Don’t get excited. The news is that there is no news.

I was recently directed to the latest Covid-19 information on Government Guidelines for Performing Arts (click to link to the guidelines). It describes, at great length and detail all the restrictions that would need to be in place, what you cannot yet do and a roadmap towards a restricted world of what you cannot do later either, albeit a bit more than now. To read it all, however, would have taken so long that the guidelines will have been updated and out of date – so I abandoned the exercise and concluded from my brief scanning of the document that we won’t be performing anytime soon. No surprise there then.

As a group we are using Zoom a lot to stay socially connected and we recently used it to have an Extraordinary Committee Meeting. This was basically to discuss what we didn’t know and we formally decided that we could not make any decisions. Apart from that one.

The new guidelines for performing arts and the general guidelines show that performances are a long way off. Bearing in mind that to plan a production we need to obtain a licence and have three months of rehearsals in close (sometimes very close) proximity – and unless we run some monologues, like a run of Alan Bennet’s excellent Talking Heads, then social distancing is not possible. Then, of course, we would need to consider what form of audience set up we would need. The situation remains fluid and the goalposts keep changing and so we find ourselves unable to make any decisions about our future and potential play seasons.

Of course, we are constantly reviewing the situation and as soon as we can foresee a safe, meaningful and worthwhile means of resuming performances we will do so. Everyone in the group is hoping that we can get back to doing what we love as soon as possible.

At the moment we would normally be resting between seasons anyway, and enjoying our summer break.

The Petuaria Players may not be able to meet up in person but, like everyone else, Zoom has come to our rescue. Regular group and subgroup social events are taking place online, with the added benefit of enjoying a drink or two since there is no driving involved!

Recently we have also resumed our play readings using Zoom. And it is working remarkably well. It means we can read various scripts together and review them afterwards without having to meet at the Forum.

So it is inevitable that our first play of the season, traditionally in October, will not take place. As far as the rest of the season is concerned, no decisions will be made for a while yet – but we will keep you informed.

Stay well folks.

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