community theatre

Thousands of theaters world-wide will perform the same musical revue this weekend. “All Together Now” will be performed at 2,500 theaters including some in Prosser and Richland.

In normal times, audiences would be flocking to theaters for Christmas productions right now. But 2020 is anything but normal — especially when it comes to holiday traditions.

When Jessika D. Williams takes the stage as Othello, she sometimes doesn’t know if she’s reacting as the character or herself. Williams, 35, has never felt this way in a role. But playing Othello as a Black woman amid nationwide protests against systemic racism, she sees parallels between racism in the play and in real life.

It's hard to predict exactly how theater will come back after the pandemic, but here are a couple guesses: Fewer crowds, more collective imagination, and a focus on racial and environmental justice.

The lights have dimmed for a couple of months at the historic Liberty Theater in Dayton, Washington, due to the coronavirus. But its manager has plans to reopen the doors this summer.

When COVID-19 struck, the theatre in Pullman was preparing its final show of the season, Thoroughly Modern Millie. Associate director Michael Todd says it had even hired actress Sandrinne Edstrom to come from New York for a couple of months to play the lead role. When the show was postponed, Ms. Edstrom was quarantined in Pullman. Still is. So they made the best of it.

The show must not go on, Broadway producer Scott Rudin says. Lawyers claim his production of To Kill a Mockingbird, written by Aaron Sorkin, is the only one that can be performed near a major city.