ATC Healthcare has been hired to lead the charge for Broadway’s COVID-19 Vaccination Center. The site offers hope for a reopening on the horizon—and a job to some out-of-work stage folk. Several arts workers will translate their showbiz skills to the medical administration in all of the new site’s non-clinical positions.
Ushers once tasked with bringing ticket holders to their seats now escort individuals to post-vaccination observation areas. Box office personnel shifted from processing seat requests to processing first and second dose appointments. Instead of merchandise or concession, medical supplies are now getting restocked as new crowds file in. Management positions have a theatrical flair as well: serving as a site manager is Susan Sampliner, the longtime company manager of Wicked.
We’ve led the charge in assembling the team, connecting with the Coalition of Broadway Unions and Guilds (an umbrella cohort of 13 groups representing backstage, front-of-house, and in-office theatre workers) to fill administrative positions with union members. Currently, we employ six vaccine nurses and 16 administrative staffers; but Sampliner says we expect both numbers to increase four-fold.