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SUNDAY • DECEMBER 20, 2020
FA C E S
O F
T H E
A R T S
S H U T D O W N
THE
Performers
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STORIES BY PAM KRAGEN PHOTOGRAPHY BY K.C. ALFRED
ll the world’s a stage, and for nearly 10 months, that stage has been empty and dark. And all the men and women who make that stage come alive — the actors, the dancers, the players — made abrupt exits in mid-March when the coronavirus pandemic shut down theaters across the nation, from Broadway to Balboa Park. In September, we talked to behind-the-scenes arts workers — the stagehands — to hear their stories about how the shutdown turned their lives upside down. In November, we focused on the musicians, whose lives were suddenly silenced by the pandemic. Today, we shine the spotlight on the men and women — the players, Shakespeare calls them — who have been standing in the wings, waiting for the day when they can, once again, make their entrances. These are the performers, and these are their pandemic stories. SEE PAGES E2-E6
$150 BILLION How much America’s arts and creative industries have lost in sales since the pandemic began, period ending July 31 Source: Brookings Institution
B O O K S Local novelist Christopher Reich pays tribute to John le Carré E8
T R AV E L Paddling down a river is a safe escape for three old friends E13