Charles Theatre in Charles City will open July 6 under COVID-19 guidelines

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

The Charles Theatre will be reopening soon, with COVID-19 guidelines in place – including the requirement to wear face masks – and with some uncertainty remaining as to the movies that will be shown.

“It looks like we’re going to be opening back up Monday night, July 6,” said Karen Youngerman, theater manager.

“Right now we don’t know what movie we’re going to be playing,” she said. “Disney has offered us three movies a week, our choice of one of them, and I’m trying to get something that we were scheduled to play when we closed down. That’s still kind of up in the air yet.”

The theater will have sections of seats blocked off for social distancing, but families that arrive together will be able to sit together, Youngerman said.

“We will have plexiglass up in front of the ticket seller and in front of the concession stand,” she said. “We will not be collecting money at the concession stand. We will have a separate table and that person will just strictly deal with the money, so we won’t be changing gloves every time we make an order or something.”

Youngerman said hand sanitizer will be available at two stations, and the theater will be sanitizing seats and wiping down everything else every night.

“We are getting a backpack sprayer and the solution that they use will not hurt the upholstery. It’s just kind of going to be mist. We won’t be soaking them up,” she said.

“The one thing that we are going to do is require masks,” Youngerman said. Workers at the theater will have face masks and gloves, and patrons will be required to wear masks when they enter and exit the building and any time they are moving around.

People will be able to take their masks off while they are in their seats to eat their popcorn and other concessions, but “if they get up to go to the bathroom or something they’re going to have to have a mask on,” Youngerman said.

“We will do everything we can to keep everybody safe,” she said. “We are asking our volunteers to make sure they aren’t sick or running a temp. We are not going to take the temperature of everybody that comes through the door. We’re just hoping everybody uses common sense.”

Youngerman said being closed has been rough, although Friday evening popcorn sales to drive-up costumers has made more than $9,000, which has been enough to keep paying ongoing bills.

She said the movie studios and distributors have pushed most new movie releases back into the fall.

Disney has offered a choice of shows for now, and Warner Brothers has also offered some classic movies that can be shown, but to sustain the business the theater will need to be able to offer newer movies.

“To open up the door we have to have something that’s going to draw, just to meet our expenses,” Youngerman said.