What is it like being a pantomime producer during the Covid 19 pandemic?

These are strange times. Usually by mid-May the Imagine Theatre Head Office team would be flat out with casting, scripting, preparing sets , wardrobe, props and marketing campaigns would be in full swing. With the planning for 16 shows all happening at the same time to manage, our days would usually be full to over flowing at this time of year with emails constantly pinging in, and the phone ringing constantly.

But this year it’s completely different.

Those usually busy phone lines have been transferred to Steve and Sarah’s home, and they are quiet. Many of our staff are currently on furlough and our inboxes are busy dealing with a multitude of emails never even considered in normal times. COVID-19 has turned a usually hustling and bustling company into a rather quiet one at the moment.

Our days are spent considering budgets and their impacts and meaning, speaking with theatres, listening to webinars from UK Theatre or such organisations, thinking a lot and listening to the government’s daily briefing, trying to understand what this means for our industry as a whole, as well as for pantomime come Christmas 2020. What we do know is that personal health, well being and welfare is paramount in this situation – for our staff, the theatre staff and for any potential audience members.

And the honest answer is that right now we just don’t know what this all means. There are more questions than there are answers. How can social distancing work in a theatre – for the audience? Front of house? Back stage? Do actors have to be 2 meters apart on stage? Can a wardrobe manager help with a quick change? What is the capacity of a socially distanced auditorium (word on the street is approx. 20% of usual capacity – slightly more in some venues, slightly less in others)? Will the finances stack up if we have to limit audience numbers but our production overheads remain almost the same? What happens if a cast or crew member becomes ill with Covid-19 during the rehearsal or performance process – does the rest of the cast have to isolate and are we in a ‘show stop’ scenario? How do we ensure that actors are 2m apart backstage if the dressing room area is limited? How do we manage social distancing backstage and side of stage where space is notoriously limited? The list goes on and is utterly endless.

However, the most important question of all is, if theatres do re-open, how confident will our audiences be to return before social distancing ends, or a vaccine is found? That’s the million dollar question.

With every person and organisation we talk to, there is a sense of the unknown. However, what we do know is that there is a huge amount of work going on behind the scenes and so we give a big shout out to the many organisations championing our cause including Equity, UK Theatres, SOLT, The Federation of Scottish Theatre, The Arts Council and absolutely everyone involved in trying to build a structured and co-ordinated approach to the situation from the theatre industry’s perspective. Thank you for all you are doing to help present our collective case to the Government and for working with us to try and understand the impact that all of this will have on us in the immediate, short and long terms.

So, while there are so many questions at present, what we do know is that it won’t be long until the right answers naturally presents themselves and whatever they are, we as an industry will be ready to pick up the panto baton again.

Stay safe and well everyone – because we really do mean it.

Sending you all our very best wishes

Steve and Sarah x