When staffers arrived, they found the surface of its soaked stage deck irreparably bubbling. Winds blew off the vents on air conditioners and opened the Edyth Bush auditorium and the administration area to the gale. But Orlando Repertory Theatre estimates it will lose at least $57,000 across various buildings on its campus. By Monday morning, the fund already had attracted another $26,000 in donations.Īccurately determining the hit to any theatre’s bottom line will take time. Fortunately two theatre angels have appeared: Local philanthropists Kate Tiedemann and Ellen Cotton offered to match all donations to a Raise the Roof fund up to $100,000. But that won’t cover the estimated $90,000 to replace the roof, McGee said. The company is insured against the loss of some of that revenue, as well as some interior repairs. Unless the show sells well, the lost week will not be added to the other end of the production. 29 opening one week into the larger venue with less sophisticated lighting and a simpler set plot. Early this week the staff and community volunteers were carting surviving scenery into the adjacent 275-seat auditorium it rents to other clients. The nine-year-old company was preparing to open its world premiere adaptation of Jack London’s White Fang, which was slated to move to England after its Florida run. The roof of its 150-seat black box peeled back like a sardine can to expose the lobby, concession area, and sound and lighting equipment to the downpour, said Matthew McGee, who’s in charge of community outreach. The second most notable victim was the unfortunately-named freeFall Theatre in St. The company’s Facebook page and website, sporting a hastily posted slogan “MCTSTRONG,” now pledges, “We will rebuild as quickly as possible,” but its season has been “postponed indefinitely.” The damaged roof of freeFall Theatre.
When the roof ripped away, water drowned the interior of the modest one-story edifice. Petersburg, Tampa, and Sarasota, with spillover so far inland that gusts wreaked significant damage mid-state in Orlando.Īmong the most profoundly affected was Marathon Community Theatre, a 73-year-old company in the middle of the chain of islands south of Miami. The maelstrom raked the western Gulf Coast through St. But Irma saved her worst for further north. Irma-wide enough at its peak to blanket the entire width of the state-flattened swaths of Key West and drenched the southern third of the peninsula a week ago Sunday.
#Freefall theatre sarasota cracked#
But the wind that raged and cracked its cheeks at top speeds of 140 mph caused catastrophic damage to only a handful of theatres. Many had minor structural damage from flying tree limbs and interior flooding from the rainfall. Irma left most theatres in the state without power and internet service from three days to well over a week, crippling their ability to conduct business. “We got ridiculously lucky,” said Jim Sorensen, operations manager at American Stage in St. Forecasters predicted much, much worse, especially in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach area, which was hammered but escaped with minimal damage. While some theatres could not be contacted because phone and power service still were absent Tuesday, managers at some of the most seriously affected theatres considered themselves blessed that they avoided the severity of damage suffered by the Houston’s Alley Theatre. The impact was far more profound for some, such as a community theatre in the Middle Keys whose venue was damaged so severely that it shuttered for the season.
Some rehearsal schedules were cut short so that performers and staff could take shelter-sometimes inside the theatre itself. Most theatres across the state postponed or outright cancelled performances, costing crucial cash flow. It also meant endless hours of staff and volunteers cleaning up small mountains of debris. Sun as hot as a klieg light pounded down from blue skies worthy of a cyclorama this week as Florida theatres struggled to find a comparatively normal rhythm in the wake of Hurricane Irma.īut “comparatively” meant hauling equipment from a black box whose roof had been torn away, a darkened dinner theatre using a Pennsylvania troupe’s box office to process tickets, a conservatory rehearsing both in a hotel and in another theatre’s volunteered space.
0 kommentar(er)
