As people started to become more aware of the pandemic, they switched their day-to-day activities to online platforms. People started to order food online for groceries and take-out, which affected local restaurants and stores. To maintain social distancing people stopped going to malls and movie theatres, which affected places like The Ambler Theatre. The Ambler Theatre is an independent non-profit theatre that has been open since 1928. They specialize in art and foreign films, kid’s events, and guest lectures. Brendan Joyce, the Associate Programmer, said that “the theatre has been closed since March 13th and will resume in the spring if the cases start to go down”. They were willing to shut down the theatre right away because many of their customers are older, and they don’t want to put anyone at risk. To continue to satisfy their customers, they have been updating their website and social media accounts, which let them bring new ideas to the table and expand their creativity.
When they heard about the closing, Chris R. Collier, the Executive Director, said, “everyone thought the theatre would be closed for one month; the Ambler Theatre had a lot of films planned, and we weren’t sure what was going to happen”. It was described as a hectic situation, but they were coming up with creative new ideas as they went along. New elements that they added were outdoor theatres, YouTube interviews, meetings with writers —such as Karen Maine, who was a writer for Obvious Child— and updates to their newsletter. They had great responses with these different segments and are continuing to adapt to keep their employees and customers engaged during the pandemic. Chris Collier said, “the pandemic has allowed us to try out new things and ideas which we all enjoyed doing”.
Along with their courteous donors, another piece of the puzzle that has been helping is government loans. The government loans have been very helpful to Ambler Theatre employees. One of the government loans they applied for was the ERC, which is the Employee Retention Credit, through the IRS to help maintain their building and support their staff. The federal government enhanced unemployment benefits by letting the staff earn the same salary as if they were working. It was very helpful, but it did not give them access to all of their belongings in the building. Brendan Joyce said that, “the government could be a bit more supportive of local businesses by listening more, but overall they have been a great help”. Government loans are what helped a lot of local businesses keep afloat during the shut down of the economy.
To keep communication with their customers, Ambler Theatre sends out emails through their newsletter. This lets their customers know what the theatre is going to be doing and new segments or activities that will be planned. To keep their employees motivated, they are having Zoom meetings, which have been a huge asset to their communication. They are also planning for their end of the year fundraiser and will eventually send out direct mail to customers to spread the word. They will also be having an annual member meeting in January over Zoom to keep in touch with their employees and come up with new ideas to launch.