Pouch will be able to reopen the theater in the fall

Pouch “The theater will be reopened in the fall”… Broadway lights up
“If you wear a mask after group immunization, normal operation is possible”

(New York = Yonhap News) Correspondent Kang Gun-taek = Anthony Pouch, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the top infectious disease expert in the United States, predicted that the Broadway theater could be lit again this fall.
Director Pouch attended a virtual conference hosted by the American Performing Artists Association on the 9th (local time) and announced that “sometime in the fall of 2021” theaters and other performance venues are expected to open, The New York Times (NYT) reported on the 10th. did.
Pouch pointed out that the reopening schedule of theaters, which are closed for nearly a year due to the novel coronavirus infection (Corona 19) pandemic, depends on the timing of achieving collective immunity. It is when 70-85% of the US population has finished vaccination.
“If everything goes well, it will happen at some point in the fall of 2021,” he said. “By the beginning and middle of autumn, people will be able to perform on stage or watch in the audience with peace of mind.”
If the vaccine is successfully distributed, Pouch predicts that theaters with excellent ventilation facilities and air filters will not be restricted to performances around the fall.
However, for a certain period of time, he emphasized that the obligatory spectators to wear masks will become a’new normal’.
After group immunization, if ventilation facilities and rules for wearing masks are in place, “at that time, almost all seats will be able to operate normally,” Pouch said.
In addition, he suggested that the performing arts community may require the audience to submit a corona19 audio confirmation letter, like the boarding regulations recently introduced by US airlines.
He said, “We will go back to the theater,” and “the actors will perform and the audience will enjoy.”
The art world in the United States, including the Broadway Theater District in New York, is facing an unprecedented crisis due to the corona 19 outbreak.
The 41 Broadway theaters, which extinguished on March 12, last year, at the beginning of the pandemic, are expected to close by at least the end of May this year.
According to a survey last week by AFTA, a culture and arts sponsoring organization in the United States, the US culture and arts community lost a total of $14.8 billion (about KRW 16 trillion), and over a third of non-profit culture and arts organizations fired employees or took unpaid leave. did.

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