SEMO's River Campus dean talks art in the time of coronavirus

Southeast Missouri State University’s River Campus has had to drastically cut audience sizes and access points, but Rhonda Weller-Stilson, dean of the Earl and Margie Holland College of Arts and Media at Southeast Missouri State University, said everyone is working together and taking precautions.

Theater performances have taken a massive hit, with audience sizes at about 20% to 25% capacity to allow for social distancing. That means of the 900 or so seats in Bedell Performance Hall, only about 200 are usable, depending on how the space is arranged for a performance. For shows with the orchestra pit, even fewer seats are available, Weller-Stilson said.

“It’s going to affect us budget-wise, of course,” Weller-Stilson said. “Sometimes our musicals will sell 940 seats per night, and now we look at the whole run that might have only 1,000 seats sold.”

One attempt to recoup some of those lost seats will be to add livestreaming to some shows. Earlier this month, “Bring It On: The Musical” was the first show in the school’s history to have livestream tickets available, and went well, Weller-Stilson said, but not every show will allow livestream ticket sales due to licensing concerns or contractual terms.

“It will take us a while to know which events will allow us to do that,” Weller-Stilson said, noting that while “Bring It On” allowed livestream tickets, upcoming musical “9 to 5” will not.

“Bring It On” also had a longer run than shows typically had before COVID-19, but again, that’s not always possible, “because somebody else is coming in right after us,” she said.

“The best we can do is sell out of tickets,” she said.

Other precautions are being taken, based on the university’s plan, Weller-Stilson said, but the River Campus has additional considerations.

“Everything we do has to have some type of precaution,” she said. “Every area, no matter if music, theater, dance, art, we have looked at our accrediting bodies and different organizations to find out what’s best for their particular area.”

Piano keys, for example, can’t be wiped down with standard sanitizing wipes, which could damage the keys.

If a student plays a horn, there’s a protective covering needed at the end — “The horn has to have its own mask,” Weller-Stilson said.

Classes and rehearsals will be held outdoors where possible, she said.

As for the marching band, Weller-Stilson said, regardless of whether a football game is held, the band is still meeting, because it’s a course credit that a lot of music majors need to graduate. Performances are in planning stages, she said, and dates will be announced soon.

A lot of research went into developing these protocols, Weller-Stilson said, and everyone on campus is working to make the best of it.

“Part of learning to be a performer is learning to play to a small house and a packed house,” Weller-Stilson said. “Students are getting an opportunity to see 900 seats not filled, and they have to work as hard for those 100 audience members as if there were 900.”

And, she said, actors aren’t trained in just stage theater, but also film, and this is an opportunity to gain and practice those skills.

“Everyone wants us to have a successful year, and abide, and do the best we possibly can,” Weller-Stilson said.

Weller-Stilson said she hopes patrons will be flexible with necessary changes to take into account student and community safety.

Some locations or dates might need to be moved to a larger space, such as the theater at Academic Hall, she said.

Patrons will be notified of any changes, she added.

“Some things might not look the same,” Weller-Stilson said. “But we are still here.”

Productions set for September include “The Wolves” and “9 to 5: The Musical.”