Friends,
I hope this finds you healthy and in the best possible spirits after what has been an incredibly challenging week for us all.
As I'm sure most of you are now aware, theaters and arts organizations across our area have closed their doors in order to assist in the efforts to stop the potential spread of the Coronavirus (COVID-19). These difficult decisions were carefully considered and made out of the sincere commitment we all feel to you, our community.
I know we've all been feeling the weight of uncertainty and wanted to take this opportunity to share with you an update on how our company and programming will be impacted. Please forgive the lengthy email, as there is much to share.
We, at Theatre Lab, are actually feeling quite fortunate.
To Fall In Love
is a small cast (made up of Niki and me - so its pretty easy to rebook the actors) and the final show of our season. These factors made it relatively simple for us to postpone to a later date - which we’ve already cleared with the playwright. We are
fully committed
to remounting the production as soon as we are able to open the doors again.
We made the decision to pay our artists, creative team, and technicians their full contracts for
To Fall In Love
because we didn’t want them to be without the income they were relying upon for the next month. Obviously, this has added a cost to this production - as we will have to issue new contracts for the remount - but this cost is relatively minor in comparison to the massive difference those payments make to the lives of the artists who work with us.
In terms of advance tickets,
To Fall In Love
was our best-selling show of the season. The good news is that our audience has been and continues to be patient and understanding as we deal with this unexpected turn of events. In fact, one of the primary reasons we decided to postpone was that we felt the audience was telling us they would prefer we do so.
All existing ticket-holders will be able to exchange their tickets for the new performance dates as soon as they are announced. We are committed to working with every patron and, in the event they cannot attend the remount, we will explore other options.
In order to assure that the box office is able to provide you the best possible options, we ask you to wait to contact them until we have confirmed new dates
.
In addition to the rescheduling of
To Fall In Love
, this will likely change the dates of our annual fundraising event,
The Overnight Theatre Project
, originally scheduled for May 10-11. The hidden impact in our programming will be the educational outreach work that is a central component of our mission. We were in the middle of our
Authors of Act Two
program - which provides at-risk and incarcerated/adjudicated youth basic theatre arts instruction and training in dramatic writing. Two of our residencies in this program will be completed, but a third, scheduled during Palm Beach County Schools spring break, is likely to be cancelled. The AA2 program feeds into our LabRATS program - which invites students from partner high schools to form a student theatre company and guides them in creating a piece of devised theatre based on the writing from the students in the AA2 residencies. At this point, with the closure of schools, we have no way of knowing how that program will be affected…but our fingers are crossed that we will be able to move forward with either an altered schedule or remote-collaboration through web-platforms.
On that note, I’d like to, again, ask you to consider the impact this event will have on the arts organizations that are so vital to our communities. ArtsFund, Americans for the Arts, the NEA, and other national organizations are actively researching the long-term impact to organizations across the country. We, and other arts organizations, are asking patrons to consider the following steps to help alleviate some of the concern in the industry:
- Stay informed. Continue to check-in with your favorite arts organizations’ websites,social media, and other communication platforms for updates on their plans and situations.
- Please keep in mind that most Arts Organizations rely heavily upon ticket sales of existing events to fund future events or operations.
- If you have existing tickets to an event that was postponed, please be patient with these organizations as they work to find solutions or new dates.
- If you have tickets to events that were cancelled, or are unable to attend rescheduled events, and have the means to do so, please consider donating the ticket back to the organization. Donations of this type allow the organizations to keep budgets in place and can even further support the organization by allowing them to re-sell the donated tickets.
- Consider becoming a supporter of your favorite organization. You can do this through donation or even by purchasing a subscription to their upcoming season.
One final thought: On Saturday morning - what would have been our opening night - I got the production photos back from our photographer. Looking through them took me on an unexpected journey from sadness & disappointment to pride and excitement. I, along with the rest of the Theatre Lab family, am incredibly proud of what we have created and eagerly look forward to sharing it with all of you. The photos below are just an initial taste of the beautiful theatrical experience that awaits us all in, what I hope is, the very near future.
We wish everyone good health and look forward to welcoming you into the space to enjoy the magic of live theatre. Thank you for your patience and faith. I hope to see you soon at The Lab!
Matt Stabile
Producing Artistic Director
