Getting recreation and leisure up and running again.

That doesn't make much sense. Across Europe companies are being paid so that they can run with much reduced houses without making losses. Why would they not want a theatre to open? If the pubs can open on safety grounds what's the reasoning on theatres? 

Let’s remember that the 1.5 billion money INCLUDES-
hundreds of heritage sites
independent cinemas
music venues
art galleries
and museums
....so it is not all for theatres.

The French pledged 6-7 times as much to their Arts industry according to Twitter......Will reserve judgement until I see how the pie is divided up.

Can’t this government announce anything, without leaking it first.

Tbf, George Osborne and the FT broke and embargo. Wasn't leaked.

^Jon,a friend of mine saw your comment and pointed me to artnet.com who reported that the figure for the German govts pledge to support businesses predominantly with emphasis on culture,creative industries and media was actually a staggering 50 Billion Euro’s....now that’s what I call a real whopping wedge of money! lol

That was ONLY in the city-state of Berlin - everywhere else freelancers were screwed. Berlin has always been great at spending other people's money. The state governments living firmly in 20th century allocated 9000 Euro over a period of three months for freelancers who lost their income but the money was ONLY to be spend on rent for office rooms, staff and similar, NOT for personal expenses like rent and food. Despite the fact that so many freelancers these days work from home and have neither office nor staff, only a laptop or a music instrument or whatever. So millions missed out on the help and at the same time it became obvious that criminal clans had been able to sneak in there, to grab thousands of Euro of help unchecked, which has now disappeared. 

The "arts" that are supported here, are also as usual the pampered state-subsidized theatres that have been playing for an elitist target group with their Regietheater nonsense for decades. Privately funded theatres, including the big musical theatres, get NOTHING. So you can soon watch another deconstructed Shakespeare again or a socially distanced heady play with three nude performers musing over the state of the world, but if you want to see a musical with beautiful costumes, songs and distraction from the miseries of the real world, you can forget about that. 

So not all that wonderful here. 

Really? We have been crying out for a financial package, which not everyone was even confident we would get at all, and we've just had one announced that is actually higher than most people even predicted or hoped for and yet the only response by some is to start comparing it to Germany? Or start complaining about the potential allocations? Or make digs about it being leaked?

Can people not just be pleased and grateful that we finally actually have something in place that will help?

Honestly.

There have been countless hundreds of Zoom plays, from all levels of the industry. Within days of theatre being closed Headlong commissioned a selection of the finest established and emerging writers to write Zoom plays which were broadcast on the BBC. Did you miss the NationalETheatr festival, the “Play in a Day” thing, the Donmar Warehouse’s streamed Zoom play, Graeae’s series of commissioned Zoom monologues, the extraordinary performed-live Caryl Churchill Zoom production, the 14:48 Festival, the Elton John/James Graham musical doing a Zoom reading, etc. etc. etc.

Absolutely no one in theatre has sat back and waited for a government handout. If the public had knew even 10% of what “leadership” have been doing behind the scenes (which is the reason this bailout happened) they would not make ignorant comments.

At least there’ll be a cracking play in all of this one day.

^Dr Jan Brock,just checked the web-site I named and just quoting what they said,namely that the 50 Billion pledged in Germany was predominantly for cultural,creative and media industries,so if you disagree with them take it up with them.I am just quoting what the site says.Other sites also seem to agree with them,I notice.
Thank you,Sir.

Did you watch Staged? Or Talking Heads?

There’s been loads of work going on online. I haven’t watched all that much of it because to me an online experience just isn't the same - it’s fundamentally TV, rather than theatre. But certainly those innovations have been work for the people involved.

The main difference is that on a plane you don’t have a bunch of people projecting loudly or singing at you for three hours. It may not be an issue in the upper circle, but a singer who was infected but asymptomatic could potentially infect a fair proportion of the front stalls. Wearing a mask as an audience member mostly prevents you passing it on, rather than protecting you from becoming infected. Hence the discussion about whether performances could go ahead with a screen between the stage and the auditorium.