Coming Soon: Equity Town Hall: The Path Forward for Live Theatre
The last year has been the most difficult one in living memory for everyone in the live arts. Gathering in large groups or in close quarters is part of who we are, but it also creates a high risk of spreading COVID-19.
Some of you have asked for more information about what the path forward looks like in the theatre. We see you and we hear you. Watch for more in the days ahead on a town hall that will allow you to learn more about our safety protocols, and make your voice heard, especially as vaccines are becoming more widely available.
For now, here are a few things you should know:
With the assistance of Dr. David Michaels, former head of OSHA, Equity created safety protocols last summer that has allowed for theatre to open with precautions, and only in places that were not hotspots, as well as where state and local regulations would allow. This was by no means going to bring back widespread employment, but it has meant that theatres all throughout the country have been able to hire Equity actors and stage managers. The union has worked with theatres on more than 120 live shows, with or without an audience in the room. Equity has also developed new media agreements for the COVID era, which have been used more than 700 times, creating additional income and health weeks for actors and stage managers.
Since then, this guide has been updated multiple times. In most cases, as we learn more about the science, we have been able to make adjustments to the guidance to streamline the approval process while maintaining safety. For example, the most recent update to the safety guide, from earlier this month, includes a list of approved at-home COVID tests. Testing can be expensive and difficult to arrange, and guidance for reliable at-home testing makes testing more available to producers, easing a bottleneck for many employers.
For now, the median length of time between a safety plan’s submission and approval is 21 days. As such, the safety materials make it clear that producers should submit their plan at least three weeks before in-person work begins. Currently, proposals are approved three-to-five days before a proposed start date.
Of course, the single biggest tool for reversing the spread of the virus will be vaccinations, especially crucial timing given the spread of new variants. Unfortunately, only a minority of the country is vaccinated at this time, and many states, such as New York and New Jersey, have not announced when the vaccine will become available to all adults.
Data on infection rates can be numbing, but it is important to recognize that New York and New Jersey are once again COVID hotspots. The Washington Post reported this week that those two states have more new cases per capita than any other. For New York, that means 34.6 cases per 100,000 people, which is comparable to April 2020. The positive test rate is 5.2% and not currently trending down.
New York has fortunately vaccinated most of its frontline workers and is opening eligibility to employees from other industries central to the economy, such as restaurants. Weeks ago, Equity asked the state to prioritize arts workers for vaccines as capacity restrictions were lifted on some venues. This would allow for a simpler safety plan for producers and a speedier return to work for many workers.
Dr. Fauci has said as recently as last month that he expects “mid fall” of 2021 to be a likely time for theatre’s full return (albeit with some precautions, such as, perhaps, masked audiences). When vaccines are widespread, theatre will be able to return in much greater numbers and safety protocols will update to take into account that a large portion of the population has been vaccinated.
As we enter what is hopefully the final phase of the pandemic, Equity is continuing to work with members and producers alike. Thousands of members responded to a survey about vaccines in the workplace. If you didn’t get a chance to take the survey, watch for more soon on webinars about where we go from here.
