Some people walking by Burlington’s Flynn Theater were startled to see Hanna Satterlee in the middle of a performance.
The dancer sprung around Chase Studio, a 1,000-square-foot room adjacent to the Main Street sidewalk, where floor-to-ceiling windows framed Satterlee’s performance. She circled a dinner table set for two — intended to symbolize the sadness one feels, she later told VTDigger, of planning a dinner party with no one to invite to during a global pandemic.
She transitioned from graceful leaps to robotic movements with fork and knife props in hand. There was no music — just the sound of Burlington’s downtown. At times, she capitalized on the fishbowl point of view that the Flynn wanted to create for spectators in this series called The Window on Main. She would press up against the glass and her eyes would follow pedestrians as they walked across her stage — the sidewalk.
While only a smattering of Burlingtonians braved the sleeting weather typical of an April Friday afternoon to watch the performance, Satterlee — founder of Vermont Dance Alliance — was elated to have spectators again.
“The experience of being on a dance floor again,” Satterlee said, “it just was a sensation of landing back at home.”
After a year of being mainly empty of both performers and spectators, the Flynn Theater is beginning to hold more events, and is experimenting with new ways to deliver art while the world begins to emerge from a deadly pandemic.
And it’s doing so under a new executive director. Jay Wahl started the job in January, a year after Anna Marie Gewirtz’s departure. Wahl came from the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts in Philadelphia, where he was artistic director.
In 2019, the Flynn sold 130,000 tickets to 245 events; in 2020, it sold 30,000 tickets to 63 events. Despite that decrease, it’s been working to connect with local people in pandemic-friendly fashion.
During the summer, the Flynn hosted a “Hurly Burly” show series on the backs of flatbed trucks in outdoor, public spaces. It has hosted online classes on subjects ranging from burlesque to musical theater.
Wahl said the theater is organizing more events for the summer and fall, though they’re not ready to be announced yet. It’s still difficult to define a specific benchmark on when in-person events will again be possible — the Flynn also has to take reopening cues from public officials — Wahl said residents can expect to see many more events by the fall.
In the meantime, the performing arts venue is experimenting with new forms of storytelling suitable for a pandemic. One of them is The Window on Main series, which is being promoted on social media with the hashtag #FlynnFishbowl. The series began last weekend and is continuing from 4 to 8 p.m. April 23 and 24 with different performers every hour.
“Window on Main really was born out of a desire for two things. One is to make sure that we keep hiring artists and providing opportunities for artists to do what they do,” Wahl said. The event is sponsored by Vermont Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts.
“And the second thing was, we believe that the arts are always in dialogue,” he said. “So how can we keep finding moments for artists to engage with audiences?”
Wahl said The Window on Main series is also an experiment in sidewalk engagement, preparing for the culminating block party of Burlington’s upcoming Jazz Festival, which Wahl described as the “biggest reopening” event for the Flynn this season.
The festival will run from June 4 to 13. It was canceled last summer by the pandemic.
The festival will be a bit different from years past. All events will be held outside and will be entirely free. They’ll include Hurly Burly shows, jazz improv sessions tied to movie screenings at City Hall Park, and school band performances on Church Street.
The festival kicks off with a mass saxophone jam session on the waterfront. “We’re inviting everybody in the region who plays the saxophone” to be part of the performance, Wahl said. (If you identify as a former or current saxophone player, the Flynn wants to hear from you: saxophones@flynnvt.org.)
“It’s really important to me that we’re going to start the whole festival with a communitywide music celebration,” Wahl said. “We’ll stand in a big circle at the waterfront. We’re going to see each other, we’ll acknowledge that we missed each other, and that we value playing music together.”
The Flynn Theater hasn’t emerged from the pandemic unscathed, Wahl said. In 2020, the theater earned $3 million less in ticket revenue than in 2019.
He said the pandemic forced the Flynn to make a substantial pivot, including some belt tightening. And while there have been concerns about the survival of Vermont’s performance organizations, Wahl said the Flynn will emerge on solid ground, thanks to just under $1 million in government assistance and support from local businesses and organizations.
“Is the Flynn going to survive? Absolutely,” Wahl said. “Because there is this wave of generosity. And that is extraordinary.”
