Almost one year to the day that the STC shut its doors to the virulent COVID-19,NSW Health has approved the state’s first 100 per cent capacity performances.
will also rise on a sell-out audience when it premieres March 17,.
Theatres are currently limited to 75 per cent capacity under public health orders.
Exemptions have been granted to the STC and the Sydney Lyric Theatre in a move that signals growing confidence in the state’s capacity to contain spot outbreaks and trust in venues’ abilities to manage audiences in a COVID safe manner. Masks are strongly recommended but STC has chosen to make them mandatory.
STC’s executive director Patrick McIntyre said performances ofPlaying Beatie Bow and theWharf Revue,which has had its season extended, had been selling out at 75 per cent.
“We are maxing out our allowed capacity and we are running waitlists on both those shows with people who are wanting to buy tickets and can’t,” he said.
“Now we’ll be able to start selling to capacity. People are ready to come back out to the theatre,into public life and start socialising again so it’s really exciting.”
A spokesperson forHamilton’s Australian producer Michael Cassel said the Sydney Lyric Theatre had put “forward a robust plan that ensured the safety of the cast,crew and audience”.
Sydney Opera House said it was consulting with stakeholders including NSW health “in order to progress a formal exemption application”.
As with all theatre venues,the exemption is critical to the STC’s long-term financial viability.
“We need to sell every show at 85 per cent each year to make the business model work,” McIntyre said. “At 75 per cent it’s not quite enough to feed the engine. Once we hit 100 per cent[capacity] we need to head back to those 85 per cent plus averages across all shows. I don’t think we can break even because we are almost at the first quarter of the year and there are other downstream things affected like catering and venue hire but we will give it the biggest nudge we can.”
STC reportedly received $6 million from the first tranche of a by Premier Gladys Berejiklian and Treasurer Dominic Perrottet after losing $18 million in revenue due to the shutdown last March.
Mr McIntyre said he hoped to trade out of deficit next year,without recourse for more government assistance.
The exemption for STC was granted by Health Minister Brad Hazzard subject to a number of conditions,including that the theatre comply with its comprehensive COVID-19 Safety Plan to ensure the risk associated with increased numbers can be appropriately managed.
,and had been checked for compliance at the Roslyn Packer Theatre.
“We have to continue to strongly encourage mask-wearing,which we will,it will remain mandatory in our theatres,” McIntyre said. “We have to communicate with ticket buyers ahead of time to make sure they understand that they could be in a 100 percent capacity house,and we will continue to offer refunds to people who don’t feel comfortable with that,and we have to do reminder messaging to make sure that people are monitoring hotspots and encouraging people to stay away if they are not well.”
STC will next week announce the second act of its 2021 program,likely to collectively bring more shows to the stage than pre-COVID.
The NSW Government would continue to consider the capacity for other theatre
productions and to review health restrictions in light of the current COVID-19
the situation,a Department of Health spokesperson said.