Imperial Theatre (Image: Elizabeth MacLeod)
The Imperial Theatre is set to unveil its full line-up for its 28th season today at 7 p.m.
Executive Director, Angela Campbell says in a normal year they would have spent 12-18 months curating their season prior to their public announcement. The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in the theatre shifting shows pre-booked and curated in 2020, along with the shows cancelled in March-June of 2020 to the next season.
“We felt it was really, really important to work with as many artists that we had already worked a contract to get them back working, and to honour those contracts and bring them to the Maritimes,” says Campbell.
In addition to following provincial guidelines and recommending people get vaccinated before attending shows, the Imperial Theatre plans to provide as much digital content as possible throughout the season for people who aren’t comfortable attending an in-person environment.
“We just want to continue to be as accessible as possible to as many people in the community and as many ways as we can be,” she said.
Campbell believes the New Brunswick cultural community has a collective responsibility to be able to reopen to full capacity and operate in a financially viable manner, and to give opportunities for Canadian artists who were reliant on the gig-culture pre-COVID to rebuild.
“We’re probably looking at a two-year recovery to get back to pre-COVID levels in terms of audience attendance,” she said. “I think it’s going to take time for everyone to get used to the idea that we can plan things far out in advance.”
“There aren’t many provinces that are open the way that New Brunswick is and can even consider getting back to full operations at this point in time,” said Campbell. “We’re grateful for New Brunswickers for doing what they needed to do to keep everyone safe and stop the spread and get vaccinated.”
