Last night culture secretary Oliver Dowden revealed a 5 step road map that will lead to reopening of theatres and outdoor events.
The plan put forward by the government and the culture secretary includes allowing outdoor performances in the near future with trialling indoor performances with audiences later in the steps.
The five steps are:
- Stage One – Rehearsal and training, with no audiences and adhering to social distancing guidelines
- Stage Two – Performances for broadcast and recording purposes, adhering to social distancing guidelines
- Stage Three – Performances outdoors with an audience plus pilots for indoor performances with a limited distance audience
- Stage Four – Performances allowed indoors and outdoors, but with a limited distanced audience indoors
- Stage Five – Performances allowed indoors and outdoors, with a fuller audience indoors
There has been no dates provided for when each of these steps will happen. Although stage one and stage two have already been happening with companies and in venues across the UK.
A government statement said: “While we can not right now put timings on when we will move through each phase of the roadmap and also understand the scale of the challenge of this process, the culture secretary is clear that he wants to move through each step as soon as it is possible and the public health position allows. Guidance will accompany each of the stages.”
Dowden said: “I desperately want to raise the curtain on live performances in theatres and music venues as soon we can – they are the soul of our nation and a linchpin of our world-beating creative industries. We know the challenges – theatres must be full to make money, and performers need to be safe on stage as they sing, dance and play instruments – but I am determined to ensure the performing arts do not stay closed longer than is absolutely necessary to protect public health.”
He added: “We had a roadmap for elite sport, and we’ve succeeded in getting that back on. While the challenges facing performing arts are numerous, we must have clear steps to follow and provide as much certainty and focus as we can.”
The article this was based on is from The Stage and can be found here