SNOWMAGEDDONPOCALYPSE

[On_Headset]

In light of the fact that a large chunk of the eastern half of North Ameica is currently under about fifty bajillion metres of now, anyone have any interesting or worthwhile stories about snow cancellations? (Or times the show went up despite the weather?)

Back in university, we performed to a near-empty house on two occasions. Heavy, heavy snow, but most of the cast and crew lived on or near campus, and the faculty encouraged us to go through with it anyway as a learning opportunity. We offered comps to other students who were stranded at the university, and got a few dozen each night. Very warm and appreciative crowd, too!

[NJ.JerrySmith]

My university just cancelled all performances for tonight, it's a rare situation when this occurs. We had a tech for a show muddled up by Sandy too, makes for some interesting times and fun stage management stories of being stuck in theaters with no power.

[maximillionx]

We've canceled performances for tonight and tomorrow night since we're in the 24"-30"+ range.  The manager in me was working on overdrive the last 2 days trying to coordinate backup plans, alternative rehearsal times and extra performances while the 10 year old in me thought: "SLEDDING!"

There have been a couple of occasions when I've had to sleep over at the theatre since driving home is just too dangerous.  The couches are very comfortable.

[Kaleigh.Knights]

I am sitting in tech right now, actually. I'm doing props for this one. Spring Awakening.
We're in central Maine at the University of Maine. We moved tech from tomorrow, Saturday, to tonight. We traded their six to nine regular rehearsal for a four to nine/ten tech rehearsal. We won't have tech tomorrow. Then we'll have tech Sunday from ten to four or so. Then a music rehearsal for the actors that night, their first with the orchestra.

Our set designer lives two hours away. He made it halfway here and then had to turn around because he feared for his life. Our lighting designer is staying with our TD about an hour away. They'll probably have to crash on one of the couches at the theatre or crash at someone's house.

It hasn't really hit us yet here, but it's going to be about 20" probably.

I hope everyone is staying safe!

[MatthewShiner]

It's interesting when you start working professionally, a theater will do EVERYTHING IN THEIR POWER not to cancel - a canceled show equals refunds.  If you can't come in due to weather, but we did a show - we just re-seat you - which is not a revenue loss (although a loss of potential revenue).

I have done shows down crew members (and put on understudies) under some of the worst weather situations - to near empty houses.

Rehearsals are another thing - some directors get so insane about possibly loosing rehearsal time (and if it's tech time, forget about it) - I once had to do tech in an Ice Storm so bad . . . the opera canceled performance - the first time they had done so in 30+ years - but we still had tech.

[KTSM]

We had over 20 centimetres of snow yesterday here in Ottawa Ontario. Our friday night youth group was cancelled but our main stage show, Rabbit Hole , went up as usual promptly at 8 p.m. It played to slightly more than half a house.

We have only ever cancelled one perfomance in over 40 years and that was due to a power failure. As someone else mentioned, it is easier to do a ticket exchange than to offer a refund.

[Aerial]

We ended up losing 3 shows to this storm.  On Thursday they made the decision to cancel Friday night and Saturday afternoon, but they held out on cancelling the Saturday night show as long as possible. There was still a travel ban in effect in RI at the time they made the call to finally cancel (since lifted, but I still think it was a good idea to cancel...no one wants to do a comedy for 20 people).

[maximillionx]

We ended up losing 3 shows to this storm.  On Thursday they made the decision to cancel Friday night and Saturday afternoon, but they held out on cancelling the Saturday night show as long as possible. There was still a travel ban in effect in RI at the time they made the call to finally cancel (since lifted, but I still think it was a good idea to cancel...no one wants to do a comedy for 20 people).

Ditto.  We opted to cancel Friday and Saturday right off.  We decided Sunday's performance had to be canceled as of today since our town has no power...and apparently neither do the surrounding ones.

[ReyYaySM]

I was working on a production of Bus Stop when the snowstorms hit DC in 2010.  The theatre asked the acting company and me to live in the theatre's housing (onsite) so as not to lose any rehearsal time.  We were snowed in for seven days.  We made it out once between the storms for some supplies, but otherwise we could only walk from the back door of the housing to the side door of the theatre (about 10 feet).  Talk about sense memory. 

[missliz]

We had our show Fri night and performed to a whopping audience of 10. Cast and crew were able to get there fine, but my ASM couldn't get a bus home to Jersey so she stayed over with me!

[BARussell]

Once back in college we did a co-production with an equity theatre and it was a weird day when technically the university was closed but the theater hadn't officially cancelled rehearsal and the director really wanted to have the rehearsal so I remember having a snowball fight right outside of the theater on campus while they were rehearsing inside, cause the SM and some of the actors were local or equity, but all the students were like "nope it's a snow day." Plus that was the longest rehearsal process of anyone's life so it was so unnecessary.

[bex]

I went to college in Alabama, and it snowed my senior year- we got a whole 3 inches! It stuck to the roads! Now, the head of our tech program was in her first semester at Auburn, having recently moved from Iowa, and did not understand that in Alabama 3 inches of snow means the entire state shuts down for 3 days. We were supposed to strike our big musical that day, and kept waiting for the email to go out saying it was cancelled, but no email came so we started straggling in to the theater. She couldn't understand why people were late, why everyone thought strike was cancelled, why everyone was complaining, until I explained to her that there were freshmen in college who had literally never seen snow before in person, and on the way there I saw a car driving down South College (the busiest street in town) with a snowman ON THE ROOF.

[babens]

I've experienced the fear of snow in Alabama.  I was on a Theatreworks tour that was headed to Montgomery a few years back.  We had a travel day on a Thursday from somewhere in Mississippi and the show was Friday morning in Montgomery.  Well, when we stopped for lunch on Thursday I got a call from the office.  There was the threat of snow for Friday so Montgomery had already closed the schools, so obviously our show was cancelled as well.  There was about half an inch of snow on the grass when I woke up Friday morning, nothing even stuck to the pavement.  Of course driving to Birmingham then later that morning was a trip and a half, because all of the Alabama natives had no idea how to drive in the "massive" snowstorm that had come overnight.

[little_owl]

I'm new to this city but I think people just get used to the snow here. We never cancelled anything and I am just glad I lived within walking distance of the theatre. It was a 30 minute walk but better than having to drive in the snow.