The show I was due to start directing in September has been postponed until next autumn. Although I did look at rehearsal practices and the theatre was implementing the government guidelines for small events it was felt that we would be putting the cast, crew, and audience at risk by going ahead.
Most of the virus response in Tokyo has been about clusters and for the past couple of days there have been news stories about a cluster in a theatre in Shinjuku. The play was performed 12 times from June 20 to July 5. The theatre is small, and seats around 190 seats at full capacity. At the minute 37 people are ill, 16 actors, 5 crew members, and 21 members of the audience. I have worked in that theatre before and know that even if they followed guidelines and were at 50% capacity that people would still be close together. The dressings rooms are tiny as is the entrance space. I have heard that they had a meet-and-greet session with the actors and that maybe there were issues with too many people in the dressing room, and that the theatre could have followed the guidelines more rigorously. But the details don't matter and won't be remembered. This story has become widespread and people are now pulling out of attending and producing shows.
We don't really know yet what the risks are and the uncertainty is making it difficult to plan anything. I love making theatre, but we should not be putting our lives or anyone else's at risk for the sake of producing a musical. Postponement still hurts.
