If the COVID-19 pandemic has taught us anything, it is how to think outside the box in a variety of situations, adjusting and re-adjusting. Local theaters have been no exception. 

From access to online recordings and live streaming shows, Spokane stages have had to come up with new ways of performing their productions. In an interview with local theatre Stage Left’s managing and artistic director Jeremy Whittington, he discussed how Stage Left specifically has been affected and what they are doing to stay afloat.   

“We shut down the theatre on March 14 of last year,” Whittington said. “When we realized that [we wouldn’t be opening soon]. Our front of house manager, Joy Wood, and I started writing grants for the theater, we didn’t get the first two grants that we wrote. But luckily [with using feedback from the grant awards] we got that grant. Over the course of…four months, we got 36,000 dollars in grant money.”  

After that victory, Stage Left began thinking of creative ways to share the arts with the world. They started with short little videos of plays written by local 1st graders. And moved on to creating small one man shows. Their most recent one-man show is An Iliad, a version adapted from Homer’s Iliad. Stage left has been through ups and downs but ultimately, they have succeeded in staying creative while thinking of ways to thrive during the pandemic.  

Though not all theatres have been as successful as Stage Left. Interplayers, another local theatre founded here in 2003, has had to shut down due to COVID. 

“Sadly the Interplayers Professional Theater has now closed,” Stage Left said on the website.   

However, another story of success would be that of Spokane Civic Theatre. They have managed to stay open and keep producing shows. On the Spokane Civic Theatre’s website, they catch everyone up on what they are currently doing to survive COVID. 

“Yes, Spokane, there is still a Christmas: Dozens of socially distanced events this season,” they said in their most recent update. “This month, dozens of holiday traditions have been reinvented so they can be enjoyed online or in person with social-distancing measures in place.”

In this post they are discussing the Christmas Carol radio show they recently did. They’ve managed to overcome challenges and have made the best out of a bad situation. 

This all just goes to show how even through the roughest of times, the arts will always make it, no matter what form they are in.