Starting Thursday, attendance at indoor concerts, sporting events, theater performances and conferences is allowed with certain capacity limits based on local Covid-19 infection rates. Those limits were announced on April 2.
As venues reopen today, the State of California also issued detailed guidance for performers and crew at those events where attendees are seated.
The previously-announced capacity limits are based on counties’ placement in California’s economic-recovery tier system, and on the number of attendees who have been tested and/or vaccinated.
The new set of recommendations issued Thursday cover the other side of the venue: onstage and behind the scenes. These are separate and apart from the strictures of the Return-to-Work agreement for film and TV production adopted by guilds and producers last year.
Below are some of the recommendations issued by the state today for performers and crew at events where attendees are seated.
Performers/Onstage:
-Increase distancing between people who sing or chant and others, or between wind instrument performers and others to more than six feet, especially when indoors and not wearing face coverings. Consider use of barriers to add further separation in these cases.
-Rehearse outdoors, if possible
-Consider discontinuing assistance from musician assistants, such as pageturners, or others that cannot maintain at least six feet of distance
-Use microphones for performances to the maximum extent feasible so that performers can limit voice projections
Auditions:
-Encourage people to wait in their cars, not in the waiting area of the casting facility.
-Consider ensuring back-up talent selection and availability in the case of illness.
Venue Staff:
-In order to avoid touching attendees’ personal items, operators should consider enforcing a small clear bag policy and ask guests to open their own bags for inspection. Consider necessary exceptions for medical and personal hygiene products.
-Particular attention should be given to staggered exiting of venues at the conclusion of an event. Establish directional entry and exit into venues whenever possible.
Crew/Backstage:
-Consider whether the set design crew can operate separately from production, including fully dressing locations prior to performances without interaction with other workers.
-Consider options that allow performers to arrive in their own wardrobe. Where feasible, encourage background performers to also wear clothes from their own from home.
-Each cast member’s costume and wardrobe supplies should be kept in separate, labeled plastic bags.
-Performers should apply their own minor touch-ups, where possible, to avoid additional contact. Performers should also remove their own makeup to limit contact at the end of the day.