Theatre Northwest (TNW) General Manager Marnie Hamagami is disappointed the current restrictions mandate the shuttering of live theatre organizations in BC until at least December 7th.
The decision by the Provincial Health Office led the Arts Club Theatre Company out of Vancouver to submit a letter asking why other businesses like bars and restaurants can stay open while their industry can’t.
Hamagami told MyPGNow.com the recent orders have led to some cancellations.
“It certainly has impacted our ability to continue to operate and offer our space for local groups to do their stage readings. It’s really unfortunate we had to cancel a couple of readings and the Method Dance Society’s inaugural performance. That is really going to have a big impact on them.”
Hamagami believed TNW was going above and beyond expectations to stay open.
“We want to safely continue to do what we were doing and we feel that we were going above and beyond working really hard that people were safe and comfortable in our safe and we were in constant contact with WorkSafe updating our practices.”
“Nobody envies Bonnie Henry and her job right now. It’s got to be hard to try and balance all of these different factors but now is the time to follow the rules, stay home and stay safe so we can get back to business as usual.”
In all, Theatre Northwest has had to cancel between 10 and 15 performances.
It’s still up in the air whether the company’s abbreviated season will go on as planned.
“We currently have two main stage performances planned for the late spring and early summer and we are not sure exactly what will happen. As we all know right now, things are changing very quickly.”
In addition, movie theatres in the province have been forced to shut down again.