

miamee wrote: »

I see lots of talk about how it will not be viable for theatres and other venues to operate with only half or fewer seats filled if they have to conform to social distancing for audience members. How do you think it could work? Normally in a theatre you have people either side of you, behind and in front so it will be a tricky one to get right for them.

I had tickets to 3 different plays for the same week at the end of March and two of these were rescheduled for the same week in September. Thinking about it now though, I don't see these going ahead at that timer unless some social distancing plans for audiences have been developed by then. It'll be a strange one, I'm sure the buzz of a large crowd watching helps some actors along.

The only way is with huge government support.

Most theatres already operate on a shoe-string budget. They normally need about 70 to 80% of a house to break even. So say, social distancing requires two empty spaces between each person and one empty row. That results in roughly 17%, lets say 20% optimistically. The only way they will be viable is to be able to claim the remainer up to break even point from a grant.

For a 500 seat theatre with, say, 100 performances a year and 15 euro average ticket prices, the annual grant needed would be around €400k. That's for every theatre in the country.

I don't think they will become more expensive. Maybe a small bit but not much more.
However, if there aren't the type of supports I mentioned in the last few posts, this time next year there will be few theatres left. Simple as.

What I've been harping on about is exactly what is now happening.

Theatres all around Europe have begun to reopen with social distancing in place. Theatres in the UK are going under under at an accellerating rate.

Of course covid has hit the UK for longer but that's not the reason at all. The reason is Europeans value their culture as an integral part of society and so many theatres are 80% funded by the state. In the UK that's not the case at all. They have very little money from the state, if at all. Even the most heavily subsidised theatres in the UK would have only 30% subsidy or so. The government there has barely reacted at all, probably to teach those lefty hippy artists a lesson, and so the industry there is collapsing.

To be honest, I'm really surprised this hasn't started happening in Ireland yet. Apart from the Abbey, most theatres in Ireland are subsidised around 5%. When the crisis hit, the Arts Council allowed any organisations with funding to draw down their whole grant immediately. The wage subsidy scheme is keeping them afloat but overheads in a theatre are massive. The AC just got a 20 million injection which is very welcome and will help some arts workers and venues in the meantime, but that's not near enough. There are 50000 people working in the arts and events sector including techs, stage hands, sound and lighting engineers, admin, etc, and it generates billions of euro for Ireland every year. Much of it makes a decent profit (in normal times) and needs no subsidy, but it needs help now. The people working are skilled and if the industry is thrown on the scrap heap, good luck reviving it in the future!

We will see what happens in the next few months. What's definitely needed is:
- the wage subsidy scheme and unemployment benefit to last until there is no social distancing (which could be 1 or 2 years)
- zero vat
- zero rates
- pandemic uneployment scheme to be adjusted so that people can earn a bit on the side. Most workers in the arts are freelancers with portfolio careers. Many are uneligible for the PUP becuase they might have been between jobs at the time, or they may have 1 tiny source of income left (me included) and so get zero. If we get asked to do a random gig we shouldn't be kicked off the scheme (yes, we may not get the PUP for that week, but shouldn't be a question to continue).

If the wage subsidy scheme is cut off anytime soon for this sector, say bye bye.