Brisbane Arts Theatre opens doors for COVID-19 recovery

Petrie Terrace’s Brisbane Arts Theatre will commence operations for the remainder of its 2020 season, amid Queensland’s COVID-19 restrictions easing. 

Hitting the ground running, the company have announced changes to their programming with shows rescheduled and will now start preparing auditions for their upcoming production of Terry Pratchett’s ‘Feet of Clay’. 

The move comes as a beacon of hope for the Australian Arts industry, with many venues having already cancelled or rescheduled shows until 2021. Brisbane Arts Theatre Artistic Director, John Boyce, stated that not only will the theatre resume operations, but it will work in accordance with guidelines set by Queensland Workplace Health and Safety organisations. 

“Our season will resume when Step 3 in the Government’s COVID-19 ease of restrictions takes effect,” Boyce said. 

“The theatre will be selling reduced capacity inline with the guidelines set out by Queensland Workplace Health and Safety. Restricting Brisbane Arts Theatre to approximately 60 seats in our venue.”

Changes to the season include the cancellation of mainstage productions ‘The Woman in Black’, ‘Mary Poppins’, ‘The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee’ and the highly-anticipated ‘Our House’, which was ready to open at the beginning of April. The remaining mainstage shows of ‘Feet of Clay’ and ‘The Ladykillers’ have been rescheduled for later in the year. 

For Children’s Theatre, ‘Curious George and the Golden Meatball’, ‘Sleeping Beauty’ and ‘Peter Rabbit’ will all go ahead with new dates. While ‘Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day’ has been cancelled and ‘Garfield: The Musical with Cattitude’, ‘My Hamster is a Pirate’ and ‘The One Hundred and One Dalmatians’ moved to 2021. 

In a statement released last night via Facebook, the company addressed its community about their heartbreaking decisions.

“As we hope you can understand, we will be unable to stage much of our 2020 season, as we are currently unable to rehearse for the shows that should be hitting our stage very shortly,” the post read. 

“We’ve had to make some heartbreaking decisions as to what we need to remove from the season, in order to continue to deliver high-quality and entertaining theatre for the remainder of the year”.… 2020 hasn’t beat us yet, and we’ve got a few tricks up our sleeve.”

Boyce outlined that all processes conducted by Brisbane Arts Theatre will maintain social distancing and adhere to COVID-19 safety protocol. 

“Auditions and rehearsals will take effect with similar considerations adhering to a COVID-19 safe environment, with temperature checks and cast limits attending rehearsal,” said Boyce. 

“It is time to begin planning for a world beyond this mess and we hope we are doing that with all consideration of our COVID-19 safe business plan. We all want to go back to work safely.”

Auditions for ‘Feet of Clay’ will be held on Sunday, 7 June 2020 from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm.

To register your interest or learn more about the theatre, visit the Brisbane Arts Theatre’s website.