WC Texas News

No business or organization has been immune to the negative impacts of COVID-19 restrictions, particularly those involved in performance or other operations that require gathering large groups of people into a single space.

At the Brownwood Lyric Theater, manager Eric Evans told the WC Texas News that it lost approximately 75% of its normal ticket revenue due to canceled events last year. And they are far from out of the woods.

“When we began the process to ‘re-open’ following the ‘seating’ guidelines provided by the governor, our capacity for seating was restricted to about 35% of the total seating and remains there today,” Evans said in an e-mail. “Where we would normally see over 15,000 in attendance over the course of a year, in 2020 we saw just under 2,500 and this includes our first show that closed at the end of February 2020.”

At the same time, while they do have their faithful regulars to fall back on, Evans said that the theater is not making contact with new customers, which could put the future of the theater in jeopardy in the long term. Evans also said that his primary concern remains the safety of actors and volunteers who perform.

“Bringing volunteers together, asking them to follow all protocols for mitigation of virus spread is a significant challenge,” Evans said. “Asking patrons, advertisers and sponsors to continue to work with us while having attendance levels so low is a big ask for many, especially in the financial climate.”

While they do hope to offer a full set of performances in 2021, Evans expects they will still be performing under restrictions for a long time to come. The support of the community – from both individuals and businesses – has been very helpful.

But even if they aren’t performing at all, many overhead costs remain constant, Evans said. He just hopes people don’t forget about the value the theater brings to the community.

“Most small community theatres like the Lyric do not have endowments to fall back on for revenue and volunteers get restless,” Evans said. “We know that we make an impact in the financial fabric of our community by helping to drive tourism and good, healthy socialization for our area. All areas of our impact are at a precarious point if we cannot find a way to bring back income and have people enjoy the performing arts.”