![]() ![]() “The earliest week we heard anybody was thinking of going back to performing was probably in June,” he said. Two shows are currently scheduled for the 2021 season - “South Pacific” beginning in June and “Anne of Green Gables” in September. The “Home Office” program continues to introduce audiences to new artists, new composers and writers. The company started “Greatspeed,” a new online program showing clips of older shows that brought back some of the directors and actors. “The next three to six months, not only for us but for the country, will be telling in terms of what can get back to at least some form of what existed before the COVID came upon all of us.” “I think that we’re well-positioned for 2021, even though, at this minute, it’s impossible to know if we can do anything based on the state guidelines as they currently exist,” he said. ![]() Gennaro said a virtual gala called “Shakin’ the Blues Away” was a success. ![]() Only one third of ticket holders for the 2020 season asked for refunds. The Goodspeed qualified for $750,000 and received $532,100 in federal CARES funding, which provided $9 million in grants to 154 arts organizations in the state.Įven with tremendous setbacks, Gennaro said the organization has weathered the crisis better than most. “We went down to a very small group of people running the theater and everybody’s been being paid basically half their pay.” “In our case we started the season ready to produce six shows and we ended up producing zero,” he said. Gennaro said the theater has lost at least $5 million in ticket revenue and has had to furlough about 40 staff, not counting the performers, artists and designers that would have participated in the shows. “This may give us another opportunity to introduce a lot of new artists, people, new writers, which we have a long history of doing,” he added. The theater was forced to cancel its regular season due to the pandemic. “I think one of the things we’ve learned is that it’s possible for us to do additional or complementary programming outdoors, even when we’re able to get back into the theater,” said Gennaro, 70, who announced a year ago that he will retire on Dec. EAST HADDAM - Michael Gennaro closed out a six-year run as executive director of the Goodspeed Opera House, with a season of outdoor musical acts and a dark stage, rethinking how the 57-year-old regional theater will reach audiences.
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