Not Just a Pandemic…

not just a Pandemic…

JustArt Theatricals typically prepares for our summer productions during the late winter and early spring. This year, however, we decided not to produce a show. This decision arose from a few factors, primary among them: The economic reality of producing a large scale musical is, perhaps, not the best use of our company’s resources.

The important question as to the real impact of a single musical production, vs. our potential to support and amplify the voices of marginalized artists challenged us to consider our standard operating procedure and the real impact we are having. Are we actually fulfilling our mission when we produce musicals? It costs a lot of money to secure a venue, license a show, pay musicians and designers…promote a show…and even then, we’re still relying on the free labor of a company of performers who believe in the message and value the experience of doing a show, but are not expressly benefitting from working for us…

This all signaled that we needed to step back and consider the real impact and value of our work. Our decision was made even more easily when, a few short weeks into the season when we would earnestly have begun production…a global pandemic struck..

We decided that this summer would be one where we would gather information, seek guidance, and build new strategies going forward. We were disappointed to not be in a position to work with the brilliant and wonderful community of artists that we’ve developed over the past three seasons, but we felt that to best serve them, we needed to reflect on better practices.

We look forward to a summer of hard work putting together a practical and intentional strategy to continue to create works that seek balance in an unsteady world.