Even before Broadway shows in New York began to reopen, the Bay Area began its return to live theater—with a Broadway production.
After 17 months of shuttered doors and curtains collecting cobwebs, on August 10 the well-loved musical Hamilton returned to the Orpheum Theater in San Francisco.
photo by Ethan Rendon
Julius Thomas III, who stars as Alexander Hamilton tweeted about the return to live theater: “It feels so incredibly amazing to be back on stage to be doing the thing I feel like I was put on this Earth to do which is to touch people through music and storytelling and song.”
The theater opened at 100 percent capacity with required proof of vaccination or a negative COVID test. For those who are choosing to test, a negative antigen test is required 6 hours prior to the performance or a negative PCR test taken within 72 hours before the performance.
BroadwaySF, the leading theatrical entertainment company in the Bay Area, requires all audience members to be fully masked when attending and only allows people to demask when eating or drinking.
According to an article “‘Hamilton’ fans on COVID safety at the Orpheum’s reopening” by Lily Janik in The San Francisco Chronicle’s Datebook, a majority of the audience felt safe attending the show and didn’t have many safety concerns about the return to full capacity.
BroadwaySF has also instituted a COVID-19 return/exchange policy, meaning that if a ticket holder contracts COVID-19 before the show, they will receive a full refund or may exchange their ticket for a later event.
BroadwaySF has already lined up shows for the rest of 2021 and the Spring of 2021 including Jesus Christ Superstar, My Fair Lady, Hadestown, Oklahoma and To Kill a Mockingbird.
While BroadwaySF returns to live theater, there are still many smaller local theaters that have yet to open their doors. Many are planning on returning to the stage soon.
Z Space is a midsized, non-profit theater in the Mission District of San Francisco. Described as a multifaceted theatrical space, the theater hosts local productions and serves as a place for creativity, development, and presentation of art that appeals to a modern era of social justice.
photo courtesy of Z Space Theater
Z Space reopens at 25 percent capacity in October with a performance of a local dance company.
Mask mandates will be put in place and everyone in the theater is required to show proof of vaccination. The theater is also selling tickets in pods. Pod seating has been a common effect of the pandemic, allowing guests to purchase their tickets in groups in order to accomplish social distancing within a space.
Aside from the upcoming dance performance in the fall, Z Space also has a few other projects on the way, including a few musicals. The Red Shades, a trans superhero rock opera, will make its way to the stage in the spring.
While the theater remained closed during the pandemic, Z Space created a new way to transfer their plays into podcast form titled Word for Word. The podcast provided a platform for Z Space playwrights to maintain their unique way of telling stories and maintain the sense of community of working in the physical space of a theater.
During quarantine, Z Space worked with We See You, White American Theater, an organization that works to dismantle white supremacy and uplift Black, Indigenous, and People of Color’s voices within the theater community.
Shafer Mazow, the executive director of Z Space, said, “a reckoning and calling for racial justice, really ramped up during the pandemic. A lot of work that we’ve been doing in the community is to come up with ways to dismantle white supremacy in American theater. That’s been a big part of pandemic work so that when we reopen, we can be better, more equitable, more inclusive, more accessible.”
Z Space prides itself on being a theater that provides a platform for artists in the Bay Area. The theater hopes to raise enough money to give the space away for free to allow artists to develop their pieces without having to worry about the cost.
“I think being in a theater on a regular basis with other people watching art being made and developed – I’m so excited that we get to resume our work and productions that we’re developing.” Mazow said.
The American Conservatory Theater (ACT) is also planning a return to live theater. ACT is a local Tony Award-winning non-profit theater. Their mission is to “engage the spirit of the Bay Area, activate stories that resonate, promote diversity in voices and points of view and to empower theater-makers and audiences.”
During the pandemic, a lot of their work was produced through zoom or filmed ahead. One of their longer pandemic productions was Animal Wisdom, a show that combines a plethora of musical genres to tell the story of one woman’s journey of coming to terms with the souls that haunt her. The show was filmed beforehand to accommodate social distancing during quarantine and presented in an online format.
This year, ACT plans to hold a few small performances in the fall before their first big production of Freestyle Love Supreme. Based on the improvisational comedy hip-hop group started in New York City by Hamilton creator, Lin Manuel Miranda, the show provides a platform for artists to experiment with multiple dimensions of theater. The show will open in January at the Geary Theater which seats up to 1,000 people.
Their spring production will be the Lehman Trilogy. The show follows the rise and fall of three generations of the Lehman family and through them tells the story of American ambition and arrogance.
ACT General Manager Louisa Liska said, “the idea of getting back into our more normal mode of producing theater is very exciting. Having a cast come together for a first rehearsal, those experiences, those rituals of theater happening, is really exciting.”
The opening night of Lick-Wilmerding High School’s very own fall play, Puffs, by Matt Cox, marks the first live performance since the February 2020 Annual One Acts Festival.
Theater teacher and director, Miguel Zavala commented on the return to theater saying, “It’s about celebrating being together. I really think that’s the most important thing. However the show turns out, I think the fact that 100 students are involved is really amazing. This has never happened in my time at Lick.”
The cast and crew have been hard at work. The show is planning to open on October 28th, 2021.
With so many theaters and performances opening up again, a fresh feeling of opportunity faces members involved in any aspect of the theater. Cast members, crew, and audiences are all returning to the theater with a revived excitement to get back to doing what they love.
For avid theatergoers who are raring to return, here is a list of theaters around the Bay Area that you should check out:
In San Francisco: The Magic Theatre, San Francisco Playhouse, New Conservatory Theatre, Ray of Light Theater, Lorraine Hansberry Theatre, The Marsh, ODC/Dance and the Brava.
In Mill Valley: the Marin Theatre Company.
In Berkeley: The Berkeley Repertory Theatre and the Aurora Theatre.
