Yvonne Tham, CEO of Esplanade, told CNBC's "Street Signs Asia" that a mixture of in-person and streamed performances are set to be common in the future.
"Many artists are really open now to what's known as hybrid, which may be performing in a particular space in a particular time, but how does that performance have an afterlife? And that's a question we've been asking ourselves even as we've been producing lots of digital programs," Tham said on Monday.
"We're going to see festivals in future that are not just limited by time and space, therefore what goes on to complement that live experience in the digital space becomes quite important," she added. Pre-pandemic, around 3,000 performances took place annually at the Esplanade and it had to close its doors on March 26 due to coronavirus restrictions placed on venues. Since then it created its Esplanade Offstage website so people could continue to watch concerts and other performances and is now gradually reopening some of its venues — its Pip's Playbox children's space reopened on October 9, while its Jendela visual arts venue is set to reopen on October 16.
While some performances have continued outdoors, Tham said others work better inside. "We are looking at all ways of reaching audiences, be that in the open air, out in the garden, we are looking at our concert hall venues. Some they work far better in the concert hall and some in the theater space," she said.
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