Signature Theater, a distinguished Off Broadway nonprofit, has postponed its return to the stage over considerations in regards to the persistent coronavirus pandemic, changing into the primary main New York theater to take such a step.
The theater’s management introduced the postponement Friday afternoon, simply days earlier than rehearsals had been to start for “Infinite Life,” a brand new play by the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Annie Baker, who was additionally planning to direct the work. The manufacturing was presupposed to run from Oct. 5 to Nov. 7.
“As a consequence of ongoing well being and security considerations, Signature Theater and Annie Baker have determined to postpone the upcoming manufacturing of ‘Infinite Life,’” the theater stated in an announcement. “Signature will proceed, in dialogue with artists, to guage on a case-by-case foundation the way to proceed with different programming deliberate for this season. The corporate and artist agree that that is your best option for this present presently.”
Across the nation, there have been plenty of cancellations and postponements of pop music tour dates and festivals due to the rise in coronavirus instances attributable to the unfold of the Delta variant. There have been a number of theater postponements in California, together with at Berkeley Repertory Theater, which not too long ago cited the Delta variant in delaying till subsequent yr a Christina Anderson play that had been scheduled to start in October.
It’s unclear whether or not the postponement of “Infinite Life” is an outlier or a primary indication that the theater trade is getting chilly toes in regards to the many reopenings deliberate in New York this fall, on Broadway and off. Two Broadway reveals, “Springsteen on Broadway” and “Cross Over,” are already operating, and 15 extra plan to start out subsequent month; there are additionally some performs already operating in industrial and nonprofit venues across the metropolis, and most of the metropolis’s bigger nonprofits plan to renew presenting reveals through the fall.
Broadway theaters are requiring viewers members to indicate proof of vaccination and put on masks. And Mayor Invoice de Blasio has declared that each one performing arts theaters should require proof of vaccination as a part of a mandate that applies to indoor eating, leisure, and health.
Signature stated it was nonetheless hoping to stage a revival of Anna Deavere Smith’s “Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992” in October. Though “Infinite Life” would have been its first stage manufacturing for the reason that begin of the pandemic, it could not have been the primary use of its constructing: This summer time, the nonprofit featured an set up known as “The Watering Gap,” conceived by Lynn Nottage and Miranda Haymon, in its Frank Gehry-designed house, the Pershing Sq. Signature Heart, a couple of blocks west of Occasions Sq..
Baker, who gained a Pulitzer in 2014 for “The Flick,” writes performs which are generally exhausting to explain, and little or no has been launched about this one, however a spokesman stated there was a six-person forged. In information releases, the theater has described “Infinite Life” as “a play about no finish in sight” and “a brand new play that tackles persistent ache and want.”
