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Photo by Dog Daze Photography
At first, Claire Taylor didn’t think the coronavirus pandemic would drastically affect her career. Like others, the director of programming for Denver’s SeriesFest nonprofit believed it would be short-lived and that the television-focused festival would go off in June like normal. As the weeks went on, however, she realized it wouldn’t affect just the 2020 festival, but the festival for the following year and beyond.
SeriesFest provides year-round programming aimed at creatives breaking into the entertainment industry. It culminates in a celebratory festival each summer that includes panels, screenings, competitions, education and more. With production coming to a halt in Los Angeles, New York City and elsewhere in the industry, Taylor wasn’t sure what that would mean for the festival if it lacked network premieres or new scripts.
Photo from Breckenridge Backstage Theatre
The Breckenridge Backstage Theatre sat largely empty in 2020 as performances were canceled when the COVID-19 shutdown hit in March, but in September, the Breckenridge Backstage Theatre board decided that kids needed an outlet, and the KidsPlay program was brought to the theater for elementary- and middle-school-aged students.
Breckenridge Backstage Theatre Treasurer Laurie Rambaud said that while the group has run a kids program for years, KidsPlay didn’t happen this summer due to pandemic concerns. It was ultimately reinstated in the fall for a wider age group.
“What we found is the kids are absolutely dying to get out. We get a lot of kids that are choosing to go fully online or especially after weeks they’re in quarantine they come to the theater jumping out of their skins,” Rambaud said.
Enrollment is open for the next session of the Breckenridge Backstage Theatre’s KidsPlay courses, which start on Tuesday, Feb. 2, at the Breckenridge Theater at 121 S. Ridge St. The theater offers three different courses.