Much like other businesses in the city, the Boulder Theater has made some serious revisions to its operations this year. As a theatergoer myself, I was curious about the venue’s new look and show-going experience. I had the fantastic opportunity to have a conversation with Christian Hee, the senior marketing manager for the Boulder and Fox Theaters about the organization’s response to the pandemic.

While the Boulder Theater and the smaller Fox Theatre usually operate concurrently, their owner, Z2 Entertainment, had to make the tough decision to temporarily close down the Fox’s operations in light of safety regulations published by Boulder County. “We’re not having any artists play [at the Fox] while these guidelines are in place. It doesn’t make sense for a venue of that size to open up [while] having to put in effect social distancing [measures],” she said. Hee also informed me that the decision was made when considering the Fox’s proximity to CU Boulder and The Hill. “With the current regulations for 18-22-year-olds,” she said, “we just want to keep the community safe.” 

The Boulder Theater, however, has continued to operate under a health plan approved by Boulder County. “We’re limiting numbers in the bathrooms, limiting [the total] numbers of audience members,” Hee said, all in accordance with the county-mandated 100 person max capacity limit. Because of smaller audience sizes and health concerns, the Boulder Theater has only been booking local, up-and-coming artists who usually perform in Colorado and the greater Denver area. The venue is currently selling tickets to shows and movies, but only to people over 21. 

Unfortunately, many of the things that make going to see a show at the Boulder Theater great have been affected by the health ordinances. Family-friendly shows like the annual Warren Miller ski films haven’t been booked this year (they will be “hosting” a virtual showing put on by Warren Miller on Saturday, Nov. 14 with tickets available at this link), and the exciting atmosphere that they create is absent as well. When asked about the element of the theatergoing experience Hee misses most, she replied “being able to be surrounded by a packed crowd with a bunch of energy for people that are excited to see a band, especially for sold-out shows. We won’t be able to have that energy that we were used to pre-COVID.” 

That energy still exists but in a different form. Masked, safely socially-distanced patrons are restricted to their area of the floor, sitting in pods of tables and chairs with the closest guests 25 feet away from the artists on stage. In an effort to maintain a sense of normalcy during their shows, the Theater is now including drinks and tacos in the ticket price, and showgoers’ orders are brought to their assigned tables by masked servers. “Requiring people to remain in their taped-off section is a really big change that people are going to have to get used to,” said Hee.

Performers have been following the Boulder Theater’s regulations as well. The green room, a usually high energy staging area for performers and their entourages, needs to be safe and sanitary in order to be used by the Theater’s booked artists. Said Hee, “We’re definitely really strict on [green room privileges]. We’re not allowing any guests at all, just band and crew members.” 

While the less than ideal circumstances that the Boulder Theater finds itself in are certainly making their presence felt, Hee says that the support coming from the local community is huge. “We’ve been getting so much great support from not only local businesses, but our patrons as well.” She added that community support will continue to be enormously important for the Boulder Theater’s recovery, and encouraged people who are wanting to get involved to donate to the Boulder and Fox Theater Recovery Fund. 

Right now though, Hee says “the biggest thing we can ask for from patrons and really all Boulder community members is to ask our representatives for federal support.” During the past several months, independent venues have been pushing Congress to support the Save Our Stages Act, which Hee says would help “thousands of independent venues across the country gain federal support. Without that [support], it’s estimated that about ninety percent of those will close forever.” Federal aid will not only help the Boulder Theater’s recovery effort but would also preserve the ecosystem of local venues that make the global theatergoing scene exciting and diverse. 

“If we can get people spreading the word and going to saveourstages.com to see how they can contact their representatives about supporting this act, we’d be super grateful. That’s what’s really going to help us,” said Hee. More details about the Act as well as information about how to contact Colorado’s state representatives can be found at saveourstages.com.