At 8 a.m. Saturday Asia Ciaravino raced down to The Playhouse theater to find a disaster falling from the ceiling.
"The plaster actually came loose a bit... [a] six-foot slab of it smashed onto the audience floor," she said.
Ciaravino, The Playhouse CEO and president, said one staff member was working at the time and heard the collapse after heavy rains collected on the roof, pouring onto the ceiling area and dropping everything to the carpeted theater floor of the Russell Hill Rogers Theater.
Fortunately, the plaster damage was only a spot about 6 feet wide, but other damage was more extensive.
"We've had Service Master in all week with hundreds of fans, because we did have about two inches of standing water in the theater as well. The rain came through the roof and obviously just soaked everything. And they've been pumping 100-degree air into the space to evaporate all of the moisture," Ciaravino said.
The sound system and musical instruments all had to be moved Saturday, and are still being assessed for damage. The theater canceled both shows last weekend, and they’re cancelling one more Friday night.
Then, with some of the seats roped off, Ciaravino said the theater should be able to resume performances of "Spring Awakening" on Saturday night and Sunday.
"We had a structural engineer from the city come out and basically give us a thumbs up that we are structurally sound," she said.
Ciaravino said the city has been helpful in working on clean-up and repair, but the theater is taking donations online to help. She added that a special tribute to long-time actress and media personality, Mary Denman, will go on as planned Saturday afternoon.
- Donations can be made on The Playhouse website--theplayhousesa.org--or at this link
