Friday, September 02, 2011
Irene Wipes Out Williamstown Theatre Festival Props
iBerkshires.com: On Aug. 28, the final day of the 2011 season, just as the company was carefully closing up the shop for the winter, Mother Nature, in the form of Tropical Storm Irene, paid a seriously unwelcome visit to the festival's new storage space and scenery shop in the Blackinton Mill in North Adams.
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5 comments:
Very unfortunate indeed. It seems like the appropriate steps to avoid this flood were not taken by WTF (per comments in the article). They said that the prop collection was just moved and inventoried, which presumably means they only get the good stuff. Often though, I feel like prop collections that old turn into just a random pile of junk. Companies with limited storage space do a better job at knowing when to throw out, but organizations that have more warehouse space than they know what to do with tend to horde. Sometimes I feel like taking the insurance check and starting over again is a better bet.
This is a real-life example of how "the show must go on." The Oregon Shakespeare Festival went through a vaguely similar experience this summer. The Angus Bowmer theatre, one of their three stages, was shut down for a month or so because a main beam over the stage cracked. This threw off the entire schedule of all the other shows currently in repertory. The beam was eventually fixed, but the company had to construct a huge tent to stand in for the Bowmer while it was being worked on. It was estimated at the time that they would loose around 12 million dollars for every week the Bowmer was closed. The generosity of OSF's patrons helped the company through; many of the theatre-goers turned in their tickets without asking for a refund.
It's amazing to see how such huge and complex companies work to keep their respective theatre up and running.
Working at Williamstown this summer I was so glad to be out of there before Irene hit. One tragedy after another seemed like all this season got. Having to move locations and then prepare for Irene was not something a summer stock theatre company could have hoped for or prepared well enough for. By the time Irene came most of the staff and interns departed since only one show was running and set to strike that weekend! With the depth of shows that Williamstown produces they did an amazing job at getting ready for the end of the season and strike with the amount of people they had. You can't always prepare to completely stop mother nature. Some of the comments on iBerkshire are also uncalled for. There is damage everywhere, not just in the Berkshires. The Festival and everyone affected by Irene deserves assistance from whoever will help, people need to realize that there is always a bigger picture then the "people" who have been affected.
I think that WTF should have anticipated the weather a little bit more. A local resident commented that even a bad storm, let alone a hurricane, can cause up to 6FT of flooding. They should have protected their assets. at the same time weather is starting to get worse and worse these days, i think people need to start anticipating it a little better, how ever they can. It is hard with weather being unpredictable.
After reading this article and feeling a great amount of sadness for this company, I couldn't help but let my eyes wander down to the comments. The one in particular that caught my eye was about how selfish this theater was being for their immediate call for money. The commented expressed the needs of homeless people living down the streets from the theater who would benefit from the theater's profits more than a prop shop would. Once I processed this comment, I felt tied in the middle. It's always been such a personal struggle of mine to keep into consideration the affects of theatre on the world, especially concerning economical downfall and third world countries suffering from famine. Why am I devoting my time, energy, and money to something that does not help those truly in need? I always seem to follow through with a settling response along the lines of people needing a mirror or reality or a dramatic escape from life's trials. But this article made me question my "purpose" in theatre all over again. Yes, I do it because I love it and could not imagine myself doing anything but. However, how can I call myself a "good" person if I'm worrying about the way a costume drapes down the acclaimed actor's leg while children are dying of starvation?
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