The show must go on - Theatre groups regroup from lockdowns

Amateur theatre groups are treading the boards again after two years of financial heartbreak and cancelled shows.

Those involved in staging productions are happy to be back, although the Covid-19 pandemic has taken its toll financially and by hitting morale.

In Palmerston North, Act Three Productions' season of Godspell is under way and production manager Merryn Osborne said it was a thrill to perform.

"These guys, they're so happy to be able to get out in front of an audience once again, to have people coming in and hopefully enjoying the show.

"Just seeing live theatre again will be something that has been sadly missing for the last couple of years."

Act Three Productions managed a few nights of Queen-inspired show We Will Rock You last year, before the August lockdown.

After the lockdown it wasn't financially viable to continue, Osborne said.

In 2020, Sister Act played to audiences segmented into bubbles of 100, with a maximum of 400 people allowed in Palmerston North's Regent on Broadway theatre, leaving it only a quarter full.

"It has been very tough financially. We've had a number of times when we've looked at how we're going to survive...

"We've just been going out trying for grants all the way through. That's how we've managed to survive."

Although shows can play to full audiences under the Omicron orange settings, there were still Covid disruptions.

Osborne said members of the 17-person cast, and wider crew of about 30 people, had missed rehearsals due to isolation.

And when someone tested positive for Covid, the theatre and backstage were deep cleaned.

That was a minor irritant for Osborne, however, who said she couldn't wait to experience an audience enjoying a show again.

"It's just going to feel so good to be able to actually stand at the back of the auditorium and see a sea of people, heads looking at the stage, enjoying it, because the show is great. It's so fun."

Dunedin Repertory Society is putting on a sold-out season of classic Agatha Christie murder mystery The Mousetrap, although its home, the Playhouse Theatre, is at reduced capacity.

Society president Jemma Adams said it had not been hit as badly by the pandemic as other companies, because it owned its own building and employed no staff.

But it hadn't escaped completely unscathed.

It had to cancel three of the six school holiday shows it is famous for in the past two years.

"It's really hard to not be able to do your hobby or give back to the society that you volunteer for, and be putting things on for the community," Adams said.

As Act Three Productions had also found, staging a show now is different from the way it was for The Mousetrap's eight-person cast.

"We've had masked rehearsals, which has been really hard on the director and the team," she said.

"There have been isolations and people have caught Covid throughout the rehearsal period and the preparations.

"I believe the first time everybody was at a rehearsal, the full cast and crew were together, was awfully close to opening night."

Nelson Musical Theatre president Robbie Burns said it was staging smaller shows this year, after a disappointing 2021.

Last year it cast and held rehearsals for three productions, including the large-scale Mary Poppins, that never made the stage because of Covid disruptions.

Burns said this had caused the society to lose sponsorship, while some performers had lost heart.

"A lot of the actors are not the ones we were working with last year. The ones last year are still hurting from the time which they gave and lost confidence with being able to get out there and actually do shows," he said.

"It's heartbreaking to give up two or three months of rehearsals, but never actually open."

For amateur theatre to survive, people needed to turn off Netflix for a night and come out.

So far this year people had been reluctant to book early, which made it hard to know what size audience to expect, Burns said.