Drama Masks: When illness derails the performance

This is Drama Masks, a Bay Area performing arts column from a born San Franciscan and longtime theatre artist in an N95 mask. I talk venue safety and dramatic substance, or the lack thereof.

Well, for those of you closely following my most recent entries, I did not spend last week missing a show due to some top-down failing of public transit. Oh no, this past week, I wound up missing a show because an actor took ill. A few hours before we audience members headed to the venue, we got an e-mail telling us that the unspecified illness led to the cancellation of all opening weekend performances. As of this writing, new dates are now being worked out.

Upon hearing about the cancellation, my first thought was to hope that the actor was okay. My second thought was to ponder what the illness could’ve been. With five years having passed in this still-ongoing COVID pandemic, I was suddenly grateful that this was one of the few companies that still requires its audiences to mask up regularly—especially since “safe” illness are now proving just as deadly as COVID, if not more so.

Me being me, I couldn’t help but ponder that, like the public transit SNAFUs, this may become a regular thing. Not only do we once again have the spray-tanned moron who exacerbated this not-over pandemic, but now he’s joined by 1) the anti-masking South African oligarch who angrily demanded his Fremont factory stay open during the first wave of the COVID pandemic; and 2) the nepo-baby/anti-vaxx poster-boy who’s cool with kids dying, so long as they’re not vaxxed. That means we below-the-line citizens feel the brunt of the coming wave. 

For theatre, that’s another setback we don’t need. When venues and companies took COVID seriously, I saw some amazing innovations in how to get the show to an audience: from ACT and SF Ballet’s amazing, immersive livestreams to Cutting Ball masking the entire cast. All that went by the wayside, yet companies wonder why the audiences haven’t returned? The Oscar-winning director of Anora can plead all he wants, but there’s a damn-good reason most of us haven’t been to a cinema, live theatre, or even a restaurant since February 2020 (if that).

I’ve spent the past five-plus years watching theatres drop effective safety measures, actors kvetch about having to test regularly, and both lean on the tired old line about “personal choice.” It’s not much of a choice when the options are “risk airborne illness for the chance to socialize in public” or “prioritize long-term health over the chance of developing Long COVID.” And if you’ve ever seen or experienced Long COVID, you that it’s not something you want to risk. Take it from the guy who reports on mask policies and CO² levels in all his reviews: the risk is still there.

The dropping of safety measures particularly frustrates me because if theatres were going to do that, they at least could have leaned into the aforementioned innovations more. They not only allow them to keep longtime patrons, but they open up their work to an even wider audience—who doesn’t want that?

Yes, I know that, as an actor, nothing replaces the feeling of hearing every gasp, giggle, and groan from an audience just a few feet away. As a patron, I know that nothing replaces the experience of watching a flesh-and-blood performer tread the boards for you and your fellow anonymous strangers. I also know some truly talented actors who refuse to audition anymore because several theatres no long check for proof of vaxx. I know immunocompromised audience members who were regular social butterflies in 2019, slowly returned during the “mask and vaxx card required” days of 2021-22, but are now relative shut-ins because there’s a genuine possibility that a trip out could kill them.

Sadly, everyone’s decided they’re cool with those folks missing out. If I didn’t have to see theatre to get paid and stay sheltered, believe me when I say I’d likely be one of those folks. (I do so love my Flo Mask, my safety glasses, and my MedifyAir MA-10.) The few companies and venues that do embrace streaming—which, I know, costs money—tend to do it on a single night that at-home patrons could easily forget. The few that still have mask nights put them on normally-“dark” nights, and they’re clearly trying to phase them out completely. The message is clear: “If you want to be safe and be a loyal theatre patron, you’ve come to the wrong place.” Why cautious audience members are being punished for caring about everyone’s safety, I don’t know.

Well, actually, I do, I just don’t like it. Much like the aforementioned “Keep the Fremont factory open!” bullshit, the emphasis on unmasked in-person shows is tied into the same “return-to-office” mandate that the powerful are using against the proletariat. Just as the efficacy and efficiency of remote/hybrid work has been conclusively proven, so too was the world beginning to open its eyes to the benefits of theatre that embraced the home audience. As with remote work, there are obviously elements that absolutely have to be done onsite and in-person, but that doesn’t mean it’s the only option available. Forcing audiences to only experience theatre in-person cuts off a massive swath of the audience runs the risk of more companies and venues dying because they’re letting too much tradition anchor them down. 

This utter refusal to evolve is just one of the reasons I’m convinced theatre companies will drop their DEI goals pretty soon. I see some caving into pressure from the White House and others simply using the White House as an excuse to drop the “woke mob” virtue-signalling they never really believed in. They won’t be happy until theatre looks like it did back in 1954. That would be a loss for everyone: audiences; theatre companies; aspiring theatre artists, everyone. The illness cancellation may have been part of a larger problem that we definitely know how to solve, but those who best can are the ones who refuse to do so.

As I write these words, I have the draft of an e-mail reply open. It’s the answer to a request as to when to see the delayed show that inspired me to write this entry. I’ll look at my calendar and get back to them soon. For now, I just hope the actor is OK, as well as the rest of the cast and crew.

I also hope that at least a few theatres will see the genuine potential of investing in the elements that have proven to attract new audiences: diversity; technological innovation; and yes, a dedication to public safety. All of those elements tell the world that this isn’t just an industry, it’s a community. As equal members of that community, we all deserve to feel safe around one another. If you can’t agree to that, then clearly theatre is just a business to you.

If that’s the case, you should stop asking why the business seems to be failing.