By Blake Haas
NORMAL – It’s showtime! The Normal Theater is reopening its doors to the public after being shuttered due to the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic.
Normal Civic Arts Manager Adam Fox told WJBC’s Scott Miller, the theatre’s first showing will be Thursday, Oct. 1. with a limited capacity of 50 people.
“We know a lot of people have been asking us for quite some time when we were going to reopen… It’s never been about when we could; it was always going to be about when we felt the most comfortable that we could open and do everything we could for everyone’s health, safety, and well-being if we were going to bring people back (into) the space. We feel like this is the time where we’ve looked at all of those angles and are making all of those decisions the right way.”
Fox said the theater would not be serving concessions as patrons must wear a face mask through the entire showing. Fox added that the theater would also enhance other requirements.
“There will be some changes to the theater, and again all of this was done with the interest in giving our staff and our patrons the safest experience that we possibly can. The first is that we will be reopening with limited capacity; even though the theater seats 400 on a normal night, we will only have a maximum of 50 guests; that’s where we’re capping it at. All of our seating will be assigned now in order to be able to make sure that physical distancing can take place.”
LISTEN: Normal Civic Arts Manager Adam Fox spoke with WJBC’s Scott Miller about the theater opening next month.
https://soundcloud.com/user-493024408/normal-civic-arts-manager-adam-fox-09-24-20
The Uptown theater will only show one moving per night to allow the staff to sanitize the theater in between showings.
Blake Haas can be reached at Blake.Haas@Cumulus.com.
