💰 Find out where Powerball tickets worth $50,000 were sold in Delaware. Are you a winner?

Open Call: The Grand staff is committed to creative problem-solving

Mark Fields
Guest columnist

You work closely with a group of people for a long time, and you just assume that you know them. You have a clear sense of their individual strengths and weaknesses as employees, but you also know their work habit idiosyncrasies, intra-staff personality conflicts, and even their break-time pop culture obsessions.

But then a crisis comes along, and you discover to your surprise that your colleagues possess a deeper layer of innovative thinking and also dedication to the work and the organization that you didn’t realize was there.

That has been my COVID experience: learning that my co-workers are existentially committed to solving problems and addressing challenges by tapping into their creative spirits.

When the pandemic closed our theaters in March 2020 (the world’s longest year), the Grand staff immediately went into customer service mode, rescheduling shows until what we were certain would be a short break and communicating with patrons about postponements and alternative arrangements. But as it became clear that the closures would be prolonged, our creative minds turned to ways that we could continue to serve our mission while we couldn’t host indoor performances.

Mark Fields is executive director of The Grand Opera House, which will soon announce its 2021-2022 season of Broadway musicals, music and other offerings.

At first, those pivots were increased online communication and virtual content, including a series of archived concert interview shows from past Grand artists recorded by WHYY Public Television. We created "Story Time,'' original videos with staff and friends reading beloved children’s stories.

But gradually, we began to shift to innovative ways that we could present in-person performances, albeit outdoors. First came Concerts by Car, a series of drive-in concerts in the Frawley Stadium parking lot. Then, we offered socially distanced live concerts showcasing local artists in neighborhood parks as a part of our ongoing "Summer in the Parks'' partner program with the City of Wilmington. In the fall, we transitioned to filmed entertainment with "Drive-In Cinema'' at Bellevue State Park, as we focused on movie musicals (to appeal to our Broadway audiences, especially families).

Earlier:The Grand to host national acts outdoors this summer, plans to reopen venue this fall

The holidays saw the greatest outlier when The Grand, partnering with Riverfront Development Corporation, Light Action and the City of Wilmington, presented the "Winter in Wilmington'' light show, a drive-through display of seasonal light exhibits at the Riverfront. All of these played to sold-out audiences (including more than 35,000 for the light show alone), which demonstrated to us that the community was perhaps hungrier for entertainment than ever before.

Unable to bring thousands of school kids to live performance field trips, The Grand’s Community Engagement department worked with touring children’s entertainment companies to provide unique online artistic content for teachers working in virtual and hybrid classrooms.

The Grand Opera House in Wilmington will launch its 2021-22 season with comedian Brian Regan on Sept. 26.

This winter saw another innovative project as we used grant funds from New Castle County to acquire livestreaming equipment, with which we launched "Live @ 818,'' a series of ticketed livestream concerts from the stage of the baby grand. We have also partnered with several Broadway production companies, and in one case, Arden Concert Gild, to offer ticketed musical theater programs for our Playhouse audiences.

Perhaps, the reader has picked up on a theme in these descriptions. In virtually all of these non-traditional programs, The Grand found inventive ways to partner with other organizations – other non-profits, media, and various government agencies – to provide much-needed cultural experiences for our patrons and the broader community.

That spirit of partnership will continue into the warmer months as we plan another season of outdoor concerts leading up to a re-opening of our indoor venues in the fall.

The Grand staff has worked with safety experts to create new attendance protocols to insure all patrons’ health and comfort when we do re-open (protocols that we rehearsed and refined with our outdoor programming over this past extraordinary year).

More:Back on track: Point-to-Point is on pace to be one of the first major events of 2021

We are busy preparing to announce a 2021-2022 season of Broadway musicals, music and variety entertainments, and school programming as we carefully, thoughtfully emerge from pandemic conditions. This new season will also reflect a renewed commitment to improving our service to our underserved communities of color with focused programming and outreach.

The Fuzaholics performed Concerts by Car during the pandemic. The series of concerts were held in the Frawley Stadium parking lot

The Grand, like all of its colleague organizations, has learned to be more flexible, more creative, more nimble during these challenging times.

It is strange but gratifying that The Grand actually grew its audiences during the pandemic by reaching new patrons through innovative programs such as the light show and drive-in concerts.

More:The Queen to dust off her musical thrones this spring

Some of those programs, and the lessons that we have learned from them, will continue to inform our thinking as we plan for a post-COVID future.

We have been reminded of the power of team in facing a different challenge. Thanks to our creative staff and our partners, we will emerge, stronger, and we hope, smarter than we were before.

Mark Fields is the executive irector of The Grand Opera House, which manages three theaters in downtown Wilmington.