Last week at ANTRUC Virtual, Doc (Tom) Brown brought up looking at the data from Previous pandemics with regards to recovery. Whilst I was on the Audience Matters slack channel (join if you haven't) this popped up. Charcoal Blue has written an article on this exact thing looking at the impact of the Spanish Flu on US theatres in 1918.
https://www.charcoalblue.com/news/view/performance-buildings-in-a-post-pandemic-world
Interested in your thoughts
Stay Safe,
Heath
First - that slack channel is pretty cool! Thank you for sharing that.
Second, I found that article to be interesting. I'm amazed that Broadway didn't close in 1918. I also found that data about when peak deaths happened in relation to venues reopening in each city super useful. While I understand that it was written by a company that will benefit from performing arts venues re-opening and renovating I appreciated the way the writer broke down Crisis Management, Ramp-Up, and Adjustment. I worry that we are all SO stuck in the crisis management vacuum that we are going to end up behind the curve when it comes time to re-open and adjust. Anyway, just my two cents!
I agree, Madeline! And it's hard to even quantify at this point the timing in which Ramp-Up can/will begin. I thought the part about measures to take to reassure audiences post-opening was interesting - seating in every other row (?!), health checks at entrances to theatres, continued increase of cleaning facilities, leaning in to ways to mitigate huge lines/crowds at the bars - a lot of issues to solve for and continue to address as we hopefully head back toward audiences returning. The old ad with "100 Percent Ventilation" being touted made me laugh, but also made me think (I'm a marketer)... what will our equivalent messaging need to be when we look at reopening? (Great read, Heath - thank you for sharing!)
If you are interested in a fascinating read check-out. "Moving Picture World" from October 1918 to at least February 2019 or so. This is a trade journal for the Movie Theater business. And they document a number of interesting situations that we might find over the coming months.
Here is a summary article of this period by a modern academic.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/3815547
Madeline - your comment about being so stuck in crisis management struck a chord with me...I worry SO much about that as well.