As COVID-19 case rates fall in L.A. County, more businesses are able to reopen, but there's a notable category that's been left behind: live theater venues are still completely closed to the public.
Meghan Pressman is the managing director and CEO of Center Theatre Group in Downtown Los Angeles; the group operates the Ahmanson, the Taper and the Douglas theatres.
She says even if she was allowed to reopen, just hiring back staff could take several months:
"We laid off unfortunately about a hundred folks of our fulltime staff in addition to a couple hundred people who work on a show by show basis."
Ben Guillory is CEO and producing artistic director at The Robey Theatre Company, an African American theatre arts organization located at The Los Angeles Theatre Center in Downtown L.A.
He says the group is preparing to be able to produce shows by next year:
"Our playwrites labratory is developing new work, we have 12 playwrites that we work with, commissioning new work so that when the time comes we are ready."
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