GOOD TIMES
Quinn Sullivan
returns to the Z stage as a headliner after having wowed Buddy Guy there at only eight years old!
Theater’s pandemic pivot “Pivot” is the stage direction in every South Coast area theater venue’s script this year as they all turn to different ways to stay active in these pandemic-dampened times. Michael J. DeCicco
“Pivoting is the word of the year,” Wendy Hall of New Bedford’s Festival Theatre said with a laugh. “We are pivoting every day.” In fact the theater group, which has been known for producing summer musicals on the Zeiterion Performing Arts Center stage, 684 Purchase Street, New Bedford, since 1990, has pivoted very successfully this year. When the theater group presented its first pre-recorded streaming show, “To Broadway, With Love! A Virtual Theatrical Event!” in April, the cabaret-like production was the group’s first production
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since November 2019. “And it was very well received,” Hall noted. Following that, the group presented its first live and streamed production performed on the Zeiterion stage itself since pandemic restrictions began, a one-person show “Professional Broadway Lady Miss Evita-Loca” in June, which was equally well received. In October, Festival Theatre is planning to live stream from the Zeiterion stage a two-person Broadway play. Hall won’t reveal the title of that production just yet. But by then, Covid restrictions will probably relax enough to
S ou th C oast P r ime T imes
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make their productions even easier to present. As an example right now, rehearsals, especially of singing performances, must be on Zoom. She’s hoping the guidelines soon will allow for live rehearsals and, in myriad other ways, make the quality of the performances the theater group presents even better. (For more information go to nbfestivaltheatre.org.) In similar fashion, the Zeiterion Performing Arts Center itself has adjusted what it offers with its own online content throughout 2021, including both educational opportunities for all ages and virtual performances. “If we’ve learned anything
this year, it’s how to be nimble,” Zeiterion executive director Rosemary Gill said, “how to be adaptive.” But as of June 1, an audience has been allowed again inside the theater, though at a very reduced capacity, up to 100 people. The first such Zeiterion offering was the start of a weekly “Cinema New Bedford” film series sponsored by the New Bedford Film Society. In classic 2021 style, however, the series was presented in hybrid fashion: people were able to attend the viewing at the theater or live-stream it at home. Gill is proud to note the Zeiterion Performing Arts Center’s virtual offerings since the pandemic began have all been very successful, even though, admittedly, attendance has been uneven. “Sometimes we didn’t see
