Items

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  2020-08-08

  The arts

  I saw this as I scrolled Facebook the other day. I must admit that the arts have never really been in my scope of interest. And by that, I mean performing arts and such. COVID has affected my personal life in many ways but I never thought about the arts and how they have all been affected. This photo changed that for me. As a mom, kid sport games would affect me much more but this picture forced me to look outside of my bubble and into the loss and effects of other groups of people. I think the reality of the arts, specifically performing arts, is that it has been on a slow decline for a few years and COVID just caused devastation to that. I hope posts like this pop up on people's feed like it did to me and force people to look outside of their own bubbles.
• 2020-10-14

  An Empty Theater

  Every year for the last 20 years, our community has planned, practiced, and performed a tribute to Broadway in a production called "Best of Broadway". We have a cast of over 100 local community members that sing and dance to 20 or so different Broadway songs. Our rehearsals are in an old Veterans Memorial building that comes to life during January to March with our songs, lights, and energy. The chants in the hall echos against the old walls, the stomping of feet on the stage threatens those downstairs, and the beat of the music pumps your heart. When one is in the hall, they are guaranteed to hear laughter in the back corner, a director shouting at the sound guy, and a piercing squeal in the speakers. The sounds in the hall define the busy enthusiasm of the cast and crew. However, this year, our production was shut down the day before our opening night due to Covid-19. The heartbreak of working for months on a show that was cancelled was devastating. After our annual production, we always have a day to clean and put our props and costumes away and clean the hall. But, this year, we just...left. The hall remains filled with our Broadway stuff. And when someone walks into the building, the silence of a show that was never performed is deafening.