COVID-19 Update: March 24, 2020: Fighting Back, Holding the Fort, and a Life Claimed

As we've seen the last few days, events surrounding the coronavirus pandemic are moving quickly. As I write, the Congressional stimulus package, which has been voted down twice, causing plenty of ire on all sides, appears to be a done deal. Stay tuned.

On the other hand, the Tokyo Olympics have been postponed until 2021: bit.ly/33Iw4yL. So, no big opening and closing ceremonies with all the gear that they entail.

A light at the end of the tunnel? China announces plans to reopen Wuhan: bit.ly/39h4LwO.

The mood in the UK theatre regarding the government's handling of the pandemic is not upbeat: bit.ly/3brw9Ka.

In part because of the president's identification of the coronavirus as "the Chinese virus," Asian-Americans are facing an ugly national backlash nyti.ms/39bU3aJ. As a result, a number of Asian-American theatre artists are standing up to racism: bit.ly/3bp38yG.

And the pandemic takes a human toll, claiming Terrence McNally, one of America's greatest contemporary playwrights: bit.ly/2wz4Sqb. Your correspondent freely admits to being broken up about this one. His is an irreplaceable loss.

In other news:

Rosie O'Donnell's one-night-only online version of her former TV talk show raised $600,000 for the Actor's Fund, money much needed at this time. To donate to the Actor's Fund, which provides a host of social services to members of the entertainment industry, go to give.actorsfund.org/Rosie.

The concert-touring organization Danny Wimmer Presents has announced that the following festivals are off: Epicenter, May 1 - 3, Concord, North Carolina; Welcome to Rockville, May 8 - 10, Daytona Beach, Florida; and Sonic Temple Art + Music Festival, May 15 - 17, Columbus, Ohio. On a brighter note, Louder Than Life, in Louisville, will expand to four days. The dates are September 17 - 20, with Metallica headlining on the opening night.

In Vegas, where the strip has shuttered, MGM Resorts is donating $1 million to an employee relief fund: bit.ly/2QIx1lI.

NAMM today presented a on online update that includes discussion of federal Coronavirus Emergency Aid Package (funds family leave, free testing and treatment, paid sick leave, expanded unemployment assistance, and more), SBA disaster relief loans, and employee/employer financial support. A recording of the webinar will be available after the session, so check www.namm.org for more.

ART in Cambridge, Massachusetts has moved its spring productions, Macbeth In Stride and 1776, to the 2020-2021 season.

More than 20 Broadway producers are offering a $1 million challenge match to double the impact of donations to Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS' COVID-19 Emergency Assistance Fund at broadwaycares.org/help2020. The emergency assistance fund, administered by The Actors Fund, is helping those onstage, backstage, and behind the scenes impacted by the coronavirus pandemic and work shutdown.

In Washington, DC, the Kennedy Center is now closed through May 10. Arena Stage has closed through the end of its season, postponing several productions until then. The National Theatre has postponed its upcoming engagement of The Last Ship, as well as the D.C. stop of the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory tour. Ford's Theatre has postponed its production of Guys and Dolls to next spring. The historic site (including the museum exhibits and tours) will remain closed through May 17. Round House Theatre in Bethesda, Maryland, has postponed its upcoming Cost of Living. the production is now slated to play in September 2021. The remainder of the current season is still expected to run as scheduled. Arlington, Virginia's Signature Theatre has cancelled performances through the beginning of June.

Lincoln Center Theater is rolling over its productions of Intimate Apparel and Flying Over Sunset to the Fall. Intimate Apparel was in previews and Flying Over Sunset was about to start performances when the city shut down.

The Broadway Cares Easter Bonnet competition, scheduled for April 20 and 21, has been cancelled.

The ticketing service Goldstar has started a donations fund for the live entertainment industry: bit.ly/2WGF6Lt.

Milwaukee's Summerfest music festival has rescheduled to September 3 - 5, 10 - 12, and 17 - 19, 2020.

The Opera America Conference, scheduled for Seattle May 13 - 16, will not take place as planned.

New York's Target Margin Theatre has suspended the rest of its season.

New York's Theatre for a New Audience has postponed its upcoming production of Waiting for Godot.

The Knight of Illumination Awards, set for September 6 in London, have been postponed. Co-founders Durham and Jennie Marenghi announced, "The event will be held as a celebration of our industry and to bring people together, once the current situation has been resolved and it is safe to do so. Meanwhile, we will continue to appraise the work already submitted and we ask designers to please continue to nominate via the KOI website. We are all watching more TV than usual, so please submit anything outstanding that catches your eye, and to those Concert and Events lighting designers and video content creators now stuck at home, we invite you to submit your finest work this year before the closing date of June 30, 2020 and if you have videos/photos to review. Further announcements on the Awards ceremony will follow in the coming months as the situation hopefully improves. Stay safe and we will come together once more as Knights of Illumination once this worldwide battle has been fought and won."

The news continues to pour in from companies in the industry:

The ADJ Group of Companies (which includes Elation Professional) reports that it has taken all possible precautions, including "full restrictions on travel, deep cleaning of our facilities each evening, promoting personal hygiene and social distancing awareness amongst our staff, as well as implementing other hygiene measures such as installing extra sanitizing dispensers throughout our buildings." In additions, it is "temporarily adjusting operations to Monday through Thursday, with Friday closed until further notice. Elation's European facility in Kerkrade, The Netherlands, is still operating on a Monday through Friday schedule." The company notes that it "supplies products to essential businesses in the construction and commercial sectors, as well as to the fire and rescue industry for training purposes. Therefore, we are keeping our facilities open during these uncertain times, working as long as we are allowed, in order to give businesses access to urgently needed items for open projects. However, we will be halting all customer and vendor visits including customer will calls for the time being while still connecting with customers through free online trainings and product demo webinars. We can confirm that our supply chain remains strong and most of our friends and partners in China are reporting progress with operations almost back to normal. They expect to resume community events next month as well, which is great news. So, there is light at the end of the tunnel and a blueprint to get to where we all want to be."

Also, Elation is debuting a new video on Rayzor 760 and weatherproof Proteus Rayzor 760, to show how its unique SparkLED effect can transform a stage. vimeo.com/400167660

Acclaim Lighting writes, that it is "is still fully operational and delivering orders. We will be temporarily adjusting our operations to Monday through Thursday, with Friday closed until further notice. In addition, while global trade shows and product showcases at your facilities would have provided an opportunity to learn more about Acclaim's latest product developments, we have taken steps to provide alternatives that still serve your needs. That's why we have invested in new cutting-edge web conference technology which allows us to showcase our products to you in the next best fashion with personalized one-on-one presentations designed to provide the most pertinent information professionally and efficiently." The company plans to update its status weekly.

ADAM Audio announces the premiere of the ADAM Academy, an informative video series on the company's YouTube channel which provides all viewers from entry level audio students to skilled working professionals with valuable information, tips and tools that they can use to get the best performance from their loudspeaker monitor systems. The ADAM Academy video content includes information and instruction from ADAM Audio company personnel as well as valuable tutorials on specific subjects from ADAM Audio customers who are celebrated in their respective fields. Check out the videos at bit.ly/33J0tNu.

Barbizon Lighting writes that it "is open and shipping. However, some locations have temporarily converted to only shipping and/or pick-up orders because of social distancing and stay at home orders per local authorities and the CDC. Many of our offices fall into the 'essential business' category and will continue to provide shipping and pick-up services. Further, our systems integrators, project managers, and field service technicians are also available via email and phone. The entire systems team continues frequent outreach to our customers for updates and further collaboration on all projects, orders, and quotes. As an essential business, we're committed to making things run smoothly for our customers and partners while following CDC guidance for the safety of our employees and their families. We continue to monitor the situation and take action to provide the safest experience for our staff and customers. To see the status and contact information of our regional offices, please visit bit.ly/barbizon-status. We are still here for you when you need us."

Calzone Cases writes that its prodution facilities in Connecticut, Texas, and California have been classified as essential businesses because of its participatio in the packaging, manufacturing, and and logistical areeas. "We are helping out first responders, medical, and emergency relief staff in protecting their live-saving equipment while also providing mobile work stations and many other cases for all applications," says co-rounder and president Joe Calzone. "We are currently manufacturing cases for a number of medical and emergency response requirements and will continue to provide our cases as a prioritiy one, all-hands-on-deck process."

ChamSys is keeping programmers busy with a new competition running between now and April 10. It also offers a chance to win a new MagicQ MQ70 console. The first 25 entries in the contest will also receive a MagicDMX Test Kit, while the three top runners up will earn a premium swag bag. To participate, entrants have to download the Vis/Base show file of the Chauvet Professional Prolight + Sound 2020 rig, select a one-to-three minute song of their choice, and then program the lights using MagicQ with MagicVis visualization. Once they do that, entrants have to record their entries via screen capture, and submit them, along with the show file to competition@chamsyslighting.com by 11:59pm Eastern Time (US) on April 10. The entrant's name, location, and mailing address must be included in all submissions. The judges evaluating each submission are Max Koehler and Ryan Warffuel of Antic Studios, Phil Watson and James Harrison of ChamSys, and Michael Graham of Chauvet Professional. For complete contest rules visit cutt.ly/Dtl7HQa.

Drape Kings writes, "will be operating in compliance with the New Jersey, Illinois, and Maryland Governors' "Shelter at Home" orders as our country strives to keep our fellow citizens alive and enables our healthcare workers to best combat COVID-19. We've notified various governmental authorities of our capabilities with drapes, stanchions and our New Jersey sewing capabilities for medical supplies and government facilities that need to be created. In all three locations -- New Jersey, Chicago Metro, and DC Metro, we will have essential staff working from home until further notice and are prepared for full movement of goods as required. In fact, today we're working with the City of Chicago."

Gallagher Staging and Productions is now offering disaster relief structures at not cost, other than trucking and labor. www.gallagherstaging.com/.

Madrix is planning a series of live streams across the month, including a March 2020 update, Madrix RADAR: Unleash the Full Potential of RDM; Madrix Hardware: New Product Announcement, and Madrix 5: What's New in the Next 5.3 Software Update. Subscribe to the MADRIX YouTube channel here: www.youtube.com/MADRIX_Team?sub_confirmation=1.

The news from Nicolaudie is: "Most of our employees are now working at home and all necessary measures have been taken for thus who continue working from our offices worldwide. Make sure we are all working hard to stay as efficient as possible. Technical and sales support are working as usual so feel free to contact us anytime! The production can be a bit delayed, but we are doing our best to ship orders as fast as possible. We are taking this challenging time as an opportunity to reinforce our software/hardware testing and our R&D is fully operational. Because you might be stuck at home as we are, we have decided to launch online training sessions on our software. We will be starting with our new ESA Pro 2 software within a few days. We will continue providing regular updates on the situation. In the meantime, we wish you the very best and don't forget to follow the recommendations of your local authorities."

Out Board has announced a spring season of "One-on-One-for-One," its online training sessions with TiMax specialists in the UK and US. Sessions are open to all sound designers, sound engineers, and production sound techs on a first-come, first-served basis. Simply register to download TiMax SoundHub software (Mac or Windows) from outboard.co.uk/ and enter "1on1" into the About You section. Alternatively, contact Out Board direct at software@outboard.co.uk. Out Board will respond with an invitation to select an available time and date for a personal, one-on-one, one-hour Skype screen-share training session with Dave Haydon or Robin Whittaker in the UK or Duncan Crundwell in the US. The session will cover standard TiMax DSP functions of mixer, matrix, EQ, delay, source/zone groups, and snapshots, as well as advanced task-based spatial rendering and immersive show-control programming tools in the TiMax PanSpace and cue-driven TimeLine workflows. The session will also introduce the new TiMax TrackerD4 precision stage-tracking interface, which controls TiMax SoundHub via OSC. Also featured is a look at programming touch-screen OSC control of levels, cue/snapshot recall and spatialization processes on generic table apps such as TouchOSC and Lemur.

PRG reminds the industry that "when immediate response is critical, PRG and VER offer support and equipment from 31 depots in all major cities across the country. Emergency response scenarios demand reliable equipment and technical support that can perform in any environment. We have team members readily available to help you address ever-changing needs to convert any space into emergency treatment, shelter, and communication areas."

Pangolin is providing a series of product tutorials: bit.ly/2QIFB3U.

PrimeTime Lighting writes, "The state of Texas is not yet a lock down state. However, PrimeTime is located in Dallas county, which is under shelter-in-place. Of course, this does not include essential services. The Dallas county exception list includes broadcast news organizations as well as companies that supply and service them. As an essential services company, PrimeTime remains open. We sent a previous notice that we are on minimal staff and taking all precautions possible to keep all employees safe. Anyone who can work from home is doing so. This won't affect your ability to reach us if you need anything from us. Calls to PrimeTime office numbers are being forwarded to cell phones of our work-at-home staffers. Just know that we are open and here to serve our partners and customers as always."

Schertler has issued a challenge to its clients: "We decided to launch an initiative in order to promote music and cohesion, because the only cure we have now is sharing. If you are a Schertler artist, a client, or if you play any instrument and are happy to be a part of this. Please share a video where you play on any social media, use the hashtag #stayathomewithschertler and tag us! Instagram: @schertlergroup / FaceBook: @Schertler.sa"

Shure is offering a webinar on how to find online training in its products. It is scheduled for Wednesday< March 25, at 11:00am CDT. Sign up at bit.ly/33J73Ud.

Upstaging, based in Northern Illinois, normally supplies concerts and other events, but it is letting the world know that it is available for emergency response work. The company can provide portable and rapidly deployable hard-wall and portable room dividers, including power distribution lighting with transportation; set up and tear down of temporary treatment facilities; existing temporary structures that can be used for patient housing, treatment, and care; and existing 250,000-sq.-ft. facilities suited for light manufacturing, assembly, packing, and distribution of emergency supplies with socially distanced work areas. The company also as the ability to convert any existing space into emergency treatment areas and shelter and equip with network communication, video, temporary lighting and PA systems; temporary IT distribution and infrastructure ready to be deployed. It has a staff of more than 150 and 100 semi-trucks, all ready to respond.

And, to keep yourself amused, diverted, and up on what is happening in the world of live performance:

The New York-based theatre company Untitled Theatre is presenting a number of streaming performances of its piece Performance for One and The Last Cyclist. www.untitledtheater.com.

The Trickle Up is a new online showcase for New York City-based theatre artists. It aims to engage 10,000 subscribers paying $10 a month -- and thereby get $10,000 each to 120 different artists in need (starting ASAP, and through the year). If this goal is surpassed, more people get help. Among the artists who have signed on to participate by making three videos each are Penny Arcade, Annie Baker, Rachel Chavkin, Lisa D'Amour, Machine Dazzle, Lear DeBessonnett, Andre De Shields, Kristoffer Diaz, Bridget Everett, Lucas Hnath, Mia Katigbak, Lisa Kron, Taylor Mac, Ellen Maddow, Kristin Marting, Lynn Nottage, Diana Oh, Suzan-Lori Parks, Annie-B Parson, Clint Ramos, Sarah Ruhl, Peggy Shaw, Niegel Smith, Lloyd Suh, Liesl Tommy, Basil Twist, Paula Vogel, Anne Washburn, Lois Weaver, and Paul Zmet. It's a galaxy of downtown theatre greats and you can check it out at trickleup.uscreen.io.

On the heels of the overwhelming success of the first-ever edition, The 24 Hour Plays will release a new set of Viral Monologues tonight on IGTV @24hourplays and at .24hourplays.com/viral-monologues/. 24 actors have been paired with theatre's top writers, who have crafted unique pieces especially for their actors. From 6:00pm until midnight, the new monologues will be published, one every 15 minutes.