Edmonton live entertainment venues return after a long intermission
CBC
After many months of show cancellations and delays, Alberta's live music and theatre scenes are coming back to life.
This month the Jubilee Auditoriums in Calgary and Edmonton held the first full productions since shutting down in March of 2020.
People that purchased their tickets more than two years ago finally got the see Alberta Ballet's production of Swan Lake.
The Jubilee's acting general manager Scott McTavish said getting back in the swing of things came easier than he expected.
"We weren't as rested as we thought we might be. Most of our teams did return to us," McTavish said.
"We've had a very low attrition rate on our front-of-house staff. And all of the stagehands, we're back in fine form."
For the performers, it was a tight turnaround but worth it to be back on stage performing.
Members of the Alberta Ballet returned to the studio in August, practising in small groups while wearing masks.
Co-artistic director Christopher Anderson said their first big production in over a year came together quickly.
"We did not see the entire production together with all 28 dancers until we went to the Jubilee," Anderson said. "Which was on Tuesday prior to when we opened on Thursday. So we had 10 hours of rehearsal in the Jubilee trying to put the ballet together.
"But it was quite remarkable to then step out on stage."
While the return to the stage was long-awaited, now a new kind of work begins behind the scenes.
At Festival Place in Strathcona County, they're hard at work adjusting the schedule to fit all the missed shows from the past two years.
Artistic director and facility supervisor Steve Derpack said the calendar is more than full.
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