TAMPA, Fla. -- While businesses in the state are starting to re-open, one industry that doesn’t know when they’ll open their doors is theater.

Last week, Broadway announced shows in New York would remain closed until at least September 6.

And at the Straz Center in Tampa, touring productions are also cancelling or postponing performances.

“The financial impact is enormous at the Straz Center because we had to close down on March 13 when Jersey Boys was all loaded in, we were ready to go on that night,” said Judy Lisi, Straz Center President and CEO.

While some shows like “Summer: The Donna Summer Musical, which was supposed to be at the Straz earlier this month, have pushed back their performances until next year, Lisi said it’s unclear how soon some of these bigger productions will be able to be back onstage, stressing that social distancing would be difficult.

“Actor’s equity and all the other companies are trying to figure out how they’re going to do this safely before there is a vaccine. Once there is a vaccine I think we’ll straighten out but we’re all trying to figure out how we get from here to there,” Lisi explained.

“You can’t perform with social distancing, it just doesn’t work, the economic model doesn’t work. The cost of these shows is really expensive and in order to make it work at all you have to have enough revenue by your audience ticket holders,” she added.

The Straz does produce local productions that are performed in smaller theaters. We asked Lisi if those productions may be able to get on stage before the bigger shows.

“Our smaller theaters that are maybe in one theater, maybe we move up to a little bigger theater and we could socially distance that way. We’re looking at a lot of creative ways,” she said.

“But it’s the big shows that really help us from an economic perspective and that’s the thing that is very challenging,” she explained.

You can find updates on any current and future schedule changes at the Straz on their website.