How Bastrop Opera House returned to live theater amid pandemic
During the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic, Lisa Holcomb kept a simple routine.
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The main floor of the Bastrop Opera House, where the audience sits in groups of socially-distanced seats, is shown from the theater’s stage. The Bastrop Opera House is a 131-yer-old facility.
She knew there was a slim chance she could continue as normal with the season of live shows scheduled at the Bastrop Opera House, where she serves as executive director.

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New developments with the pandemic arrived and changed by the hour. The city and county issued disaster declarations related to the spread of the disease.
The opera house went dark.
As Holcomb accepted a new reality, with a potential return date for the theater unknown, she settled into a pattern.
After locking the doors to the opera house, she decided to return to the building only to water the indoor plants and make sure no disturbances damaged the stately 131-year-old facility on Spring Street in Downtown Bastrop.
Holcomb made a sign that went up at the opera house that read: “We’re not gone, we’re just on a long intermission.”
“I was determined to never, ever, cancel a show here, because that’s just death to a theater,” Holcomb said.
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The Bastrop Opera House stage is shown with a piano and wooden chairs and desks on it. The theater has begun live streaming performances of shows online as a new viewing option.
But the global pandemic forced her hand, creating an uncertain future for the theater. Entertainment at the Bastrop Opera House, however, was only sidelined for just a few months.
In July, the theater hosted its annual summer camp for children, and by September performers graced the stage again as the opera house officially reopened.
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The opera house continues to adjust to life with COVID-19, but Holcomb wants to make sure live theater isn’t another casualty of the novel disease.
“There has been live theater since the beginning of time and I think there always will be in some form or fashion,” Holcomb said. “It’s had to go dark every now and then, but it’s always been here. It’s an outlet, it’s something that makes people feel good.”
Box office boost
Holcomb has been involved with the Bastrop Opera House for about 15 years, but only became the theater’s executive director at the start of the 2016-17 season.
The jump from volunteer and actress to executive director, as well as still being part of theater productions, provided her with a chance to expand the theater’s offerings by planning out a season of shows.
She used her experience as a board member of Texas Nonprofit Theatres — the statewide service organization for theaters in Texas — to help the opera house reach its potential as a nonprofit community theater through marketing locally and in Houston and San Antonio.
To help build a base of local supporters in Central Texas, Holcomb scheduled diverse entertainment options. Bands and traveling shows ranging from a Johnny Cash impersonator to events commemorating Black history were interspersed with musicals and plays.
That enthusiasm was reflected at the box office.
During the Jan. 26 Bastrop City Council meeting, Holcomb delivered the opera house’s financial report covering October, November and December, which included ticket sales since she became executive director.
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A backstage wall at the Bastrop Opera House includes written messages and signatures from people who have performed at the 131-year-old theater during its existence. The opera house had to close to the public for several months in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Sales grew from 1,604 tickets in 2016-17, to 4,150 and 7,269 tickets, respectively, in the following seasons.
Even with COVID-19, the opera house sold 3,600 tickets last season, more than double the ticket sales from Holcomb’s first season.
“I think it’s going to take a little while for the momentum to get back up to speed the way it was a couple seasons ago, but I feel very confident it will still be there,” Holcomb said. “We’re an award-winning theater and I really feel like we’ll get back to that.”
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The cost of performing community theater
Marketing outside of Bastrop has reaped benefits for both the opera house and city.
Holcomb said between half to two-thirds of ticket sales for shows continue to come from outside of Bastrop, even since reopening amid the pandemic.
During the December performance of “Elf The Musical” — which encompassed 11 shows at 50% occupancy — 839 tickets were sold with 558 tickets going to people outside Bastrop.
“It’s tourists and even day tourists, which is great for the economy because they come here, they go out to eat beforehand, they go shopping, they see what’s here and then they want to come back and they stay for the weekend,” Holcomb explained.
Additionally, the theater now offers online live streams of its performances.
For “Elf,” Holcomb said 186 live stream tickets were sold that generated about $2,500 in revenue. Among these viewers was a mother in California who emailed Holcomb to tell her how much she and her children enjoyed watching the show.
Holcomb, whose own parents live six hours away and watched the live stream of “Elf” three times, plans to continue the streaming option in a post-pandemic world.
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The front room of the Bastrop Opera house features a box office, seating areas and a sign advertising the theater’s next show. The opera house is located on Spring Street in Bastrop.
The money that comes from ticket sales remains crucial to keeping the doors open, she said.
Before Holcomb can announce future opera house shows, begin holding auditions for the volunteer actors or name directors, she must purchase the show rights.
She said securing the rights to a musical the size of “Elf” can cost up to $8,000 in total.
Economic ramifications from COVID-19 have affected the opera house’s funding, a large portion of which comes from Bastrop’s Hotel Occupancy Tax, which took a significant hit last year as the pandemic caused the temporary closure of local hotels.
The Bastrop Opera House received $66,175 in HOT funds this fiscal year, which is nearly $60,000 less than it received last fiscal year, although about $12,000 of HOT funds rolled over from last season to this season.
The theater also relies on grants, sponsorships and its monetary reserve to continue putting on shows.
“I didn’t ask for things that we really could have used that we asked for last year,” Holcomb said. “Knowing that we had to be very frugal and really budget for those shows.”
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Bringing the children back
When the opera house reopened in July for its summer camp as part of the Bastrop Youth Performing Arts Academy, it was in many ways an experiment.
It offered a chance for Holcomb to see how live theater could operate during a global pandemic, but it also offered a small sense of normalcy.
Children who were pulled out of school and away from their friends in the spring, who were also unable to perform at the opera house, finally returned to the sanctuary of the theater.
“We had children that walk through these doors and there’s just visible relief,” Holcomb said. “There’s some place that accepts them, that they feel comfortable in, even if they’re different. They’re home.”
During the two-week camp, the children wore masks and followed COVID-19 guidelines before culminating the experience with three performances of “Shrek The Musical.”
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The Bastrop Opera House is located at 711 Spring St. in Downtown Bastrop. After being closed for several months in 2020, the facility has reopened and continues to offer live theater performances to the public during the coronavirus pandemic.
The opera house has remained open for live theater in the months since.
A commercial fogger was purchased to sanitize the venue. Tickets are now exclusively sold online with seats grouped together. Masks are mandatory for patrons when moving around and for actors on-stage.
The opera house’s next show “Silent Sky” — based on the true story of 19th-century astronomer Henrietta Leavitt — is scheduled for opening night Feb 19.
Holcomb admits none of this comes with the comfort of permanence, and that plans can change suddenly as long as COVID-19 exists.
But as long as the opera house can be a source of entertainment and normalcy for people during a time lacking both, she’s committed to providing it.
“You can look around and see the bottles of hand sanitizer and the Lysol everywhere. We all have our mask on. We take it very seriously,” Holcomb said. “But we still want them to come and enjoy live theater and art. It is not dead. It is still here.”
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: ‘We’re just on a long intermission’: How Bastrop Opera House returned to live theater amid pandemic