Washington Center is the only local theater scheduling events under Phase 3 rules

It’s been a year since theaters closed due to COVID-19, and the loosened restrictions in Washington’s new Phase 3 of its reopening plan aren’t a golden ticket for the performing arts.

The Washington Center for the Performing Arts in Olympia plans to welcome small audiences back in May, beginning with film screenings and comedy shows, but the Olympia Film Society’s Capitol Theater, Olympia Family Theater and Harlequin Productions’ State Theater will remain dark for months.

“A lot of people are contacting me and saying, ‘Fifty percent capacity! Let’s open,’ ” said Aaron Lamb, artistic director of Harlequin Productions. “We’re not there yet, and the state isn’t there yet, and theater isn’t there yet.”

In Phase 3, venues are permitted to hold events with a capacity of 50 percent or 400 people, whichever is less, but since social distancing is still necessary, that change doesn’t mean much for theaters with fixed seats.

“Allowing 50 percent capacity doesn’t change a whole lot for us,” said Jill Barnes, the Washington Center’s executive director. “They could say that we could open at 80 percent, but if we’re going to accommodate physical distancing, we really can’t fit more than 20 to 22 percent. That’s par for the course for most performing arts centers.”

When the center reopens May 7 with screenings of Ballet Northwest’s filmed “Sleeping Beauty,” there’ll be at most 197 people in the 983-seat theater.

That kind of space limitation — even more daunting for small theaters that need to fill most seats to make ends meet — is just one in a long list of issues local theater managers face as they consider when and how to reopen.

There are concerns about vaccination rates, the possibility of herd immunity, and the impact of variants on the infection rate.

“It doesn’t make sense that the federal government is saying one thing in terms of the pandemic and the state government is making rules that don’t seem to fit in the same time frame,” said Audrey Henley, executive director of the Olympia Film Society. “Outdoor and indoor events are happening even though the vaccination rate in Thurston County is still pretty low. That’s what causes us to still sit on the fence.”

As of Tuesday, about 1 in 4 Thurston County residents had gotten one shot of the COVID-19 vaccine, and 1 in 10 were fully vaccinated.

There are complex and evolving state and industry rules aimed at protecting performers. In Washington’s Phase 2, for example, each dancer had to have 500 square feet of space on stage and could perform for no more than 45 minutes without a 30-minute break.

And then there’s the question of when audiences will be ready to come back. The center is compiling results of a recent survey aimed at finding out when that might be. So far, 60 percent of respondents said they’d come to theater as soon as they are vaccinated, Barnes said.

Harlequin is in the middle of a similar survey. (Weigh in at https://harlequinproductions.org/return-to-live-performance-questionnaire/.)

“I want to make sure that when we do open up, people will come see the show,” Lamb said. “It’s finding the right moment when people haven’t forgotten about us, but we’re not opening so soon that no one’s ready to come to the theater.”

With all of that, it’s no wonder that he, Henley and Olympia Family Theater artistic director Jen Ryle are waiting to open. Barnes, though she is optimistic, admits to a fear of planning an event and then having to cancel. It has, after all, happened more than once.

“We’re marching forward slowly, knowing that we might need to change direction,” she said.

Harlequin is aiming to open a show in the fall, said Lamb, who is planning to announce a 2021-2022 season at an online event in June.

“I’m waiting to see what the world will bring us between now and mid-May, so that I can know that what we’re going to announce is going to go forward,” he told the Olympian. “It’s a matter of waiting and seeing.”

Theaters that produce their own shows need to commit to a production several months before it opens, he pointed out. Though the company is so far weathering the pandemic closure — thanks in part to donations — Harlequin can’t afford to risk its limited funds on a show that winds up unable to open.

Olympia Family Theater, which recently announced small in-person camps for spring break, is thinking about a similar timeline. “We may try for a show in the fall or possibly something outside in August,” Ryle said.

And though screening films requires less planning than producing live theater, the film society doesn’t plan to reopen the Capitol Theater until July at the earliest, Henley said.

She and the two other film-society employees who are still at work part time are focused on online programming as well as managing and fundraising for the historic theater’s ongoing restoration, including a replacement for the original awning.

“The preservation and restoration of the awning will be completed by the end of June,” Henley said. “If all goes well, and everyone is fully vaccinated by July, OFS will be ready to open.”

Meanwhile, she’s excited about expanding the online offerings that seemed so strange just a year ago. Coming soon will be an online film festival of local and regional films submitted for the April 2020 Olympia Film Festival.

“Programming for the film society has just shifted,” she said. “We’re creating the new normal.”

Coming up at The Washington Center

The Washington Center for the Performing Arts, at 512 Washington St. SE, Olympia, plans to reopen in May. Tickets, expected to go on sale soon, will be available mostly in blocks of two or four seats with at least 6 feet between groups. Masks will be required, and no concessions will be available. For more information, go to https://www.washingtoncenter.org/

Among the events planned:

• May 7-9: Ballet Northwest’s “Sleeping Beauty” film.
• May 15: Studio West Dance Theatre’s “Taking Flight” film.
• May 20: “Comedy on the Main Stage,” at 7:30 p.m.
• May 27: “Welcome to Indian Country,” a music and storytelling performance by Indigenous Performance Productions.
• Date to be announced: A silent film screening with accompaniment by organist Dennis James

This story was originally published March 19, 2021 at 5:45 AM.