In the face of a pandemic that makes the concept of live theatre largely impossible, Hartford’s TheaterWorks is pursuing an ambitious new model: 12 plays produced in 12 months to be released over a streaming platform.
The nonprofit will also move from a previous model in which patrons subscribed for an entire season to a membership setup in which they can subscribe month to month, said Freddie McInerney, TheaterWorks’ marketing director.
The monthly subscription price is $20.21, McInerney said, a shout-out to the year that will end 2020.
“Some of these will be new works, some will be established plays,” said McInerney, who touted the opportunity to showcase plays by lesser-known writers. “It was really taking a bunch of lemons and making lemonade,” McInerney said.
TheaterWorks has been doing what it can to stay relevant to patrons during the pandemic shut down of live performances. It has aired a weekly music series online for the past 15 weeks, and started an Instagram series called “Get Sauced,” featuring Artistic Director Rob Ruggiero and cast members from past performances.
Details are still in flux, McInerney said. TheaterWorks is still figuring out which streaming platform would allow patrons to watch the pre-taped plays on big screens, rather than computers. But the company has landed on nine of the 12 plays it will produce over the year, starting with “At The River I Stand.”
McInerney doubts TheaterWorks will reach its usual yearly subscriber base of 5,000. But, she said, the other option would be to scale back operations to save money.
“Looking at the face of things to come, we thought we could either do as little as possible to survive this year, or could try to do something,” McInerney said. “The outcome could be the same. No one knows what next year’s going to look like.”
