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Rubber City Theatre postpones world premiere of Eric Mansfield's ‘Love in Reserve’ due to Equity COVID-19 challenges

Akron Beacon Journal - 4/18/2021

Because of increased costs meeting COVID-19 health and safety regulations required by Actors' Equity Association, Rubber City Theatre has postponed the world premiere of U.S. Army veteran Eric Mansfield's "Love in Reserve" until November.

The drama, which explores the challenges of a military couple separated during wartime, had been slated to open indoor at the Akron theater April 30. Rubber City had gone through virtual auditions and was in the process of callbacks when the theater company decided in late March to postpone the show.

The key hurdles were Equity rules requiring a sustained decrease of new COVID-19 cases for a minimum of 14 days with a local community rate of less than 5 per 100,000 population and a positive test rate of new tests at less than 5% for at least a week before rehearsals started. A couple of months ago, those numbers appeared achievable in Summit County, but that's changed as COVID-19 cases have increased.

"The 14 days downward, for a while there, that was not a problem. We were downward trending for two months so I felt really good about that," Executive Artistic Director Dane Leasure said Wednesday. "Obviously right now, we're going the other way because the cases are on the rise."

If a county meets Equity requirements indicating the virus is under control, the union requires that all people involved with a production be tested for COVID-19 once a week, Leasure said. If those numbers are not met, all must be tested three times each week.

With 12 people working "Love in Reserve" over six weeks, including the cast, director, stage manager and designers, that means Rubber City's costs would jump from more than $7,000 to nearly $22,000 for testing alone.

"$22,000 would be almost 20% of our annual operating budget," Leasure said. "I'm crunching these numbers and they're just not going to work.

"Especially as vaccines were rolling out, we were like, 'We can do this in a better way, a safer way, if we just postponed till the fall.' "

Through its Equity Small Professional Theatre contract, which began in October, Rubber City is required to cast at least one Equity actor for each of its mainstage shows. The small professional theater also applies the same COVID-19 safety protections to nonunion actors.

"Part of our commitment to Equity and our agreement is that we will follow all Equity [COVID-19] rules and guidelines, and that transfers over to our nonunion actors as well," Leasure said.

Rubber City employs four staff members and three union technicians, most of whom are in the process of being fully vaccinated. They range in age from mid-20s to 50s.

All people working on the postponed "Love In Reserve" in the fall will be required to be fully vaccinated.

In the meantime, the theater is planning an outdoor concert production of the new musical "On the Line" in June, at an Akron location that will soon be finalized. All working on that production will be required to be fully vaccinated.

COVID-19 safety requirements are less complicated for the outdoor musical production, which has a cast of 16. The show, which has been in development since 2018, follows a quartet of lovers in a World War II adaptation of Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream," set in an Akron rubber factory.

The musical was funded by a 2017 Knight Challenge Grant for $30,000 that supported the theater's "Shakesqueer Project," which adapts Shakespeare's plays into new works focusing on members of the LGBTQ community.

Rehearsals for "On the Line: In Concert" will run outside at Rubber City Theatre. Musical co-creators Amy Burgess and Rachel Dean of New York will come to Akron for the week.

See rubbercitytheatre.com or check the theater's Facebook page for updates on the date and location.

Leasure had a final teaser about the outdoor show in June: "Two of the lead actors are from New York and one is a Broadway actress."

Arts writer Kerry Clawson may be reached at 330-996-3527 or kclawson@thebeaconjournal.com.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Rubber City Theatre postpones world premiere of Eric Mansfield's ‘Love in Reserve’ due to Equity COVID-19 challenges

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