Amateur Theatre – Back to Square One?
Amateur Theatre - Back to Square One?
Wow! It’s all happening isn’t it?
In response to Boris Johnson’s brand-new announcement this week closing down much of society to counter the second wave of Coronavirus, it looks like both the amateur and professional theatre sectors have just gone back to square one.
In fact, very quickly it’s looking like societies, companies and charities up and down the country are throwing the towel in for the next few months. Looks like it’s back to Zoom until the spring …or until a vaccine comes along …or until the much-talked-up Government Moonshot!
Meanwhile, Rishi Sunak has announced extensions – of sorts – to the furlough scheme and self-employed grant, even though anybody who still qualifies for any money only gets a fraction of the previous amount.
Oliver Dowden tweeted this week that am-dram cannot continue with more than six. However – and this was spotted by one of our writers, Chris Abbott – the following contradictory amendment to the FAQs on the Government site was posted at 9pm on Tuesday. It does seem to suggest that am-dram, featuring more than six people, can continue – if in a COVID-secure environment – but only to rehearse or perform (not for a social occasion). As usual groups have been more than a little confused by all this!
On the Government website it states…
3.18 Can I go to my hobby club / amateur musical group / other leisure activity?
“It is against the law to gather in groups of more than six, where people are from different households or support bubbles. Some activities – such as those organised for under-18s – are exempt. In a COVID-19 Secure venue or public outdoor place, non-professional performing arts activity, including choirs, orchestras or drama groups can continue to rehearse or perform together where this is planned activity in line with the performing arts guidance and if they can do so in a way that ensures that there is no interaction between groups of more than six at any time.
“If an amateur group is not able to ensure that no mingling takes place between these sub-groups of no more than six (including when arriving at or leaving activity or in any breaks or socialising) then such non-professional activity should not take place.”
Following the Government’s tightening of current restrictions, you’ll not be surprised to know that at Sardines we have had no choice but to disable the ‘print’ version of the magazine for the foreseeable future. Accordingly, we have just disabled the print subscription options on the new website.
Having said that, the magazine is completely readable on your PC, tablet or mobile device… plus, if you’re subscribed you can download a PDF of every single issue we’ve ever published, if you want to. Subscribing costs just £7.50 for six months and £12.00 for a whole year – just a piddly £1 per month.
If you haven’t seen the new website yet please do have a look around and, if you’re a society member you can request to become one of your society ‘authors’ or ‘admins’. When you do put in a request the existing admin/s receive an email to then approve or decline. Once an admin you can share the responsibility of uploading productions and auditions as well as editing your society’s details. You can even request a Sardines review! (that’s when any of us get to tread the boards again.)
I think it’s worth remembering, at this point, that if we can step back a little bit and take the whole picture into account we should all understand that everybody really is in this together. We’re all experiencing this for the very first time, including whichever Government is sitting in power (and please don’t think that other parties would have fared any better), so we have to do our best and get on with it. Nobody is deliberately setting out to negatively target any specific areas of society and, if there are people who appear to have been excluded from receiving any financial – or any other – help then it’s not being done on purpose. This is a worldwide disaster that we’re all in and we must look to the other side …and we will reach the other side.
Let’s just be thankful that amateur theatre – no matter how passionate about it we are – is, essentially, a practice we participate in on the side of our main income streams. Imagine if we had taken the plunge to throw all our eggs in one basket and decided to enter the profession! Imagine all those students at drama school who might be graduating into a profession that isn’t there right now!
Thousands of people’s careers are on the line here, such as self-employed freelancers who are almost certainly not able to claim much, if any, emergency funding. I know many of us who run our own theatres still have bills to pay, but, in the grand scheme of things …it could arguably be worse. I just think it’s worth remembering that.
If you have worked out what we can or can’t do under the new restrictions, and you think we may have missed anything, please let us know at admin@sardinesmagazine.co.uk
0 Comments