Going to the theatre is just as important as going shopping

No applause, no laugh­ter and no tears: thea­tres lost their audi­en­ces over­night. Their seats were empty, their spot­lights dimmed. Audi­en­ces and the state, as well as dona­ti­ons and chari­ties, are ensu­ring that this expe­ri­ence can conti­nue once the crisis has passed.

‘Every theatre had the same expe­ri­ence: it takes no time at all to shut down,’ says Bene­dikt von Peter. The new direc­tor of Thea­ter Basel, he took up his post during this unpre­ce­den­ted time. ‘How can we put on plays now?’ he asks. After all, ever­yone has slowly come to the reali­sa­tion that the situa­tion is going to be around for a while. Despite all the chal­lenges facing him, Bene­dikt von Peter has no doubt that ‘it’s right, and important, that we keep putting on thea­tri­cal produc­tions during this period. Going to the theatre is just as important as going shop­ping,’ he says. Society at large is curr­ently grap­pling with major uphe­aval, he says. People need to be conso­led, and they need art and theatre. As a result, Thea­ter Basel’s troupe are thin­king about how they can put on plays in the present situa­tion. After all, it’s not just about the artis­tic task itself: they need to plan out the finan­cial situa­tion, too. Plan­ning is a long-term job, and that in itself poses a parti­cu­lar chall­enge: commit­ments are made three years in advance. ‘We’ve alre­ady spent the money, in truth,’ he says. The theatre has plan­ned out a range of scena­rios for the new season, looking at various confi­gu­ra­ti­ons – inclu­ding what happens if things need to be cancel­led. In any case, they simply can’t wait for the curtain to go back up for the first time. As the direc­tor says, ‘We’ll kick things off with Saint Fran­çois d’Assise, which is a true tour de force. It will have a heal­ing effect.’

Requi­re­ments chan­ging daily 

TOBS, Thea­ter Orches­ter Biel Solo­thurn, had reope­ned opera­ti­ons to a limi­ted extent even before the summer break. ‘Thanks to the rest­ric­tions being rela­xed at the start of June, we were able to offer an alter­na­tive programme that was very well recei­ved. It was small, but nevert­hel­ess top-class,’ says direc­tor of opera­ti­ons Florian Scha­lit. TOBS was able to see that their audi­ence had missed them: there was a good deal of demand. But the circum­s­tances were chal­len­ging, with new plans requi­red every day and hygiene concepts needing to be adjus­ted time and again. That said, art had enough flexi­bi­lity to bend to these new requi­re­ments: ‘For exam­ple, we came up with the idea of our musi­ci­ans putting on small concerts, in compli­ance with distancing measu­res, in gardens or care homes, so they could keep in touch with people.’ On a more opti­mi­stic note, TOBS is retur­ning to its regu­lar plans from the autumn and hopes that the situa­tion will return to normal soon. 

Stagings from the previous season will be brought back into the programme, too. Romeo and Juliet was one play that fell victim to the lock­down. It was suppo­sed to feature authen­tic fencing scenes that Florian Scha­lit could talk about for days. Exter­nal funding is needed to enable a produc­tion like this to go ahead, and to this end, TOBS works with chari­ties large and small. ‘Our budget is often excep­tio­nally squeezed, so we’re grateful for every extra franc we can get,’ he says. Dona­ti­ons and contri­bu­ti­ons from patrons make up a healthy share of this exter­nal funding. ‘Our seven support­ers’ asso­cia­ti­ons enable us to put on projects we wouldn’t other­wise be able to afford, thanks to member­ship contri­bu­ti­ons and project-based fund­rai­sing,’ he says. For exam­ple, the Friends of the Stadt­thea­ter Solo­thurn raised around 60,000 Swiss francs for the produc­tion of Romeo and Juliet. These addi­tio­nal funds made it possi­ble to put toge­ther a larger-than-normal cast – and hire a specia­list coach for the fencing scenes.

Brea­king the fourth wall

The conse­quen­ces of recent events have been felt by Switzerland’s smal­lest performing arts venue: the Neumarkt Thea­ter in Zurich is expan­ding what it offers so it can break through the fourth wall, as it were. ‘Our work in the digi­tal sphere uses the inter­net as the stage for pre- and post-perfor­mance events, as a space for trans­me­dia story-telling, as a format that tran­s­cends boun­da­ries,’ says Hayat Erdoğan, one of the three direc­tors. In addi­tion, their website is being refres­hed and souped up. The theatre has put toge­ther a film for people to watch online. This doesn’t just look at the seasons of the past, inclu­ding lock­down: it also offers a glim­pse into the season to come. It’ll all kick off on 3 Septem­ber with a video instal­la­tion. ‘Three gene­ra­ti­ons of acti­vists come toge­ther in this piece, Protest 1980, which was a chall­enge in terms of produc­tion,’ explains Hayat Erdoğan. ‘Some of these actors fall within the high-risk group,’ she explains, refer­ring to the addi­tio­nal chal­lenges posed by the present situa­tion. There is a clear message for the upco­ming season: masks on, curtain up! There is no going back to the time before coro­na­vi­rus. The same applies to their work in the digi­tal sphere, which is being taken seriously. ‘It’s not just about bridging the coro­na­vi­rus period,’ says Hayat Erdoğan. Invest­ment needs to be made in this area. At the moment, there’s hardly any mobile phone recep­tion in the theatre: it’s basi­cally a dead spot. They despera­tely need to spend money on tech­no­logy, with invest­ments in tech­ni­cal exper­tise plan­ned, as well as in video art and podcasts. Hayat Erdoğan says: ‘We’re going to approach chari­ties so we can make this happen.’

Socio­cul­tu­ral spaces

Thea­ter Basel also relies on exter­nal funding. ‘We’re part­ne­ring with an array of chari­ties,’ says Bene­dikt von Peter, discus­sing the execu­tion of the Foyer Public project. These part­ner­ships have been lined up since the begin­ning of the year. The project will launch on 20 Novem­ber, when the theatre’s foyer will be opened to the public. ‘It’s about using the space for socio­cul­tu­ral purpo­ses,’ he says. When he was putting toge­ther the funds for the project, he met lots of chari­ties’ repre­sen­ta­ti­ves in person. ‘It was a really lovely chance to get to know these people,’ he says. He had lots of meetings and lots of exci­ting encoun­ters, even if not all of them ended in support being provi­ded. It would also be going too far to reduce colla­bo­ra­tion with chari­ties to purely the finan­cial aspect. That wouldn’t reflect the added value that these discus­sions bring. Florian Scha­lit agrees with this multi-laye­red effect: ‘We have regu­lar, fruitful discus­sions with various chari­ties’ repre­sen­ta­ti­ves.’ To illus­trate this with a concrete exam­ple, he menti­ons the support offe­red to young, talen­ted indi­vi­du­als at TOBS, which is made possi­ble by a charity. Perso­nal connec­tions are frequently forged. ‘Our audi­ence and our support­ers’ asso­cia­ti­ons know that we rely on chari­ties’ support, so they pass on valuable tips time and again,’ he says. These chari­ties get invol­ved in various guises, whether on an indi­vi­dual project or on a regu­lar basis. TOBS has the advan­tage of having its own charity as an umbrella for its theatre, opera and concert opera­ti­ons. As a chari­ta­ble foun­da­tion, it is tax-exempt and can accept direct dona­ti­ons. This has paid off over the last few months in parti­cu­lar. ‘Nume­rous tick­ethol­ders deci­ded not to accept a refund for cancel­led perfor­man­ces and instead dona­ted the amount to us,’ says Florian Schalit.

Expen­ses and revenue

Bene­dikt von Peter in Basel sets great store by perso­nal cont­act when it comes to gene­ra­ting funds for projects. Despite the effort requi­red, he takes the time to present his projects hims­elf. ‘You’ve got to meet people at some stage,’ he says. It’s about getting to know them: it’s not always imme­dia­tely obvious what chari­ties’ crite­ria are. Filling out an appli­ca­tion can take a lot of time and be a very abstract process. By contrast, recei­ving assis­tance during the project, exchan­ging ideas, and enga­ging in regu­lar discus­sions have the bene­fit of buil­ding up a sense of under­stan­ding. ‘You both get to under­stand how the other works.’ Exter­nal funding is taking on an incre­asingly important role. How will thea­tres finance them­sel­ves in the future? Approa­ching projects with grea­ter nuance will be key. ‘Just putting on plays isn’t enough anymore,’ says Bene­dikt von Peter, discus­sing how requi­re­ments have become more complex. The aim is for thea­tres to handle some of the teaching work for schools, putting drama across to students. This is inten­ded to take the form of a work­shop, with a parti­ci­pa­tion-based approach: it’s about the expe­ri­ence. Expe­ri­ence-based dining is in demand, and so too are inter­ac­tive expe­ri­en­ces for view­ers. It was possi­ble to pick up on these trends during the coro­na­vi­rus crisis, as well, with lots of thea­tres offe­ring produc­tions online. ‘People showed a lot of inte­rest at the start, out of curio­sity,’ says Bene­dikt von Peter. But it disap­peared. ‘Nobody’s watching them anymore. After a month, the number of hits had reached rock bottom. People are miss­ing the physi­cal space of the theatre itself,’ he says.