COVID-19 and PCSF Rod McFadden, [now acting] PCSF Chair, issued the following statement on March 18, 2020: All PCSF members and supporters: PCSF Member HealthGiven the potential risks posed by the COVID-19 crisis, it is necessary for PCSF to postpone all in-person upcoming events for March, April, and May. This includes all scene nights scheduled for these months, as well as two developmental readings. Also, our Memorial Day weekend "Plays in a Daze" overnight play fest must also be postponed. We hope that by June, the containment of COVID-19 is sufficiently successful to allow resumption of our events and programs. We are tentatively trying to re-schedule readings to June, and possibly having the Plays in a Daze fest in August. We will continue preparations for our PlayOffs short play festival, planned for July. (More info coming out on that in a few days.) We are exploring ways to facilitate "scene night" feedback opportunities via cooperative file sharing, and/or online meetings. But we are not ready with any "virtual" solutions yet. PCSF Financial HealthPostponing our events has an obvious impact on PCSF members, but also impacts our partner theaters, from whom we rent space for our events. In order to help these partners through these difficult months, PCSF has agreed to accept future rental credits rather than refunds of our prior payments to the organizations. This is critically important to our partner theatres in the short-run, and helping them weather this crisis is critically important to PCSF in the long run. But in postponing our events, PCSF also postpones incoming revenue from audience donations and ticket sales. Audience revenue accounts for approximately 50% of all PCSF revenue. So, like other small organizations and businesses, PCSF will struggle to make ends meet through the coming months. For that reason, I ask you, our members and supporters, to please help PCSF offset this lost audience revenue with donations. Even small amounts will help us stay financially "healthy", and of course, larger amounts will help more. I hope you will consider a gift to PCSF at this time. Above all, stay safe and well. We can all get through this together (as long as we don't actually get together! Social distancing, please) Updated 3/22/20 |