Creekside Theatre offers live shows to limited audiences fall 2020

UPDATE 1:00 p.m.

The Creekside Theatre had to turn away audiences from two sold-out shows on March 12 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, after an eight-month hiatus live shows are back for the community to enjoy thanks to positive feedback from their summer program.

“Everybody’s tried the Facebook Live videos and online concerts … but really people crave connection and they crave in-person,” explains Ryan Donn, cultural development coordinator for The District of Lake Country. 

“It’s an experience that’s just for them, it’s seeing their neighbours - maybe not giving them a hug but connecting with your community.”

The seating arrangements will see people seated in groups of two or four, which will allow a total of 50 in the theatres.

“They come to the show and walk right to their seat, they won’t arrive half-an-hour before, they probably will arrive five-ten minutes before.” 

He notes there will be empty spaces between occupied seats. There will be two 70-minute shows an evening with a thorough cleaning between shows. 

They were going to have more than 12 shows but because of the Canada Day outbreak in Kelowna, they decided to put a pause on ramping it up too quickly. 

“We’re just going to see how people respond, we’re going to go through a few shows. Everything about this is soft, slow, steady - it’s not barreling down and do it every night,” adds Donn.

“The vibe is not to do as many shows as possible, it’s to do a few.”

They also upgraded their lighting system with new LED motion lights increasing their quality of production. 

They have a mix of local and national artists at the theatre, for full list performers, click here.

ORIGINAL 4:00 a.m.

The Creekside Theatre will host over a dozen evenings of live entertainment from October to February after being closed since March. 

The District of Lake Country says it is reducing the spread of COVID-19 while recognizing the importance of culture and entertainment, by changing the programming to offer live shows to limited audiences for fall 2020.

“After hosting the intimate sidewalk concert series this summer in place of the large Live! in Lake Country concerts in the parks, the District received a lot of positive feedback and expressions of appreciation for offering live entertainment in settings that considered the personal safety of audiences,” said Ryan Donn, cultural development coordinator.

Group acts in front of large audiences have been cancelled due to the pandemic but arrangements have been made to offer two shows per night, at 6:30 p.m. and 8:45 p.m.

Each show at the Creekside Theatre will be 70 minutes long with no intermission and staff will clean/sanitize between audiences.

There will only be 50 tickets per show available for contact-free purchase sold online or by phone with receipts emailed to theatre patrons. 

“The seating layout will adhere to physical distancing protocols with tickets sold only in pairs or groups of four. In a limited seating environment ticket prices have been kept as low as possible while also offering fair compensation to artists,” said Donn.

“Headlining the season is Barney Bentall and Jill Barber. We’re excited to offer a number of popular comedy shows in addition to well-known country, folk, Motown and blues performers.”

The Lake Country Film Committee will be offering a feature film each month as well, starting with Hugo in September, The Circus in October, The Peanut Butter Falcon in November and Call of the Wild in December.

Photo: The District of Lake Country

The layout at Creekside Theatre for social distanced live shows