Here’s what I have to say on the Anniversary of the Broadway Shutdown.

Today marks one year.  365 days.  525,600 minutes.  Without a single performance on Broadway.

What a downer, right?

No.

Not from this Producer’s perspective.

How can I look at the last year like it’s a good thing?

Because we’re still here.  I’m still here. You’re still here.  We.  Are.  Still.  Here.

We made it through what will be the longest shutdown in the history of Broadway . . . ever.  Yep, I’ll bet you the capitalization of Spider-Man right now that we will never, ever experience this length of time without a Broadway show ever again.

We may have a shutdown again (as I wrote about here, but this severe?  Nope.  Never again.

Yet we’re still here.

And we did some amazing pivoting over the past year to keep on creatin’, from streaming shows to drive-ins show and more. Never . . . ever . . . underestimate the creativity of a TheaterMaker.  We make art in black boxes, for goodness sake.  You didn’t think we can survive this?

We’re not out of the woods yet.  There is a giant still lurking around.  But we are getting there.  And we will get there.

So as we look back over the past year, and so many websites and social media posts lament our “lost year,” I’m going to celebrate it.

Because we made it.  And if we can make it through this, we can make it through an-y-thing.

And as of today, we made it through a year!  A year without being able to do what we all love to do, whether that’s produce theater, perform in theater, direct theater, invest in theater, etc.

If you’re looking for a community of TheaterMakers like yourself during the shutdown, click here.

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Ken created one of the first Broadway podcasts, recording over 250 episodes over 7 years. It features interviews with A-listers in the theater about how they “made it”, including 2 Pulitzer Prize Winners, 7 Academy Award Winners and 76 Tony Award winners. Notable guests include Pasek & Paul, Kenny Leon, Lynn Ahrens and more.

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