Getting recreation and leisure up and running again.

Thanks for posting this information Xanderl, I've been avoiding the updates on TV and catching up online instead.

Interesting group of people, let's hope they can come up with some good ideas/strategies soon.

There was a good feature on Front Row tonight about this, interviewing various people about the perilous state of various theatres, difficulties faced by those working in the creative industries, and what the future might look like

www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000j95d

My suspicion is the picture in the previous post is why many theatres are assuming they won't reopen until social distancing is significantly relaxed.

Theatre in 2020 is over. The NT has cancelled performances and will be closed until September. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to assume others will follow. So at best we might get something in Q4 (maybe the odd long runner) but that’s assuming there aren’t signs of a second wave going into winter. But surely re-opening the west end in Q4 and hoping the customers come is going to be tough, as is then trying to survive Q1 when the west end is ordinarily quiet anyway.

That could be one of the positives of Covid. I would like it if theatre was a little less produced and it was more raw. More a show in a barn.

Covid could teach us a lot in general. although I'm sure that's a topic for another thread.

Something I don't understand - Arts Council funded theatres should be OK shouldn't they?The subsidy rolls in, refunds are made to punters, paid security secure the building and staff are furloughed. Or am I missing something?

I guess the question is when to reopen?

As you can maybe tell I don't work in fiance or the arts!

There are a few things I can think of that impact on that:

- Most landlords aren't suspending or dropping rent. That probably isn't an issue if you're a West End operator that owns the freehold of your building, it does matter if you're a fringe operator renting a space commercially.
- No income from drinks, snacks, programmes - this can amount to quite a lot
- Furlough is due to end at the end of October and employees can't work when furloughed, so they can't start rehearsing a new show, so the theatre can't open November 1. Also, the Chancellor has said that employers will have to "contribute to the cost of the scheme" from August 1, so that will increase costs to the business
- It's not clear to me how theatres engage actors and other creative staff, but I know a lot of self-employed people who run their own limited company and pay themselves through dividends - these people are getting no help at all from the various Government schemes.

I'm sure others can come along with reasons I haven't thought of (or correct some of my assumptions)

I think the change in August might allow workers to work while still being partly funded by the retention scheme.

I just can't get past the idea that social distancing measures are pointless in a theatre. Surely you still have to squeeze pass people to get to your space four seats away? Unless they stagger entry then everybody will mingle/walk through the foyer picking up the same germs anyway, not to mention the toilets. And people popping to the loo mid performance, going past people. It only takes a single person to give the virus to everybody and in the enclosed theatre space it seems to me it wouldn't matter if there were 100 people or 1000, that's the point - it's a shared space so the measures won't make any difference, or at least very little.

I grew up in the North-West of England and theatres, arts venues, bookshops, arts cinemas and all the rest were variously mothballed, closed, dark, bombed out and shut down. This was at a time when the population of my home city halved - many moving to London - and if you left your car outside a theatre or cinema chances are kids would have bricked in the windows by the time you got out. Slowly, they have come back. And the situation in London is very different - it's a white-collar, upper-middle-class city awash with money, and theatre, shows, music, cafes are what make London liveable-in. I can't see a few months or possibly a year or two of mothballing spelling the end of something the capital city has enjoyed - especially its most powerful, monied demographic - for hundreds of years.

Friedman writing in a very right-wing rag telling Boris and Co to get their act together in the article is a seismic moment and the response on social media this morning paints a very grim and foreboding picture of just how precarious the theatre industry is right this minute.Friedman is highly-respected in the industry and needs to be listened to.
Never mind setting up task forces and committees and God knows what.By the time the likes of ex-Arsenal footballer,Alex Scott have reported back on how to re-start leisure(!),it will be too late.
With deep regret,I have now gone with refunds on a huge tranche of bookings as,God forbid,credit notes may well not be worth the paper they are printed on.
If the Panto season doesn’t happen,then some regionals will be in dire straits.Who wants to see the Brum Hippodrome as a bingo hall?
The logistics of operating even a small-scale theatre are incredible and the re-opening process by itself could take weeks or months even in a best case scenario.
Possible issues for re-opening will be obvious things like social distancing in a very confined space as well as theatres ordering refreshments and merch(will deliveries get through?),the re-start of the ticket booking system with possibly only a tenth of seats occupiable,if staff or performers are taken ill will there be enough people to cover for health/safety reasons(eg ushers) or enough covers to step in,the complete collapse of the tourism industry,technical checks,will the ‘older’ audience members who may have underlying health problems feel safe going to the theatre,safe queuing for the loos( the Gielgud comes to mind right away),issues with the transport systems and on and on and on...until there is a working vaccine,I think we are snookered tbh.
A survey of parents in my area says that between 60-65% of them will definitely not be sending their kids back to school in June and another 10-15% are undecided and this is education we’re talking about! What chance will theatre have? On furloughed or unemployed Joe Public’s list of priorities,booking theatre tickets will hardly be a priority.

Read this back to myself and it feels like a very negative rant.
Apologies!
BUT it is how I truly feel
Let’s listen to Friedman before it is past the tipping point.We need a pro-active response not re-active and befuddled inertia.

Stay safe,everyone
Best wishes to all you wonderful people on the board x

The rush to become infected by the low risk groups is why the ‘immunity passport’ idea was put on the back burner.

There would be potentially thousands actively trying to become infected and no matter how well you isolated the risk of infecting someone in the high risk group would occur.

If it meant a chance of normality I would most probably risk it, having to show your ‘papers’ before entering a confined public place would be an interesting precedent.