What will it take to lure audiences back to movies and plays? We talked to Chicago theater operators.
A lot of us really can’t wait.
We can’t wait to get back inside a movie theater. Or a Chicago storefront theater. Or the Cadillac Palace. We miss it. We can’t wait to go back.
Strike that — we can’t wait to feel safe enough, with vaccines in our arms, the pandemic finally on the fade, to get back inside a theater.
In recent conversations with four Chicago area film and theater workers, one word kept popping up, like a buoy, regarding the secret ingredient in getting to the other side. That word: “trust.” How do we define it? When can we trust in science, human behavior and our own appetite for returning indoors, with others, to see a movie or a play?
Vivian Teng is the managing director of Cinema/Chicago, the nonprofit best known for its annual Chicago International Film Festival. The festival takes place in October. Last year’s COVID edition migrated online, as did so much of world activity, though the festival managed to recapture a bit of traditional ambience and communal goodwill with eight screenings held at Chicago’s most popular pop-up drive-in, ChiTownMovies, outside the ChiTown Futbol facility in Pilsen.
Teng is both realistic and optimistic about getting the festival back indoors seven months from now.
“A, there have to be great films available. And B, for audiences, who knows? It’s going to be tougher now. People are used to watching films at home. But I think it’ll come down to getting everyone vaccinated,” she said.
Teng said the 2021 festival may well end up splitting it three ways: Some indoor screenings, some back at the drive-in and a lot of online. The 2020 festival sold roughly 40,000 virtual admissions, comparable to tickets sold the previous year at the AMC River East.
“We don’t have to make a decision until this summer,” she said. “We know we can do in-person really well; we can do online very well; we can do a drive-in series. Whatever combination of those we decide on, we’ll be ready.”
Chris Johnson is the CEO of Classic Cinemas, the regional multiplex chain encompassing 15 venues (131 screens), 14 in Illinois and one in Beloit, Wisconsin. He’s also Illinois chapter president of the National Association of Theatre Owners.
Things — at last — are looking up, he said. Classic Cinemas venues reopen April 15, with seating capacity currently under local and state review.
“With the announcement of Wrigley and Guaranteed Rate Field planning opening days for 8,000 people apiece,” he said, “well, if it’s all right to have 8,000 people at a ballpark, in the corridors, queuing up for concessions, in the bathrooms — I mean, that’s not all outdoors. Right now, movie theaters are still capped at 50 people. It doesn’t make a lot of sense. But we’re optimistic there’ll be a change in the seating capacities.
“I don’t fault the people who are hesitant right now to see a movie. But the vaccines are coming fast and furiously. And our research shows more and more people seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. What theater owners need most is consistent product from the studios so that theaters can operate daily. And we have to create a safe environment, which we know how to do.”
Johnson noted that Los Angeles County, which like New York has closed its indoor movie theaters for a year now, recently saw a reduction in its overall COVID positivity rate to 2.2%. “That means they’ll very likely be open for business in April,” he said, ”and the movie studios are very likely taking notice.”
Krissi McEachern is managing director at Filament Theatre, across the street from the Portage Theater in Portage Park’s Six Corners district. It’s a 14-year-old company specializing in theater for young audiences. It performs in a “black box” space, in what used to be a furniture warehouse.
“We’re flexible and adaptable,” McEachern said. “But a lot of what makes performing venues across Chicago special is that they’re places that weren’t supposed to be theaters — it’s the ‘found space’ idea. Those spaces are typically not HVAC-equipped for magical air flow in a pandemic. So what makes them cool and unique has become, in some cases, a detriment.
“Once we decide to come back (indoors), we need to produce consistently so people can start to envision themselves coming back safely. There’ll be a first-wave audience, and the bulk of the second wave will wait and watch other people come back first.
“Our particular clientele is so different than the majority of the arts audience sector. Ours is young families, children 0 to 12. When we get to a point where a lot of parents and caretakers are vaccinated, when we get to the point where schools are fully back in person, when families feel safe with their kids in school — that’s when they’ll feel safe with their kids in a theater.
“It’s all about trust-building. With us, since 75% of our audience is under 12, the biggest question of all is: What does theater mean to an age group that had the pandemic take up such a huge portion of their lives?”
Elizabeth Laidlaw is a Chicago actor, educator and producer, with extensive stage, film and TV credits. She founded the outdoor Lakeside Shakespeare Theatre in Frankfort, Michigan, and now serves on its board.
“Until this pandemic is decidedly under control, the tip of the spear for performing artists is making sure we can safely rehearse indoors together, with crews gathering together in the same room,” she said. “For me as a performer to feel safe, I’d need to know that my fellow performers and crew are either vaccinated or that there’s a rigorous testing protocol in place. And I imagine that’s true of most performers. For audiences, it’s different. You come for two, three hours, you wear your mask — that’s an easier problem to solve. And that’s different from the people doing most of the droplet-spraying on stage.
“Before all of this happened, our country generally and the theater scene, in particular, was struggling to rebuild trust on a lot of levels — trust in our safety, our physical and emotional safety. Chicago’s theater community was trying to figure out how to become more diverse and smarter about everything. And then we got walloped by this.
“Trust is a struggle right now, on any level. It took a big hit starting with #NotInOur House, and all the revelations about instances of consent and mistreatment in rehearsal. When you rip something open like that, it takes a long time to repair it. And now, actors have to learn to trust the people they’re getting up close and personal with (in rehearsal and performance) all over again, and trust that they’ve been vaccinated.
“America is uniquely torn up and divided right now. The entire world is thinking: You guys gotta get it together. I think, I hope, we as artists can lead by example.”
Michael Phillips is a Tribune critic.
Twitter @phillipstribune
What to eat. What to watch. What you need now. Sign up for our Eat. Watch. Do. newsletter here.
