Large entertainment venues react to Governor Holcomb's COVID update

SOUTH BEND, Ind.--- Large entertainment venues are thrilled by a pair of announcements made by Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb on Tuesday. Starting March 31st all Hoosiers aged 16 and older are eligible to get vaccinated and on April 6th capacity limitations will be left to individual counties instead of having a statewide approach.

Venues like the South Bend Civic Theatre have been operating without live, in-person shows since last summer and are thrilled by this latest news from Indianapolis. 

"Now when we turned the corner from 2020 to 2021, we were saying again we need to pivot, we need to do something bigger and so we’ve been doing live recordings of theater productions," said Aaron Nichols, Executive Director of the South Bend Civic Theatre.

Nichols says he looks forward to the day audience can view performances in person instead of via zoom or live stream.

"Just that collective experience of an audience and a cast creating something together, having that experience together has been impossible to recreate," said Nichols.

Nichols says he has viewed the Pandemic as an "intermission" to live theater and that messaging as kept those working at the South Bend Civic Theatre optimistic. 

"The arts, the theatre has been around for thousands of years," said Nichols. "This is not going to defeat us and I think that optimism has been transformational for our entire Civic family that we can do this and we have."

Nichols says as the Civic Theatre awaits further instruction from St. Joseph County about indoor performances, he will use the time to sure up its safety protocols.

"When we come back in in September there will be that many more people vaccinated, that many more people comfortable with where the numbers are but it allows the Civic then to control our safety measures," said Nichols.

For more information on upcoming Civic Theatre performances, click here.