If remote work empties downtowns, can theaters fill their seats? - North Bay Business Journal

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Even so, the opera, which can seat 2,928 with COVID restrictions, sold an average of 1,912 tickets per show for “Fidelio,” its second production of this new season. That’s better than its second production in 2019, Britten’s “Billy Budd,” a searing work that does not always attract big crowds. But it drew fewer people than the opera’s second production in 2018, “Roberto Devereux,” which sold an average of 2,116 tickets a performance.

“The urgency to be bold, to be innovative, to be compelling to get audiences to come back or give us a try for the first time has never been stronger,” Shilvock said. “There will be a hunger for things that have an energy, that have a vitality, that give a reason to come into the city.”

Even before the pandemic, cultural organizations were dealing with challenges that threatened to discourage patrons, including a stressed public transportation system, traffic, parking constraints and the highly visible epidemic of homelessness. And many institutions were struggling to make inroads in attracting audiences and patrons from the tech industry, which now accounts for 19% of the private workforce.

Now, facing an uncertain future as they try to emerge from the pandemic shutdown, arts organizations are embracing a variety of tactics to fill seats.

Hope Mohr, co-director of Hope Mohr Dance, said her organization was spending $1,400 per night to livestream performances so that audiences could choose between coming into San Francisco and watching from their living rooms.

“A hybrid experience: I have to do that from now on,” she said. “My company usually performs in San Francisco, and I have audience coming from all over the bay.”

These calculations are taking place in an atmosphere of uncertainty and anxiety. It is not clear how much these early attendance figures represent a realignment, or are evidence of audiences temporarily trying to balance their hunger for live performances against concerns about the spread of the delta variant — even in a city where 75% of the eligible population is fully vaccinated. Lower attendance figures have been reported by performing halls across the country.

Opening nights have found performers relieved to be playing to real crowds again and audiences delighted to be back.

“The convenience of at-home entertainment has made it not as desirable for some folks,” said Ralph Remington, director of cultural affairs for the San Francisco Arts Commission. “But that being said, even though the density of the numbers isn’t as great as it was pre-pandemic, the audiences that are coming are really enthusiastic.”

Advance sales for “The Nutcracker” at the San Francisco Ballet, with one-third of the tickets going for just $19 a seat to help bring in new patrons (the average ticket price is $136), have been moving briskly.

Danielle St. Germain-Gordon, the ballet’s interim executive director, said she hoped that working from home had made people eager to break out of their increasing isolation.

“I would do anything to get out,” she said. “I hope that’s a good sign for our season.”

At the height of the pandemic, about 85% of San Francisco-based employees worked from home; that number is about 50% now, said Enrico Moretti, an economics professor at the University of California, Berkeley.

“I think it’s possible that people are not going to commute from Walnut Creek at night to go to downtown San Francisco for the opera to the same extent,” he said. “But I don’t expect those office buildings will sit empty. There will be other people moving into them.”

The 145-seat Magic Theatre in Fort Mason, just beyond Fisherman’s Wharf, has been experimenting with different kinds of programming, such as a poetry reading and pay-what-you-can seats to lure patrons who live — and now work — far from the theater.

“This is going to be an interesting year for everyone,” said Sean San José, artistic director. “Are people going to come back? The zeitgeist is telling us something. Maybe we should listen. This ain’t a pause. We have got to rethink it.”

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If remote work empties downtowns, can theaters fill their seats? - North Bay Business Journal
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