“May you live in interesting times.” ~ancient Chinese curse
We here with Blaine Community Theater have been quiet about the whole Covid-19 crisis because, for once, us being nomadic and having an inconsistent schedule has been to our advantage. We don’t have any shows currently running or in rehearsals, and we don’t have facilities to take care of, so for us, putting everything on hold at this point in time was almost unfairly easy compared to some of our peers in the local theater community.
At this time, we are currently running forward with our planned calendar until state and health officials announce we need to change that plan. The quickest upcoming events involved in our calendar are the auditions and production of “The Good Deli”.
We are still planning to do “The Good Deli” auditions on the scheduled dates, April 18 & 19. Auditions were already designed to be scheduled one actor at a time, so we feel exposure danger is severely mitigated compared to a standard cattle call audition. We have not yet heard whether the Blaine School District will continue to be able to let us use their facilities, but if they are unable to we will find an alternative venue. The good news about the rehearsal process for “The Good Deli” is that rehearsals were not scheduled to begin until May 25th, so casted actors will have plenty of downtime with their scripts if self-isolation orders are still in play. The show isn’t scheduled to open until late June, so for now we’ll operate as though all dates are still applicable and will make adjustments as necessary. If you have questions about any of these plans, please feel free to contact us.
Anyway, that’s how we look for the rest of the year’s first half. Like mentioned above, we are in a much better position than most of the county’s performance art groups. Most small arts groups depend on being able to put a show up this week to pay for overhead next week, so the necessary closures are a big problem for most of them. Please, if able, donate to a local art group. If you are kindly enough to want to donate to us, it can be done through our digital box office through the “Tickets on Sale” button on the top of the page, but there’s a lot of organizations that need your donations more than we do at this time:
- Sylvia Center for the Arts
- Bellingham Theatre Guild
- Lynden Performing Arts Guild
- Jansen Art Center
- Bellingham Theaterworks
- BAAY – Bellingham Arts Academy for Youth
Thanks,
Nick McDonald
Blaine Community Theater Board Member
Blaine Community Theater 