After the Vanity Theater’s stage was shrouded in darkness for nearly a year, Julia Phipps, president of Sugar Creek Players’ board of directors and Wabash College Fine Arts Center Academic Administrative Coordinator, opened up on how the pandemic has impacted herself and the theater.
The Vanity Theater is a vibrant volunteer organization in downtown Crawfordsville, where up to 150 people gather per show in non-pandemic times. But in March 2020, the theater’s doors were slammed shut by COVID-19.
“I think we were closed for 10 months, a dark theater,” she said.
Even before the official closure, coronavirus put the Players in a tailspin. The theater was in the production of a play, but suddenly the roles needed to be recast as people were unable to be present.
“She [the director] had to recast three roles, because people were not available anymore, like, ‘I’m sorry. I’ve been in rehearsals for this for three months and I can’t do it.’ So we did that [recasting], and then we were just shut down. The building was empty, no one was in it. We were still paying bills,” Phipps said.
The theater turned to alternative approaches to keep themselves afloat. Phipps secured a $10,000 grant from the Indiana Arts Association, and the Players poured their artistic energies into two filmed plays, one filmed one-act, a Zoom play and a musical revue. These efforts were an encouraging reminder that the creative spirit flows even in a pandemic. Nevertheless, the electric interplay between audience and actors just wasn’t the same as for in-person shows.
Last month the theater turned a corner, as it opened its doors for the first time since the pandemic hit. Abiding by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention social distancing guidelines, a 10-person cast performed with a maximum of two on stage at any one time. The community’s love for the Sugar Creek Players was obvious in the three sold out shows of 40 patrons each.
Hopefully, the local vaccination effort and continued mask wearing will enable the theater to reopen to a packed full-capacity house soon.
“Right now we’re really working closely with the Montgomery County Health Department to start to learn more about if there’s anything that we can do to make it possible for us, either fit more people or have more people on stage or do bigger shows,” Phipps said.
Until then, the Vanity Theater will celebrate its 50th anniversary at 2 p.m. June 27 at Pike Place in downtown Crawfordsville with theater memorabilia, a concert and food trucks. Some of the proceeds from the food trucks will be donated to the theater as a fundraising opportunity. In addition, patrons are invited to celebrate the Vanity Theater’s 50th by donating $50 to support their next 50 years through the Vanity Theater’s website (sugarcreekplayers.org) or via check.
The Sugar Creek Players are optimistic that the Vanity will be able to entertain at full capacity by July, as the community becomes immunized. Until we reach sufficient vaccination levels, masks likely will still be mandated in accordance with CDC regulations, facilitating the theater’s biggest hope of increasing guest capacity.
To sign up for a vaccine, visit https://vaccine.coronavirus.in.gov/en-US.
Written by Wesley Slaughter and Trey Filbrun for the Journal Review.
