Let's talk about theatre

The pandemic has caused a really difficult time for a lot of industries. Whether it’s a restaurant, a pub, a clothing boutique, a beauty salon or a hairdressers salon, everyone is struggling with not being able to open up and conduct business at usual. As hard as it has been for all businesses this year, there is one industry which means a lot to me and has particularly struggled - theatre.

I have loved the theatre for as long as I can remember. I don’t remember a time in my life, when I didn’t love going to see live shows and singing along to musical soundtracks. I don’t remember what the first show I ever saw was, but I specifically remember going to see The Lion King with my mum and my nan in the West End in London and being mesmerised by the amazing things happening on stage in front of me. Not only did I love seeing theatre, but I loved being a part of theatre productions - acting, dancing and singing. Acting has been in my family for a while. My grandad used to perform in shows, when he was in the Navy and he even did drag shows sometimes to raise money for charity. My mum and dad were part of a local community group who did cabaret shows in the local pub to fundraise for various charities too. It was only commonplace that I started a children’s theatre group when I was 3 years old and continued to participate in 2-3 shows a year until I was 18. But I didn’t stop acting then - I left the children’s group and joined the Lindrick Players which is the local amateur dramatics group for adults in my town. I love every second of it, but due to the pandemic, I haven’t performed whatsoever on a stage in 10 months since my pantomime in January and won’t be back until the middle of next year at the earliest. That also means I haven’t set foot in a theatre for over 8 months - 255 days to be exact - and it sucks.

Because of the pandemic, theatres haven’t been able to open in 8 months and that means that actors, actresses, box office attendants, stage managers, directors and everybody else who is integral to performing a show have all been out of work for a long time. Shows have been unable to be performed or even rehearsed because according to the British government and Rishi Sunak, theatres aren’t essential and ‘[we] can’t pretend that everyone can do exactly the same job that they were doing at the beginning of this crisis’ referring to performers in particular. Those who work in theatres have also not been given the same furlough opportunities as everybody else during this lockdown so many of them are losing their jobs as the theatre cannot afford to pay them. Theatres have been given a £1.5bn cash injection, but this is not enough to keep them open for what is almost definitely multiple months or even years. We could see theatres being shut for a long time to come, and that just cannot happen in my opinion. I cannot see a future without the theatre in it. 

To help the theatre industry as much as we can, we need to do everything possible to keep them open and keep them operating whilst they still have the funds to do so. So here are some of the following things which you could do to help theatres and shows which have been forced to close:

• The obvious way to give theatres and shows some extra funds is to book tickets to go and see them. I understand it is a very uncertain time and so many of us may think ‘I don’t want to book tickets in case the show gets rescheduled/cancelled’ and I get that - even I’m trying to book as few tickets as possible in case the show gets rescheduled. However, the way you need to think about it is most West End/Broadway show dates will get rescheduled eventually and so your money won’t go to waste. Also, if you need the money back for some reason when it gets rescheduled, you will always be offered a refund so it’s not like the money is gone forever. So if you can afford to buy tickets right now and there is a show you want to go and see, please book those tickets.
  

• If you don't feel comfortable going to actual shows, many theatres and actors are putting on virtual shows. This means you can pay for a virtual ticket, which is usually a lot less than an actual theatre ticket,  may I add (I've seen tickets for as little as £7) and then you will get a link or a code to a virtual show that only ticket holders can watch. The Theatre Cafe have done shows including actors like Carrie Hope Fletcher, Oliver Ormson and Jodie Steele among many others and they're not the only ones. So many theatres have done one off virtual events which you can watch for a very reasonable price so keep an eye out online for those. Andrew Lloyd Webber has also set a YouTube channel called The Shows Must Go On! where every week, a professional recording of a new show is posted which you can access for free for 48 hours. There has been The Phantom of the Opera, Cats, War of The Worlds and there are plenty of others left to come, including some concert recordings from musical theatre giants like Michael Ball and Alfie Boe. What more could you ask for?!
  

• If you would prefer to wait until after theatres reopen to see a show, you can always buy merchandise from the show. By merchandise, I don't mean search 'show merchandise' on Amazon, please buy it from the official show’s website. Not all shows have official websites, and not all shows sell merchandise on their website either, but if they do, it's a great way to support them. I would always buy a t-shirt or a programme at the theatre if I was going to see a show so for me, buying that merchandise online is a pandemic-friendly solution.
  

Please please. Do whatever you can to support theatres before it's too late. We cannot afford to lose this incredible industry.

• Kenzie.
  

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