Friday, September 01, 2023
After a Vermont playhouse flooded, the show went on
The Seattle Times: Members of a beloved Vermont acting company were sleeping in theater housing when torrential rains and flooding forced them to flee, with water inundating the playhouse’s vast basement of dressing rooms, costumes and props and reaching into the first floor.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
9 comments:
Reading this article about how a weather event affected a theater company left me with a daunting question: how will the intensifying climate crisis affect the longevity of outdoor artistic venues? While unpredictable natural disasters have existed since the beginning of time, there has been an increased number due to the current climate crisis we are facing. While the solution that the Vermont Playhouse has come up with is impressive, like so many other organizations, the long term repairs are quite costly. I connected the events in this article to an environmental crisis we had this summer at an outdoor concert venue I worked at. Due to the Canadian wildfires, we had red air quality alerts multiple evenings and to respect the health of our patrons, had to give more ticket refunds than expected. This issue was chaotic and did not even include any structural or physical damage. The solution to this issue is climate change control, but that is beyond the control of theatre makers. I am now curious to explore more how other venues are handling these issues.
This is devastating! It is so sad to see any theatre struggle, but especially historic playhouses like this one. This really does speak to the resiliency of theatre and theatre people though. In very few other professions that I can think of would you move the work immediately to another location and continue on. Something that I found surprising was the incredibly large cost needed in order to properly clean the theatre, and that isn’t even all of it. Looking through those pictures really puts into scale how much damage flooding can do and how destructing and devastating it can be. It is so sad to see all of the furniture and props sitting and floating in the water. I hope that they are able to get the funding and assistance they need and are asking for and that they will be able to reopen next year like they plan.
A tragedy like this really isn't something you are ever expecting or prepared for until it happens. It sucks that in our changing world everyone just needs to be prepared for the worst. The part that stuck out the most to me was the part about having to cover up the windows. It's a shame that they will have to give up the river view in order to reopen next year; just imagining the windows covered up in concrete feels dystopian. It is impressive that they persevered through the rest of the show run, even if they had to cut the season as a whole short. All in all, the story truly is heartwarming. Not only did the show go on, but the community came together to help dig out and clean the theater. I really hope that the company will be able to recover and continue in the future, despite their significant financial losses.
It’s not great when a building is flooded, but I think it’s especially tricky when it’s a theatre because of all the things that are typically inside. For example, the article mentions that the audience seats, the changing rooms, the costumes, the electrics, and so many other things are damaged in the Weston Theatre Company. Although I’ve never really experienced flooding on this level before, I can imagine that all the tiny debris and mud will be very difficult to clean out just because they can get into the tiniest cracks. It also makes me wonder, when something like this happens, what are typically the next steps? I imagine that there must be a lot of chaos, and I wonder what the company manager’s responsibility is in this case. For buildings that are in areas with high flooding (or just bad storms in general) risks, are there any protocols for the structure of the building? Like how buildings in frequent earthquake zones are usually compelled to specific architectural laws to ensure structural integrity.
It is fascinating that this 620-resident town has such an outstanding little theatre. It is sad to see that the elements got to them. More and more I see theatres having to shut down, cancel, or postpone shows due to weather conditions. At home in Oregon the Oregon Shakespeare Festival has to cancel bunches of outdoor shows every year due to the smoke. Sometimes they’re able to move productions but just like in this article it takes extra time, money, and people that these theatres don’t have. As the years go on and situations like this unfortunately become more prevalent in our lives it will be interesting to see how our industry adapts to mother nature’s plans. There are certainly solutions (like rebuilding more flood awareness) but it will take time. And until then we can hope that small communities everywhere can come together just like this tiny town in Vermont did, for the better.
This was an extremely unfortunate event for this theater. My old high school theater space flooded a few times, but the damage was never this immense. This small town's highly sought out theater was most likely one of the very few ways to communicate live preforming to the town; making this a tragedy not only for the theater personnel, but for the town as a whole. Theater is an incredibly delicate art with countless expensive tools, and pre created sets/costumes that are invaluable to the artist working on them. Having an entire show set up and then watching everything flood would be devastating in many different ways. The resilience they show by continuing to create is outstanding and inspiring. One of the most important parts of professional theater is being able to adapt and improve even when incredible setbacks occur, the theater makers in this space are astounding and I sincerely hope they are able to make a roaring comeback into the world.
This was an important article for me to read. As someone who has lived through Florida Hurricanes it is the sad reality that beloved places become destroyed. The historic Playhouse flooding and not only ruining the sets and costumes but the building structure hurt the performances as well. It was important for the show to go on but it also showed how much people persevere through the hard times. Cutting the season short is a very serious decision because it is not only hurting the profits for the theater but for all of the people that work on the show. Knowing that the climate that we live in is rapidly changing and altering makes me question how much do we have to consider altering historic buildings to be safe from a devastating event like this occurring again. The fact of the matter is that every year the climate crisis gets worse and the changes to the environment are sometimes unpredictable.
I definitely agree with Andrea Johnson that this “‘speaks to the resiliency of theater people.’” To be hit with a flood after recovering from the hit on theater during Covid is devastating, but the fact that many came forward to help speaks to their community and how theater and the performing arts are valued. I hope the community continues to support this theater company through the process of rebuilding and beyond. It’s amazing they were able to continue performing, and producing shows directly after the incredible damage, and I applaud their actors and crew for pulling it off. I wonder if they’ll begin to store their costumes and props elsewhere, in case of another flood? Hopefully their renovations will prevent any more damage from happening, but I wonder if it’s necessary to make extra precautions so that this devastation doesn’t happen again. I hope they can hit the ground running next summer, and make up their losses.
My high school theater had problems with flooding and while we never had something to this extent, the damage caused by any amount of water entering the stage was always significant. Water can damage costumes, sets, and electrical systems beyond the point of repair. Seeing the monetary damage this unfortunate event caused is bad enough, but seeing the emotional damage that it has on the community and everyone involved at the theater is heartwrenching. Seeing the passion and commitment that the community has to the theater and reading about strangers coming to help dig up mud or donate food was really compelling. It was moving to read about their journey through Covid because almost every theater had the same experience but I had first-hand experience of high school theater dealing with Covid, not professional theater. Overall, I really hope this theater recovers, I know it will, and comes back with the full force of the theater community behind it.
Post a Comment