This week, on Monday 15 February, we joined 70 arts organisations and theatres across the UK in lending our support to an open letter to Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden, as part of a campaign for the early reopening of open-air performing arts venues.

The Coalition for Open Air Theatre and Out To Perform have joined forces to persuade the UK Government to prioritise the early opening of the Covid-safest part of the performing arts: the small-scale outdoor performing sector, which presents the best opportunity to spearhead a cultural revival for 2021.

The return of live outdoor performances on 11 July 2020 saw an estimated 500,000 people able to experience the joy of live performance once more. It generated around £7 million in revenue for venues who had been forced to shut since March 2020. Furthermore, it supported both creative and hospitality jobs – many of whom had not been able to work for four months.

Unfortunately, we were not able to join many of our friends across the industry in reopening last summer, due to the combination of considerably reduced audience numbers with social distancing, late notice about the reopening out of lockdown, and at the time, no news on our application for financial support from the Culture Recovery Fund (which we have since been awarded a very welcome lifeline grant of £3 million).

Now we’re looking ahead to this spring and summer – we know audiences are willing to attend open-air performances in all seasons and weather (we’ve all experienced being soaked to the skin during a rather wet show at the Globe!) and we’re eager to reopen the doors to our wooden ‘O’, to continue sharing Shakespeare’s stories, as soon as it is safe to do so.

With the right safety measures in place, outdoor performances should be able to go ahead. A smaller capacity and controlled seating mean social distancing can easily be managed between household bubbles, and outdoor Covid-19 transmission rates are much lower.

Our Chair of the Board, Margaret Casely-Hayford, appeared on the BBC’s Newsnight programme last week, to discuss the dynamism of outdoor theatre.

Lockdown has provided us with the opportunity to see things differently – much of our work has moved online, allowing audiences from all around the world to experience Shakespeare and theatre from their very own homes, and offer audiences who would not necessarily engage with the Bard a taste of what to expect.

As well as welcoming back to our theatres our incredible audiences who have supported us during this unprecedented time, we’re keen to introduce and welcome new audiences to Shakespeare – and outdoor theatre is the way to do so. Open spaces can remove barriers to engagement, they can feel more accessible, relaxed. An open, outdoor environment can make the first initial step into experiencing theatre a little less daunting.

We know watching a show at the Globe in the open-air is an exciting and exhilarating experience. Our Globe Theatre is at mercy to the elements, with the weather often acting as another character in the play – whether it’s thunderstorms striking during the opening shipwreck in The Tempest or the sun shining down on King Henry during his St Crispin’s Day speech in Henry V – it can entirely influence the atmosphere of how a play is brought to life on stage.

It is important to get theatres open again as soon as possible. We are major economic drivers for the UK. We want to be safely open to bring joy, wonder and entertainment to people’s lives once more.