Monday's announcement of the ACT's path out of lockdown included a green light for indoor events up to 500 people - which is under half of the Canberra Theatre Centre's capacity - but there are other moving parts when it comes to getting productions back on the stage.

"As I fast discovered as a still relatively new director of the theatre, nothing is simple when it comes to the arts and COVID," said Mr Budd, who took up the role of director in February 2020.

"There are interdependencies between venues and production companies, and so much of the work that comes to the theatre is touring. Some shows have to work in multiple jurisdictions for that tour to make sense.

"And then we come to our own arrangements, which initially are reduced capacities, so that makes some productions unviable."

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The theatre has had to postpone a string of productions not only due to the ACT lockdown, but also due to restrictions in other parts of the country. Some productions cancelled their Canberra shows because some states saw ACT and NSW to be one and the same when it came to COVID border restrictions. To make these tours viable, they needed to skip Canberra so they could enter other states.

It wasn't all bad news pre-lockdown, however. Mr Budd said Canberrans had been showing their support of Canberra Theatre Centre with their wallets. It made for a bumper June and July, and even saw the theatre break a record for Come From Away, with the production becoming the theatre's highest-selling musical in its first week of ticket sales. The musical has since been rescheduled for early 2022.

However, the success of those months meant the lockdown hit a little harder.

"Very roughly - we don't know exactly how productions are going to fall - but we'll have missed out on about 120,000 Canberrans coming to productions between when shows started cancelling and when we get back to normal, hopefully later in the year," Mr Budd said.

Even when it comes to the shows that are scheduled for the last part of this year, there is still some doubt.

"We're looking at a diary that's been shaken like an earthquake in Melbourne, up until Christmas," Mr Budd said.

"Even at a local level, companies like Canberra Youth Theatre - who we're hoping to get back later in the year - there are restrictions on rehearsals. And the local dance schools that normally do their end-of-year concerts with us they need to get back into their studios and get their production done. Even taking the borders out of it, it's not smooth sailing."

With all that in mind, however, Mr Budd said the theatre did welcome the path out of lockdown as it gave them guidance and time to work things out for shows post-October 29.

"We're looking at a few interesting things in November and I can't divulge what they are other than to say I know a lot of Canberrans will be very happy to see a favourite return. But again, it needs quite a few further conversations to occur to get all of those moving parts to line up together," he said.

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