Los Angeles Times - 18.03.2020

LATIMES.COM/CALENDAR WEDNESDAY, MARCH 18, 2020E3

latimes.com/arts

CULTURE MONSTER

Museums have closed in re-

sponse to the coronavirus crisis,

so what happens to all those box

office attendants, visitor services

associates and other part-time

and hourly employees who risk

losing their pay when they lose

their shifts?

The Times surveyed 11 Los An-

geles institutions, including the

Getty, the Broad, the Hammer, the

Los Angeles County Museum of

Art and the Museum of Contem-

porary Art, as well as museums

in New York and San Francisco.

All but one museum said that they

had not laid off part-time or hourly

staff and that they would pay

those employees through the end

of March.

The Museum of Tolerance in

Los Angeles, which announced

its temporary closure Friday, laid

off its part-time tour guides and

two full-time ticket booth attend-

ants but gave those employees

two weeks’ pay. The museum said

it plans to re-evaluate the situa-

tion after March 31 and hopes to

bring back employees when the

museum can reopen.

Nearly every museum surveyed

by The Times said the coronavirus

news was moving too fast for them

to announce plans for after April 1.

“We’re all thinking about that.

This is my only job,” said Judy

Leroy, one of MOCA’s 59 part-time

gallery attendants.

“I was really pleased they de-

cided to pay us, because the last

day we worked, Thursday, we wer-

en’t sure. I was talking to friends at

the Getty and Broad and I heard

they’d be paying their part-time

employees. I was surprised how

transparent they were being, early

on, while we were still unsure. But

on Friday, MOCA sent out an email

saying starting that day, we’d be

paid for the shifts we were already

scheduled for.”

Eli Petzold, a former visitor

service associate at the perma-

nently closed Marciano Art Foun-

dation, said he has been talking

with museum workers. “No one’s

taking anything as a given, and

it’s really scary,” he said. “People

are thinking: ‘I might not have a

job at the end of this.’ But it’s too

early to know.”

The Getty Museum, which op-

erates at the Getty Center in

Brentwood and the Getty Villa in

Pacific Palisades, said it’s commit-

ted to paying all its part-time and

hourly employees “as long as this

goes on,” a representative said.

The J. Paul Getty Trust — which

operates the museum, the Getty

Foundation as well as the Getty

Conservation and Research insti-

tutes — has an endowment that

puts it in the top 10% of national

trusts and foundations. It’s giving

all part-time and hourly employees

an additional three weeks of paid

sick leave in response to the pan-

demic.

“We’re fully prepared to be

closed through May,” a museum

representative said. “And if we

can re-open sooner, that’s fabu-

lous, but we’re preparing for a

longer scenario.” Most of the Ham-

mer Museum’s part-time and

hourly employees — about 100 staff

who work the reception desk, over-

see galleries, run the theater box

office — are UCLA students who

will be paid through mid-April, the

museum said.

“We’re looking for opportuni-

ties to find other work that they

might be able to help us with dur-

ing the closure,” a museum repre-

sentative said. “These are all

kids hungry for experience, and

they want to work and develop skill

sets and grow in their careers.”

The Natural History Museum

of Los Angeles County, which is

paying part-time and hourly staff

through March, is “trying to be

creative about how some part-

time staff might help out on proj-

ects in other departments of the

[museum] and the La Brea Tar

Pits, including in research and col-

lections, but this plan is in forma-

tion,” a representative said.

Even smaller institutions such

as the Institute of Contemporary

Art, Los Angeles and the Craft

Contemporary museum have

decided to pay part-time and

hourly staffers through at least

the end of the month.

The Japanese American Na-

tional Museum is taking the same

approach, redeploying some em-

ployees who normally interact with

the public to take on tasks such

as data entry, social media and

membership renewal mailings

normally handled by volunteers

on site.

When the Metropolitan Muse-

um of Art in New York announced

last week that it was closing tem-

porarily, it said it would pay all

full-time and hourly staff “through

the pay period,” a museum repre-

sentative said.

The museum has since updated

that policy.

“As is appropriate, we are man-

aging this fast-moving crisis on

an incremental basis,” a repre-

sentative said by email Monday.

“Today, we have updated that

policy to say the Met will continue

to be closed until April 3, and we

will continue to pay all staff during

that time.”

The Guggenheim Museum in

New York said via email only that

it was “supporting salaried and

hourly employees during this pe-

riod; we are in a fluid and unprece-

dented situation and continue to

assess circumstances based on

available information. The safety

and well being of our employees

is of utmost priority.”

In San Francisco, where Mayor

London Breed ordered residents

to stay home as of midnight Mon-

day, the San Francisco Museum of

Modern Art said it was committed

to paying part-time hourly employ-

ees through March.

“I think the future is really

uncertain for so many at this

time,” MOCA part-timer Leroy

said. “I’m just trying to be as opti-

mistic as possible.”

A relief for museum workers

Many L.A. institutions are paying hourly employees, at least through March

By Deborah Vankin

THE GETTY CENTERin Brentwood is among the L.A. museums that will continue paying hourly employees during the shutdown.

Allen J. SchabenLos Angeles Times

The Dow Jones Industrial Aver-
age dropped nearly 3,000 points in
one day, government-ordered
home quarantines expanded and
theaters around the world have
closed their doors as the co-
ronavirus pandemic continued to
worsen, but at least one California
arts group Monday chose to look
for rays of hope by thinking about
the future.
South Coast Repertory moved
ahead with its 2020-21 season an-
nouncement Monday evening,
promising a lineup that includes a
musical adaptation of “Prelude to
a Kiss” and a new production writ-
ten by and starring Amy Brenne-
man.
The next season also will in-
clude plays by August Wilson and
Thornton Wilder, an adaptation of
an Alfred Hitchcock movie, ac-
claimed works by Mike Lew and
Octavio Solis, and the final staging
of the company’s original produc-
tion of “A Christmas Carol.”
“Anchored by American clas-
sics, our lineup also includes con-
temporary hits and new works des-
tined to become tomorrow’s clas-
sics,” artistic director David Ivers
said in the announcement. “A wide
variety of voices are represented,
some that aren’t always front and
center, and they explore some of
the important issues of our time, as
well as the universal truths that
bind us together.”
The world premiere of the “Prel-
ude to a Kiss” musical (May 15-
June 12, 2021) will close the season.
With a book by “Kiss” playwright
Craig Lucas, plus music by Dan
Messé and lyrics by Messé and
Sean Hartley, the new adaptation
brings the title back to SCR, where

the play (also adapted into the Meg

Ryan-Alec Baldwin film) debuted

in 1988.

“The play was a groundbreak-

ing play for SCR, and when I heard

just a couple of the songs, it was a

no-brainer,” Ivers, who will direct

the staging, told The Times. “The

source material is the same as the

play, but the songs are emotionally

driven and extraordinary and gor-

geous. And they’re sort of ear-

worms.”

The season will kick off with

Wilson’s “Two Trains Running”

(Sept. 5-Oct. 3) on the Segerstrom

Stage, SCR’s largest house. Di-

rected by Lou Bellamy, the Pulitzer

Prize finalist is the sixth in Wilson’s

10-part Pittsburgh-based cycle on

the African American experience.

That production will be followed by

Octavio Solis’ “Quixote Nuevo”

(Oct. 17-Nov. 14), a modern retelling

of Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra’s

novel directed by Juliette Carrillo.

The final performances of the

company’s original production of

Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas

Carol” (Nov. 28-Dec. 27) will star

SCR founding artist Richard Doyle

(known for years as the Ghost of

Christmas Past) as Ebenezer

Scrooge (played for 40 years by Hal

Landon Jr.). Hisa Takakuwa takes

over directing duties. A new “Car-

ol” debuts in 2021.

Landon will be back on the Seg-

erstrom Stage in Beth Lopes’ stag-

ing of “Our Town” (Jan. 23-Feb. 20),

playing the Stage Manager in

Wilder’s Pulitzer Prize-winning

classic.

The venue also will house the

world-premiere production of

Erika Sheffer’s “Vladimir” (March

27-April 24), which is scheduled to

debut as a reading at the Pacific

Playwrights Festival next month.

The topical drama charts a crusad-

ing journalist running afoul of the

Russian government and risking

family, friends and freedom to un-

cover the truth.

Over on SCR’s Julianne Argyros

Stage, the world premiere of Bren-

neman’s “Threshold” (Sept. 27-

Oct. 18) will be directed and chore-

ographed by Sabrina Peck. In-

spired by Brenneman’s own experi-

ences with her daughter, born with

a rare chromosomal abnormality,

the actress from “Judging Amy,”

“The Leftovers” and “Goliath”

works through preconceptions of

disability and what is considered

“normal.”

That show will be followed by

Lisa Portes’ staging of Mike Lew’s

family comedy “Tiger Style!” (Jan.

3-24) and Kent Nicholson’s pro-

duction of Patrick Barlow’s spy

spoof “The 39 Steps” (March 7-28,

2021), based on John Buchan’s nov-

el and Alfred Hitchcock’s film. An

additional title (April 11-May 2,

2021), staged from the Pacific Play-

wrights Festival, will be announced

later.

SCR’s Theatre for Young Audi-

ences family series includes the

“Peanuts” party “You’re a Good

Man, Charlie Brown” (Nov. 6-22, di-

rected by Kari Hayter) and Cheryl

L. West’s musical journey “Last

Stop on Market Street” (Feb. 5-21,

directed by Oanh Nguyen). An ad-

ditional title (May 28-June 13, 2021)

will be announced at a later date.

The season also will include the

Mozart Project, a collaboration

among SCR, the Pacific Symphony

and the Pacific Chorale. The pro-

gram includes the “Don Giovanni”

overture and the Requiem in D-mi-

nor, interspersed with a portrayal

of Mozart’s greatest rival, Antonio

Salieri, performed by Ivers.

Subscription packages are on

sale now at scr.org; single tickets

for all shows will be available in

June.

CRAIG LUCAS’ fantasy “Prelude to a Kiss” became a 1992 filmwith Meg Ryan and Alec Baldwin.

Don Smetzer

AMY BRENNEMANhas

written a play inspired by life

with her disabled daughter.

L. CohenWireImage

‘Prelude to a Kiss’ musical tops SCR’s list

South Coast Rep looks

hopefully ahead to a

post-pandemic world with

its 2020-21 season lineup.

By Ashley Lee