New Year's Eve. It is nearly time for the curtain to rise after the intermission during Moulin Rouge! The Musical.
The audience are all in their seats when Carmen Pavlovic's phone rings.
A performer who was just about to go on, in a role that required very physical and intimate contact with a number of cast members, has gotten back a positive PCR test.
It's an unpleasant surprise: a rapid antigen test (RAT) taken by the performer earlier in the day was negative. The PCR test is only meant to be an added precaution — particularly since there have been numerous delays thanks to backlogs at the laboratories over the Christmas break.
Pavlovic is the CEO of Global Creatures, who produces the show; she decides to pull the plug.
"And that was it," Pavlovic told ABC RN's The Stage Show.
"Obviously, it's very tempting to not do that, with only about 20 minutes left to go on the show."
Though it was the right call, Pavlovic is keenly aware of the possible inconvenience and disappointment their audience is risking every time they buy a ticket to a show.
"So, you know, really our days are very much filled with trying to assess what we can achieve.
"And if we can't put on a show, how quickly can we cancel it? How quickly can we inform people in the right order? And then when are we likely to be able to commence performances again?"
These are questions being asked by producers and theatre companies across the country, as they struggle to keep their doors open and their casts and audiences safe.
Effective strategies with a high price tag
"2022 is going to be a very messy transition year, and we're not sure what curveballs might come our way," says Evelyn Richardson, the chief executive of peak body Live Performance Australia (LPA).
Since the Omicron-driven surge of cases in late 2021, many productions have boosted already rigorous health measures, incorporating regular RATs.
The cast and crew of Moulin Rouge currently undertake daily RATs, as well as two PCR tests a week.
Vaccination is mandatory for the cast, crew and audiences.
In recent months, results for PCR tests have often been delayed, as pathology labs struggled to meet rising demand.
But Pavlovic resolved to keep them going as part of the production's testing regimen, as "another way of catching cases".
When on tour, Global Creatures has private nurses visit the hotel to ensure the test results for cast and crew come back in the required time frame.
The approach has proved effective, but it hasn't been cheap.
"We've spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on testing. I did look at how much we'd spent in aggregate before Christmas and nearly fainted. I'd hate to imagine what it is now," says Pavlovic.
At Opera Australia, the testing was even more rigorous.
"We test everyone three times a day, and it's costing us $25,000 a week to do these tests," revealed artistic director Lyndon Terracini in January.
Beginning over the Christmas and New Year period, cast and crew did a RAT at home in the morning, then again at lunchtime and finally 30 minutes before they arrived at the theatre. All three had to be negative before they could go on stage.
Terracini says this regimen was a response to an incident where a member of the orchestra tested negative at noon, but later felt ill — and tested positive by the evening.
Since then, the company has amended their strategy and currently test once a day. However, their approach remains responsive to conditions on the ground.
Australian-Mauritian soprano Stacey Alleaume says there's always some degree of anxiety around testing.
"Even just doing the tests every morning is 15 minutes of waiting," she says.
"Am I going to be able to go to work today? Is it going to be positive? Is it going to be negative?
For performers like Alleaume, the testing regimen is only one obstacle on the way to opening night.
Getting through rehearsals too has required the performers to adapt.
Keeping her mask on has actually forced Alleaume to change the way she sings.
"The mask breathes in with you when you're trying to draw a breath, and so I have to alter the way I breathe in, to accommodate that, which is not great technique-wise … you have less capacity, basically."
Back-up plans
From the introduction of restrictions for greater Sydney in June 2021 until reopening in November, 335 Sydney Theatre Company performances were cancelled across nine productions, resulting in a box office revenue loss of $10.5 million.
Faced with the ongoing risk of sick performers and cancelled shows, STC has turned to understudies. This includes alternate performers for lead roles, the use of 'swings' (back-up performers who can cover a wide range of parts in the ensemble) - and even asking existing cast members to understudy smaller roles within the production.
"Understudies come on part way through the rehearsal period and remain on standby for the duration of the season," says Anne Dunn, STC's executive director.
In January, Triple X became the first STC show where understudies performed on stage: on opening night, Anthony Taufa performed the role of Jase when Elijah Williams tested positive for COVID; Cheree Cassidy performed the role of Deb several times throughout the season, after Christen O'Leary tested positive shortly after opening night.
The State Theatre Company of South Australia (STCSA) has also been using understudies, for their recent production of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf at the Dunstan Playhouse and current production of Girls & Boys at the Odeon Theatre.
Adelaide theatres are currently capped at 75 per cent audience capacity, so cancelling a show constitutes a loss of 590 seats at Dunstan and 220 tickets at Odeon.
"We are trying, as much as possible, to keep the shows on. So having understudies is just good risk mitigation," says Mitchell Butel, artistic director of STCSA.
Here too, understudies may wear more than one hat: Rachel Burke, who is Justine Clarke's understudy for Girls & Boys, is also the show's assistant director.
"It's been wonderful from an artistic point of view to bring new blood into the room," says Butel.
Dunn says challenges remain around casting, including juggling already tight schedules and costs related to administration, wages and production (such as extra costumes).
"The additional costs and complexity mean this is not a long-term solution but one which we will continue to assess production by production as the situation around us changes," she says.
COVID-safe plans
Sydney's Belvoir could not afford understudies until recently. Consequently, a lot has been riding on their COVID-safe plan.
"If one person goes down [with COVID], we'll have to close down … if people are counted as close contacts, you have to close down for seven days," explains executive director Sue Donnelly.
Management consulted with every department to create the company's COVID-safe plan, and hired extra staff to ensure it was followed at all times.
As part of this plan, patrons can skip the crowds in the foyer by going directly to their seats when they arrive at the theatre; and food and drink is confined to the foyer, so that everyone keeps their masks on during the performance.
Belvoir has also installed air purifiers in their warehouse — and is fortunate that its old air conditioner draws in fresh air instead of re-circulating indoor air (and potentially leading to aerosol transmission).
Even with these measures in place, Donnelly says the company is braced for what 2022 will bring.
"We've projected [audience] capacity of 60 per cent this year; normally we'd be projecting a capacity of 75 per cent."
She says government support has been critical in this period.
In late January, the New South Wales government announced a $1 billion support package for business hit by Omicron, including $80 million to underwrite ticket sales.
"They subsidised the cost of the lost ticket income, and that basically kept us going," says Donnelly.
Donnelly is not so sure: "I don't think we can predict [what things will look like in April]."
She has been keeping an eye on news about other variants such as BA.2: "That could change things as well.
"We've budgeted to be in deficit this year, which is a very unusual situation but it's important to keep demonstrating that we can put on shows."
Living — and working — with COVID
Evelyn Richardson of Live Performance Australia says it's not avoiding but rather living with Omicron that will be the real challenge.
"The difference with this variant are the high rates of community transmission. We're in this transition where we are moving to living with COVID. We didn't have that before," she says.
Arts organisations are still in the process of figuring out what additional protocols need to be introduced to manage COVID in the workplace.
At the same time, they are trying to rebuild an industry that has lost jobs and capacity.
"We have many people who didn't have work for two years, so they've gone off to other industries," says Richardson.
"These aren't skills you can pick up in a couple of weeks, so we're going to have to rebuild that capacity, whether it's stage or company manager or technicians, in order to bring back that higher level of capacity to the industry."
She argues that restoring confidence is critical, for both the broader industry and for consumers.
What happens when you turn the tap off?
As part of a 2022-23 Pre-Budget Submission, Live Performance Australia is asking for a temporary Live Entertainment Events Insurance Scheme, to be established in partnership with states and territories, that will create a safety net for individual companies.
"I think there's a very strong sense across the country that we've had support from various federal and state governments but that the tap is now turned off," says Richardson.
However, drawing in large enough audiences to make a profit may be difficult.
"Governments do need to provide that business and consumer environment where we can actually operate with very little imposition and density restrictions or caps, border or other restrictions that actually prevent us from conducting our normal business activities," says Richardson.
Belvoir is a part of the Confederation of Australian State Theatre Companies (CAST), and Donnelly says she sees other member organisations across Australia struggling in similar ways.
"People are showing up, but it's safe to say that the numbers are down," says Donnelly.
She acknowledges that for many it's about feeling safe enough to go out in public: "Everybody's finding it difficult. Subscriptions are down on previous years."
In some cases, loyal audiences have come to the rescue.
"They've been donating tickets back or taking credits — only now they have so many credits, they're wondering what they're going to do with them!"
She encourages those who are hesitant to call up the companies in question and query their procedures – in the hope that what they discover might reassure them.
EDITOR’S NOTE: March 10, 2022 This article originally reported that Opera Australia required cast and crew to rapid-test three times a day. This was previously the case, but the company relaxed its approach in January, and currently requires only one test per day.
