Stage Fright
LAST MARCH, as COVID-19 carved a path from the coasts to the Midwest, the Indiana Repertory Theatre was in the middle of a run of Murder on the Orient Express, the seventh entry in its nine-show season. “We were hoping we would be able to produce the final two plays of the season,” IRT managing director Suzanne Sweeney says. “Looking back, we were so naive.”
IRT shut down Murder on the Orient Express on March 16. Its stages have been dark ever since. The company kept its staff employed for a few months thanks to cash reserves and a Paycheck Protection Loan, but when funds ran out in June, it furloughed its production team and half of its administrative employees.
The dire circumstances the IRT finds itself in are not unique. Arts organizations around the country are in crisis mode as they try to mitigate the havoc caused by the pandemic. According to the Americans for the Arts advocacy group, arts institutions nationwide have lost a total of $8.4 billion. Fifty-one percent have canceled events at least through the end of this month. Forty-seven percent have no target date for reopening. Locally,
