Post Gazette: "City Theatre has extended the premiere of Stephen Massicotte's 'The Clockmaker' for four performances, Feb. 19-21.
The extension comes in response to severe weather that forced entertainment venues in the area to close on Saturday, while many patrons were unable to reach their destinations throughout the weekend."
7 comments:
Its incredible how weather completely changed the city. Snow created an odd feeling of going back in time, people walking down the middle of the street, helping each other dig their cars out of snow drifts. It seems to create such a sense of community. In the tech process for the many shows scheduled to go up in the next few weeks, I've been very impressed with the way this situation has been handled. For only having one day to make up for the four missed tech days, the shows have been pulled together at an incredibly fast rate.
The snow affected this city in some interesting ways- and for a much longer time than i had expected. In terms of theater, i usually expect the "show must go on" addage to hold, but in this case i think it was a good idea to cancel some shows because without an audience, why put on the performance? At CMU we dealt with the weather changes admirably, opening three terrific productions this weekend after a very short tech period. I am excited that City Theater is continuing Clock Maker for another week, as I have not yet seen it (and really want to). I am going to make an effort next weekend to see both Clockmaker and Midsummer.
While it's nice to see that not just CMU SoD plays got hit by the week long snow problem, it's interesting to see how different places have chosen to deal with the time removed thanks to the snow. While I do not think that the snow we got, and then the removal process is typical of a Pittsburgh winter, I do wonder if the snow storm will cause any changes to how next years seasons will be planned. Is it possible that some places will consider having there larger shows occur during points in the season where the chance of weather delays are minimal?
The effect that the snow had on the Pittsburgh area in general. Considering most of the city was pretty shut down at one point or another during the snow storm, it's not surprising to see various theaters having to move around their schedules a little. However, considering the magnitude of the storm (and the not so efficient response by the Pittsburgh plowing system), it's good to see that their were only minor delays undertaken by these theaters. Especially around the SoD, it's great to see people working together under these difficult conditions to get their shows up and running.
It's really interesting how theatre companies have dealt with all of the snow that we have had. As we all know, of course, everything is planned down to the minute many months in advance, and it's impossible to guess what the weather is going to be like at any given point. It's important that companies keep the weather in mind when they are planning seasons, because it's probably a good idea to have a little bit of wiggle room in there in case something like this happens.
This past week, I have been shocked to see just how unprepared Pittsburgh is when it comes to handling large amounts of snow. After experiencing last year's winter, I was under the impression that snow is no big deal in northern cities, but after the large snowfall we've had, that clearly is not the case. It has been rough on both pedestrians and car-drivers alike, and I think everyone is waiting for when the snow finally begins to melt.
Wow when things like this happen, it sometimes may sway people who do not normally go to the theatre from continuing this new activity. I know of a few people who have had bad experiences like this who were swayed. They should realize that it's not the theatres fault, they were just a victim of outside forces that weren't in their control. On the other side of this, though, I'd have to say that I would get pretty upset if something like this happened for a show that I had been planning to see for a while.
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