Monday, August 30, 2021

What is your 2021 - 2022 COVID Performance Plan?



Nobody would accuse me of being a technophile. I am not computer savvy. Nobody would have accused me of being a videographer either. 

In fact, there are many things I am not...or perhaps I should say "was" not before the 2020 - 2021 performance season.



Then, wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles! A new vaccine made with old research that got new funding unfurled before us! 


 


 We were saved! All we had to do was innoculate the world! This is what we'd been waiting for, right?

Apparently, only some of us were waiting for it. 

Either way, the world is open before us once more. Everyone wants the old normalcy to begin. Let's go back into schools, play festivals, and other types of venues all over the country.

The David and I are facing the exact same question we had last year.

Is it safe?

Apparently, that depends on who you ask.

So, how much are you gambling? What is the difference between hope and preparation? Does anything we do matter? Can we keep ourselves and our audiences safe? What is our part in any of this? 

Regardless of what the venues do, what are you doing?

Have you put any policies in place for your business? 

What are the circumstances under which you mean to go into venues? 

Do you have some plans for practice and procedures? 

Are you building those into your contracts?

The David and I are putting together our 2021 policies. I suspect they will change as more and more people contact us for in-person work. So far this fall we have been asked to participate in the following types of work:

1. In-person shows in schools - I would be performing for hundreds of people at once

2. In-person shows at conferences. I would be running a one hour workshop with about sixty people

3. In person residency - Three days of hands-on contact with about one hundred middle and high school students for four hours each day

4. In-person shows at small venues

5. Live-Virtual and Pre-recorded shows.

Our Plan?

1. Whenever possible, weather permitting, we are encouraging school assemblies to be done outside. That many people squeezed into a multipurpose room or gym in a system where vaccination is optional and most of the people in the room aren't even eligible to be vaccinated does not seem like a good idea to me. I will bring my sound system, so we will need access to electricity.

2. I am not sure I will be flying this year. We are going to have to make that decision soon, however.

3. All of the venues we've book who have asked for in-person shows understand that there is a caveat for me being there. It will depend on what their personal COVID situation looks like. If by the time the show comes up on the calendar, half the school is out with COVID, then we might have to pass on that venue. So far, everyone has been understanding.

My biggest fear this year is not me getting COVID - I am vaccinated, my husband is vaccinated, all of my family and friends are vaccinated, and I will be in line for that booster shot.

My concern is that I could be a major disease vector.

Bee with full pollen sacs

Think about it like bees visiting flowers. I could end up with a mild or a-symptomatic case of COViD. If that happens, every single time I go into a school, I could be a problem.

If I ever even once thought a teacher or a child ended up in a hospital or a morgue because of me.... 

That doesn't change the fact that I still have to make a living -


This is how we mean to proceed:

1. I will be masked until I perform...maybe even as I perform, if it doesn't interfere with my mic, which I will check soon, I may remain masked as I perform.

2. I will continue to do the elbow bumping, though, in my defense, I have always done that during flu season. People have always thought it was weird, but now, the times have caught up with me.

3. We will continue to monitor my own health circumstances even as we keep an eye on the counties and schools I will be visiting.

That's where we are now.

What about you?

What are your performance, teaching, audience plans and procedures for 2021?