After shutting down its current and remaining future productions in its spring 2020 season back in March, Boston’s Huntington Theatre Company has announced that it will not return to the stage until 2021, and will have to furlough or lay off a majority of its staff due to the public health crisis.
While Artistic Director Peter DuBois says the company “remains committed” to producing all of the plays that had been announced for the 2020–2021 season, there is no word yet on a new production timeline for any of those titles.
The lineup was to begin this summer with Heidi Schreck’s What the Constitution Means to Me, followed by Calista Flockhart in Oscar Wilde’s An Ideal Husband, Jen Silverman’s Witch, Melia Benussen and Kirsten Greenidge’s Common Ground Revisited, Michael Kimmel and Lauren Pritchard’s musical Songbird, and Madeleine George’s Hurricane Diane. Also on the roster were presentations of The Simon & Garfunkel Story and Ruben Santiago-Hudson’s Lackawanna Blues.
In the wake of the extended closure, Huntington Theatre Company is looking at a 50 percent slash to its budget, and will face rounds of layoffs, furloughs, and work and salary reductions beginning next month. The company anticipates that two thirds of the current staff will be let go in some capacity.
