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Published on 23 March 2022
Today's announcement of the lifting of Covid restrictions on numbers at venues and public gatherings has been enthusiastically welcomed by the Oamaru Opera House. Manager Frances McElhinney said, “The Oamaru Opera House team welcome the lifting of restrictions, in particular the number of people attending an event - this will allow conferencing and other larger functions to go ahead. Due to the lead in time for touring it isn't anticipated that our schedule will change - our first major show is Voices Love Opera in May. No longer having to check vax passes will relieve that pressure on staff and we're super excited to have our donation box back, after it was repurposed for registrations of entry to the building.
The Opera House team has had to be fleet of foot – as have all businesses. However the constant cancellations and postponements have meant all those fabulous people who love to come to performances have been riding the merry go round with us. We have remained optimistic and continued to quote, book, plan…then cancel. So, while we’ve been productive, we haven’t had any yield. It’s like planting your vege garden and nurturing it along, then the frost comes and decimates it all in one hit! Meanwhile the artists themselves have all their creative work waiting to be experienced – I doubt they’ve ever waited in the wings so long! It’s not only the show, it’s the chats before and after that are so important to us all – it's our human nature to socialise and it will be exciting to see our theatre buzzing again.”
The changes will come into effect from Monday, April 4