Reopening a glimmer of hope for live performers

Music venues and theatres hope audiences can return later in fall

Nothing will mark the end of the COVID-19 pandemic like the return of performing artists in front of ticket-buyers, in soldout halls.

And Rob Sonoda, the general manager of Centre in the Square, is casting a hopeful-tentative-provisional-contigent eye on November.

The centre is selling tickets for live performances. The shows slated for later this month and September may have to be rescheduled — again — but Sonoda is betting by November those days will be a distant memory.

Sonoda made his comments Friday as Ontario took the first steps in reopening after the longest-running series of shutdowns in North America.

“There is some concern — the

B.1.617.2 variant is something we are watching,” said Sonoda.

More than 16 cases of the “Delta” variant have been confirmed in Waterloo Region. It is much more contagious and virulent than other forms of COVID.

“We watch those numbers like we watch the Canadian dollar when we are presenting American shows,” said Sonoda.

Ticket holders for cancelled shows are offered refunds, or new tickets for the future performance. The Alan Doyle show has been rescheduled five times, and 95 per cent of the ticket holders did not want refunds, said Sonoda.

Alan Doyle is now set for Nov. 19 but everyone, not just Doyle fans, must get vaccinated and follow the advice of public health officials — wear masks, wash hands, keep social circles and gatherings limited to 10 and stay two metres away from others when out — or that show may not happen.

“I think the big concern is to stay-the-course,” said Sonoda.

“Every disaster starts with every politician and others not listening to the people in lab coats.”

Like biologists who monitor sensitive species when measuring the health of ecosystems, the return of live shows in packed venues will signal the effective end of the pandemic’s stranglehold on the economy.

About 62 per cent of Canadians have one dose of a COVID vaccine, and about 10 per cent are fully vaccinated.

A single dose of the vaccine provides only 30 per cent protection against the Delta variant, and that’s why Sonoda and others in the performing arts are closely watching the vaccine rollout.

Waterloo Region has become a hot spot for the virus, so Sam Varteniuk, the executive director at the Registry Theatre, is not even thinking about booking indoor shows. Instead, Varteniuk is preparing to stage some outdoor shows this summer.

If performing arts venues open in stages that limit audience sizes, that will means less revenue. Varteniuk said the Registry has some funds set aside and can afford to do a couple of shows like that.

“We are not deluding ourselves, it is going to take some time for audiences to get back up to where they were,” said Varteniuk.

“So we need to get a clear sense of what that timeline and what those numbers are going to be like so we can plan accordingly.”

The Registry also offers refunds for cancelled shows, but it costs money to contact ticket holders to offer them their money back or a ticket to the rescheduled show. That administrative cost is not sustainable for The Registry.

“So we do not want to start taxiing down the runway until we are sure we can take off,” said Varteniuk.

The Registry and Centre in the Square are owned by the City of Kitchener but operated by non-profits.

Maxwell’s Concerts and Events is the biggest privately owned music hall in the region. Owner Paul Maxwell has several bands lined up, but he is not going to start promoting shows and selling tickets until the vaccination rate ensures there will be no fourth wave and another shutdown.

“We are ready to pull the trigger when the timing is right,” said Maxwell. “We are actively preparing to launch concerts, but we are being cautious.”

Cancelling shows and providing refunds is expensive, and he does not want to do it again. Anyone who wanted a refund got it for shows that were cancelled earlier in the pandemic, he said.

New York City is planning a huge, outdoor concert on the Great Lawn in Central Park for Aug. 22nd. It is expected to draw an audience larger than the 400,000 people at the 1981 Simon and Garfunkel concert. It will be the Big Apple’s end-ofthe-pandemic celebration.

And it gives Maxwell hope, tempered by three shutdowns, that Ontario is now at the beginning of the end of COVID pandemic.

“It is really exciting to see, and it will come down to whether Canadians decide to get vaccinated,” said Maxwell.