RiverCenter, dark for a year, raises the curtain on its new season of shows this fall

The RiverCenter for the Performing Arts announced its 2021-22 season on Monday, more than a year after things came to a standstill last March.

The season will begin Oct. 13 and 14 with the Broadway musical “Waitress,” which had been canceled last year. Other events featured include Hairspray, An Officer and a Gentleman and a free concert by “The President’s Own” U.S. Marine Band. Carrie Corbett, the director of marketing at RiverCenter, said there will be additional shows announced in the future.

‘We can get started again’

When Broadway closed their shows at the start of the pandemic , it halted performances that were part of the theater’s main business model, Norman Easterbrook, executive director of RiverCenter, said. This triggered staff and program cuts, furloughs and layoffs as the theater’s annual budget reduced from $3.5 million to $1.5 million last year.

He said a lot of the staff are still working on reduced salaries. However, as events begin and theater gets busier, Easterbrook expects to bring more of the staff back. He said RiverCenter is still more than a year out from a full recovery; however, they are expecting to be operating back at full capacity in August.

“And just to be able to see that we can get started again — we can start welcoming people to our facilities and audiences to our theaters — makes us complete again,” Easterbrook said. “We wouldn’t be able to do what we do without live people in our facilities and our buildings.”

Because of the pandemic, more than 320,000 people haven’t come to downtown Columbus because there was no show to attend, he said. Easterbrook said it was an estimated $10 million loss in economic revenue.

Visit Columbus president Peter Bowden said before COVID, tourists in Columbus spent an average of $71,000 per day on arts and entertainment. The first four months of the pandemic wiped out 15 years of visitor spending, he said, as spending dropped from $364 million in 2019 to $260 million in 2020. Bowden said RiverCenter announcing the next season gives his organization leverage to attract visitors to Columbus,

“Obviously, with something like River Center, evening performances are going to drive overnights,” Bowden said. “And it’s going to drive people to eat in restaurants, buy gasoline and do other things while they’re in Columbus when they come to take in a show.”

Easterbrook said the theater was able to survive through the pandemic with the help of a Paycheck Protection Program loan that was just over $261,000, which was later forgiven. The theater was also given an economic injury disaster loan of $150,000 that can be paid off over 30 years.

Additionally, he said the RiverCenter Recovery Fund raised over $300,000.

“These were all individuals who contributed to this,” Easterbrook said. “We did not go to the corporate community. So, these are folks who come into the theater and enjoy our shows.”

‘The polite thing to do’

Although the year was not normal, the theater was able to host socially distanced events for groups like the Gingerbread Village, blood and clothing drives. The COVID-19 protocols taken during this time will continue as the theater returns for the new season.

These safety measures include include a mask mandate for everyone moving around the facility. Guests are able to remove their masks when sitting with their groups.

“Not so much that you are susceptible to a virus or someone else, it’s just that you are making other people more comfortable,” he said. “And that’s causing them to enjoy their experience coming into the theater, and that’s the polite thing to do, I think.”

In addition to social distancing and masks, hand-sanitizing and hand-washing stations have been placed throughout the building. Easterbrook said these protocols will continue for as long as it is indicated in the community, and that marketing data shows that when people know these rules are enforced, people are more comfortable coming into a facility like RiverCenter.

Additionally, he encourages people in the community to get vaccinated. Easterbrook said the vaccination rate is one of the key factors of ensuring a successful reopening.

Officials at Visit Columbus and RiverCenter hope the new season and the reopening of other art and cultural institutions in Columbus will revitalize the local economy. Bowden said they are eager to see the reopening of local museums, music series and street parties.

Easterbrook said he is most looking forward to seeing people in the community seated together in a theater again enjoying a communal piece of theater, music or dance. It’s something humans have done since the beginning of time.

“Someone has always had a show, whether it was around a campfire or standing on a stone,” Easterbrook said. “Someone has always wanted to express themselves to someone else. It’s inside all of us, the ability to share beautiful experiences together with people you don’t even know.”