Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: "Quantum Theatre has postponed its opening of 'Maria de Buenos Aires' that was to have opened tonight in the former YMCA building in East Liberty.
Performances had been scheduled for 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 7 p.m. Sunday.
9 comments:
It's always rough for a theatre company to postpone an opening like that. Citing "Accessibility issues" really makes me wonder what possibly could have been happening for them to make such drastic choices. They really run the risk of angering faithful audiences at such short notice. Hopefully the show will still turn out good and whatever forced these decisions is remedied and doesn't affect the overall production.
This is awful that they had to push back there opening of their show. I was thinking of going to their show and seeing it this weekend but I guess that won’t happen. I hope that I can go and catch one of their shows in the coming weeks before they close. I wish that they would have gone into more detail about why they are pushing the opening back for this show. There may be a push back even delaying it more. It sound like the pushing back of the show has an unresolved issue that they are having. I hope that they solve the problem that they are having so I can have the opportunity to see the show.
I heard about this happening to Quantum. It is a really unfortunate event but it is also important to remember that rules need to be followed. Sometimes people will push rules aside and skirt by, but it will come back to get you. At least Quantum will only be postponing the opening rather than completely closing the production. It may be adding to the bill, but overall it seems like a less expensive change than what could have been.
I heard about this from Todd, and he said it had to do with handicapped accessibility. The real issue, though, was that Quantum had set the inspection for over a week before opening, and the inspector didn't show up until it was too late to get things fixed in time. In this case, I think you have to place the blame on the inspector, and the theatre really should have any of their lost money refunded by the city. I don't think Quantum had any power to solve this problem.
It's interesting to hear from Joe that the inspector was late. It seems like Quantum will have to compensate for this in the future and plan even more in advance. I know that is easier said than done. It is unfortunate that Quantum had to be affected by an outside party like this, but I think it should serve as an important reminder to us that we can't control everything when it comes to building/preparing for a production. Just like Quantum couldn't control when the inspector came, a scene shop is usually not able to control whether a shipment of supplies comes in on time or not. These uncontrollable factors should make us be even more proactive in our various roles in the pre-construction and construction processes. This article also brings up the ever-important laws of accessibility, and that everyone in the theater should be working together to make sure that a setting/performance space meets the requirements, not just the people who deal with them most often, like the set designer and venue manager. These requirements can affect everyone, just like everyone at Quantum has been affected. All that being said, I feel bad for Quantum and I hope they'll be back on their feet soon.
This is a huge thing for Quantum, a company specifically built around site-specific theatre which must constantly adapt existing spaces to their uses. While the inspector's appointment could be blamed for this, I think some of the blame should be laid on Quantum for not pushing for an earlier inspection. They had their opening day in mind, and they knew when their load-in was (they likely set all this a few months ago, if not at the start of the season), so if ADA problems were going to show up, they should have known to allot for that time.
I heard about the postponed show early this week and I was sad to hear it. It always sucks when there are last minute interruptions to a show thats about to get up. What Joe said is very interesting. I had no idea that the problem was the inspector. Some things like that you just can't control and it also must be hard not having a constant venue to work in but it must make their jobs a lot more exciting. I hope the problem gets solved soon and they open the show on the new date on time. I would love to see my first Quantum theater show here in Pittsburgh.
So the inspector was late, still the theater's fault. They should know what the requirements are, especially since they preform in non-traditional spaces regularly. They should still adhere to them. That said, it does suck to have to cancel performances. It is a management and box office nightmare. But it is manageable. They should have foreseen this coming and planned accordingly. Hopefully they know now and this can be avoided in the future.
It's very unfortunate that they had to postpone their opening. The only hesitation I have towards feeling entire pity towards them is that I fear that this might snowballing into a competition with Spiderman to see who can open last. I know it's a little bit of an exageration, but I felt it was necessary to talk about Spiderman, since it is very rare to hear that musical mentioned.
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