It’s expected to turn toward South Carolina and make landfall on Friday afternoon.
Friday, September 14, 2018
Hurricane Florence Leads to Theater Closures, TV Postponements
It’s expected to turn toward South Carolina and make landfall on Friday afternoon.
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Man cannot control certain things from happening. Nature is one of them. Be it an earthquake, a hurricane etc. although man can predict them beforehand and help reduce their impact, the slight power that they have eventually catches on man. And this is what this article stands evidence to.
Hurricane Florence had long been predicted; measure taken to reduce its impact but still the impact of the Hurricane is enough to close running offices and schools, including theater sets and TV sets.
This has led to an increase in the production costs of both the theaters and sets since now the work is being delayed although all the production costs are still going on.
Such kind of situation can be extremely harmful to producers who have to pay everyone for the days when no work is being held which is not the best feeling. And nothing can be done to solve these problems.
The show must go on, but when a storm hits, safety must be the priority. This article touches on the many facets of the entertainment industry that closed before the storm. As a native Floridian, I know how frightening an incoming hurricane can be. Last fall, Hurricane Irma was predicted to hit South Florida as a forceful category 4 or 5 storm. My high school’s musical production was just preparing to load in as we got the alerts that schools would be closing. As the stage manager, I met with the director to adjust the rehearsal and tech week schedule to accommodate for this two-week curveball. Our school was even in a major evacuation zone, so we were worried about our facility itself. Luckily, the storm turned a bit in the Atlantic, so West Palm Beach was not hit directly. The article emphasizes that theatres today in the Carolinas maintain the “utmost concern” for the safety and security of the public. As terrible as hurricanes are, it is amazing to see how a community can come together to prepare themselves, their friends, and their families.
As someone who loves and is involved in theater, reading something like this is devastating. So many natural disasters have ruined many of people’s lives, and I didn’t expect hurricane Florence to be this bad. On a personal note, my brother is a student at College of Charleston in South Carolina, and he is currently home due to the hurricane. Although hurricanes appear almost every year around this time in the Carolinas, I was not aware that it was powerful enough to shut companies down. Theater has always been a form of entertainment that connects people and opens their eyes. I never thought that that would be put on hold due to a hurricane. The thought of not being able to do anything about the natural disaster that is impacting people’s everyday lives is something hard to stomach. Many major theater companies have been saying that they “hope to be back soon”, which by that statement alone, is scary to think about.
Being from South Carolina, this article really hits home with me. The arts community in South Carolina is already a pretty small community so when devastation like a hurricane hits, it hits especially hard. The local theatre company I worked for back home owns an old run down trailer that acts as props and scenery storage that could easily be disassembled by a bad storm. That would greatly impact the cultural community of that small town because we are the only theatre company around and greatly rely on the support of the community along with our inventory to help keep the cost of production down by repurposing a lot of items. All of that said, the coast of South Carolina is receiving a lot greater impact by the hurricane than my family will be in central South Carolina. As for the movie theatre and commercial houses near the coast, those sort of facilities hold a lot of historical significance such as The Dock Street Theatre in Charleston, SC.
Although entertainment is for our own comfort,it is interesting how these facilities we use such as theaters close at the event of a natural disaster. If the movie theaters which require little maintenance shut, live performance theaters stand no chance. A friend of mine goes to UNCSA for Technical Direction, and their crew calls had to be cut early in order to keep their students safe in the storm. It reminds me of how temperamental live entertainment is, and makes me appreciate being able to experience a show where there's so many things that could go wrong. Being in a natural disaster completely changes the mindsets people have. In New York, Hurricane Sandy destroyed many homes, even of people I knew. It was a very different experience to typhoons in Japan. I wonder how the atmosphere has changed in North Carolina, for they rarely see such weather. In London, just 2 inches of snow can cause a panic, for the country does not have decent protection for such rare weather. It continually amazes me that cities do not prepare for the weather. North Carolina is understandably struggling, but it will be interesting to see how technology for weather safety will grow over the years to help better equip all cities with the unexpected.
The recent news of Hurricane Florence has been terrifying to say the least, even though I likely won’t be feeling significant direct consequences of it. When it comes to natural disasters, safety is always the top priority. It is a completely responsible decision to close and postpone various TV and theater events for the sake of safety. What I am more concerned with, however, are the damages that will result in the hardest-hit areas of the country. If these theaters and public art institutions take significant damage, the likelihood that they will receive timely funding and resources to restore to functioning condition is probably very low. While safety is at the top of the priorities list, restoration of the arts is probably towards the bottom. At this point, I suppose we can’t tell what the full scope of the damage from Hurricane Florence will be until the storm eventually passes.
I had lived in the area with a lot of storm occurrences. Through different experiences brought by those storm experience, our society learned how to deal with it: adapt, not to fight. We often faces the difficulties whether to announce it as a day off or not, after dealing with this repeatedly decision making issue, I found that the the real deal is that can we afford a day off or not. As for production wise, it's no different from other industry. Human is the most precious resource we may ever invested in a project, of course we can risk calling all hands on deck in the storm and trying finishing a load in or an build threatening by deadline. But the invisible cost/risk is that we're losing people's confidence in our management skills. A call during storm may probably be argued as "low risk" if the storm is not all that deadly, but any person would find that losing one of any character in the production is more dangerous than any means of delay. The worst consequences is that we might not be able to finish a project at all.
It honestly makes me really relieved to know that these businesses are preparing to shut down and not expecting their employees to find a way to get to work. Entertainment, whether it be showing movies or putting up stage productions, is never worth endangering someone's life. I know a major concern for lower SES people when they are considering evacuating is whether or not that decision might lead to potentially losing their job. That should NEVER be a decision someone has to make. Probably the most disturbing news story I saw all week was that South Carolina did not evacuate its prisons and the inmates are trapped, waiting out the hurricane. Apparently, this regularly happens during natural disasters and during Hurricane Katrina, many inmates died after being trapped in waist-high water for days without food. No one should be forced to stay through a hurricane, whether because they are physically held there or not able to afford to leave or facing the possibility of losing their jobs. The government needs to do a better job of helping the less privileged evacuate during these natural disasters, but I am glad and grateful that at least these theatres are doing their small part by closing their doors.
I think it's interesting that this article specifically mentions movie theaters being shut down, when most everything in the Carolinas has been shut down for the week. My friend that goes to UNCSA had four days of classes cancelled before the storm even hit, and I'm fairly certain that every other school in the Carolinas did the same. This also automatically makes me think of when Hurricane Sandy hit, and all of Broadway had to shut down for a few days. I remember seeing a show the evening before Sandy, and while the show I went to was not cancelled, the audience was about half full since no one wanted to be out before the storm. I would say that I am glad the movie theaters in Carolina are closed, and are not forcing their workers to come in to play movies for a few people who are going crazy being cooped up in their homes, but I really doubt that they would be legally allowed to stay open during a state of emergency.
Good on the major movie theatre companies on closing for the hurricane in advance! I know that as a business a hurricane can really mess up business and especially on a weekend. Natural disasters is something that can really effect a theatre from either destroying the actual business or at the very least having to shut down and not earn money. For the major theatres to close before the hurricane has even started shows how serious the hurricane will be. It is nice to see huge cooperation’s care about the safety of their workers. While I do feel bad for them, the major issues is the none corporate theaters. They can’t rely on someone helping with funding and a hurricane can total mess with their business. I hope everyone is safe during this time and that no real economic impact happens to any of the theatres. Yet again, it is great that major corps are caring about safety over making money.
It's good to see businesses planning for the storm instead of trying to ride it out and damage their theaters, their reputations, or their employees. I always find it irresponsible when I hear of employers not heeding storm warnings and forcing their employees to choose between evacuating safely or having a job to come back to. That is not a choice anybody should have to make in this day and age, and I think it is shameful that some corporations will put their bottom line before the safety of their employees. I saw a story a day ago about a restaurant quite close to the predicted path of the storm, which was forcing its employees to stay and work. I think this is akin to war profiteering. They know that they will be the only open business in town and they want to profit over that fact. It is unfortunate that these big storms make a disproportionate impact on smaller business, which don't have the financial inertia and safety net that larger corporations do, but that is no excuse to sacrifice anyone's safety.
I’m glad that these major entertainment corporations are deciding to close and let their employees be with family or find safety before the hurricane hits. Often I hear horrible stories about chains that refuse to close and stay open throughout a storm. And if their employees cannot make it to their shifts (or do not want to come in because, you know, hurricane) they are ruthless and can even be fired. Waffle House, a chain restaurant, is so famous for staying open during natural disasters that the NOAA uses the number of Waffle House closures in an area as a metric for how severe a situation is. I’m glad that at least some major players in television and movie entertainment are deciding the risk is not worth it. When natural disaster is immanent, people should not be worried about going to work or missing work. They need to be focused on their safety and the safety of their loved ones.
As someone who grew up in South Florida, Hurricane Florence doesn’t seem like a very big deal to me (even though I know it is). In South Florida, we have much stricter building codes than the rest of the. country. If Hurricane Florence were to hit Florida, it would probably cause some damage but nothing overly crazy. However, I know in the north that most times houses are not built with hurricanes in mind, so they destruction could be much worse, and even fatal if people don’t take proper precautions. This situation kind of reminds me when a snow storm shut down Broadway a few years ago, and everyone was really mad. I’m sure some people will be mad about this too, but I really believe it’s for the best. I know in Florida, when places don’t close down during Hurricanes, people use that as a measure of how dangerous the situation is, and won’t take the storm seriously. If people in Florida, who have lived through many hurricanes have this issue, I definitely think northerners would too. Regardless on the economic damage closing theaters down may cause, I really believe it is in everyone’s best interest, to ensure as much safety as possible during the storm.
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