With few if any remaining COVID precautions being enforced, the coronavirus is again wreaking havoc on performing arts organizations across the state.
At least four Colorado performing companies – Central City Opera, the Creede Repertory Theatre, the Evergreen Players and the Lake Dillon Theatre Company – canceled all performances last week (July 18-24) because of new outbreaks among their creative teams.
And today (Tuesday, July 26), the Colorado Shakespeare Festival has canceled all upcoming indoor performances through July 30. That includes performances of "Coriolanus" and "Alls Well that Ends Well" in the University of Colorado's main indoor theater.
This past Saturday, the festival canceled performances of "Coriolanus" less than an hour before the matinee was set to begin. All scheduled performances of "Two Gentlemen of Verona" and "The Book of Will" will continue as previously planned.
Lake Dillon, which performs in Silverthorne about 60 miles west of Denver, has gone so far as to cancel all remaining performances of "Man of La Mancha," which was set to run through Aug. 28, and "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum," which had been scheduled to run through Aug. 21. That's more than 30 combined performances, wiped out.
"Any decision like this is not taken lightly but because of the ongoing and substantial costs of keeping two large shows in rotation with rising COVID-19 cases amongst a large company, we have taken the forward initiative to close both shows early," said Producing Artistic Director Chris Alleman, who hopes to reopen Aug. 11 with the previously scheduled musical "Xanadu."
Meanwhile, Creede Repertory Theatre, which already had canceled all of last week's performances, has postponed its entire production of "Royale," which was scheuled to open last Saturday and run into September. That's a new period boxing play by Marco Ramirez based on the life of Jack Johnson. Producing Artistic Director John DiAntonio called the decision heartbreaking.
"Our staff determined there simply wasn’t a way to move forward safely, while giving this amazing play the time and attention it deserves," DiAntonio said. "This decision was ultimately driven by scheduling limitations, including the loss of significant rehearsal time and the full technical rehearsal period."
He added that performances of "Steel Magnolias," "Native Gardens," "Sherwood, "Always, Patsy Cline" and "Sherwood: The Adventures of Robin Hood" are expected to resume today (Tuesday, July 26).
Also: Adam Cayton-Holland canceled his full comedy lineup scheduled for Friday (July 22) at the Skylark Lounge, and KBCO radio personality Bret Saunders has been recovering off-air for the same reason, according to social posts by both entertainers. Saunders had to pass on his plans to emcee the Lumineers concert on Friday at Coors Field.
Central City Opera now has just two remaining performances of "The Light in the Piazza," July 26 and 28.
The Evergreen Players hope to present one final weekend of the jukebox musical "Rock of Ages" July 29-31.