When we applied for funding from the Culture Recovery Fund, we pledged to invest a significant percentage of the funds into ensuring our shows and productions were completely COVID-secure. We’ve examined all of our business processes, from transport and travel to equipment and costumes, we’ve also arranged specialist COVID-19 awareness training for our management team, who are all now CPD certified. Of course, the biggest change from an audience perspective is to our shows themselves. Everything from scripts to choreography had to be thoroughly re-imagined to keep our cast, crew, audiences and venue-partners safe and secure.
The Challenge
As a leading provider of tribute entertainment in the UK, our shows are influenced and guided by the star names that we seek to emulate; our routines and performances include several iconic moments that fans of the original artists know and love – from the classic routines of Spice Forever, to the intricate fast-paced choreography of Little Chix.
Not only did much of the original choreography have to change, but more generally all movement across the stage had to be carefully planned in order to ensure that our performers stay at least one metre, and often two metres apart at all times.
The Plan
We provide live entertainment in venues of all shapes and sizes, all across the country, so we began working with actual stage dimensions from some of our smaller venue partners and worked with this as a minimum requirement. The larger the stage, the easier it is to maintain social distancing, but the true challenge was working with the smallest possible measurements so that we could continue to provide COVID-safe shows to all of our valued clients.
Once choreography was taken care of, next came our scripted elements; several of our shows encouraged audience participation; it’s not unusual for us to finish even the most reserved of theatre performances with audiences dancing in the aisles. Under current social distancing and safety regulations for COVID-safe entertainment venues, dancing, singing and even cheering along is to be discouraged. The key was to adapt our shows without compromising on the audience experience, and this required some creative thinking on the part of our experienced team, and has led to the re-introduction of some altogether more fitting audience participation segments; such as the return of the hugely popular Mannequin Challenge; sitting silently and still for a full minute, what could be safer!
The Outcome
We have now fully adapted and re-staged our shows to be fully covid-secure, and can safely adapt and deliver our socially distanced performances on any type of stage in any type of venue. Alongside our industry-leading subsidy scheme for small venues, we are open and #HereForCulture as and when the current national restrictions are lifted.
We hope that current and future clients will feel safe in the knowledge that our shows and productions are all completely Covid-secure. We’ve worked hard to protect our teams, your teams and your audiences to allow everybody to enjoy live entertainment safely and securely in 2020 and beyond.