When the Williamston Theatre shut down last spring due to the COVID-19 pandemic,
Williamston Theatre Co-Founder and Executive Director Emily Sutton-Smith had no idea it would stay closed for over a year.
“We thought, ‘Oh, well, we’ll be closed for two or three weeks, and then we’ll open back up again because everything will be fine,’” Sutton-Smith said. “But, obviously that’s not what happened.”
The theater remained closed far longer than most establishments that shut down in the midst of the pandemic due to the strict Actors Equity Association rules and regulations that would have required at least 10 feet between the audience members and the actors, making the prospect of putting on a production extremely difficult.
“Rather than trying to open, not knowing how the rules would change and figuring that we might have to shut down again, we just waited until we thought we would be able to have the protocol in place,” said Williamston Theatre Executive Director John Lepard.
The pandemic resulted in the four-month layoff of theater staff.