It’s time for Wheaton Drama to let it go
Jessica Hockett, PhD
Our family loves music and theatre. Plays, musicals, opera, concerts, cantatas: we’ll see just about anything with talented people on a stage.
Shutdowns and mitigations stole the joy of these experiences from us, and the memories they etch, for two years.
In our area, high school productions and some children’s companies returned to normal first. Many suburban performing arts centers have now loosened their covid policies, as have Lyric Opera and the Broadway in Chicago venues (for now).
Why the performing arts, in particular, were so slavishly devoted to covidianism, even after any state and local restrictions were lifted, is perplexing. (The Philadelphia Orchestra’s demanding the Edinburgh Festival Chorus wear masks is the most recent example of the extreme fidelity to covid-avoidance.)
Politics no doubt played a role. Government money and the financial/philosophical support of foundations and wealthy patrons kept many theatres from having to close permanently and helped sustain the myth that the virus itself shut down the arts.
But federal subsidies, big-donor dollars, and a false religion will only take you so far.
Eventually, you need more people to buy tickets — for financial reasons, to sustain the souls of the actors, directors, and crew, and to fully realize your raison d’être.
Which brings me to the theatre closest to my house.
I wish I could say we’ve been to every show since it reopened. Sadly, they still require everyone to mask. I walk past the building most mornings, hopeful that The Sign will be gone, or changed.
Alas, it’s still there.
So I wrote a friendly email today, humbly requesting that they consider changing their policy.
I’m not naive enough to think my plea alone will open anyone’s eyes, or that I’ve said anything they don’t know or haven’t already heard. Their reasons for keeping the policy it in place might more complicated, or more personal, than I realize.
If you live in or close to Wheaton, Illinois, will you consider reaching out to Wheaton Drama as well? Maybe if more people, including people who’ve been going to shows despite the mask requirement, earnestly and kindly ask them to reconsider, whatever forces or individuals are keeping that sign up will relent.
I can’t get back the shows we would’ve seen had the world avoided fear and panic. But the arts are finally coming out of the fog, and I’m more hopeful than ever that my family’s best theatre experiences lie ahead…including at our local theatre.
UPDATE: Sadly, they love masks too much…
I tried, as did several others, to persuade Wheaton Drama to make masks optional.
Alas, the Board voted tonight to keep the policy “for the safety of our actors.”
Tragedy, comedy, both, or neither?
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