With fall just around the corner, we know that you are anxiously awaiting news about our plans. When will The Purchase PAC reopen? Will there be a 2021-2022 season?
In a sense, we have been open since late August of 2020, when almost all of our Purchase College Conservatory students—musicians, dancers, actors, and design technology students—returned to in-person classes. Throughout the academic year, our lobby, theatres, and auxiliary spaces served as classrooms and performance spaces for these students, for whom live performance is a critical part of their graduation requirements. Students are back at The PAC this semester, and our staff is on hand to provide academic, production, and administrative support.
The PAC is being used in other exciting ways as well. Throughout the fall we’ll be providing tech space for shows heading to Broadway and the backdrop for film and commercial shoots.
So when will you, our audiences, be back? Well, the million-dollar Shuttered Venue Operators Grant we received last month has opened up some interesting possibilities. Since the grant takes the edge off of the financial constraints we’ve experienced, we’ve chosen to pause public programming for the fall to complete some of the theatre projects we began during our mandated COVID closure, and dive into a few other things we’ve been wanting to do for a long time. We’ve always had so much going on in The PAC that it’s… well… it’s just been kind of hard to fix things in our theatres when you’ve been seated in them!
It’s a pause with a purpose.
Meanwhile, we will continue connecting you to the performing arts you love. Throughout the fall, innovative virtual content will be made available for audiences of all ages. And, by the spring, we will be ready to welcome you back into our theatres. Will it be a traditional presenting season of the kind you remember? No. Will you be engaged, inspired, and surprised? Absolutely!
Stay tuned for programming details to come over the next few weeks. And be sure to follow us here and our social media platforms, where you’ll be able to see photos of our progress and learn more about our various fall projects. We thank you for your continued support!
