CURTAIN CLOSED
Two local theater groups with decades-long histories in Butler County have had their plans upended in recent months due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Since March, both the Musical Theatre Guild of Butler and Butler Little Theatre have been forced to cancel or postpone shows because of the coronavirus.
The Butler Little Theatre was just three performances into its run of “An Inspector Calls” when state mandates came down in March, forcing the rest of the shows to be canceled.
The cancellations were an anomaly for the decades-old group.
“We'll be entering our 80th season, and we've never had to cancel, even during World War II,” chairman of the board Sue Collar said.
“And we're proud of that,” she said.
Butler Little Theatre typically performs five plays during its season that starts in October and concludes in May.“An Inspector Calls” was the group's fourth play in the season with “Broadway Bound” set to be its fifth.In the summer months, the theater usually hosts youth programs and a children's summer show, all of which had to be called off this year.At its annual meeting Monday, Butler Little Theatre members started developing a plan to return in November with a run of “12 Angry Men,” but things are still uncertain.Collar said BLT is planning to use social distancing for its crowds, but she is unsure how many people would be willing to attend.“A lot of our audience is older and a lot of older people are still hesitant about going out, so we're not sure what our attendance will be,” Collar said.With the pandemic guidelines that are in place from Gov. Tom Wolf, Collar said BLT wouldn't be able to open right now, but she's hoping the state's situation will improve by November.
The Musical Theatre Guild finds itself in a similar situation of cancellations and postponements, clouded with an air of uncertainty about its future.The group usually performs three musicals in a season — a fall musical in October, a spring musical in April and a summer musical in July.This season, MTG was scheduled to perform “The Great American Trailer Park Musical” in April and “Schoolhouse Rock Live” in July.The guild had already begun preparing to perform “The Great American Trailer Park Musical” when state mandates in March forced it to stop.MTG vice president Barb Osche said there are several factors that make it difficult to put on a show during the pandemic.One concern is the safety of the performers.“When you're singing, you can't wear face covering,” Osche said.Another concern is that the William A. Lehnerd Performance Hall where they perform only has a capacity of about 70, so reducing ticket sales to adhere to social distancing would cost them a lot of money, she said.“Without being able to do a show, we have no money coming in,” Osche said of the continual postponements. “We're trying to think of some ways to do some fundraising.”Because the rights to perform the musical had already been paid for, the guild opted for postponement instead of a straight cancellation.The musical originally was postponed until July, but the situation in the state had not improved by then, so the Guild decided to postpone it again until October.MTG's tentative dates for “The Great American Trailer Park Musical” are now Oct. 9-11 and 16-17, but unless things in the state improve dramatically, a third postponement might be inevitable.
Like for BLT, Osche said MTG has never had to cancel a season in its 59 seasons of performing.Both Collar and Osche said it takes at least six weeks to prepare for a show.For BLT to perform in November or MTG to stage a show in October, auditions and rehearsals would have to begin sometime in the next few weeks.Without knowing what the region's situation will be like this fall, however, both organizations are feeling like they are trapped in limbo, forced to prepare for shows that may very well not happen.
