As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, we want to keep you updated on what we’re doing to keep our audience, staff and actors safe. Want to know what to expect when you return to Next Act this season? Here’s the gist:

• COVID-19 continues to spread in our community, and our first priority is once again making sure Next Act is a safe place for all to gather and enjoy live theatre.
• During the 22-23 season, if the CDC COVID-19 level for Milwaukee County is High (Red) or Medium (Yellow), masks will be required at Next Act Theatre. If the level is Low (Green), masks will be optional.
  • We’ll keep you posted about the current CDC level in our pre-show reminder emails and with signage in the lobby at Next Act. You can also check it on the CDC website. Masks will be available in case you forget yours!
• Should it become necessary to institute new or different policies as the season progresses, we will keep you updated. We appreciate your help keeping Next Act a safe place.

Below, please find a map of Wisconsin’s CDC COVID-19 county levels. This map is updated every Thursday and is used by Next Act to dictate its mask policy as stated by the parameters above. Masks are currently optional at Next Act Theatre.

Mobile users may need to scroll the map by dragging their finger in order to find Milwaukee County.

Read on if you’d like a little more detail about our COVID safety policy:

Throughout our entire 2021-22 season, our patrons were a driving force of health and safety at Next Act Theatre. When it was time to return to the theatre in-person, you did so safely, vaccinated and masked, supporting our efforts to protect audiences, staff and artists. Thanks to you, we only had to cancel two total performances in 21-22, not even two percent of last season’s shows.

When we closed the 2021-22 season last May, we had hoped to relax all of our safety policies for the 2022-23 season. Unfortunately, COVID-19 continues be significant in our area, so we need to make sure everyone feels safe and comfortable at Next Act. As we saw last season, if our actors test positive for COVID, we could lose more performances, so having safety policies in place helps us keep you safe and prevent show cancellations.

Our mask policy, stated above, is based on the CDC COVID-19 Community Transmission Level for Milwaukee County. This is a metric assigned to all counties in the United States by the CDC based on data like new weekly cases, new hospital admissions and the percentage of hospital beds used by patients with COVID-19.

We will also be returning to full capacity seating, allowing larger audiences to once again join us in conversation, exploration and understanding. Next Act installed an enhanced air filtration system in 2020, and we strongly believe in its ability to make our space safe. Even when masks are mandatory in our space, we’ll be allowing drinks back into the theatre, though we ask patrons to be respectful and careful about masking back up when not drinking.

Thank you again for what you’ve already done to help us safely return to live theatre. We look forward to continuing to both entertain and challenge you, and doing so with everyone’s health in mind. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us at (414) 278-7780 or info@nextact.org.