More updates on cancellations due to COVID-19

On this Easter weekend just a quick update on some cancellations in the arts world to tell you about.  Sadly, these seem to be a weekly occurrence now.  But better to be safe than sorry during a pandemic...

First off, the Shaw Festival is now cancelling all public events and performances through to June 30th.  This is in response to the Town of Niagara-on-the-Lake's declaration of a state of emergency through to June 30th, which requires the cancellation of all in-person events, meetings and programming until then.

Ticket holders to the affected performances will have the full value of their tickets held on their account as the administrative and box offices are both closed until April 20th by provincial order.  There is a small team of box office representatives working from home that are contacting ticket holders about the changes and to offer exchanges or refunds, so be patient.  They will get to you.

In addition, the Shaw Festival and Why Not Theatre have decided to cancel the 2020 Mahabharata production, a modern retelling of the Sanskrit epic.  They have jointly decided the production will not go ahead as planned this season due to the uncertainty over scheduling, so it will appear in a future Festival season, apparently.

Although the production was not set to begin rehearsals until June with performances starting in August, the work on constructing sets, props and costumes was set to get underway shortly, so that just couldn't be realized in the present environment.

Again, box office staff will be contacting ticket holders at some point in the near future about their cancelled tickets.

Meantime the Gallery Players of Niagara have joined many other local musical organizations in cancelling the remainder of their current season.  There are two performances still scheduled before the season ends late spring so those will now not go ahead as planned.

Admittedly, this is not how Gallery Players wanted to celebrate their 25th anniversary season, but public safety and the safety of the artists involved is the greatest concern at this point, so the decision had to be made.

The organization will be in touch with ticket holders later this month about either converting the remaining tickets into a donation, or issuing a refund for the cancelled performances.  If at all possible, opt for the former rather than the latter, as musicians everywhere are feeling the pinch at the moment.

There is also news about two new recordings coming later this month, too.  One is music by Franz Asplmayr performed by the Eybler Quartet; the other is a Gallery Players/Capella Intima/Nota Bene Baroque Players co-production of the music of Scarlatti.  Both these new recordings will be available from the shop available through the Gallery Players website at www.galleryplayers.ca/shop/music.

Up in Elora, the Elora Festival's summer 2020 season is now postponed.  It was set to run from July 10th to the 26th.  They do hope to hold the summer season later than originally planned, but a lot of that will depend on scheduling issues, so we'll have to see how doable that actually is.

Still, some performances will be better than none and by the time this pandemic is over we'll all need something to uplift our spirits!

Once again, staff will be in touch with ticket holders about either donating the cost of tickets to the Festival for a charitable tax receipt, issue a partial or full refund, or issue a gift certificate for the value of the tickets to be used towards a future concert.

You can contact the Festival for further enquiries at info@elorafestival.ca or call the office at 1-519-846-0331.

In light of all this, I was interested to read a release from Brock University's Department of Dramatic Arts at the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine & Performing Arts this week.  In it, Professor Karen Fricker, who also reviews theatre for the Toronto Star, says there is a resiliency amongst artists in the midst of all these cancellations, so although it will be a tough go for most in the short term, hopefully most will be able to bounce back over time.

Fricker notes the Stratford Festival, which so far has cancelled performances through to late May, has temporarily laid off 470 employees, including actors, technicians and box office workers.  At Shaw, no workers have been laid off at the present time and they are conducting rehearsals online whenever possible.

Fricker notes some Toronto-based companies are even putting on telephone plays:  one on one shows in which an audience member gets a hand-made personal story delivered to them over the phone.  Now that, although not ideal, is at least a glimmer of hope for the survival of the arts in this pandemic.

So, be patient, keep well and practise social distancing and proper hand washing techniques.  We'll get through this, and the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow might just be a great performance just waiting for an audience to join them.  Let's hope it's sooner rather than later!

Happy Easter and have a great weekend.

April 11th, 2020.