Social Distancing Seating for next season?

We have always used GA seating for the events we do at the MFA Boston - but since this may be a solution to continue social distancing as we move forward, we are beginning to look at how we can show that seats would be separated throughout the house.  This could mean having a visible seating map, and how best to show this to buyers - something new for us.  Also looking at how to handle the single-seat purchases, everyone going for the aisles, as well as protocols for how you seat guests to continue the separation factors.  How do you handle latecomers who are sitting in the middle of the row (we have continental seating in both our theater venues)?  Would it be better to have a plan that you seat by row as guests arrive, filling in from the front to the back - marking off seats that are off-limits? 

Also thinking about how we will need to do a sanitation sweep in between events - and just how do you effectively do this with a mostly cloth-covered seating model that allows for time to clean and let the space air out before using it again (we sometimes have 4 film screenings at the height of a festival, with usually a 30 minute turn-around between screenings - something which may not be possible in our revised futures. Having 2 spaces could allow us to be fairly flexible about the volume, but the spaces are not capacity compatible (one is a little more than half the size of the other - and once you take out the seats that would not be used, your allowed numbers go down even further). 

Any venues out there who do more film screenings than other types of events, and have been starting to think about what that may look like in the near future?

Thanks all, and hope everyone is staying safe and in good health.  

Anne

We have always used GA seating for the events we do at the MFA Boston - but since this may be a solution to continue social distancing as we move forward, we are beginning to look at how we can show that seats would be separated throughout the house.  This could mean having a visible seating map, and how best to show this to buyers - something new for us.  Also looking at how to handle the single-seat purchases, everyone going for the aisles, as well as protocols for how you seat guests to continue the separation factors.  How do you handle latecomers who are sitting in the middle of the row (we have continental seating in both our theater venues)?  Would it be better to have a plan that you seat by row as guests arrive, filling in from the front to the back - marking off seats that are off-limits? 

Also thinking about how we will need to do a sanitation sweep in between events - and just how do you effectively do this with a mostly cloth-covered seating model that allows for time to clean and let the space air out before using it again (we sometimes have 4 film screenings at the height of a festival, with usually a 30 minute turn-around between screenings - something which may not be possible in our revised futures. Having 2 spaces could allow us to be fairly flexible about the volume, but the spaces are not capacity compatible (one is a little more than half the size of the other - and once you take out the seats that would not be used, your allowed numbers go down even further). 

Any venues out there who do more film screenings than other types of events, and have been starting to think about what that may look like in the near future?

Thanks all, and hope everyone is staying safe and in good health.  

Anne