MARVEL’S COVID SAFE CINEMA

Although vaccinations are rolling out and people around the world are banding together to combat the coronavirus pandemic, it will still take much time for people to return to beloved activities including visiting the movies. In light of this, Marvel have designed a project that involves converting shipping containers into stages that adjoin scaffolding towers towering above the street. 

At the beginning of the pandemic, many venues in the arts discipline were closed shortly after WHO classified coronavirus as a pandemic on the 12th of March 2020. Since then the industry has been overcome with failed attempts to reopen to the public.  

Marvel proposed this performance theme as an alternative. The site was built with the intent to not interrupt daytime commuters or foot traffic in the region, and will instead present an opportunity for audiences to sit socially distanced to watch performances unfold above them. The site comes as part of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s plans to have 300 pop up theatres in NY.  

Performances will take place in the shipping containers, which present an ample way for performances to go ahead quickly with less construction time, and in the wake of varying weather conditions. The firm’s head Jonathon Marvel said the containers; 

"Have been deployed on many occasions for housing, retail, storage – and can easily be stacked and bridged – so within a week or two, we can have instant stage support, green rooms, and technical storage."

LED screens, performers, and props could all be employed in the containers to form a versatile setting for performances to take place, with some considerations to an extra space below the bridge being allocated to an orchestra. 

The plan is another notable addition to the world’s efforts in the creative industry to adjust to the pandemic and bring audiences some much-needed entertainment. Fondazione Prada in Italy also announced recently its new exhibition, which has transformed the gallery’s interior into an outdoor cinema that fuses the site’s art and showcases its new film series.

Images via Marvel