While a number of businesses have reopened in some form after COVID-enforced closures, Connecticut’s theaters have remained shut — and it’s unclear when the coronavirus will be under control enough for them to open their doors once again.

With that in mind, the state’s six producing theaters have asked Gov. Ned Lamont for financial assistance.

Those theaters include the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center in Waterford, Goodspeed Musicals in East Haddam, Hartford Stage, Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven, Westport Country Playhouse and Yale Repertory Theatre in New Haven. They had joined together in 2014 under the banner of Connecticut’s Flagship Producing Theaters (CFPT).

The state is scheduled to get $1.3 billion from the federal government via the CARES Act, which aims to provide funding for municipalities, schools and economic redevelopment activity.

The six theaters asked that $12 million of that total go to them. It would be broken up evenly between the theaters, so each would get $2 million. The funds would “support their continued operations and survival during this unprecedented moment and beyond,” according to a statement from the theater group.

In the letter to Lamont, the theaters explained, “The impact on our industry, as you likely know, has been staggering. Live theater has come to a halt in Connecticut and elsewhere. For the foreseeable future, there will be no indoor gathering of audiences. Theater is labor intensive. Payroll for some of our group has been reduced by as much as 70%, some of that furloughed, some permanent cuts.”

It went on to detail the economic impact that these theaters have — more than $42 million in direct economic activity in the state each year. That includes creating 1,700 jobs, with taxable payrolls of nearly $26 million; spending more than $12.4 million with local vendors as well as $2.3 million in local printing and advertising; and paying $1.3 million in hotels and rentals for actors and others.

All told, these theaters bring in more than 330,000 audience members annually.

And they provide community programs, including partnerships with schools and other local organizations, that reach more than 40,000 secondary school students in the state.

These are producing theaters, meaning they create their own shows. That is different from presenting theaters, which present acts that come in, say, while on tour. A group of six presenting theaters in Connecticut have also asked the state for financial help; those theaters include the Garde Arts Center in New London.

Creating everything here

The heads of the six theaters in CFPT recently had a phone call with representatives from state government — Department of Economic and Community Development Commissioner David Lehman and Director of Arts, Preservation and Museums Elizabeth Shapiro.

Michael Gennaro, executive director of Goodspeed Musicals, says it was a very positive conversation, and they will continue to talk. The theater leaders are aware that the state has a lot of other issues to deal with and that “healthcare and education should remain the primary recipients of earmarked assistance,” as CFPT said in their statement.

“We just wanted to make sure that it was on the radar of the governor and other individuals up in Hartford,” he says.

They wanted to provide information about economic activity as well. One note was, Gennaro says, “that we are distinctive from the presenting theaters because we create everything at home. We build the shows and we use local and out-of-state talent, we pay a lot of payroll taxes. We don’t book in shows that then go on to other cities. We do shows that only perform in our communities, and that has a direct impact on state tourism and things like that.”

The governor’s restrictions as of now allow only 25 audience members for indoor performances, which isn’t feasible, financially or otherwise, for most venues.

“We’re kind of in our own unique situation because we can’t do what we do for 25 people, which is the current phasing. That means that other than the generosity of donors, we have no revenue — zero,” Gennaro says.

Colleagues in other states talk to Gennaro about how Connecticut seems to be leading the country in battling COVID, and while that is something to be proud of, he adds, “it does not make any difference (in) that we have all lost millions of dollars of revenue that we can’t get back.”

While restaurants, for instance, could offer take-out food when they were closed to on-site dining earlier this year, theaters don’t really have any substantive alternatives. Goodspeed is doing some outdoor concerts, but attendance is restricted to 100 people.

“Other than that, we don’t have a lot of opportunities. So we wanted to make sure our case was heard and known,” he says.

If each theater does get $2 million, Gennaro says, the first thing they would do would be hire people back. These theaters have had to lay off and furlough a lot of employees.

The Goodspeed board is making sure everyone has health insurance through the end of December, but it’s uncertain what would happen beyond that. Those people are also going to run out of unemployment compensation at the end of the year.

Of course, $2 million would just be a backstop for the theaters to help sustain them over the next few months. Goodspeed, for instance, is looking at $6 million in lost revenue.