In early 2020, we were working towards fulfilling our International Sweet Adelines dreams of singing on the stage as a wildcard performance in Louisville, Kentucky, in October. While this would have been Gateway's seventh time on the international stage, for many of our members this would have been their first.

Our province, on July 1st 2021 opened up with no restrictions. While this may sound exciting, it also elicited mixed feelings amongst our membership. As many of you know Gateway is an inclusive space where we want all our members to feel heard and safe.

Therefore during the months leading up to this we worked on a Return to the Risers plan with our management & music teams, including those who already held positions like Riser Captain, or our Orange Hub (this is what our rehearsal space is called) Liaison , our Zoom Captain and other coordinators. 

Thanks for watching our first day back video (top of page). We wanted to write a little more about what it took to get to this day from behind the scenes.

Our goal(s): Return safely & comfortably and continue to offer the zooming option for those not ready to return.

A caveat - Gateway has been offering a Zooming option to our members since before the pandemic. We were already well versed in this technology, as we live in Alberta where snowy nights sometimes make it hard for members to drive in. 

On July 20, 2021, Gateway Chorus held our first hybrid indoor rehearsal back in our home, since the pandemic started. 

In Alberta during this time, the latest COVID-19 numbers were reported at 69 new cases. There were 606 active cases in the province, 51.2 per cent of all Albertans were fully vaccinated, while 63.7 per cent had received at least one dose (74.8 per cent of those eligible).

Safety considerations (for live attendees):

• Indoor location - Orange Hub Theatre - with fresh air intakes

• Pre-registration & FAQ sent to all members

• Sign-in at location

• Singer’s Masks required when singing unless standing away from the group or outside

• Hand sanitizer stations upon entry - table with sanitizer was left for anyone’s use

• Pens sanitized between uses

• Coloured wristbands to indicate comfort level (RED: So happy to see you! but only from afar, Maintain 6-feet, please! YELLOW: Come close, but please no touching – or maybe just elbows, but that’s just weird. GREEN: HELLO WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN FOR THE LAST 498 DAYS?!? HHHHHHHHUUUUUG MMMMMMMMMEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) The wristbands are paper and are recyclable.

• As we were in a theatre, we skipped rows between singers and distanced singers 6 feet apart. We used the seats essentially as our risers. Each member was assigned a seat (Row J, Seat 17, for example.)

• No Guests were allowed, this was a closed rehearsal live. Guests could zoom in.

• No food, water only

Technology considerations:

• One Camera behind the director getting chorus shots (could easily be a phone camera)

• One Camera in front of the director to get face shots (could easily be a phone camera)

• Boom Mics for Sound and a Directors mic for amplification, being fed into a sound mixer

• The theatre already had amps, cables and cords for live streaming - so we connected into their sound box and fed it into a lap top running the zoom. Our Zoom Captain then ran the rest like she does every rehearsal recording the audio for those who could not join and also making sure the chat was monitored.

We had one hiccup when the director’s wireless mic just stopped - guess in 498 days no one charged the darn thing. So we ended up switching to a regular mic on a stand. It actually worked even better in our sound mix, so we now continue to use this method moving forward.

If you are not tech savvy, I think asking for help will eliminate head-aches. There are many grants and specialized programs through arts collaborations/associations and governments right now that can help with this burden, if costs are prohibitive. You can even call a school AV club to help, even if its just for the planning! Gateway is very lucky to be part of the STUDIO-19 initiative with FAVA who coordinated our camera crew to bring you the video you see above, helped plan our live-streaming sound & camera usage during rehearsal and helped us with rentals (a huge thank you to Cole from FAVA for working so closely with our group). 

There’s nothing like singing live, with real people actually ringing those chords together. Having our Director wave her arms at us again felt like being embraced in a warm hug. It was wonderful to be in our home after such a long wait.

Thank you for reading this, watching the video and supporting Gateway. Stay safe out there.