Open Call: A renewed Grand emerges from ashes of COVID pandemic

Mark Fields

Guest columnist

Editor's note: Open Call is a weekly column in which we ask arts and cultural leaders to share their perspectives on emerging from the COVID-19 crisis and welcoming back audiences.

We are all familiar with the mythical creature called the phoenix which, after going through a sudden burst of flame, emerges from the ashes to live again, stronger and more brilliant than before.

Well, the staff and volunteers at The Grand are feeling fairly phoenix-like these days. Although we didn’t exactly burst into flames, during COVID we faced one of the most incredible challenges in our recent history.

With our first indoor performance scheduled for Sept. 26, The Grand is ready to re-emerge from the ashes of the pandemic (and more than 550 days of closure) to be the vital, beautiful performing arts center that the community has loved for years.

The pandemic intermission at The Grand lasted more than 550 days.

But The Grand re-opens, having undergone some fundamental changes in how we understand our role in the community and how we interact with that community. None of these shifts will change the essential nature of The Grand and its role in the life of Wilmington, but like the phoenix, these adjustments are refinements produced through the ordeal of the pandemic closure.

The pandemic changed the way we understand our mission. We at The Grand have come to understand that our historic buildings are not the mission of the organization per se, but a method of delivering that service to the community.

Being unable to present indoor shows, we took our artistry out into the community, to the Riverfront, to Bellevue, Rockwood and Wilmington Parks, and to the Hicks Community Center. And in doing so, we actually expanded the audience that The Grand serves.

When The Grand reopens later this month it will feature print-at-home tickets that will be scanned at the door one of numerous changes.

In addition, we have used the fundraising campaign to re-open The Grand as a path to greater diversity in our programming and our audiences. We’ve already engaged a diversity programming consultant, and those new shows, intended to reach new audiences, will start being announced in the coming weeks.

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Being closed changed the perception of the community. The Grand has been an institution on Market Street for so long that many in the community could not imagine that it could ever close. That failure of imagination gave many a convenient excuse to forego supporting The Grand as unnecessary. But we no longer have to imagine the closure of The Grand. It happened, and no one liked the experience: a quiet Market Street at night-time; reduced hours in nearby restaurants; empty parking lots and garages. That stark contrast to the bustle of a typical show night reminded everyone what was at stake and prompted a wave of generous new financial and advocacy support, including from all levels of government.

A break changed the service we provide to our patrons. Having a less hectic performance and program schedule, while disorienting, also provoked a period of reconsideration about how we deliver additional value to our patrons. When we re-open this fall, we will have print-at-home scannable tickets at the door to reduce contact, new self-service kiosks in the box office lobbies, vivid digital information displays in front of the building, and faster, more user-friendly online ticketing.

Mark Fields is executive director of The Grand Opera House in Wilmington.

We have completed significant renovations at The Playhouse on Rodney Square (details will be announced in October), and we secured funding that will provide many cosmetic and system improvements in the Opera House and baby grand, as well that will occur in the months ahead.

Our involuntary extended intermission changed the way we work at The Grand — and with our colleagues. When we could no longer safely meet around a conference table or in someone’s office, we discovered that Zoom meetings actually improved communication and created a more cohesive team.

The shared experience of adjusting to and surviving the pandemic further enhanced a common purpose and camaraderie.

The Grand Opera House will celebrate its 150th anniversary this fall with a variety of events. It is the longest-lived performance venue in Delaware.

This was true not just within The Grand organization, but also with our colleagues in the cultural economy that were facing the same challenges. We talked more, brainstormed more, appreciated each other more. We dared to be voices of hope and optimism amid an understandable climate of worry and doubt; after all, hope is the business of the arts. I don’t expect those strengthened bonds, or that optimism, to fade as we return to a semblance of normal operation.

In 1871, a group of community leaders decided that Wilmington needed a first-class performance venue to put itself on the map with its metropolitan neighbors to the north and south. In 1971, a new generation of community leaders realized that Wilmington could be revitalized by an infusion of energy produced by a downtown performing arts center, and so The Grand – in horrible disrepair – was restored to life.

And in 2021, the 150th anniversary of the original opening of the building, yet another group of visionaries determined that Wilmington could not recover from the pandemic if the arts and especially The Grand did not recover.

So, even as The Grand observes this milestone anniversary, it resumes full operation as a positively transformed organization. We look forward to celebrating with the entire community, the re-emergence of a beautiful, bold, and compelling phoenix of performing arts in the heart of downtown Wilmington.

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

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