With the COVID-19 pandemic ruining travel plans, the E.A. Rawlinson Centre has turned to Saskatchewan artists for its 2020 fall season.
They’re billing it as “live and local” as they welcome guests back to a modified auditorium designed for physical distancing.
As part of the fourth phase of the Re-Open Saskatchewan Plan, movie and live theatres are allowed a maximum of 30 per cent capacity up to 150 people so long as physical distancing can be maintained.
For the Rawlinson, that means a capacity of 150 people per show.
The centre has introduced several new measures to ensure that the return to live arts can happen as safely as possible.
Tickets, for example, need to be picked up by 6 p.m. on show day to prevent crowding at the pick-up window. Masks will be required in the entrance and lobby, but can be removed once you reach your seats.
The majority of shows will also not have an intermission. Every other row has been blocked off, and three empty seats will be left on each side of each group of purchased tickets.
Hand sanitizer will be available, and markers on the floor show what six feet of distance looks like.
Following the first show of the season, Belle Plaine on Sept. 25, the centre will go with a distinctly local flavour.
Wade Fehr, a Prince Albert firefighter and founder of local band The Goats, will perform a solo show, Tales of Ghosts and Graveyards, on Oct. 22.
Then two days later, the Rawlinson will present The Acoustic Sessions, featuring Chris Henderson, Munro & Patrick and Jack Semple.
Halloween will see another local act take the stage, with Prince Albert party band the Bush Pies. Featuring five teachers and one university drop-out, The Bush Pies are a staple of the local music scene, and hosted a Halloween show at the Union Centre one year ago.
The centre will switch it up on Nov. 7 when they bring in Eekwol (Lindsay Knight), an award-winning hip hop performing artist in Saskatoon who originally hails from Muskoday.
Lucky Nov. 13 will see the Bromantics Tribute to the 50s, a six-piece Saskatchewan band that perform a tribute to the 50s and are working on their debut EP, set for a release this year.
November 20 will see the return of JJ Voss, who was set to perform a show at the centre before the pandemic shut everything done. Voss has reunited with his Damn Good Band, musicians he’s worked with in the studio and on the road on and off for 17 years,
The fall season will close with Jeffery Straker’s Very Prairie Christmas, coming to the Rawlinson on Dec. 4 and 5. Don’t forget your ugly Christmas Sweater!
For more info or for tickets, visit earc.ca or call the box office at 306-765-1270
