"Little Shop", great relief: How a theater safely puts on an indoor show
For many, of course, it was also a chance to come to New Hampshire to escape New York.
"I was excited not to have to hear the sirens every day," said Donoso. "You can see mountains for miles where we live, so it was quiet."
The actors were happy to work too, earning not only a salary but also a credit for health insurance that few can afford this year. "I'm grateful to be the guinea pigs," said Marisa Kirby, 32, who is spending her third summer at Weathervane, playing Audrey in Little Shop, and running the internship program. "We are happy."
They started slowly: they canceled some preseason events scheduled for June and then allowed a group of interns to perform outdoors for children and then indoors for no more than 20 people. (These performances were also streamed.)
The professional actors began streaming musical revues and then, in August, after submitting an 84-page safety plan, were given Equity's permission to stage three fall shows in the repertoire. It was the theater's first fall season, which lasted until Columbus Day when the region was full of leaf tensioners.
Many guests really wanted to return. "There was no question about it, but that we would go," said Lorain Giles, a 69-year-old retired pastor with the United Church of Christ. She and her husband Bill live in Massachusetts but spend each summer in nearby Lunenberg, Vt., And the weather vane is a staple of their routine.
"We refused to live in fear," she said. "We trusted them and wanted to celebrate that they were open and we were just happy to be around other people."
