It’s apparent just how important the arts are in life. When our everyday activities and routines are stripped from us, we turn to the arts to soothe our souls or just to pass the time: we’ve watched movies, read or listened to novels and books and poetry and plays, binge-watched television series, endured advertisements on social media and streaming platforms, listened to the radio, played songs or even entire albums, played video games and lost ourselves in the soundtracks and the art.   Every day of our lives we are consuming, honoring, and enjoying professional performing arts—and probably even moreso during times of social isolation and quarantine.

But still, we miss the relationship that unfolds during live performances.  We as a society are getting by on recorded performances and streaming opportunities, but these “canned performances” are only a band-aid—think of how much poorer we would be as a community if all the performing arts we ever consumed were canned experiences shipped from somewhere else. It would be like spending one’s entire life having only eaten salmon from a can. 

Around the world, theaters at all levels are suffering.  Broadway is now dark until at least early September, London’s West End hasn’t performed a live production in months, and professional and community theaters around the world have had to shut their doors, furloughing workers until a time returns where they can gather to create art for the people.  The industry and its talented workforce face a devastating impact from Coronavirus. Community performing arts is a vitalizing force with a valuable influence on its economy and its mental and cultural health in turbulent times and beyond.  As you enjoy this radio performance, please consider making a donation to support First City Players, your local community theater so that when the world is ready, we can re-open our doors and continue to entertain, enrich, and enhance lives again.