The Brown County Playhouse will open its doors once again this week, with a sold-out show already on the calendar.
Back 2 Mac, a Fleetwood Mac tribute band, will take center stage March 26 to perform for 200 concertgoers. Because the Playhouse is limiting capacity to 50 percent, only 200 tickets were sold for the 425-seat venue to ensure social distancing was possible for guests, volunteers and staff.
The capacity limitation will be in place until further notice, said Executive Director Hannah Estabrook.
Brown County was recently moved to blue on the state’s COVID-19 advisory level map. Despite the loosening of restrictions on gatherings under blue, Estabrook said that she and the Playhouse board of directors have decided to keep the capacity limits to prevent having to refund tickets if more restrictions were put in place in the future due to a spike in cases.
“We sell 400 tickets to a show and then have to refund 200 of them, how do we choose which people get to come and which don’t? To avoid that whole situation, we are keeping our audience capped at half until further notice,” she said.
Local musician Kenan Rainwater is the board’s newest member and he is collaborating with the Playhouse to possibly implement a streaming service as a “long-term plan for the Brown County Playhouse.”
Estabrook said it could be possible to offer a streaming option for free the first year and then possibly charge for extra benefits in the future, like watching videos of interviews with bands back stage and other exclusive content they would not get if they were seeing a Playhouse show in person.
“I feel like in the music industry and the entertainment industry lately there’s been a really weird shift into what do we classify what is worth to pay for?” Estabrook said.
“For a lot of people used to the traditional setting, which most of us are, it seems bizarre that you would have to pay $20 for a ticket when you’re just sitting in your living room. We’re trying to figure out how to balance that and how to make it worthwhile for the patron and also not lose out on that revenue side.”
The Back 2 Mac was a show that was rescheduled from 2020. Estabrook continues to work to reschedule others into the 2021 calendar.
As far as booking new shows this year, Estabrook said the goal is to get acts from the Midwest to allow for more schedule flexibility in case a show does have to be rescheduled due to COVID-19.
“They are all very hungry to get out and perform. But the problem with booking big acts from New York or a tour from Florida, a lot of them have to know really far in advance how things are playing out,” she said.
“We’re trying to keep it more regional so that everybody has more flexibility built into their schedules.”
Live music is not the only focus for the Playhouse this year. Keeping to the the roots of the theater, the plan is to have more community theater productions this year, too. The first production, “Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike,” is set for September.
“Having the theater aspect to it, where everybody is coming together out of the community that maybe they never acted before, but the Playhouse is doing something, so that’s the place I want to try to it,” Estabrook said.
“I want to be that resource for people to be involved with the arts.”
The Playhouse also wants to bring radio productions back.
“We’re kind of feeling it out. We want to make sure the group is ready,” she said.
“We absolutely do our best to socially distance and everyone wears masks during rehearsal, but we do like to have that extra added element of everybody is healthy and comfortable doing this.”
For 2021, Estabrook said she envisions more “locally-centered nights.”
“I understand there is a super-underserved part of our community here, which is a lot of locals just don’t know the Playhouse even exists or that it’s there,” she said.
“My goal is to open their eyes to show them we do have this lovely little spot here in town that you can come and use as your living room. You can hang out here and enjoy yourself.”
There will be times where people can dress up to come out for a live show, “but I want to show everybody we’re able to host you in a way that everyone can kick back and enjoy their time,” she said.
Playhouse preservation
As theaters throughout the country close due to financial challenges from COVID-19, the Playhouse continues to adapt to the changing entertainment industry the pandemic has created.
The Playhouse first closed last year on March 15 after COVID-19 was found in Indiana, prompting stay-at-home orders.
The theater was closed until May 8 when it reopened to show movies and some live performances with the 50-percent capacity limitation.
In November, the Playhouse closed again for movies and performances, but the box office staff was still working and theater tours were still being offered to visitors.
The theater went completely dark in January and staff were set to return this past Monday, March 8.
During the closures and the limitations, Estabrook said the Playhouse mailed boxes to people filled with popcorn, hot chocolate, concession treats and a ticket for a future movie night at the Playhouse. In the box, they asked potential donors to think about giving back to the Playhouse and outlined how their dollars would impact the historic venue.
The campaign generated enough to match a donation of $25,000 from the parents of the Playhouse’s late Executive Director Suzannah Levett Zody.
“We were over-the-moon excited,” Estabrook said.
A committee is now working to rename the Playhouse stage in Zody’s honor and the money raised in the campaign will help cover those costs.
The Playhouse also has been working to replace all four of its HVAC units using some money from the fundraiser and a grant from the Brown County Community Foundation.
“It will be such a big improvement and more efficient. Our utility bill will be slashed and I am so happy about it,” she said.
Playhouse visitors will soon notice a new concession stand, too. Big Woods is sponsoring the new concession stand and gave the Playhouse a new kegerator.
“We’re going to have a brand-new beer delivery system and many more different beers to offer. I’m really happy about that,” Estabrook said.
She said she is working with local businesses to provide snacks in the concession stand.
One change Playhouse visitors may not notice is no current releases being shown for movie nights. “The projector started going on the fritz in June of last year. We thought we had fixed it,” Estabrook said.
Currently, the Playhouse can only play DVDs and no digital files for new releases.
Due to other theaters closing, Estabrook said she has been able to purchase sound and lighting materials at wholesale or discounted prices. The hope is it will not be long until a projector comes up for grabs.
Estabrook took over as executive director in January 2020. She was hired as the assistant executive director in May 2019 after graduating from the Indiana University{span} School of Public and Environmental Affairs. Her degree is in arts management, plus a minor in financial literacy from the Kelley School of Business.
The past two years, particularly 2020, were filled with even more lessons.
“I have learned so much out of these past two years almost than I have in any of my formal college education or than I did when I was in secondary school,” she said.
“I’ve learned how to collaborate with a multitude of not just different types of people, but different age ranges and different types of relationships.”
Coming to Brown County as a newcomer was intimidating at first for Estabrook, but now she calls Nashville home after moving here recently.
“Within the first month I worked there, I knew everybody and they were all so friendly. I’ve learned so much about myself and how to work for a nonprofit organization,” she said.
Despite 2020’s challenges, “it’s just been really, really amazing. I couldn’t have asked for a better first job out of college.”
