Student Blog: My Fears and Hesitations in Returning to Theater

At the time of writing this article, Broadway is slowly opening and I am making my planned return in about 18 days! While I am excited to be back in the theater, I do also have some hesitations and fears about what the return is going to be like.

First and foremost, I am afraid of the coronavirus. While we have been living with the virus for over a year now and I've yet to be infected, I am still very nervous about what could happen once we all come together again. I am vaccinated and I have been vaccinated since April, but I know that there are people out there who are not vaccinated. Broadway theaters are requiring audience members to be vaccinated but there might be people who will lie and find a way around those requirements.

As we've seen in the last few weeks, there are even performers who will not get vaccinated and are still trying to work, so it makes me wonder if audience members are going to try to get around the vaccine requirements. It is incredibly unsafe for them to do that, but people are going to do what they want to do.

I've seen firsthand the effect of COVID on people and how some of the effects can last months after the infection is over. As someone who is immunocompromised, I am nervous about being near so many people in an inside space. I have seen two shows since the beginning of the summer but both have been outside and socially distanced. This was comfortable for me and I am nervous about going inside and sitting so close to others.

I hope that everyone in the building is taking the right precautions because the return of theater is something that could be so wonderful. I think that within the next few weeks we'll get an answer of what the future of Broadway is going to be. Will we be able to have full capacity theaters or will we go back to online shows?

Something else I am hesitant about with returning to Broadway is supporting a community that doesn't entirely support me or my morals. Morally, there are a lot of things in the Broadway community that I don't agree with, including certain casting choices or allowing people who abuse their power to stay in power.

With the recent comments made by producer Cameron Mackintosh, it seems that people in power in the theater community don't respect the whole LGBTQ+ community. I don't want to financially support an industry that does not support the people in my community. I do know that most people in the theater industry do support the LGBTQ+ community but the statement made by Mackintosh, who is incredibly successful in the theater industry, does make me feel uncomfortable. I am not a trans woman and I will never know how this statement made that community feel, but I know that I, as a queer woman, now feel different about supporting anything Mackintosh does or supporting anyone who stands with him.

So, that's where I stand right now with the return to Broadway. I'm excited for things to go back to what they were pre-pandemic, but I've also seen some things in the community that I don't want to support. Part of me really wants to throw my morals out the window and just play dumb but deep down I know that that's something I cannot do.

I also just want to forget about COVID and sit in a theater with hundreds of other strangers with no care in the world, but that's just not going to happen for me. Right now and probably for a while, there is going to be that feeling of fear and hesitation walking into a theater.

We've all given up so much in the last year and a half and I want to go back to Broadway, but I think the hesitation of it all is going to last a very long time. I also believe that the way we all act in the next few weeks are going to be crucial to the survival of Broadway. We need to stick together and follow all the rules to the best of our ability so we can survive through the rest of this pandemic.