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[0:00] Mo Brady: You're listening to The Ensemblist, the only podcast that shows you Broadway from the inside out. Welcome, I'm Mo Brady.

[0:15] Mo Brady: As the COVID-19 pandemic spreads across the country, it's creating concern for many of us in the theater industry. For those of us who make our living by occupying the same space as others to share stories in real time, the coronavirus is posing a real threat not only to our lives, but to our work. Just yesterday, Jay Inslee, the governor of Washington State officially banned gatherings of more than 250 people. Of course, that includes theater performances. As a Seattle native myself, I've been curious how the coronavirus is affecting the city's theater industry. And luckily, I knew just who to call. My best friend Jason Kappus is currently in tech rehearsals for the Fifth Avenue Theater's production of Sister Act.

Well, he was supposed to be until Governor Inslee announced the ban on large gatherings. After the announcement, I spoke to Jason over the phone to ask him about how COVID-19 is affecting theater artists in the area, and if the show really can go on. Here's our conversation.

[1:14] Mo Brady: Hi.

[1:15] Jason Kappus: Hi.

[1:16] Mo Brady: Would you introduce yourself and tell me where you live?

[1:19] Jason Kappus: I am Jason Kappus, and I am now, again, based out of Seattle, Washington.

[1:26] Mo Brady: Yeah, and what's your job right now?

[1:28] Jason Kappus: Well, I'm an actor. I kind of split my time between theater and voiceover. And right now, I am in the cast of Sister Act, the musical at the Fifth Avenue Theater, downtown Seattle.

[1:43] Mo Brady: And where is Sister Act in its process of the production?

[1:48] Jason Kappus: Today was scheduled to be our third day of tech and our first preview scheduled for Saturday.

[1:57] Mo Brady: So when was the first rehearsal for this production of Sister Act?

[2:00] Jason Kappus: That would have been about three and a half weeks ago.

[2:02] Mo Brady: How did that coincide with the COVID-19 outbreak that has been going on in the Pacific Northwest?

[2:08] Jason Kappus: We didn't know a lot about it at that point. I feel like it was probably maybe midway or toward the end of our first week that we started getting official notices from the theater about hand-washing policies and go ahead and stay home if you're sick.

[2:28] Jason Kappus: So it was almost simultaneous with the growing consciousness here in Seattle.

[2:34] Mo Brady: What were those policies? What was the theater telling you to do?

[2:38] Jason Kappus: Yeah, we got an email from company management that outlined the hand-washing that, of course, we're all supposed to be doing in life in general. We had some discussions about what people may or may not want to do with props. And we've had moments in choreography where we're all supposed to be holding hands, where we've just kind of been foregoing that for right now, until we need to actually do the choreography properly. They did encourage us to stay home if sick, which was sort of nice to hear in official capacity, because we all want to be the people who are dependable and show up. And we had last week, during our last week in the rehearsal hall, we had multiple days with five or six people out of rehearsal. People who just had cold symptoms, a couple people had the flu. So, you know, everybody was taking it seriously, and we were managing as best we could.

[3:45] Mo Brady: How do you do choreography when you aren't going to touch each other?

[3:50] Jason Kappus: I mean, Sister Act doesn't, in my mind, have a lot of partnering, but obviously, how are you supposed to learn something that involves interacting with other people when you aren't interacting with them in the way that you're supposed to?

[4:03] Jason Kappus: Definitely. There is a little bit of partnering, and, you know, they were pretty much doing that because they needed to do that. There were some moments where, you know, we just were doing tiny micro social distancing, and now that we're getting into tech, you know, we're sort of layering those elements back in. And there are other parts where, and certain people who were just not really worried about that. And, you know, we had plenty of hand sanitizer in the room, and, you know, we would finish rehearsing a number, and people would just go up and sanitize if that were appropriate.

[4:41] Mo Brady: And during this time where you're doing extra sanitizing, you're washing your hands for 20 seconds, all of that, what are you being told about performances that are supposed to happen in just a few weeks time?

[4:53] Jason Kappus: There hasn't been much, there hadn't been much official communication about the performances, which is to say that we were going on as usual, expecting everything to be, to run as scheduled. There was, of course, a lot of chatter, you know, amongst ourselves and chatter.

[5:14] Mo Brady: You mean actors were chattering with each other about?

[5:17] Jason Kappus: Only on breaks.

[5:19] Jason Kappus: Certainly not what we're supposed to be focusing. And also a lot of chatter, you know, in the community online. And, you know, as worries started to grow from a lot of the arts organizations in the community, most of what we were hearing online was, you know, we're all going to be safe, we're all going to be careful. Please continue to support, you know, the arts organizations and everything is moving forward as planned.

[5:46] Mo Brady: OK, so you are washing your hands, you are modifying some choreography, the theater is saying the show will go on. And then what happens?

[5:54] Jason Kappus: Well, we went on like that for probably, you know, a week or two, and we kept seeing things ramping up sort of outside the theater while we continued business as normal until last night at about 10 p.m. in a tech rehearsal that was going until 11:30 when we were on a break and saw that it was expected that the governor of Washington was going to be issuing a statement today on Wednesday canceling any gatherings of people of 250 people or more, including concerts, shows, sports events, etc.

[6:41] Mo Brady: Well, that's you.

[6:42] Jason Kappus: That does happen to be us. The Fifth Avenue is a pretty large regional house, 2000 plus, I don't know off the top of my head. So that is, yeah, that directly affects what we're doing.

[6:56] Mo Brady: OK, so you find out in rehearsal the governor is expected to make this announcement. And what else? Like, what does that mean?

[7:06] Jason Kappus: Definitely sort of changed the tone of rehearsal for that last hour and 20 minutes. But again, you know, we just kind of kept doing the work and we went home and we got the schedule for today, which was same old, same old, 10 out of 12. And just about an hour before our first call, we got an email saying that today's rehearsal is canceled because of the announcement and that we will sort of await further instructions to see how we're moving forward.

[7:43] Jason Kappus: And that's all that is currently all we know. The theater has posted on their social media outlets that to their audience that the show unfortunately can't go on as scheduled. And they are looking at every option possible to bring this show to their audience.

[8:03] Mo Brady: Part of the reason that your tech rehearsal was canceled today is I assume there are hundreds of people in the building that are helping to make that happen.

[8:10] Jason Kappus: Yeah, yeah. I mean, the limit is 250 people, and I'm sure we're close to 100 just in ourselves with the cast and the crew and the staff at the theater. So I know some theaters are obviously some theaters in the area are under 250 seats and they are making their own decisions on whether to go on or not. I think some theaters are considering with larger houses are considering limiting ticket sales. But the governor gave out other guidelines for gatherings of 250 people and under. So those are still only allowed to go on if they meet certain guidelines for cleanliness and preparation. I haven't read what all of those are.

[8:53] Mo Brady: That is nuts.

[8:55] Jason Kappus: I know some theaters, too, are at least exploring brainstorming the idea of live streaming performances to their patrons.

[9:02] Mo Brady: Yeah, it's this weird mix of technology and the time honored tradition of live theater, right? So broaden it outside of the theater walls. You had said that for a while it was business as usual in the theater, but not outside the theater. What is it like to walk around the streets of downtown Seattle right now?

[9:25] Jason Kappus: It is very different. I live a bit north of the city proper, so I don't I don't actually walk around downtown much, but I do drive in and out every day. Let me tell you, driving in Seattle without traffic is bizarre. Amazon, Microsoft, a bunch of other large corporations have their a lot of their people telecommuting and working from home, so there really are not a lot of people out. It is a little bizarre.

[9:57] Mo Brady: How are you feeling moving forward? Are you are you anxious to perform? Are you feeling like holding off as good? How are you feeling?

[10:04] Jason Kappus: Well, I'll tell you what. I am feeling grateful that none of this is my decision to make. I'm I'm concerned for our arts organizations here in town, as well as many other, you know, small, mid, even large businesses, you know, that are going to be really affected by this. I'm concerned for my fellow artists who, you know, many of whom are living paycheck to paycheck or are depending on, you know, health weeks from these shows that are getting posted that are getting postponed or canceled. And also, at the same time, I'm glad that we're taking steps as a community to formally address, you know, the what is now, I believe, officially, as of today, considered a pandemic. You know, when we look at some of the other countries that have gone through this before us who didn't take some of these measures as soon, it's gotten pretty drastic. So obviously, we're trying to find the best middle ground here, and hopefully that's what this is, and we'll all get through it together.

[11:20] Mo Brady: Special thanks to Jason Kappus for speaking to us today. The Ensemblist was produced today by me, Mo Brady. The Ensemblist is proud to be part of Broadway Podcast Network. If you can't get enough theater conversations directed in your earbuds from us, there are more than 40 other great theater podcasts to listen to. Check us all out at bpn.fm. Also, we've joined the world of Patreon, where you can support the work that we do here at The Ensemblist for as little as $5 a month. Check us out at patreon.com slash The Ensemblist. If you don't have the cash to donate $5 a month, you can help others find out about The Ensemblist by leaving us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. And follow us on Instagram, where we share the stories of talented artists working in theater ensembles. Thanks for listening, guys. Until next time.