DALLAS — The Dallas Theater Center (DTC) announced it canceled performances of A Christmas Carol for the rest of the week after a cast member tested positive for COVID.
DTC managing director Jeff Woodward told WFAA Friday they had to shut down six performances of the holiday show at the Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre in downtown Dallas.
“It's the biggest show that we do every year at the Dallas Theater Center,” Woodward said. "It was doing extremely well. We were actually tracking (similar numbers) to the Christmas Carol before the pandemic began
“A lot of families come to A Christmas Carol every year, so it's really disappointing and discouraging that now we’re going to have to turn people away.”
Woodward said they test the actors and crew on a weekly basis. The entire acting company, crew, and DTC staff is fully vaccinated, the managing director added.
“Our production of Christmas Carol is very unusual in that the set comes into the auditorium and the actors are literally in the audience with the audience members,” Woodward said. “There's no social distancing that can happen. So, we wanted to make sure that all of the actors were fully vaccinated, as were our crew.”
This isn’t just happening in North Texas. COVID cases also forced Broadway shows like the Tina Turner Musical, Hamilton, and Moulin Rouge! to cancel.
“I hope this is not the new reality, because it'll certainly jeopardize our business,” Woodward said. “I think we will figure out a way to get through this.”
Performances of A Christmas Carol are shut down until Wednesday. Woodward said DTC is “hopeful that we'll get the test results back and we can come back on Wednesday night and finish the run.”
The last two performances of A Christmas Carol are scheduled for Dec. 26.
“We're hoping that (people who bought tickets) will come back and see something else at the Dallas Theater Center,” Woodward said. “We're doing a production of Our Town after A Christmas Carol, and then we're doing a production of The Sound of Music. So, we're hoping that some people may opt into either of those shows and exchange their tickets to that, so we're certainly encouraging people to do that.”
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The theater started requiring audience members older than 12 to have a negative COVID-19 test or to provide proof of vaccination with A Christmas Carol.