Coronavirus Discussion So.... The Coronavirus / COVID-19

[EdibleDormouse]

I'm getting more and more optimistic about the opera I'm still due to go into rehearsals for at the beginning of November.

 

[Jon]

Looks like gyms will be open in a few weeks

Gyms reopen: When will gyms reopen? Boris Johnson confirms opening

GYMS were among the businesses forced to close at the start of the coronavirus pandemic, much to the dismay of fitness fans in the UK. When will gyms reopen?

www.google.co.uk

 

[Jon]

For everyone in England tomorrow

• Restaurants, pubs and cafes in England can reopen from Saturday, providing they follow safety guidelines
• Holiday accommodation - including hotels, B&Bs, cottages, campsites and caravan parks - can also reopen from Saturday, with households in England allowed to stay away from home overnight
• Hairdressers can reopen, as long as they take precautions
• Libraries, community centres, bingo halls, cinemas, museums and galleries can open, along with funfairs and theme parks, amusement arcades, outdoor skating rinks, social clubs and model villages

• Outdoor gyms, children's playgrounds and other outdoor spaces can reopen, if they can do so safely

• Places of worship can open for prayers and services, including weddings with up to 30 guests - subject to social distancing

 

[homie]

For everyone in England tomorrow

• Restaurants, pubs and cafes in England can reopen from Saturday, providing they follow safety guidelines
• Holiday accommodation - including hotels, B&Bs, cottages, campsites and caravan parks - can also reopen from Saturday, with households in England allowed to stay away from home overnight
• Hairdressers can reopen, as long as they take precautions
• Libraries, community centres, bingo halls, cinemas, museums and galleries can open, along with funfairs and theme parks, amusement arcades, outdoor skating rinks, social clubs and model villages
• Outdoor gyms, children's playgrounds and other outdoor spaces can reopen, if they can do so safely
• Places of worship can open for prayers and services, including weddings with up to 30 guests - subject to social distancing

But still no swimming pools.

The Proms is set to go ahead in the summer with live music planned for the last two weeks, but with no audience. Still not sure how social distancing will work with a full orchestra.

 

[Jon]

But still no swimming pools.

The Proms is set to go ahead in the summer with live music planned for the last two weeks, but with no audience. Still not sure how social distancing will work with a full orchestra.

the PM today said that on LBC that gyms / pools will open in the coming weeks so not long to wait there!!

I was thinking about all these theatres closing today. WHY unearth every year say from June - September does theatre not go on an outside tour and play to people in nice outdoor venues? Why has it got to be done in usually VERY old building that require a lot of cost to upkeep?!?!

If the industry wants to survive it REALLY needs to think outside the box.

There has been a REAL shift over the last few years for 'Classical music' to be more dance / ibiza orientated and we've been to some fantastic nights out in Yorkshire with a huge clubbing feel to them with classical artists playing the dance anthems!! Need more stuff like that!! Especially if that sort of music wants to grow its audience!

Thoughts @EdibleDormouse ?

 

[EdibleDormouse]

@Jon

There's a bit more to it than that. Theatre doesn't automatically decamp outside on tour for any number of reasons:

• Insurance
• Lack of facilities/scope/funding to rehearse for touring productions (some major touring opera companies don't pay for the rehearsal period, and straight theatre is no different)
• Lack of available competent outside crew (it's a different skillset)
• Lack of external funding
• Lack of transport and no funding for transport

15 or so years ago, I did a lot of work for an opera company who operated on the business model of taking days that were 'dark' (i.e. with no show going on) from regional theatres large and small around the country. All sets and costumes travelled with the company, as did a multi-skilled crew. The people running the company were complete bastards, but I admired then - and admire now - the business model, and think it's a potential way forward to keep smaller companies and small to medium venues alive.

With regard to the list above, if you worked for that company, you needed:

• Your own PI Insurance
• If you were fitting into a production later in a run, to learn it from a video (I shit you not), and 'drop in' at the get in on the afternoon of the show - otherwise, we rehearsed for a day an act, no more, often in the morning and afternoon of an evening show at another venue
• We had our own crew, as mentioned above
• We were effectively doing the theatres a massive favour, so theatre costs were pretty low, only in the low hundreds even for large venues - apart from the sets and costumes (often assembled by the singers!), there were few initial overheads
• The singers were expected to get themselves there, and home, with no offer of expenses (if you ever want a real laugh, I'll tell you about the time another singer and I effectively hitch-hiked from Telford to Nottingham for shows on consecutive nights)
• There were five or six shows in rep - you were a major principal in two or three, a minor principal in others, and/or chorus is necessary. Often you'd be on with someone who you'd never met and who had learned the show from a tape taken from the show six years ago, and it had...evolved.
• Oh, and wages were shit, but when you were looking at a contract for 200 or so shows a year, it was a tidy salary, just exhausting and something to GTFO from by the time you were 35 or it would kill you

Anyway, I digress, and I'm off on a ramble about the Good Old Days. I'll shut up.

I COMPLETELY agree. Theatre has to evolve (and I think something resembling the model above is the way forward), but if anyone ever wants to go to a panto or a musical again, lobby your MP to Save the Arts. It's not a bunch of luvvies, it's the difference between you having new drama to watch on TV next year or just endless repeats of Flog It.

 

[EdibleDormouse]

The Proms is set to go ahead in the summer with live music planned for the last two weeks, but with no audience. Still not sure how social distancing will work with a full orchestra.

A friend who stewards at this festival in Granada put me wise to this - a 'socially distanced' Mozart Requiem. It's not perfect, but if we want to get back to making live orchestra and choral music, it might be the only way for a while.

 

[Sherliarty]

@Jon

There's a bit more to it than that. Theatre doesn't automatically decamp outside on tour for any number of reasons:

• Insurance
• Lack of facilities/scope/funding to rehearse for touring productions (some major touring opera companies don't pay for the rehearsal period, and straight theatre is no different)
• Lack of available competent outside crew (it's a different skillset)
• Lack of external funding
• Lack of transport and no funding for transport

15 or so years ago, I did a lot of work for an opera company who operated on the business model of taking days that were 'dark' (i.e. with no show going on) from regional theatres large and small around the country. All sets and costumes travelled with the company, as did a multi-skilled crew. The people running the company were complete bastards, but I admired then - and admire now - the business model, and think it's a potential way forward to keep smaller companies and small to medium venues alive.

With regard to the list above, if you worked for that company, you needed:

• Your own PI Insurance
• If you were fitting into a production later in a run, to learn it from a video (I shit you not), and 'drop in' at the get in on the afternoon of the show - otherwise, we rehearsed for a day an act, no more, often in the morning and afternoon of an evening show at another venue
• We had our own crew, as mentioned above
• We were effectively doing the theatres a massive favour, so theatre costs were pretty low, only in the low hundreds even for large venues - apart from the sets and costumes (often assembled by the singers!), there were few initial overheads
• The singers were expected to get themselves there, and home, with no offer of expenses (if you ever want a real laugh, I'll tell you about the time another singer and I effectively hitch-hiked from Telford to Nottingham for shows on consecutive nights)
• There were five or six shows in rep - you were a major principal in two or three, a minor principal in others, and/or chorus is necessary. Often you'd be on with someone who you'd never met and who had learned the show from a tape taken from the show six years ago, and it had...evolved.
• Oh, and wages were shit, but when you were looking at a contract for 200 or so shows a year, it was a tidy salary, just exhausting and something to GTFO from by the time you were 35 or it would kill you

Anyway, I digress, and I'm off on a ramble about the Good Old Days. I'll shut up.

I COMPLETELY agree. Theatre has to evolve (and I think something resembling the model above is the way forward), but if anyone ever wants to go to a panto or a musical again, lobby your MP to Save the Arts. It's not a bunch of luvvies, it's the difference between you having new drama to watch on TV next year or just endless repeats of Flog It.

I imagine also the weather has a big part to play. I have been to a large number of plays at the outdoor theatre in regents park. I've sat in rain for at least half of them and the play is often interrupted if the rain is severe, the audience goes to the bar area to wait it out. I imagine some plays would not be able to work outdoors as the staging, lines etc are more intimate/quiet in nature.

It would also have to compete with other events like sports, festivals and outdoor cinemas plus not all residents near 'outdoor' venues would be pleased to have events near them.

As a regular theatre-goer, I love the old theatres, they lend to the whole atmosphere whether it's a musical or a play or dance performance. It would be a shame if we lost this. So yes donate and lobby Government to save the theatres. Going forward though of course theatre needs to adapt and plan for future disaster scenarios!

 

[Jon]

wonder if boris will have the 2 voices of doom with him today at 5pm

 

[EdibleDormouse]

I imagine also weather has a big part to play. I have been to a large number of plays at the outdoor theater in regents theatre. I've sat in rain for at least half of them and the play is often interrupted if the rain is severe, audience go to the bar area to wait it out.

It would also compete with other events like festivals and outdoor cinemas plus not all residents near 'outdoor' venues would be pleased to have events near them. My local park is alwasy

Dear God, don't get me started on the number of shows I've done where the audience is under cover but the stage is largely open to the elements. The best one was near an ornamental lake on the hottest day of the year in full regency drag. So bitten to pieces already. Then there was a massive storm and the electrics went out. The country house insisted we continue. I think because the stage had a mild reverse rake, and we were literally dragging ourselves to the front of the stage by the furniture, and sliding around like we were on It's a Knockout.

And yes, there's a HUGE noise problem with outdoor productions. In my early career, I did both Opera Holland Park and Grange Park, and both had complaints from local residents most nights.

 

[EdibleDormouse]

wonder if boris will have the 2 voices of doom with him today at 5pm

I think the message is going to be "go out at 6am and get p*ssed", isn't it?

 

[Sherliarty]

I think the message is going to be "go out at 6am and get p*ssed", isn't it?

I have a zoom call with a friend at that time so safely staying in, maybe next week

 

[Jon]

Doom and gloom in the house!!

 

[Jon]

 

[homie]

Doom and gloom in the house!!

They are proper cheery fuckers aren't they.

 

[EdibleDormouse]

I swear, there are days I'd have turned my face to the wall without this man over the past few months.

 

[Jon]

Can't believe how far we've come from a few months ago. Football and racing on TV, F1 starts again, Cafes, Restaurants, Pubs all open, Hotels and resorts taking in customers!

am off to a cafe this afternoon!!

 

[MIch21]

Enjoy the cafe.

 

[Jon]

Everything was very safe. Super clean, you’ve never seen so much cleaning lol

 

[Jon]