SB 30 Episode 44: Discussing the economic impact of COVID-19 on the arts with Playhouse’s Michael Detroit

“It had an immediate impact on us – we had three shows up and running. We’re a resident professional theater company, so everybody gets paid, and these were folks who were suddenly going to be out of work. Now, we promised everybody that we were going to fulfill payment on all of their contracts, and we’ve done so. So, there aren’t going to be any layoffs. But we’re a not-for-profit entity, and with all these expenses – we averaged out what our earned income would have been with an eight-week shutdown – we came to almost $180,000 of income loss over these eight weeks. It’s a pretty hefty hit for us. But we know there are other not-for-profit organizations out there getting hit a lot worse than us. We want to make sure folks know the hardship that we are all going through, across all our sectors, in the arts.”

That’s Playhouse’s Executive Producer Michael Detroit, talking to host Mark Fleischer this past Tuesday, March 24, 2022, about the severe economic impact of the coronavirus stoppage on Playhouse on the Square and all other arts organizations in Memphis.

Listen in to this special edition of StoryBoard 30, recorded in Zoom.