At the start of COVID-19 lockdowns, thousands of Chicago theater artists lost immediate income. In the weeks to come, even more lost future gigs. And now, with no reopening date in sight, many of those artists are still without work. Before the state went into lockdown on March 22, the organizers behind the Chicago Artists Relief Fund were already set to help their community.
The other organizers working on CARF are Elizabeth Blondel, Anjal Chande, Hal Cosentino, Adelina Feldman-Schultz, Cruz Gonzalez-Cadel, Lindsay Hopkins, and Michael McCracken.
“We had local musicians, led by Fiona McMahon, plan a Quarantine Concert where 20 different people streamed sets from their homes on Facebook Live,” Riley-Condit said. “We had a reading of Steel Magnolias, planned by Chicago theater company the New Colony, that took place over Zoom. We’ve had tons of artists and press shout us out and that has helped donations continue to come in.”
“We have to be optimistic at this point: Chicago theater will come out of this stronger, invigorated, inspired, brought emotionally closer by time apart,” Stone said. “It will take time to recover, and we’ll have to grow and change with it. There will be some permanent scarring. Maybe the scene will look a lot different, and we’ll be ready for whatever forms it takes. But we’re looking forward to a family reunion like no other, sharing space and sharing work, and we’ll hold each other up until then as best as we can.”
