Update: A total of 36 D.C.-area theaters have updated their COVID-19 policies to last through March, Theatre Washington announced. The organization, which represents more than 90 theaters across the region, said the theaters will continue to require proof of vaccination for all live shows at indoor venues and continue their vaccine mandate for staff and performers. Masks are also required indoors, except when patrons are eating or drinking.

These aren’t new policies, but an extension of protocols that were set to last through the end of 2021.

The theaters, listed below, “have united to provide the highest level of public safety for their audiences, artists, staff, and volunteers,” Theatre Washington wrote on its website. More theaters are expected to join the effort when they reopen, and the theaters plan to make a full update to the policies by March 31.

DC Metro Theater Arts first reported on the policies.

The policies don’t just apply to theaters in this alliance. Per Mayor Muriel Bowser’s most recent order, all live entertainment venues will be required to ask patrons for proof of vaccination starting Saturday, Jan. 15. Patrons should check each theater’s health and safety websites for specific guidance:

The Actors’ Center
Adventure Theatre MTC
Anacostia Playhouse
Arena Stage
Arts on the Horizon
Atlas Performing Arts Center
Constellation Theatre Company
Faction of Fools
Flying V Theatre
Ford’s Theatre
GALA Hispanic Theatre
Imagination Stage
IN Series
Keegan Theatre
The Kennedy Center 
MetroStage
Monumental Theatre Company
Mosaic Theater Company
Nu Sass
Olney Theatre Center
Perisphere Theater
Peter’s Alley 
Prologue Theatre
Round House Theatre
Scena Theatre
Shakespeare Theatre Company
Signature Theatre
Spooky Action Theater
Studio Theatre
Synetic Theater
Theater Alliance
Traveling Players Ensemble
Unexpected Stage
Washington Stage Guild
We Happy Few Productions
Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company

Update 8/12/21: Starting Sept. 1, the Kennedy Center and Ford’s Theatre will require audiences, staff, and performers to show proof of full COVID-19 vaccination for entry to indoor performances and events, the venues announced Thursday.

Guests will need to bring a government-issued photo ID and will still be required to wear a mask indoors, regardless of vaccination status, except while actively eating and drinking. The vaccination policy doesn’t apply to daytime visitors to Ford’s Theatre’s historic site — the theatre, museum, and Petersen House — or for Kennedy Center visitors in specific areas: the Hall of States, Hall of Nations, Grand Foyer, the REACH, or outdoor spaces.

“Our audiences have stuck by us with great solidarity over these last many months,” Kennedy Center president Deborah Rutter, said in a statement. “Working together we can get back to what we love—the arts—but we must reopen cautiously and responsibly. These new measures will reduce risk and help all arts venues maintain the forward momentum we are feeling right now.”

There are also exemptions for audience members under 12 years old and those with medical conditions or religious beliefs that prevent vaccination — those guests will need to bring a negative COVID-19 test. (For the Kennedy Center, negative tests need to be from within 72 hours of the event; Ford’s Theatre requires negative PCR tests from within 48 hours or an antigen test from within 24 hours.)

Ford’s Theatre’s vaccination policy will last through at least Oct. 31, while the Kennedy Center will evaluate its policies each month.

Original 8/5/21: More than a dozen local theaters across the D.C. region announced Thursday that they will now require audiences to provide proof of COVID-19 vaccination to attend indoor performances through at least the end of the year. In a joint statement, the theaters said that in taking this step, they will provide the highest level of public safety for their audiences, artists, staff, and volunteers.

The changes come as the Centers for Disease Control has updated its safety guidance amid rising case rates nationwide and the increasing threat of the Delta variant, which has led D.C. to reinstate its mask mandate. A number of bars and restaurants now require proof of vaccination to receive service, as well. In the performing arts community, these changes have been reflected in weeks of conversations among theater leaders and a complicated balancing act of staying afloat by bringing back audiences while instituting policies to keep them as safe as possible.

The theaters, which are located across the District and nearby Maryland and Virginia suburbs, include:

• Arena Stage
• Atlas Performing Arts Center
• Constellation Theatre Company
• GALA Hispanic Theatre
• The Keegan Theatre
• Mosaic Theater Company of DC
• Round House Theatre
• Shakespeare Theatre Company
• Signature Theatre
• Studio Theatre
• Synetic Theater
• Theater J
• Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company

Most theaters, including the ones listed in the joint statement, have required their performers and staff to get vaccinated. They also require indoor audiences to wear masks, except while dining in designated areas.

The organizers of the effort say they expect more theaters to join the group in the coming weeks, and updates will be provided online at TheatreWashington.org, the website for the region’s theater alliance.

Through December, patrons will be required to show proof that they are fully vaccinated, and the venues say they will review mandates and data in October to determine if they’ll extend the policy. For those exempted from the requirements — for example, children under 12 or those with certain medical conditions or religious beliefs that prevent vaccination — a recent negative COVID-19 test will also grant access. (Each venue will define “recent” in its own policies.)

Chris Jennings, executive director of Shakespeare Theatre Company, says talks about these requirements have been happening for months among Washington and New York theaters. The conversations intensified when the theater hosting Bruce Springsteen’s Broadway show required vaccination proof in late June.

In other words, the Boss set the tone.

“I think once we started to talk together, we felt confident that this was the right thing to do,” Jennings tells DCist/WAMU. “We want to play our part in helping to incentivize and help grow the vaccinations to get us all back. And I think we all collectively want to take care of our artists and our staff, and to protect them as well.

Other theaters across the region are waiting to see more guidance from health and government officials on increasing case rates and vaccination requirements — especially when it comes to vaccinations for children — before instituting a policy for the rest of the year. For venues whose main source of revenue comes from families buying tickets, the lack of vaccine accessibility for young children has complicated things.

A spokesperson for the Kennedy Center told DCist in an email that the massive performing arts space is a “complex organization” that fully supports the work being done by these theaters as they return to full capacity. At the performing arts center, which has a slew of events planned this fall for its 50th anniversary celebrations, there is currently no vaccine mandate in place for patrons.

“We are working with our numerous constituencies on updated protocols and look forward to sharing that information soon, as the safety and comfort of our audiences, artists, staff, and volunteers remains our highest priority,” the statement reads.

Olney Theatre Center in Olney, Md., didn’t join the group statement, but said in its own announcement that it supports the effort to bring back audiences safely. For The Thanksgiving Play, which begins its run next month at Olney’s 150-seat Mulitz-Gudelsky Theatre Lab, guests will be required to wear wear masks and provide vaccination proof.

The theater is currently putting on outdoor shows that move indoors during inclement weather, requiring masks in those situations. Its policies beyond October will depend on public health guidance and the course of the pandemic, according to the announcement.

Shakespeare Theatre Company, for its part, has had in-person audiences inside since May, when it put on a socially distanced audio production, Blindness. It ran for nine weeks of sold-out shows, according to Jennings.

“That really showed me that audiences were ready to return. Once they had been vaccinated, and provided that we’re making people wear masks, I think people felt safe,” Jennings says. “Now we’re going to bring our artists back, and this is an extension and kind of the next step in that journey.”