The Kennedy Center is ridiculous for still requiring masks

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m seeing Hamilton this week and did not realize until I received my ‘reminder’ email that this is still a requirement. They have to be one of the only places (with the exception of hospitals/doctor’s offices) to require this!

Will really dampen the experience.

Sounds like the KC knows who butters their bread - old people who are afraid of COVID.

That would be my guess. Their customer base skews older and more vulnerable. Requiring masks so that a KenCen event isn't a super-spreader seems like good customer service, really.

+1 I hate wearing masks but the Kennedy Center is probably the highest concentration of geriatric people in the District outside of nursing homes and Congress.

[Anonymous]

Tell us you’re absurdly entitled and privileged without telling us you’re absurdly entitled and privileged.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Broadway is still requiring masks, so it seems they are in line with what their arts peers in others major cities are doing.

+1
I think the liver performance aspect of it (so someone being sick affects the whole cast, and there's no working from home), plus the fact that the performers themselves can't really mask, means that they are more cautious. Plus, theater audiences tend to skew older.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Broadway is still requiring masks, so it seems they are in line with what their arts peers in others major cities are doing.

+1
I think the liver performance aspect of it (so someone being sick affects the whole cast, and there's no working from home), plus the fact that the performers themselves can't really mask, means that they are more cautious. Plus, theater audiences tend to skew older.

But they are not dictating what kind of mask. So its all ridiculous theater. Pun intended.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m seeing Hamilton this week and did not realize until I received my ‘reminder’ email that this is still a requirement. They have to be one of the only places (with the exception of hospitals/doctor’s offices) to require this!

Will really dampen the experience.

There was a very similar thread here very recently. I actually thought this was the same thread.

The KC is far from being "one of the only places" to do this. Every theater we've been to this spring and summer still requires masks. I said on that other thread: At one play we attended not long ago, the stage manager came out (masked) and thanked the audience and said of us and the crew, "WE mask so the actors don't have to."

OP, one case of covid, even an asymptomatic positive test, can bring a whole production to a halt. We saw a play in DC recently (not at the KC) where one cast member was out for a positive test the night we saw it; that play missed a few shows the next week, with several cast members positive; and they came back briefly it seems before all the final shows were cancelled. That means cast and crew out of work, lost revenues for the theater potentially. Some productions are trying to have actors limit outisde contact as much as possible, but actors have families just like the rest of us, so....And actors are working hard in front of audiences who are, sure, more than six feet away--but who are in the hundreds, all sharing the same air space. I'd rather see actors working without masks on their faces, wouldn't you? That's why theaters want audiences to mask.

And please don't think that understudies are a magical solution. Many productions do not have them at all and where there are understudies, those actors often are understudying more than one role while playing roles themselves. So there's no perfect solution of "X is out with a positive test, send in X's understudy" becasue that understudy may already be on stage replacing actor Y, who was already out sick....

So please just mask up with good grace. You should be so into the show, you won't even notice.

It isn't about "geriatric" patrons as some other PPs have said. It's about the fact that theater companies -- especially traveling productions like "Hamilton" with many cities, tons of potential exposures -- know that if even one actor gets Covid, it can have a terrible domino effect.

[Anonymous]

The Kennedy Center is not ridiculous for still requiring masks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Broadway is still requiring masks, so it seems they are in line with what their arts peers in others major cities are doing.

+1
I think the liver performance aspect of it (so someone being sick affects the whole cast, and there's no working from home), plus the fact that the performers themselves can't really mask, means that they are more cautious. Plus, theater audiences tend to skew older.

But they are not dictating what kind of mask. So its all ridiculous theater. Pun intended.

OK? So is having "rules" for lap infants on airplanes, FFS. There are all kinds of safety theater things we participate in as a society, like smoking "sections" of restaurants in some states.

[Anonymous]

I'm happy to wear a mask to the Kennedy Center. As a PP said, if this gets you so bent out of shape, you should work on your coping skills.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Broadway is still requiring masks, so it seems they are in line with what their arts peers in others major cities are doing.

+1
I think the liver performance aspect of it (so someone being sick affects the whole cast, and there's no working from home), plus the fact that the performers themselves can't really mask, means that they are more cautious. Plus, theater audiences tend to skew older.

But they are not dictating what kind of mask. So its all ridiculous theater. Pun intended.

OK? So is having "rules" for lap infants on airplanes, FFS. There are all kinds of safety theater things we participate in as a society, like smoking "sections" of restaurants in some states.

But its not actually protecting anyone from Covid. So its not protecting old people from Covid. Its just fooling the ones who don't know any better.

[Anonymous]

I'm sure you would be even more upset that your show was canceled because the cast all had Covid. Think about the performers who have to perform in that enclosed space with hundreds of people night after night--quite a viral load. Wearing a mask is so easy. And I'm a teacher who has chosen not to mask at work anymore. But if it's required? No big deal.

[Anonymous]

Yeah, I don't really want the cast and staff to come down with Covid and have to cancel the performance. Most people are fine with wearing a mask for this reason alone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Broadway is still requiring masks, so it seems they are in line with what their arts peers in others major cities are doing.

+1
I think the liver performance aspect of it (so someone being sick affects the whole cast, and there's no working from home), plus the fact that the performers themselves can't really mask, means that they are more cautious. Plus, theater audiences tend to skew older.

But they are not dictating what kind of mask. So its all ridiculous theater. Pun intended.

OK? So is having "rules" for lap infants on airplanes, FFS. There are all kinds of safety theater things we participate in as a society, like smoking "sections" of restaurants in some states.

But its not actually protecting anyone from Covid. So its not protecting old people from Covid. Its just fooling the ones who don't know any better.

It absolutely is protecting people from Covid. I didn't get a single illness despite working in a school masked from March 2020 to May 2022...the week I decided to unmask I got Covid. Not a coincidence.

[Anonymous]

Not a big deal. At all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Broadway is still requiring masks, so it seems they are in line with what their arts peers in others major cities are doing.

+1
I think the liver performance aspect of it (so someone being sick affects the whole cast, and there's no working from home), plus the fact that the performers themselves can't really mask, means that they are more cautious. Plus, theater audiences tend to skew older.

But they are not dictating what kind of mask. So its all ridiculous theater. Pun intended.

OK? So is having "rules" for lap infants on airplanes, FFS. There are all kinds of safety theater things we participate in as a society, like smoking "sections" of restaurants in some states.

But its not actually protecting anyone from Covid. So its not protecting old people from Covid. Its just fooling the ones who don't know any better.

It absolutely is protecting people from Covid. I didn't get a single illness despite working in a school masked from March 2020 to May 2022...the week I decided to unmask I got Covid. Not a coincidence.

It is protecting the ones who wear KN95/KF94, which those people could chose to do anyway. The people who don't want to mask and are wearing ill-fitting cotton or "surgical" masks are protecting no one. This has been proven. So there is no point to requiring those people to mask. None. YOU are free to wear whatever mask you like. My super large and loose surgical mask is not helping you one bit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Broadway is still requiring masks, so it seems they are in line with what their arts peers in others major cities are doing.

+1
I think the liver performance aspect of it (so someone being sick affects the whole cast, and there's no working from home), plus the fact that the performers themselves can't really mask, means that they are more cautious. Plus, theater audiences tend to skew older.

But they are not dictating what kind of mask. So its all ridiculous theater. Pun intended.

OK? So is having "rules" for lap infants on airplanes, FFS. There are all kinds of safety theater things we participate in as a society, like smoking "sections" of restaurants in some states.

But its not actually protecting anyone from Covid. So its not protecting old people from Covid. Its just fooling the ones who don't know any better.

It absolutely is protecting people from Covid. I didn't get a single illness despite working in a school masked from March 2020 to May 2022...the week I decided to unmask I got Covid. Not a coincidence.

This supports personal masking, not universal masking with bad masks.