Seeing as how I got a lot out of my first post (talking about the last four months and it's damaging effect specifically on the Arts sector - https://hardtoseethelightnow.blogspot.com/2020/07/trying-to-keep-sane-as-rules-keep.html), I've decided I'm going to write more often. I used to review shows a lot, and when the wheels are back in motion, I'm sure that I'll be doing that again.
But I think for now, I need this creative outlet so that I can scream less into the void on Twitter, and actually get back to some kind of eloquence in my work.
Honestly though? I'm struggling - more than I have been for a while.
By now, I really thought that things might begin to get moving in some kind of positive direction for the Arts, especially given that the rest of the 'world' is starting to come back to some kind of normal again. In a sense, people can be forgiven for thinking this to be true.
As I write this, the details of how to access the Government's 'rescue package' are available, and my employers are frantically putting together an application that we hope will enable us to come back 'in tact' when we are allowed to re-open (whatever 'in tact' even means).
We have become such a close team in these last five months - much closer than I ever expected us to be - and it's going to make what comes next even harder.
People are going to lose their jobs (me included - I can't program a venue that isn't open until who knows when) and it's happening all over the sector.
We have become such a close team in these last five months - much closer than I ever expected us to be - and it's going to make what comes next even harder.
People are going to lose their jobs (me included - I can't program a venue that isn't open until who knows when) and it's happening all over the sector.
Plain and simple, the Government's 'bailout' will protect venues in the short-term from closing. I don't see it saving everywhere, but it's likely to help a lot of places mothball their way through until 2021, when we might get some more information from Oliver Dowden, who honestly has no idea how a theatre works - apparently he thinks we can make shows in 48 hours (hint: we can't.)
There are over 1100 theatres and arts venues in the UK. You're kidding yourself if you think the money is anything other than a plaster for the knife wound that is the pandemic. This won't solve all of our problems (I don't actually think it's going to solve any of our problems but maybe I'm being pessimistic). It maybe buys venues time, but the people in those venues and what those venues are able to offer is in serious doubt.
Look, I get it. I get that this is happening everywhere. I get that people are losing their jobs in all sectors. I get that everyone is having a really shitty time. But my point to you is this: theatres have been told that we will not be receiving any more information as to whether when we can reopen without social distancing until at least November.
Can you IMAGINE if that statement had been said to the retail industry, or the aviation sector? The country collectively would be in uproar. Yet, because the arts are still seen as a luxury, and not the absolute necessity that they are, we are being left totally until the last minute.
Can you IMAGINE if that statement had been said to the retail industry, or the aviation sector? The country collectively would be in uproar. Yet, because the arts are still seen as a luxury, and not the absolute necessity that they are, we are being left totally until the last minute.
As you read this, theatres up and down the country are in the process of postponing or minimising their annual Pantomimes, which create the revenue they need to stay open for the following year. For most smaller venues too, Pantomime is where the money comes from for the community projects they are able to do with young people, the money that enables them to takes risks on shows they book to make their programme more diverse in all areas.
Losing a whole year's worth of that money is a terrifying prospect, and a prospect that will cause most venues to streamline their staffing.
At least 5000 people have already lost their jobs in the Arts, and that number will skyrocket when the employers have to start contributing to the furlough scheme in September.
Oh, and if somebody could explain to me what the difference is between sitting on a plane, wearing a mask, for three hours, packed in like sardines, and sitting in a theatre, wearing a mask for three hours that would be great.
(We either should be doing both or neither - convince me otherwise...)
Losing a whole year's worth of that money is a terrifying prospect, and a prospect that will cause most venues to streamline their staffing.
At least 5000 people have already lost their jobs in the Arts, and that number will skyrocket when the employers have to start contributing to the furlough scheme in September.
Oh, and if somebody could explain to me what the difference is between sitting on a plane, wearing a mask, for three hours, packed in like sardines, and sitting in a theatre, wearing a mask for three hours that would be great.
(We either should be doing both or neither - convince me otherwise...)
I'm sorry that this all sounds so bleak at the moment, but I'm just tired, and angry and hurt.
When your life is also your career, and you're watching them both crumble before your eyes it's really hard.
We're stuck. In the middle of the floor. Not going left. Not going right (thank you Mr Sondheim).
We just have to cling on and keep fighting for our lives and our livelihoods.
Hear my song
It'll help us get through til tomorrow
Hear my song
It'll help us survive all the pain
Hear my song
It's the one thing I have
That has never let you down
(Jason Robert Brown - Songs For A New World)
We just have to cling on and keep fighting for our lives and our livelihoods.
Hear my song
It'll help us get through til tomorrow
Hear my song
It'll help us survive all the pain
Hear my song
It's the one thing I have
That has never let you down
(Jason Robert Brown - Songs For A New World)
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