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Theatre groups relieved to be back, but worried at cost of staging live shows for audiences of only 100

SINGAPORE — Ms Melissa Lim, the general manager of local theatre group The Necessary Stage, welcomed the resumption of live indoor performances on Nov 1 as a “big relief” for the arts industry.

Rehearsals are underway for local theatre company Wild Rice’s “An Actress Prepares”, featuring Siti Khalijah Zainal (pictured). The show, to run from Nov 4 to 22, 2020, will be staged under safety measures issued by the National Arts Council on Oct 28, 2020.

Rehearsals are underway for local theatre company Wild Rice’s “An Actress Prepares”, featuring Siti Khalijah Zainal (pictured). The show, to run from Nov 4 to 22, 2020, will be staged under safety measures issued by the National Arts Council on Oct 28, 2020.

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  • Local theatre groups welcome resumption of live indoor performances on Nov 1
  • However, concerns linger over the commercial viability of staging productions amid restrictions
  • There is no way to break even with an audience of only 100 and no subsidy for rental, said Pangdemonium’s Adrian Pang
  • On-stage restrictions could also compromise the quality of productions, said some groups

 

SINGAPORE — Ms Melissa Lim, the general manager of local theatre group The Necessary Stage, welcomed the resumption of live indoor performances on Nov 1 as a “big relief” for the arts industry.

“All of us have been waiting for this for a long time. It’s definitely good for companies or freelancers who have not been engaged with work for so long,” she said.

However, Ms Lim, along with other theatre industry figures that TODAY spoke to on Thursday (Oct 29), said they were concerned about the commercial viability of staging productions amid safety measures issued in an advisory by the National Arts Council (NAC) on Wednesday.

The safety measures include:

  • Permitting two zones of up to 50 audience members each for live indoor performances

  • A distance of at least 3m between audience and performers

  • Allowing only up to 10 performers to be unmasked at any given time

  • Requiring on-stage performers to maintain a distance of at least 1m from one another

  • Allowing up to 30 people onstage and backstage at any given time

For Ms Lim, the most challenging rule is the 3m requirement between audience and performers.

With The Necessary Stage typically staging productions in smaller venues such as its 80-seater black box in Marine Parade Community Building, it may now have to keep audiences from sitting in the first few rows.

This means that the number of people it can accommodate for its shows will be fewer than the maximum 100, leading to reduced ticket revenue, said Ms Lim.

“You have to ask yourself if it is viable to put up a performance with the remaining audience,” said Ms Lim.

Mr Adrian Pang, co-artistic director of theatre company Pangdemonium, was also concerned about having to pay high rental costs even as audience limits were capped at 100.

He said there was “no way” for Pangdemonium to break even if it could host only 100 audience members in its usual venues such as The Drama Centre Theatre, which has a capacity of 615.

Moving to a smaller venue, such as a 250-seater, may also not be a viable option as audience members may still be subject to regulations that require them to sit with spaces in between. As such, even a 250-seater venue may not be able to accommodate 100 people, he added.

Despite being grateful for the resumption of live indoor performances, Mr Pang said that current rental fees that Pangdemonium pays for its venues still made it unfeasible for the company to go back to theatre.

“We need rental subsidies proportionate to the restricted numbers imposed on us, in order for it to make sense,” said Mr Pang.

In response to TODAY’s queries, NAC said that there are no specific floor space guidelines for each 50-person zone. 

It added that members of the audience may be seated in groups of up to five with a 1m safety distance from other groups in all directions. 

However, one theatre company said that the restrictions were “not an issue”.

Wild Rice has seen brisk ticket sales for its upcoming one-woman show “An Actress Prepares” at its 358-capacity Ngee Ann Kongsi Theatre in Funan Mall.

One thousand tickets for 23 runs of the show were sold out within two hours on Oct 19, said its marketing manager Linda Tan. Half of another 920 tickets which were put up for sale on Thursday were snapped up within six hours, she told TODAY.

While Ms Tan acknowledged that box-office takings will be lower as the venue’s capacity is not maximised, the theatre company will “strategically pick” productions during this period to help them break even.

When asked if they would pass the higher operating costs on to patrons, theatre groups told TODAY that they had no plans to do so.

Besides the issue of cost, some groups also felt that the restrictions would compromise the quality of their productions.

Mr G Selva, artistic director of Tamil theatre group Avant Theatre, said that allowing only up to 10 performers to be unmasked at any one time will affect the plot and storyline of stage plays.

A war scene in Avant Theatre’s upcoming production, for instance, will feature only 10 people on stage instead of a larger number as initially planned due to the restrictions.

“Having 10 people on stage is symbolic, but it will not give the right feel,” said Mr Selva.

Dr Ong Keng Sen, the artistic director of T:>Works (formerly known as TheatreWorks), said that despite the compromises in production quality, performing groups will have to embrace the restrictions as “there’s not much getting around it”.

“We should restart theatre and performance even though it affects how we direct on stage and work backstage,” said Dr Ong.

“The reality is we are doing a lot for very little in (box office) returns… but there is a need to try to encourage the human spirit right now.”

Related topics

National Arts Council safe distancing theatre Covid-19 coronavirus

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