New flooring and seating at the Evergreen Playhouse awaits the return of live theater. Washington communities must reach stage 4 of the COVID-19 reopening plans for live theater to be allowed. Lewis County has been in stage 3 since June.
A sign outside Centralia's Evergreen Playhouse reminds audiences that while the season may be canceled, the theater lives on.
In the absence of rehearsals, supporters of the Evergreen Playhouse have spent their time on many projects such as organizing this costume closet, said board president Kris Garrett. The work at the Centralia theater will be on display during a Nov. 14 open house.
A poster outside the Evergreen Playhouse says it all: “We may be on a long intermission, but magic is still happening at the EP.”
As theaters of all sizes nationwide remain closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the board at Centralia’s Evergreen Playhouse have chosen to look at the opportunities in the shut down rather than the sadness of losing the chance to perform. Board president Kris Garrett said they now have the ability to get projects done that their normally busy six-show regular season schedule will not allow.
“We are being given the gift of time, I say it all the time to the board,” Garrett said. “It’s now time to bring our building into what will be its 62nd year by the time we reopen.”
The Evergreen Playhouse was shuttered suddenly along with all other theaters in March when COVID-19 stay-at-home orders began. That meant cutting the 2019-2020 season short. The hope had been to bring the missed shows into the beginning of the 2020-2021 season, however, with social distancing requirements, necessary sanitizing and crowd limits in place, the decision was finally made to cancel this season. There is likely a long road ahead before theaters statewide can open. In Washington, communities need to reach stage 4 of the Washington State COVID reopening plan for live, indoor theater to be allowed. Lewis County has been in stage 3 since June.
Garrett said Evergreen board members had been hopeful to be able to offer live theater to very small crowds by Christmas, but that is likely not going to happen. At this point, the playhouse has a fall 2021 goal reopening, though plans will likely evolve with the COVID situation. Garrett said they are open to the possibility of offering one or two smaller shows if COVID restrictions allow in the spring or summer of 2021 and while they will not likely be able to stage “Mama Mia,” which was supposed to be their closing show for the 2019-2020 season, they are still considering whether they may be able to bring back “Next To Normal,” which was cut short by the COVID-19 shut downs.
“We do know we will reopen and we do know the very first time we do, it will be different,” Garrett said.
While theaters remain closed, they have no income coming in from ticket sales, and many have had to issue refunds for closed shows and seasons. But their day-to-day business and financial obligations remain in place. Garrett said the Evergreen Playhouse received both a Small Business Administration COVID-19 relief loan as well as grant money from the Centralia Downtown Association that allowed the non-profit some relief.
“That was huge at the time when we had our insurance coming due to know we had money to play that bill,” Garrett said.
The Evergreen Playhouse is offering a modified season of five virtual “One From The Shelf” productions. Rehearsed and then recorded live, these shows are a continuation of the popular live shows the theater periodically offers during the year. There is a single ticket price of $25 per household that gets you unlimited viewings of the five shows as they debut. The first show came out Oct. 26 and the next will debut on Nov. 23. Garrett explained the pieces are performed by actors and actresses who are in “COVID pods” together, meaning they are either family members residing together or they are quarantining as a group. Cast members rehearse the piece together only a few times while masked then take off their masks but remain socially distant to perform the piece in one take for the recording. The format of “One From the Shelf” fits COVID safety precautions best, Garrett explained, and the board really felt it was better to offer some kind of creative outlet this year.
“What really sparked it was we just needed to have something to do to feel that all is not lost,” Garrett said.
Garrett, who owns youth theater company TOAD with her husband, Rich Garrett, has experimented with such online shows. Since March, TOAD has offered: online shows with scenes recorded by each performer at their home; an in-person, socially distanced, outdoor performance for very small audiences and both performers and audience members masked; and online shows using casts who are in “COVID pods” acting together. All options have positives and negatives, Garrett said, and what they must always keep in consideration is they are responsible for to pay for scripts and royalties for each show, regardless of whether audiences purchase tickets for them or not. Some audience members are still adjusting to the idea of watching their favorite theater online, so ticket sales are not easy to plan for yet.
“It’s a lot of work,” Garrett said of creating theater productions in the time of COVID. “If you’re trying to make money, that’s not why you’re doing it.”
While they may not be able to offer in-person theater productions at the moment, the Evergreen Playhouse is inviting the public to see the work that is being done there during an open house on Nov. 14. This socially distanced and masked event will give community members a chance to view the outcome of projects such as adding new seating, installing new flooring and painting throughout the building.
“It’s really important that people can see how their money has been spent and to remind them that we’re still here and financially we are fine,” Garrett said.
The playhouse now features 130 new seats in four different sizes ranging from 31-34 inches wide, larger than the older seating to provide greater comfort for audience members. The seats, purchased from Davis Seating Company of Wisconsin, bear a vintage design on the sides that closely mirrors the look of the previous seats but are built like modern theater seating.
“We wanted to keep the authenticity of the space,” Garrett said.
Garrett said the Nov. 14 open house will also be a membership drive for the playhouse. Asking supporters to sign up for a $10 per year membership fee isn’t necessarily about fund-raising, she pointed out, but having a voting body. With the regular season at the playhouse canceled, season tickets that come with an automatic membership in the playhouse, had to be refunded. So, the playhouse is looking for members to be engaged in their decision-making process as plans move forward this year.
