“Mamma Mia!”- here they go again!

  The Henry Players have begun their 30th season with the stage production of “Mamma Mia!”

  Melissa Martin, Co-Director and Music Director of “Mamma Mia!,” described the show as being “fun” and “energetic.”

  “It keeps you laughing from the beginning to the end, but it’s also sweet and heartwarming and has some really good life lessons in there,” she said.

  The performances kicked off on Thursday, September 10 with shows through Sunday, September 13.

  “Everything went great. We had five sold-out performances,” she said.

  This week is the last week to attend the show, with performances this Thursday through Sunday.

  The final show dates include:

• Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, September 17-19 at 7:30 p.m.
• Saturday, September 19 at 2:00 p.m.
• Sunday, September 20 at 2:30 p.m.

  Auditions were held for “Mamma Mia!” in December of 2019 with rehearsals beginning this January.

  This production was scheduled to begin in April. However, due to the coronavirus pandemic, plans were shifted to a later date.

  “Our last rehearsal was March 12. We stopped doing rehearsals because of COVID. We did virtual rehearsals for a long time,” said Martin. “We felt like later September was a time that we felt like it was safe enough to put the show on.”

  Rehearsals and read-throughs were modified to be held virtually and were social distanced until about a week prior to the opening week of the performance.

  “It’s been almost 10 months of rehearsals. We’ve social distanced rehearsals until about last week when we started wearing face shields and actually running the whole show,” she said. “We have had zero COVID cases since our return to rehearsal. Nobody, cast or crew, has had it.”

  The safety of the performers, staff, and audience are a main concern of The Henry Players, resulting in a few changes to their theater operations.

  Entrance to the theater has been modified to allow for social distancing. Rather than congregating in the lobby prior to the performance, guests will remain on the front porch area of the theater to allow for social distancing while tickets are being taken.

  Seating within the theater is also being modified to allow for social distancing.

  Typically, The Henry Players Theater can hold anywhere from 180 to 200 audience members. However, they will be limiting audience members to 60 for these, and potentially future, performances.

  Seating within the theater will be social distanced and in groups based on ticket purchases.

  “We go in each night and create a seating chart so that everybody is distanced away from each other and there’s nobody that’s not in the same household or in the same group that is sitting next to each other,” said Martin.

  Performers are wearing face shields throughout the show for added protection.

  Audience members are required to wear masks to their seats, where they can then remove them to watch the production.

  “We just feel like since they’re socially distanced so far from the stage and our performers have masks on that they would be more likely to enjoy the show without having to sit for two hours in a mask. We feel like it’s a safe enough situation,” she said.

  Concessions are pre-packaged and will be delivered to the attendees in their seats.

  Sanitizing stations have also been installed throughout the theater for attendees to use.

  The theater will be thoroughly cleaned after each performance.

  “We are trying to be as safe as possible,” said Martin. “The last thing we want is to put on a show and then somebody gets sick and we have to cancel the whole thing.”

  Despite the setbacks, The Henry Players is grateful to be able to provide a safe environment for theater productions to be held.

  “We are just so excited to be able to provide this for the community and for our cast who’s worked so hard,” she said.

  The next show that is on the books for The Henry Players is “Elf The Musical” in December.

  Performances are held at The Henry Players Theater, located at 136 Hood Street in McDonough.

  For more information about “Mamma Mia!” or for performance updates, visit their Facebook page @thehenryplayers.