Crap stuff first. It gets better.
We're starting to think we may not get to do any shows in the room this year. We could be wrong, that happens. But if that's the way it be, that's the way we roll.The average new Covid-19 cases per day in Vermont is more than three times higher than during the first surge. The statewide infection rate is currently 1.13, though here in Windham County it's lower than 1.The Vermont Arts Council is hosting a a Zoom meeting Thursday morning about adapting to Covid-safe outdoor venues for the summer/fall 2021 performance season.A Keene city council person wrote that "Cheshire County is under a seriously high surge" with the highest infection rate in New Hampshire (1.25). Cheshire County is the one right across the river from here and down a little bit. Keene is in the middle. Signup for vaccinations for 75-and-older in Vermont starts next week, the state thinks it'll take six weeks to complete. They think everyone 65 and older will be able to have it by the end of winter, March 20. That leaves the other 80% of the population. There's speculation that it'll actually happen faster, cross fingers.Meanwhile, the dang thing is evolving more infectious strains. The more people that have it, the more likely mutations are. And more people are having it.Clawing our way out of this largely preventable downward spiral will take a while longer.Stay healthy. Do the things, and don't do the other things.
1. Long-scheduled shows continue to get canceled. People have booked a few new ones in hope. It's all on
(except for one we haven't gotten posted yet), so we're not going to recap here. See
2. We're now — or, er, will be once things are happening again — able to have
on show days. The artist will be on the bill and in the promo, and get stage time that we'll film. Sometimes a musician is also an artist... nothin' to stop 'em from stacking functions. See
3. We'd been holding off on offering underwriting until after the broadcast stuff got going because we assumed there wouldn’t be interest without it. Then the germane point was raised that all the nonprofit venues in the region have underwriting programs, and none of those have a documentation prong. Plus there's the fact that most of the live attendees travel in (one show had five states represented), and the online audience is much larger and dispersed. We may be a local initiative, but we've got a long reach. So...
is now a thing starting with the 2021/22 season, coinciding with the deployment of the new cameras. The Island Corporation, Covered Bridge Cookies, and Claremont Savings Bank are being elevated to Underwriters, and the door is open to others. The rate is a little higher than a couple venues that are even smaller than us and have fewer shows, but it's lower than most, and
drastically
lower than some. See
4. Membership program? Most of those places have membership programs as well as underwriting. We haven't wrapped our heads around that yet. What can we offer that's compelling enough to make anybody want to be a member? We're not going to discount tickets, because that's taking food out of the performers' mouths. We don't have merch to kick in. First shot at tickets? Not much of a perk until we start regularly selling out. The idea of having memberships will stay at rest. Halos can continue to be earned with
. See
We're done harping about grants, honest. We're as tired of it as you are. But this might be useful info for somebody:
The federal government released eligibility info for another round of Covid-19 business relief programs, including Save Our Stages and another installment of the Payroll Protection Program. If you've got a biz, now is the time to at least think about acting.
Stage 33 Live isn't eligible to apply, once again. Somebody asked us why, and we realized we probably never actually 'splained it, just groused. It's because in addition to income loss, one of the specific requisites is loss of payroll — which is totally sensible for normal situations. 100% of our receipts pay the performers and presenters... but they're independent contractors, and they don’t count toward payroll. So because we haven't been paying ourselves (Rich Dad gasps in horror at stupid Poor Dad), we aren't eligible for funds to pivot how we generate income for other people. It's OK though. At this point the best path forward seems to be continued catch-up and whatever improvements we can make to come back better than ever, whenever that might be, instead of grasping at half-assed temporary solutions.
Still, that's some catch, that Catch-22.
Banging away on the documentation backlog, with happymaking progress.
The sets threatened last time from Jessica Rabbit Syndrome and The Jobz are
, as well as Gibson with Cameron Turgeon; audio-only from the ancient of days by John Stowell and Draa Hobbs and The Stringfield Springers too; yet more from Will Stahl, and there's Sam Creigh, Kenn Ash, Laura Ellzey, K. E. Eastvold, Johnn
y Sheehan, smokin' hot dirty Texas blues from Gillis Mills; and two full transcendent sets from Carolann Solebello and Joe Iadanza.
You can see all these at
. (We're suddenly realizing that the set links on that page haven't been updated. You can scroll down past those to the individual clips until we rectify that.)
Carolann made us misty when
, "I was so happy to find an unexpected and beautiful gift from our friends at Stage 33 Live... Back in March 2019, Joe Iadanza and I gave a concert at this lovely venue in Bellows Falls, VT. The show was recorded before a live audience on multiple cameras and a few fancy microphones... I couldn't be more pleased, and I am now looking forward with renewed enthusiasm to our next opportunity to play Stage 33 Live!" Us too, us too.
Sooo, the
has enough in it for a pair of entry-level pro bodies plus lenses, which is half of the unmaterialized-grants goal but the most giant step up we've ever made — we couldn't be more thrilled. We keep saying
that we're about to order them, but still haven't... we get super nervous making outlays bigger than 50 bucks or so. Usually that hesitance turns out to be a good thing, and this time is no exception. We want prime lenses because they're better in low light (plus they're cheaper), and convinced ourselves that 85mm would be perfect. So wrong! 20mm tops! (The cameras are 4/3, so the focal distance to get the same angle of view as a 35mm camera is about half. 20mm is about 40mm on a 35mm. They're about 10', left and right, from center stage.)
The
app helped us see the light.
20mm. Until we change our mind again.
Enough! Sheesh!
We just miss you.