We Shut Down Our Theatre for 25 Days — and Why I’m Okay With That, Part 3

On the morning of Thursday, March 12, we contacted our Board of Directors. Clark and I had had a long discussion Wednesday night about whether or not to move forward with our shows that weekend, and we realized that we could not make this decision ourselves; we needed the advice and input of the Board. We held a lunchtime conference call for any of the board that was available to attend and voiced our concerns.

Clark and I were both leaning toward canceling the final weekend of shows and trying to decide what else to cancel… We had five major events happening in the next three weeks. Should we just cancel public performances or extend that to our rehearsals and classes? What about auditions? We knew that slowing down the spread of the virus was one of the best ways to ensure that our hospitals and medical facilities were not overwhelmed and able to help those in serious condition. Avoiding and canceling/postponing "large public gatherings" was one of the best ways to slow down the spread of the virus.

But what is a "large public gathering?" Some said 1,000 or more. Some said over 250. Gamut seats 200, and our average audiences are around 50, although Young Acting Company, Hamlet student matinees, and Improvapalooza, a gathering of several of the area’s improv comedy groups, are historically 150-200 per performance. Would it really be that different to be in a crowd of 200 versus a crowd of 250?

Up until that day, our thought was to take our cues from the government: when it’s mandated, then we’ll do it. But the hard fact was that we had seen in other regions and countries that by the time many governments made recommendations or pronouncements like limiting public gatherings, it was too late. The world population was learning that the BEST time to close was BEFORE the virus hit your area hard. Likewise, our thought for Young Acting Company and Popcorn Hat Players (our children’s theatre at Gamut) was to take our cue from public schools. If they are open - we are open. But was this best? Were school administrations able to act fast enough to keep up with this particular virus?

Doing what's right isn't always easy. It was not lost on Clark and me how very ironic it was that we were doing An Enemy of the People, a play that confronts the clash between doing what's best for public health versus what’s “best” for the public economy. Sometimes you have to make your decisions without a government mandate. How hypocritical would we be to make one statement on stage artistically, but make a completely different statement in practice through our actions?

As a non-profit organization, we are to be mission-driven and not just make our choices by how it affects the bottom line.

In the end, the board recommended to keep our shows open for the weekend and let the public decide if they wanted to attend or not. Ultimately, the Board put their trust in Clark and me, and said they would stand behind whatever we decided to do. Our Board President, Alexis Campbell, wisely advised holding off on making any hasty decisions until after Governor Wolf had his 2:00 PM press conference that day.

We went from that board meeting straight into a staff meeting, still operating under the assumption that we would do the shows over the weekend. We discussed what a closure beginning the following week might look like and how we would handle it. My stomach was in knots. I still didn’t know if we were making the right decision. I did a quick inventory - we had maybe 10 days of cleaning supplies left at the rate we were going, and probably just enough hand sanitizer for a week at best. Plus, we learned that to truly disinfect an area with Clorox wipes the directions said, “use enough wipes for treated surface to remain visibly wet for 4 minutes.” We weren’t doing that. Was anyone doing that?

We ended our staff meeting minutes before the Governor held his press conference. There were now 21 confirmed cases. The Wolf Administration shut down public events in Montgomery County, where the majority of cases were located, and discouraged public gatherings statewide.

Clark and I immediately looked at each other and at the same time both said, “We need to close.”

A four-part profile of the challenges posed to arts organizations by COVID-19

Part 3 of 4
By Melissa Nicholson, Executive Director, Gamut Theatre, Harrisburg, PA

Photo of Open Stage. Photo credit: Marc Faubel: ERFotos 2020

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