As we begin to emerge from the coronavirus pandemic’s shadow, plans for reopening public venues and performing arts facilities are uncertain. Restrictions will gradually be lifted, city by city, state by state and region by region, with the primary focus on patron safety. Yet if we want the “show to go on,” the health and safety of those who work in theatres must also be given high priority.
By Ted Ohl, Principal
For thousands of us, the theatre is a place of employment. Because performers, technicians, designers and administrators perform very different tasks in both distinct and overlapping areas within a theatre building, their concerns and exposure risks vary widely. For example, the teamster whose entry into the facility stops at the loading dock has different needs than the hair and makeup artist in a dressing room.
The requirements of each backstage worker must be evaluated in a highly granular way, much deeper than reciting the standard “mask-gloves-hand-sanitizer” mantra. Each unique backstage role needs a detailed, personalized program to help educate and protect in the short term, while fostering lasting behavior changes when those permanent changes will actually enhance the safety, comfort and efficiency of the workplace. Right now, there are more questions than answers, but asking the right questions is a key first step.
Review and Combine Existing Guidelines
The development of reopening guidelines is already underway by various trade organizations and by groups such as the Event Safety Alliance (ESA) and the Performing Arts Center Consortium (PACC). On May 11, 2020, ESA published its Reopening Guide, a 30-page resource that cited more than 300 contributors. On May 15, the PACC issued a detailed work. These guidelines are living documents which could be built upon with further input from professionals in each practice and trade as the recovery process evolves. Leadership in this effort must be recognized and commissioned. The urgency of this cannot be overstated. Stage professionals know the work and will best determine how to do it safely. Who can take on the leadership role in such an effort?
“All Politics is Local….”
Regardless of how effective or prompt we are in creating a set of trade practices, specific short- and long-term health and safety guidelines, variations in programming, production equipment and building layout will demand local response. Every producing and presenting facility needs, like every US manufacturing facility, a safety group that meets regularly and includes representatives of every trade and management/ownership. Many companies already have these groups. In our current context, this group would apply the above described guidelines, adjusting as necessary to their specific conditions, and would continue to monitor the impact of the current crisis as well as all other work-related risks that emerge over time.
In the construction industry, contractors coming onto a construction site are required to create a “Site Specific Hazard Analysis”, in which they examine onsite working conditions through the lens of the specific products, staging equipment, and trade skills they will bring. Any unacceptable conditions are flagged. Steps which the contractor will take to address any of the hazards they bring – or are within the bounds of their contract to remove – are indicated in the Analysis. Would this not be a good tool for producing and presenting companies as well?
Authorize Health Liaison
Back to the safety committee for a moment. It will be important to identify and authorize within that team, with a backup, a “Health and Safety Officer” whose responsibilities include teaching and enforcing new backstage guidelines. This health liaison would maintain PPE inventory, instruct about its usage, and oversee the arrival of new workers into the facility. Formal – perhaps contactless – sign-in sheets should become universal. The health officer must have the training to perform basic medical screening, such as taking workers’ temperatures, and the authority to dismiss anyone who is exhibiting symptoms. Most performing arts facilities run with very lean staffing levels, so this new health liaison role will likely be added onto an existing job description.
Clarify Responsibilities & Liabilities
Detailing the health liaison’s role with touring shows will likely be one of the new items added to contracts once performing arts facilities reopen. Other related issues include how health-related responsibilities will be shared by the venue and the touring producer. Something that is “everyone’s job” can quickly become “nobody’s job.” Issues of liability will also loom large. To minimize risks, must all workers be certified that they’ve been tested within a certain period of time? Will all workers – whether house staff or touring employees – be compelled to comply with new safety policies as a condition of employment?
Communication
As new procedures and Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) are implemented and deployed backstage, signage will be an important tool to help acclimate and educate everyone. Whether from the road or a union hall, new workers are arriving backstage all the time, each with a different level of familiarity with that particular venue. Signage can communicate information such as: location of PPE, health procedures/checklists, worker check-in station, contact person, backup contact, etc. Illuminated signs may be necessary.
Track Medical Information
Along with adhering to safety policies, employees may also be asked to release their own personal medical information that is pandemic-specific. Health-privacy laws must be reviewed with local legal counsel to determine what is possible in terms of contact tracing to contain illnesses within a given population. This is especially important for those working in close proximity backstage. Sharing information openly and quickly could mean the difference between a show going on and the facility being forced to close.
The heat of a crisis can also reveal the importance of even basic record-keeping such as employee rosters and emergency contact information. All this can be combined into a comprehensive Emergency Action Plan that can also communicate employer and employee responsibilities in other emergencies such as fire or severe weather.
Think Scalable Solutions
Before the coronavirus pandemic, catastrophes like fires, natural disasters and mass shootings were the primary dangers on the minds of performing arts facilities. The world has changed. Whatever procedures and parameters are developed for backstage workers to facilitate reopening should be scalable for practicality and long-term enforceability, to be ramped up or dialed back down as needed.
When this current crisis eventually subsides, simply returning to the "old normal" risks being caught flat-footed again. If our industry’s collective post-pandemic preparations help lessen the impact of future crisis, the investment in training, systems and infrastructure will be doubly beneficial. By learning from this, we will come out stronger and better prepared to weather future storms.
Ted Ohl is a Principal and leader of Schuler Shook's New York office. His extensive career in the theatre industry is built upon more than fifteen years devoted to mounting opera, drama, dance and concert productions on every variety of stage. Ted's passion is for the people of the entertainment industry.