Save Our Stage

Tivoli officials talk about how the Save Our Stage Act in the Covid relief bill will help them survive.

Will benefit from coronavirus relief by the federal government.

News 12's winston reed reached out to local chattanooga theaters to see how the 'save our stage' act is impacting them.

: theaters and venues alike, suffers from not filling their seats and providing entertainment for large crowds.

This has been a really devastating time for us.

Executive director of the tivoli theater nick wilkinson says the tivoli earns around 10 million dollars a year.

With federal aid that provides up to 12 million dollars depending on a theater's 2019 earnings, wilkinson says the 'save our stage' act will live up to its name.

"so this would give us the ability to start planning as we move forward to eventually start rehiring and start growing the organization for our future."

Standup: the chattanooga theatre center is still open for business but attendance has been cut down in half.

Rodney van valkenburg says he hopes the 'save our stages' act will benefit the program in the long run.

"we need these extra funds to help pay for staff and help pay for our electricity which is huge."

Wilkinson believes there's a chance the theater industry could make a strong comeback in the fall.

Although the timetable is not certain leaders from the tivoli and the chattanooga theatre center are optimistic.

"when that time does come and it will get here, we're going to be off to the races but it's going to be stuff like save our stages that's going to make sure that we can survive through that period."

"the support from save our stages is definitely going to help us really prepare for the future when this is all over.

We want to come back bigger and stronger than ever."

Reporting in chattanooga winston