Actors Happy to be Back Performing at Local Theater

In a time of uncertainty due to the start of an unforeseen pandemic, most of the schools and businesses in Dutchess County were closed indefinitely, leaving a lot of people out of jobs and kids out of school. However, through creativity and a good amount of resources, The CENTER for Performing Arts at Rhinebeck was able to stay open, keeping actors employed and doing something that they love.

“As crazy as it sounds, we are pretty much never dark, meaning every single weekend we have something going on, which is usually not the case for most community theaters,” Cheyenne See, actor, director, stage manager, and camp counselor at The CENTER said. “When COVID hit, I had actually just closed my first main stage production that I directed and we were going into a week-long production…and going into our spring and summer musicals. Then the world stopped and things looked a bit scary there”.

Things did look really scary for a while for The CENTER and its performers. The pandemic kept people from doing something they really enjoyed doing; putting on amazing plays and musicals for the community of Rhinebeck. However, there was a solution and actors would soon get the opportunity to perform again.

During the summer when COVID-19 cases started decreasing, the health department allowed The CENTER for Performing Arts at Rhinebeck to put on small shows, outside, with everyone, including cast members, wearing masks. The CENTER at Rhinebeck built an outside venue that allowed them to put on shows safely, in the middle of a pandemic, which is a luxury most community theaters did not have.

“We adjusted and built an outdoor stage, which was amazing. We were doing very small productions masked outside,” Cheyenne said.

These small, outside productions would continue for a few months with plans to get actors back on stage indoors for bigger productions. The CENTER for Performing Arts at Rhinebeck finally started performing indoor shows in October after performing small outdoor shows with a new set of rules. All actors must be vaccinated and this is asked on auditioning forms.

For actors, getting back to performing shows that were indoors with bigger productions was much needed. They were grateful for the ability to perform the smaller shows, but nothing compares to the bigger shows. Returning to indoor shows is also a joy because of having this huge part of their lives omitted due to the pandemic, but they continued to press on.

“Performing is something that I’ve always done and something I get joy out of doing. So to omit that out of my life in one of the hardest times and the hardest time in many people’s lives is hard especially on mental health. But I continue to perform in order to keep myself sane,” Cheyenne said. “On the community theater aspect, the actors here do so much more than perform. We’re an education department, we’re a dance school, and we want to make sure that the young kids interested in this can learn and grow.”

The CENTER for Performing Arts at Rhinebeck has performances lined up with A Gentlemen’s Guide to Love and Murder being the show that they are putting on next.