The Washington Center takes steps toward a 2020-21 season
Although there are still no answers about when or how the theater can reopen, The Washington Center for the Performing Arts is taking baby steps toward a 2020-2021 season.
“It takes more than a global pandemic to take the fun out of the Washington Center,” executive director Jill Barnes said earlier this month at an online event for Friends of The Washington Center.
Tickets for four new events — all funny — go on sale to the public at noon Tuesday, Sept. 1.
“We need laughs more than ever,” Barnes told The Olympian.
The shows can happen as scheduled only if the governor approves the center’s safe reopening plan about a month ahead of each show’s date.
In fact, what was to be the first show since March — a double feature of Harold Lloyd films with live accompaniment by organist Dennis James — has already been rescheduled. Lloyd’s “Speedy,” featuring Babe Ruth as himself, and “High and Dizzy”vwere moved from Oct. 4 to Feb. 26. (As with all rescheduled shows, tickets are automatically transferred and those who can’t make the new date can request refunds or donate the ticket price.)
Still on the schedule for the fall season are two Best of Comedy Underground shows, formerly known as Comedy in the Box but now relocated to the main stage (Oct. 17 and Nov. 7), and a Seattle International Comedy Competition show (Nov. 19).
For the physically distanced fall events, the center is offering tickets in bundles of two, three or four with six feet of distance — or three empty seats and one or two empty rows — between groups.
“You can think of this like when you go to a club and you have a two-drink minimum,” Barnes said. “The alternative to selling these minimum ticket bundles is not doing the event at all, and that is a lose-lose for everyone.”
If the center gave every ticket buyer 6 feet of distance, the 983-seat main-stage theater could hold 102 people. If each twosome got 6 feet of space in all directions, the theater could hold 164 people.
The center’s plan is to sell a limited number of two- and three-person bundles with most tickets being sold in groups of four. That arrangement allows seating for 257 people.
Despite the new restrictions — and the uncertainty about whether shows will need to be rescheduled once again — Friends of the Center have been buying tickets during the pre-sale period.
“People’s responses are all over the map,” Barnes said. “There are people who are ready to come back, and some people will not return until there’s a vaccine.”
The new ticket bundles also apply to the Nov. 6 Black Box Jazz show with Tacoma saxophonist Kareem Kandi, rescheduled from last season and moved to the main stage theater to allow for social distancing.
For a major production, like a Broadway touring show or a popular band, the center needs a full or nearly full house, which is why productions like that are, for now, on hold.
The Nov. 16 Pink Martini concert, also rescheduled from last season, is in that category and is still on the calendar, but the center is working on rescheduling it.
“We don’t have a confirmed date yet,” Barnes said, but it looks like it will be rescheduled to May 2021, and we will notify ticket holders as soon as we know for sure.”
The center has been exploring options for presenting major shows while maintaining physical distancing, should that be necessary, including doing two lower-capacity performances in a single night or performing a show in front of a small in-person audience and selling additional tickets for live streams.
“We have some great headliners scheduled for January through June, and we will announce them once we are further along in our phased reopening plan,” she said.
Washington Center fall shows
- What: The Washington Center for the Performing Arts is launching its 2020-2021 season with a handful of physically distanced shows.
- Where: 512 Washington St. SE, Olympia
- More information: http://www.washingtoncenter.org, 360-753-8586, boxoffice@washingtoncenter.org
This story was originally published September 1, 2020 at 5:45 AM.