WADESBORO — After months of uncertainty surrounding the theater community, the Ansonia Theatre will open its season with their first outdoor performance.
The ACAC season kicks off with Steel Magnolias, running from Oct. 9 to 18. The Friday and Saturday performances start at 7:30 p.m. and the Sunday matinee at 3 p.m. at the Goodman Amphitheater at South Piedmont Community College.
“This is our first time (outside) and it is completely out of necessity,” Director Tommy Wooten said. “We need to keep on doing shows. We’ve been out since March so we were trying our best to figure out a way to work through this.”
COVID-19 forced the ACAC to shutdown after their opening night of Little Shop of Horrors in March. Since then, the group waited and waited in limbo. Summer performances were canceled and, just like that, Anson County ran dry of the arts for months.
The first show of the 2020-2021 season is only a six member cast in order to follow coronavirus guidelines. Plus, a space to safely house both the performers and audience members was available right here in the county.
“The rehearsal process has been very small,” Wooten said. “All of the ladies are taking their temperature, making sure they aren’t showing any symptoms. We kept closed rehearsals to protect everybody. The other good thing is that the blocking is very spread out in the new venue.”
The bigger outdoor stage allows cast members to spread out further than they normally would at the Ansonian Theatre. Wooten said there is limited prop sharing in this particular show, which helps in lessening the spread of germs.
This season is the first season the Asonian Theatre will be doing a throwback performance, which is why Steel Magnolias is coming back again after coming to the stage five or six years ago.
The already small cast and months of adapting to a “new normal” made the rehearsals a seamless transition back into the theater for Wooten and the six women in the cast. They were adjusted to wearing masks and staying a safe distance from one another.
During a normal performance there would be assigned seating, but this time, audience members can either sit in benches or bring their own chairs and blankets to sit in the lawn. Sections of the benches will be blocked off to enforce social distancing. For now, the limit is 50 audience members per show, but depending on a possible new phase of opening, that number could change.
Wooten is patiently waiting for Governor Roy Cooper’s decision on whether to move into Phase 3 on Oct. 2. If cases remain stable, Cooper said at a Sept. 22 press conference, outdoor entertainment venues can increase capacity.
But until the go-ahead, Wooten is determined to “press on outdoors.”
Tickets are on sale now at ansoniatheatre.com.
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