Arts Groups Reassure Patrons With Plans to Combat Spread of COVID-19

Portland, OR. The Portland Opera is reaching out to patrons to explain precautions being made to prevent the spread of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). Portland Opera also spearheads the Broadway Across America series which commences with Frozen the musical on March 5th. Administrators confirmed, “We intend to stay the course with our public programming schedule.” Administrators explain, “Your health and safety as an audience member is of paramount importance to us, and we want to let you know some of the ways that our team is working to ensure that Portland Opera is contributing to solutions and best practices during this time.”

Oregon Children’s Theater is another organization taking precautions which include the following:

• For patrons attending main stage performances, Portland’5 (home of the Newmark and Winningstad Theatres) has taken additional precautions, including increasing the frequency of cleaning and sterilization procedures throughout the entire facility.
• For families attending classes at any of our Acting Academy locations, we are working with our partners at Curious Comedy Theater and Multnomah Arts Center to increase cleaning and sterilizing practices. Oregon Children’s Theatre staff and teaching artists are also being trained and empowered to clean even more frequently and to follow the recommended guidelines.
• Oregon Children’s Theatre staff and teaching artists are encouraged to remain home should they exhibit any symptoms.

Measures taken by Portland Opera include an extensive deep clean of working spaces and staff has been instructed to follow precautions as recommended by the World Health Organization, in order to mitigate the spread of the disease. Photo by Cory Weaver/Portland Opera.

Portland Opera has also been in communication with Portland’5 Centers for the Arts, who manage and operate its performance venues. The opera has asked for extra sanitation stations and more extensive cleaning and disinfecting between performances. Portland Opera writes it is also confident that the city of Portland will proceed with recommended standards for public health and safety.

Administrators write, “We understand that more cases in the US and our region should be expected, and we realize, as Dr. Robert Redfield, Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, stated this weekend that the “current risk to the American public is low.” As such, we intend to stay the course with our public programming schedule and offerings. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us at concierge@portlandopera.org.”

Additional Information & Resources on the Coronavirus-19 can be found here:

The Centers for Disease Control & Prevention

Here are some links which have stories on how to talk to your children about the virus.

“How To Prepare Your Home For Coronavirus” —NPR
“How to Talk to Kids About Coronavirus” —New York Times
“Just for Kids: A Comic Exploring Coronavirus” —San Francisco Public Radio

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