Weston Theater cancels last two shows;
‘Singin’ in the Rain’ moving to Walker Farm Financial losses multiply as damage to Playhouse, other buildings mount

By Cynthia Prairie
©2023 Telegraph Publishing LLC

The damage to the Weston Playhouse from the July 10 flooding was so severe that the Weston Theater Company is canceling its last two shows and moving Singin’ in the Rain from the Playhouse to Walker Farm as the final show of the season.

This will allow the theater company “to focus on rebuilding efforts,” Andy Butterfield, director of Marketing and Communications for the theater company, told The Telegraph Friday morning.

The Porch on Windy Hill, which was to run Aug. 16 to Sept. 3 at Walker Farm, will be moved to the 2024 season and Let There Be Love, scheduled for Oct. 4 to Oct. 22 also at Walker Farm, is canceled.

Unlike the damage from Tropical Storm Irene in 2011, muddy waters from this most recent flood rose through the ceiling of the basement and into the seating area of the Playhouse auditorium, causing damage so extensive that Playhouse administration cut a week off performances for the highly popular Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story and reshuffled the last three plays.

“We are heartbroken about having to make changes to the remainder of our season,” says Butterfield. “And we appreciate (our patrons’) understanding and flexibility and the importance of our friends near and far … We can’t do what we do without our audience. We hope to share the remainder of our shows with people.” What the Constitution Means to Me continues at Walker Farm through July 29, followed by Singin’ in the Rain Aug. 3 through Aug. 20. Constitution had to be cut back one day to give more time to wedging in the stage set for Singin’ in the Rain.

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For more Telegraph articles on the Flood of 7-10-23, Click here.

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Few who experienced the ravages of Irene on Aug. 28, 2011, will forget that six days later, with the cast forced out of their basement dressing rooms and stage entrance, Saint-Ex was able to open at the Playhouse. Its final, emotional performance on Sept. 10, with the cast entering from the back of the theater and past a packed house, exited the same way, with everyone in tears. At the time, former theater producing partner Steve Stettler estimated the damage at $250,000.

Butterfield explains that the 2011 flood occurred at the end of their season but “here, the flooding occurred in the height of the summer season. And the flooding was so much worse.”

Butterfield says, “The full scope of the damage is still unclear. We will not be able to bring audiences back to the Playhouse by the end of the summer and likely not by the end of the year.”

As he delivered the bad news, Butterfield acknowledges the generosity of the community, which “came in to clean up debris right after the floods and … community members have been offering beds and meals … This community is resilient.”

Servpro, he adds has been hired to clean up the mud and water and keep mold at bay.

The damage to the Weston Theater Company has not been confined to the Playhouse. It extends to ticket sales, company-owned housing, and cost of new housing for displaced company members.

As for ticket sales, Butterfield says that “pre-pandemic, nearly 50 percent of all of our single ticket sales were from out-of-state buyers. The Playhouse, the Vermont Country Store … are tourist destinations.” The flood, he says, has deterred tourism and those tourists who would normally buy tickets.

The move to Walker Farm will also cut into cash flow. Seating capacity for Walker Farm is 120 versus 306 for the Playhouse, so with the loss of a week of Buddy and despite 22 upcoming performances of Singin’ and guaranteed income from season ticketholders, the revenue loss still will be large.

It can be easy to forget that the Weston Theater Company has only nine full-time staff and relies on more than 100 theater professionals who come from as far away as Florida, Michigan and California to make theater magic seem like magic magic during a summer season. There are costumers, set designers, musicians, lighting designers and so many more. Add to that the actors and other pros who drop in for a three-week run.

They all have to stay somewhere. The company had been housing staff at the Playhouse and three homes that it owns, one right next door to the Playhouse and know as “Fort Ewen” for its Tim Fort and the late Malcolm Ewen, both founding directors of the theater company with Steve Stettler. The company also rents a number of houses, Airbnbs and rooms at inns in Ludlow and throughout the region to house even more staff.

Everyone in a theater company-owned home was displaced, but, says Butterfield, “We are able to get people back into two of the houses.” That of course does not include residents of the home next door, which took on 2 feet of churning water and mud to its first floor, and the Playhouse.

As we reported last Monday, the Colonial Inn in Weston took in 11 staff from the Weston Theater Company, who were awakened in the early morning hours by neighbors telling them to get out. Now, the company’s management team is handling the housing situation for all displaced staff.

That isn’t an easy job, Butterfield says. “There are standards we have to maintain for housing” including, among other requirements, the right number of bedrooms per bathrooms. The theater company, he adds, “is absorbing the cost of all that extra housing. We have some insurance. But the cost beyond what insurance will support is significant.”

Staging Singin’ in the Rain at Walker Farm could be considered experimental theater. “We largely do commercial titles at the Playhouse as opposed to edgier new works that the Walker Farm venue can support,” says Butterfield. So fitting what he calls a “grand commercially loved work” into that edgier venue will take some doing.

Recalling the “show must go on” spirit that the theater company had to make with Saint Ex — re-staging the band, eliminating some props and changing the cast entrance among them — Butterfield says that for Singin’ in the Rain to be properly staged at Walker Farm, “There are technical elements that we are still trying to figure out.”

The set, he says, has been in development for months and now will have to be adapted to fit Walker Farm, since the scale between two venues are “so different.” But he promises that “it will be adapted to a more intimate space.”

As for the musical’s most iconic scene? It’s still up in the air whether it is just too soon for real rain.

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