The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE), the union that represents The Metropolitan Opera’s workers, is warning that the Met’s season may not go on until the lockout of opera workers ends.

IATSE is stating in a new advertisement that “unless the Met’s management returns to the bargaining table and treats workers fairly, there will be no opera in 2021.”

SCHENECTADY — In a reflection of the ongoing ongoing uncertainty about when live performances will be allowed to resume in New York state, Proctors is postponing two more shows on its schedule that were expected to be staged in the middle of this year.

“Save Our Stages was like landing at the beach in Omaha, but we still have to get to Paris,” says Michael Strickland owner of Bandit Lites, a lighting company out of Knoxville, TN. “It does not cover the majority of our industry.” Many of whom are in as much of a dire need for financial assistance as the independents were.

December 15, 2020                                                   

Actors’ Equity and SAG-AFTRA’s agreement clears the way for more entertainment during the pandemic winter.

The Music Scene is full of characters. We just lost one

By Robert Millis

ALBANY— It was the closest thing to a performance that the Palace Theatre has hosted since March: U.S. Senate Democratic Leader Charles E. Schumer  stood outside the 89-year-old hall alongside Albany Symphony Orchestra Director David Miller, Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan and local entertainment operators advocating for federal financial assistance for the music industry.

Over 1,000 music and entertainment venues across the country were lit up in red Tuesday night to show support for entertainment industry employees who are out of work through a movement called “Red Alert Restart.” 

The Saratoga Performing Arts Center has laid off four full-time employees, reducing its payroll in an effort to cope with its shuttered summer season and financial fallout during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Maroon 5 have rescheduled their previously postponed 2020 tour dates for next summer.

September 13 – Saratoga Springs, NY @ Saratoga Performing Arts Center

In the age of social distancing, the Lake George Music Festival has found a way to still hold a concert: Treat the performances like a drive-in movie screening.

There will be no concerts at Upstate New York amphitheaters this summer due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Every show at Live Nation amphitheaters, including St. Joseph’s Health Amphitheater at Lakeview in Syracuse, Darien Lake near Buffalo, CMAC in Canandaigua, Saratoga Performing Arts Center (SPAC), Bethel Woods and the Artpark in Lewiston, has now been postponed, rescheduled or canceled. Artists that recently announced new dates include Luke Bryan, Matchbox Twenty and Santana.

CLIFTON PARK, N.Y. — The Shenendehowa High School class of 2020 received their diplomas in person from School Superintendent L. Oliver Robinson in a unique and elaborate graduation exercise held on the district’s campus.

Though not the bucolic surroundings found in the usual graduation venue of Saratoga Performing Arts Center, the exercise was a well-planned event that included two sessions, morning and afternoon, a full canopied stage and entry walkway, a professional photographer, live streaming, and multiple big screen JumboTrons where graduates could watch and hear the proceedings with family members as they waited in their vehicles.

CLIFTON PARK – More than 750 Shenendehowa High School seniors donned their respective green or white caps and gowns and strode across a stage to be handed their diploma Thursday on the Shenendehowa Central School District campus.

This year’s graduation, traditionally held at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center in Saratoga, was relocated to outside of the High School East building, and like so many times before for students, they were dropped off and picked up by their parents.

Shenendehowa High School seniors receive their diplomas after a drive-thru in multiple parking lots at Shen campus in Clifton Park on Thursday, June 18, 2020. The graduation lasted all day till mid-afternoon graduation hundreds of students.

Theaters are dark, concert halls silent, and bookings for performers and stage crews canceled. The same shutdown that’s endangering small businesses during the Covid-19 pandemic is threatening small arts organizations.

Matchbox Twenty has postponed its entire 2020 summer tour

The entire tour has been moved to 2021

NEW YORK (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - It’s late spring when Traverse City, Michigan should be planning its annual cherry festival, and the sounds of young racehorses should fill the air in Saratoga Springs, New York.

As places like Saratoga Springs deplete their savings, “2021 looks even more bleak,” Madigan said.

“I don’t know when we’re ever going to get back to a situation where we see revenues like they were pre-COVID. How comfortable are people going to feel going out?” she said.

Actors’ Equity Association, which represents 51,000 theater performers and stage managers, lays out guidelines aimed to keep its members safe.