When You Walk Through a Storm...

Here is a small account of how Main Street Theater survived Ike.

THURSDAY: The show will go one. Because of our experience with Rita, not only did Thursday night's show go on, we refused to cancel the rest of the weekend that early. The audience that night was a little smaller than it had been, but appreciative. Anything to take one's mind of the monster bearing down on us.

FRIDAY: Ike was still bearing down on us. We could no longer deny that Friday and Saturday's shows would have to be canceled. They say the show must go on, but not in 100mph winds!

SATURDAY: A call goes out from Caroline Scott, our Youth Theater Stage Manager, that the door at the back of the theater at Chelsea Market has been ripped off its hinges! Fearing the worst, I rush down to the theater to find Caroline (with friends Todd and Adam) trying to get the door up in its place. The theater is virtually untouched! I thought for sure that Jodi Bobrovsky's set, which is constructed mostly of paper, would be ripped to shreds by the wind that surly blew through the theater. All I can think is that the door, which had a core of press or particle board, soaked up water throughout the night and only in the morning did it fall off its hinges due to the added weight.

The lobby did get a lot of water. The second floor walkway that runs above us clearly has leak issues. Ceiling tiles throughout were water logged and water was pooled on the floor. But for the most part it seemed that the Chelsea Market weathered well. Power went out 13 times during the storm according to the credit card machine. BTW - Power remains out. Pray that the transformer that feeds the back of Chelsea Market runs on a separate line circuit from the front of Chelsea Market. Otherwise we could be in the dark a long time!

A tour of the Rice Village location that evening showed no power, downed phone lines and water in the front and back. The theater itself seemed okay. Due to the wind, water didn't pool on the roof, so the usual leaks didn't appear. We are thankful for that.

SUNDAY: With no power at either theater, not only was it impossible to have a show, it was impossible to tell anyone. The phone systems at both locations don't work without power so that means no message machine to tell you what is going on. And without an internet connection, I couldn't update the web site. I finally got one at home in the early afternoon and posted the changes.

A call came in from former Master Electrician that the door had fallen again, and a new effort was put in place to get it more secure.

THE NEW WEEK: Power is restored to the Village, but still not to Chelsea Market. We are slowly putting things back on track. First the curfew made it impossible to have evening shows (should we have power). We canceled shows as a result and moved Saturday's show to a matinee. Minutes later, the Mayor changes the curfew to Midnight and we move the show back to its regular time.

And in a swift move on the part of Education Director Troy Scheid, we put a "Hurricane Camp" together at St. Stephen's church to create a place for the kids to have some fun while the schools are closed.

If you missed a performance because of Ike, please see our web site for a reschedule date. If your performance is not rescheduled (like Thursday the 11th and Friday the 19th) please call the box office at 713-524-6706 and we can reschedule you to one of the remaining performances.

And that's the word on the street!