When can we see a show again? Performing-arts groups grapple with BC's new reopening roadmap
The jazz fest may be first out of the gates for concerts, while music, dance, and theatre leaders predict a very gradual return to seasons this fall
The Chan Centre for the Performing Arts is estimating live performances could return as early as October.
Photo by Alex Knight
VANCOUVER PERFORMING-ARTS groups are meeting BC’s Restart Plan with what’s best summed up as tentative optimism. Most stress that venues will have to gradually reopen with careful steps, rather than swing doors open wide on certain dates.
The TD Vancouver International Jazz Festival may be one of the first events to welcome live audiences to concerts again—albeit limited to 50 people. Yesterday’s announcement from BC health officials was a big boost to an event that made the difficult decision to go dark last year.
“It’s both exciting and terrifying,” marketing and promotions director Emma Lancaster tells Stir. “I feel like the difference this vaccination has made in the last two weeks has been so dramatic—that if this trend continues, we’ll be so happy to welcome people back.
“Everyone in our shop knows how to put on a live event with very little notice,” she continues, adding with emotion: “I can’t even imagine what it’ll feel like to be in a room with live musicians and an audience again.”
Due to what organizers call plans built on “contingencies upon contingencies upon contingencies”, the fest was set to livestream two daily free concerts from Ocean Art Works on Granville Island from June 25 to July 4. Because BC has now allowed outdoor gatherings of up to 50, the fest is applying to invite small audiences to the open-air site.
“With our extensive safety plan, I’m hopeful we’ll get permission,” Lancaster says, adding anyone wanting to attend will have to watch the fest’s social media for updates to pre-book a spot—with no walk-ups like free outdoor shows of the past.
Bonnie Northgraves Quartet is one of the acts scheduled for the open-air Ocean Art Works site on June 25 at the TD Vancouver International Jazz Festival—a site that could become one of the first outdoor concert locations with live audiences.
In even better news, if BC is able to stick to its plan of allowing indoor gatherings of up to 50 starting June 15, the jazz fest hopes to apply to turn its livestream concert sites at Performance Works and a few other venues into live-audience events. “We’re taking it on a venue by venue basis, based on health orders of the time,” Lancaster says. (The jazz fest will also keep to its plan of streaming dozens of other online concerts and additional programming.)
Over at Early Music Vancouver, which hosts the Vancouver Bach Festival in August, the future looks promising for some limited-audience events—though it’s still too early to say what that will look like.
“I think we all collectively let out a little cheer when we heard the news. We had a Plan A and Plan B and a hybrid of these in the works but with these new directions, it's easier to plan for the return of in person events,” says artistic and executive director Suzie LeBlanc. “I know our audiences, and myself included, have missed being in the hall together, experiencing and witnessing the magic that is live music-making. That said, we will still continue to offer online-only events as we have been able to reach audiences further afield as well as all those that cannot physically attend our events for a myriad of reasons. We want to make sure that we can engage all of our patrons and meet their needs with online and offline opportunities.”
LeBlanc says the timeline for being able to welcome live audiences came a little sooner than expected. “We have already been planning but it's a relief to be able to finalize our decisions,” she says. “This is the first season I will have programmed for Early Music Vancouver and I'm looking forward to greeting our core audience and reaching out to new audience members. This news is still fresh and we plan to make announcements for the season later in the summer and our Bach Festival plans will be revealed very soon.”
At Music on Main, artistic director David Pay is hopeful about staging gatherings as soon as this summer, and foresees a “hybrid” season for fall.
Music on Main’s David Pay
“Seeing the milestones and potential dates in the Restart Plan really lifted my spirits, and now I feel even more hopeful about Music on Main’s plans for some outdoor concerts this summer and for the return of the Modulus Festival in November,” he tells Stir. “But I know that for everyone’s well-being (audiences, artists, technicians, staff), we’ll need to adjust expectations. Some people want to roar ahead and be at live events with many other people; others want to be more cautious.
“We’ve been talking a lot about hybridity between live and digital offerings, and I think we’ll need a kind of hybridity when it comes to how we welcome people back into venues,” he continues. “At the Modulus Festival, we’ll re-mount As dreams are made so that people can experience live music one-to-one. And we’ll put on some concerts with mid-size ensembles that can make a lot of noise.”
Like others looking at programming into 2021 and 2022, he is going to take a lot with him that he has learned over the past season. “There’s a lot from these last 15 months that I want to bring forward into Music on Main’s future: the intimacy and honesty that artists share with audiences through video chats; the flexibility of artistic planning timelines; continued experimentation with increased video production standards; and especially the deeper and ever-expanding understanding of equity and inclusion that more and more people now recognize,” he says, adding: “But I cannot wait to be in a venue together with other humans again, feeling the vibrations in our bodies, and listening to musicians make their magic. Here’s to more people getting their vaccines, continuing to look after each other, and to a gradual return to even better days.”
Elsewhere across the city, cultural groups are telling Stir that the BC Restart Plan provides a clearer roadmap to restarting live programming, but stress that changes can’t happen overnight. Few can take advantage of the up-to-50 reopenings, and are looking toward BC’s date of September 7 as the tentative date for operating theatres to full capacity—with masked audience members and other protocols in place. Arts leaders say it’s more likely the crowds won’t arrive till later in the fall.
At the Massey Theatre, executive director Jessica Schneider welcomes the new timeline that arts groups have been advocating for, and her facility is one of the few that’s readying to announce outdoor summer events.
“For large venues and the artists who perform in them, this reopening plan is particularly significant. The glimmer of hope that ‘organized’ and ‘larger’ might be possible again before we have lost anymore ground and all the benefits of gathering people in community celebration and expression,” she explains.
For fall and winter, the September 7 estimate allows the ability to plan for more ambitious productions by early next year, she adds—with many tricky details to be worked out.
“The timing may remain imprecise, but the articulation of the data benchmarks is something we have been waiting for,” she says. “The remaining mystery is how seating calculations and mapping will be determined and by whom. We are optimistic about the published and stated intention of the BC Government to consult with industries and sectors.”
Other companies trying to plan their next seasons emphasize that a gradual reintroduction of audiences and a great deal of patience are in order for the fall.
The Dance Centre’s Mirna Zagar says continued patience will be in order as people’s confidence gets rebuilt. Photo by Steve Lemay
“This is welcome for sure! I hope that this means that the situation is more under control but we will continue to be cautious as we move forward,” says the Dance Centre’s executive director Mirna Zagar, who has overseen a full shift to digital programming over the past year. “We have all been patient throughout the pandemic; we must remain patient as we reopen too. We will continue to program with digital in mind along with the eventual return to live events sometime in the fall.
“I think challenges remain as people’s confidence has to be rebuilt,” she adds. “Our building will require time to recover from the significant additional costs of the pandemic, and to get truly back to normal.”
Across town at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts, which is just wrapping up its all-online 2020-21 Dot Com Series, director Pat Carrabré says the announcement strengthens the venue’s footing for reopening.
“Yesterday's announcement reinforced the Chan Centre's plan to welcome audiences back this fall. While we can seat 1200, we expect to work our way up to that number gradually,” he tells Stir. “Our highest priority—as it’s always been—is the safety and well-being of our patrons, artists and staff. But we are thrilled with Dr. [Bonnie] Henry’s optimism and confidence and are working hard to make in-person arts experiences a reality as soon as it’s possible.”
The Chan is in the final stages of contracting artists for a new guest curator series, which launches this fall with programming planned by mezzo-soprano Marion Newman. Offerings could also include Latin rhythms and circus arts, as well as musicians that work and study at UBC.
Over at the Cultch, where the organization moved to all-online programming during the past season, measures allowed for the summer months won’t have a big impact, executive director Heather Redfern says. The BC government’s first and second steps over the next few months, allowing up to 50 people to gather, are not viable for the venue. Redfern projects fuller houses by later in the fall, given the September 7 date.
"We will need a lot more information about Steps 3 and 4 as well as certain timelines to be able to plan in person activities starting in the fall,” she tells Stir. “September 7 as an earliest as possible date for full capacity would give us time to plan for late November/December full capacity audiences."
And at Vancouver New Music, which has been programming art walks and online polydimensional scores and one-page-score projects during the pandemic, artistic director Giorgio Magnanensi is more philosophical in what he calls his initial “unfiltered” reaction to the BC reopening plan. He encourages the embracing of change as people head back to organizations, venues, and other outlets. The world has shifted, and so, too, should our perspective as we head back to performance.
“While personally I feel positively in regard to the ability to regain physical contact, gathering and all, at this time I’m also concerned about the idea of getting back to ‘normal’ after a period of time in which we had the opportunity to reflect upon so many issues related to our way of life, the condition of our sociality and means of productions,” he says. “As an artist, artistic director, educator and community member, I’m looking forward to continuing to foster creative energies and engaging in social events, though I would hope we will be able to continue to critically investigate how that ‘normal’ has been globally, one of the main causes of our demise, and it might continue to generate inequality and injustice to the detriment of newer progressive visions. While we are regaining contact, we still have the opportunity to identify not only what we want to get back to, but also and more importantly, what we would like to see not coming back.
“While embracing hope I wish we would be able to continue to work together to foster creative thinking, not only to benefit artistic practices and communities, but also to support poetics of engagement beyond aesthetics and spectacle; to be able to finally envision and support the ‘better world’ we all strive for but still seem unable to fully embrace and sustain,” he adds.
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