The 2020 police murder of George Floyd that sparked nationwide outrage and waves of protests reverberated in the theaters. Theatergoing begets more theatergoing, to different kinds of theaters.”Ĭommunity theaters do not exist in a bubble. They’re all about getting theater to people who can’t get to or can’t support larger theaters. “They’re part of the ecosystem in theater from children’s theater to student theaters to volunteer-run community theaters. Mass Cultural Council’s Bobbitt, previously the artistic director at Watertown’s New Repertory Theatre and Adventure Theatre-MTC in Maryland, said community theaters are vital to a healthy arts scene. Since reopening, audiences have returned, she said, and the theater has not lost a show due to COVID. Menard said the $25,290 COVID mitigation grant from the Mass Cultural Council and other grants and donations were vital to keeping the theater going. It did give the company time to make repairs to its three-story home in the former School Street Firehouse downtown, which was built in 1891 and acquired by the theater in 1999. “There were absolutely concerns that audiences wouldn’t return or wouldn’t come back as strong.” Joan Menard, the president of the group, said it was not easy to close down for such a long time. The theater closed in March 2020 during a run of “Young Frankenstein” and didn’t reopen until 24 months later. On the North Shore, the Marblehead Little Theatre took a longer intermission before returning to live performances.

The money allowed the Footlight Club - through the addition of an elevator and an outside ramp - to finally become fully accessible to audiences in December 2020. Those grants are also vital to companies that own their own theaters. We wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for donations and sponsors.” “Ticket sales and memberships only go so far,” she said. The Footlight Club received $18,790 in that round of grants, and Bean said that with ticket sales making up only 53 percent of her budget, there has been even more reliance on grants, donations, and sponsors since the pandemic. “I can’t say the grants saved them from closing down, but they were very useful in mitigating the losses during the pandemic,” Bobbitt said. In all, the Mass Cultural Council awarded 4,000 grants to individuals and 1,200 to organizations in fiscal years 20. In 2021, the Massachusetts Legislature passed a spending bill that included $60.1 million for pandemic relief grants to individuals and organizations involved in the arts. Municipal, state, and federal governments have been throwing lifelines to arts organizations since the pandemic began.

That squares with an informal survey by Kenneth Fisher, president of the Eastern Massachusetts Association of Community Theatres. Bobbitt, Mass Cultural Council executive director. “Our numbers show that not many closed down for good during the pandemic,” said Michael J. The Mass Cultural Council says its database of cultural organizations that have received grants through the years indicates that the vast majority - including community theaters - survived the pandemic shutdown. Despite heavy losses sustained during the pandemic, it appears the vast majority of community theaters in Eastern Massachusetts have come through to the other side and are still performing.

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