Dear Community:

Given the current state of public health and the resulting economic fallout, EncoreMichigan.com is forced to make some changes for the remainder of 2020.

We anticipate a substantial cutback on productions this year. While we are all monitoring the situation, it is evident to me that the warnings about public events and gatherings are going to stay in force through most of, if not all, of the year. This is because we are being told there will not be a vaccine widely available until next year.

While some theaters are holding out with plans for their season, I do not believe, unfortunately, that those hopes are going to last long. Given the theater’s over-reliance on seniors to buy tickets, we are facing a pretty dim outlook as senior are especially being warned to avoid public gatherings.

On top of that, my day job is in the auto industry. And I am bracing for a steep falloff in auto sales, which will likely have a ripple effect on my own livelihood. And the money that I put into the operation of the EncoreMichigan is not workable for the remainder of the year. We are all bracing for a bumpy ride.

I am having to furlough our contract worker who does a lot of programming, keeping the calendar, publishing releases, audition notices etc. I am also suspending the weekly newsletter.

We will continue to do our best to review the shows that may remain this season, and audition notices as they arise. We will review the situation about Wilde Awards after June 1, the end of the season. It could be that we will have to do the awards just digitally as we did last year.

Keep sending press releases and photos to encorepress@gmail.com. We will continue to monitor the situation and keep going as a central clearing house for theater info as it develops.

We do our best for you. We don’t always get it right. But we have and continue to try our best.

David Kiley: Editor and Publisher.

“Theatres are curious places, magician’s trick-boxes where the golden memories of dramatic triumphs linger like nostalgic ghosts, and where the unexplainable, the fantastic, the tragic, the comic and the absurd are routine occurrences on and off the stage. Murders, mayhem, political intrigue, lucrative business, secret assignations, and of course, dinner.”
― E.A. Bucchianeri, Brushstrokes of a Gadfly,