HONOLULU (KHON2) – Live singing is now allowed in bars and restaurants on Oahu, but concerts are still on hold due to COVID-19.
Now, a lighting and staging company is giving local artists an opportunity to perform once again in front of thousands of people.
Theatrix Hawaii is no stranger to producing huge concerts on Oahu, but that’s no longer the case because of the Coronavirus.
“It’s been about three months without any entertainment going on and we’ve been cleaning and organizing and we kind of got sick of that,” said Jack Hufstelter owner of Theatrix Hawaii. “We decided what else can we do? So a bunch of us got together and said ‘hey, why don’t we create a venue right here at our place?'”
The sound, lighting and staging company created the Virtual Venue for local artists.
“So we’ve added LED screens and lights and sound and everything we could to create the best venue possible. So this is probably better than some of the stage setups we set up, but because we have the time and we have the energy we decided, let’s do it right,” said Hufstelter.
Every Wednesday, Theatrix Hawaii books local artists to perform two hours sets, creating an opportunity for musicians to get back to business.
The Virtual Venue events are live streamed with nearly 39,000 viewers tuning in. It’s a concert experience like no other. Theatrix Hawaii sets up a 70-inch screen for the performers to see in real-time the comments from their fans.
“They can actually talk to the artists on the stage, because we have the social media setup. They can request a song, they can say mahalo for doing this and they can really respond to the artists,” Hufstelter said.
Theatrix Hawaii is also giving 100 percent of donations, directly to the performers.
“For us to be out of work for so long, for those of us who have been doing music full time for the last few years, it was extremely helpful,” said Johnny Suite a local artist. “I know my musicians were grateful to finally do what we love and get paid again and it just shows the generosity that Theatrix has towards us and how much they care about local entertainers and musicians.”
The next virtual venue concert is on Wednesday at 7 p.m. on the Theatrix Hawaii Facebook page.
For more information about Theatrix Hawaii, click here.
