Flexible thinking replaces old subscription models

The pandemic has forced new ways of thinking, including new approaches to subscriptions and seasons.
The four members of the Australian String Quartet sit under a bridge holding their instruments.

The changes wrought by COVID have been felt far and wide across the sector. While the rise of live-streamed performances has been a welcome and overdue adjustment to business as usual in the performing arts, other impacts – such as rehearsals held via Zoom – have been disruptive and draining.

Similarly, the seemingly endless parade of cancelled and rescheduled productions, which typified 2021, continues to afflict audiences, artists and crew alike, especially as the highly infectious Omicron variant rages across the country.

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Richard Watts is ArtsHub's National Performing Arts Editor; he also presents the weekly program SmartArts on Three Triple R FM, and serves as the Chair of La Mama Theatre's volunteer Committee of Management. Richard is a life member of the Melbourne Queer Film Festival, and was awarded the status of Melbourne Fringe Living Legend in 2017. In 2020 he was awarded the Sidney Myer Performing Arts Awards' Facilitator's Prize. Most recently, Richard was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Green Room Awards Association in June 2021. Follow him on Twitter: @richardthewatts