Audience cut-outs make debut at Performing Arts Centre

Sep 1, 2021 | 6:30 AM

An idea that’s been tried with some success in the sports world, will get an audition at the Vernon and District Performing Arts Centre.

The facility is ready to launch a fun promotion using audience cut-outs, which involves filing empty theatre seats with cutouts of patron photos.

The centre considered the idea last September, but the timing was not right and the proposal was put on hold.

Centre executive director Jim Harding said with the province’s four-step restart plan announced in the spring and increasing vaccination rates and public health and safety measures in place, they can see a possible return to full stage shows and concerts by late fall—even if Step 4 is pushed back.

“So we re-visited the audience cut-outs idea and will run with this promotion until we can return to full capacity shows,” Harding said. “I’m a huge baseball fan. I saw what the Blue Jays and other pro sports teams did last summer and thought: Why couldn’t we do that?”

High Risk of Overdose

Drug alert issued for fake tablets in Vernon

16h ago

Crashout Getaway

Vernon RCMP searching for thief who stole vehicle, broke down fence

17h ago

Election 2026

Community and business leader seeks Vernon City Council seat

18h ago

Audience cut-outs give frequent and casual VDPAC patrons, SPOTLIGHT Season subscribers, concert enthusiasts, performing arts supporters and area businesses the chance to get their life-size, full-colour happy face photo on a waist-up, head-and-shoulders shaped coroplast cut-out “seated” right in the Performing Arts Centre theatre.

Sponsors can also have their corporate logo added, altogether as a visual show of community support—that will also help fill the theatre’s empty seats.

The cut-out will also have a practical function. To meet the previous Public Health Order for “indoor public events” limiting venues to a maximum 50 per cent capacity and the directive to “use the entire space,” cut-outs will be placed in keeping with event seating plans to help keep the live, 3-D patrons safely physically distanced, with 175 seats available in VDPAC’s balcony; and 250 seats on the theatre’s main floor.

“We took a photo from our stage of our sample cut-outs seated in the house,“ said Harding. “They look real, so for performers, with a successful campaign, artists won’t have to face a half-empty house when they perform, which is also a great show of support for them as well.”

Wayside has produced 10 sample cut-outs to help launch the promotion, and which are now on public display in VDPAC’s main entrance foyer, “seated” in actual theatre seats.

“People can drop-by the Performing Arts Centre, Monday to Friday between 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. to see the cut outs for themselves,” said Harding. “We have takeaway details, space for people to take their photos and Ticket Seller box office will be open to take orders.”

For more information and to order, patrons and sponsors can go online to VDPAC’s ticketseller.ca homepage and click-on the “JOIN OUR CROWD” banner.

All orders are by tax deductible donations, ($85 for public & $100 for sponsors, including their added corporate logo). Donors receive a receipt with a dedicated link to upload their cut-out photo, plus their logo as a business sponsor.

Proceeds from the campaign will help support the return of the society’s annual SPOTLIGHT Season of full-stage shows and community outreach programming, with 50 per cent of net proceeds to benefit VDPAC’s annual Bursary Program for Greater Vernon and area students pursuing a post-secondary education and future careers in the performing arts.

by Pete McIntyre

View Comments