Alayna Verduyn
COVID Curtains for Musicals
Author
03/20/2022
Added
39
Plays
Description
SPJ Mark of Excellence Region 7 finalists 2022
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- [00:00:00.320]While many have gone back to work
- [00:00:01.580]since the start of the pandemic,
- [00:00:03.030]everyone involved in the theater industry
- [00:00:04.770]is still waiting for their chance to return to the stage,
- [00:00:07.330]from the lives of Broadway performers,
- [00:00:09.090]to even students here at UNL have completely changed.
- [00:00:12.180]And here's how they plan to return to some normalcy.
- [00:00:14.420]I went to Nebraska, March 16th,
- [00:00:16.750]having lost my job on March 12th.
- [00:00:19.860]And I stayed in the Nebraska for six months.
- [00:00:23.783]Sam Hartley is a Lincoln native who was playing
- [00:00:26.570]the lead role of Billy Flynn in the hit musical Chicago,
- [00:00:29.910]preparing to travel the country on tour.
- [00:00:32.070]Tours, I've never come to Nebraska.
- [00:00:34.260]Chicago was the first show that I have been on
- [00:00:38.080]that has traveled, that was supposed to come to Nebraska,
- [00:00:41.600]and let alone Nebraska, Lincoln.
- [00:00:43.630]Like I was gonna play the lead center.
- [00:00:45.140]Since the moment of the shutdown,
- [00:00:46.990]every Broadway performer like Hartley,
- [00:00:48.980]was suddenly unemployed.
- [00:00:50.810]We left New York across the country,
- [00:00:53.451]and 40 minutes away,
- [00:00:55.405]is what is going to end up costing all of us our jobs.
- [00:01:00.950]40 minutes away
- [00:01:01.900]from where Sam Hartley's show was rehearsing,
- [00:01:04.330]was the first case of COVID-19 in the United States.
- [00:01:07.180]We left an industry to burn to the ground basically.
- [00:01:12.130]How do we do programming that is accessible
- [00:01:14.157]and keeps us alive?
- [00:01:16.949]Dolly Levi!
- [00:01:19.260]Cultural and arts organizations
- [00:01:21.100]have felt a severe impact financially,
- [00:01:23.320]with ticket sales down around 90%,
- [00:01:25.700]and losses topping 1.7 billion in total.
- [00:01:29.200]Many of the tickets that were sold
- [00:01:30.720]were to shows that were canceled or postponed.
- [00:01:33.031]So the immediate response was shut down,
- [00:01:35.410]reassess, what can we do?
- [00:01:37.127]Nate Jorgenson has been involved
- [00:01:39.220]in community theaters across the Midwest his whole life,
- [00:01:42.190]as both an actor and director.
- [00:01:44.220]A lot of what happens is that these theaters
- [00:01:46.040]are only in existence
- [00:01:47.510]because there's patrons going to see the show.
- [00:01:50.180]And that's how they make their money.
- [00:01:51.570]Even students studying theater
- [00:01:53.150]have had their worlds turned upside down.
- [00:01:55.220]Brett Gaffney is a theater performance major
- [00:01:57.220]at the University Nebraska Lincoln.
- [00:01:59.045]I feel like I'm teaching myself.
- [00:02:02.460]Theater majors main focuses include being present
- [00:02:05.190]and in tune with their minds, bodies and emotions,
- [00:02:07.970]and being virtual is a hurdle
- [00:02:09.490]they have all had to learn how to conquer.
- [00:02:11.687]There is no space at all.
- [00:02:14.350]I would knock into my dresser,
- [00:02:16.590]bump into things, my dog would run in and out of frame.
- [00:02:19.920]While being online isn't ideal,
- [00:02:22.030]performers and students alike
- [00:02:23.670]are just happy to have any opportunity to do what they love.
- [00:02:27.040]Gaffney is currently preparing his starring role
- [00:02:29.500]in the play, Dracula,
- [00:02:30.840]which will be filmed and streamed virtually.
- [00:02:33.345]At least I can do this.
- [00:02:34.178]We're the only show that's being produced
- [00:02:35.905]in any big 10 school.
- [00:02:37.616]And if there's one thing that people
- [00:02:39.680]in the theater world want everyone to remember, it's this.
- [00:02:42.890]I hope remember how much they missed the art,
- [00:02:47.250]and we'll be fine, we'll be back.
- [00:02:48.720]We're picking back up.
- [00:02:49.712]But that was also really isolating.
- [00:02:53.667]I'm Alayna Verduyn,
- [00:02:55.620]reporting for the Nebraska News Service.
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