Tent theatre offers some interesting problems to overcome. After the smoke experience, a new way of protecting the electrical equipment was instituted. However, it was not foolproof. The Master of Ceremonies in Cabaret began singing: “What good is sitting alone in your room?
Come hear the music play.
Life is a Cabaret, old chum,
Come to the Cabaret.” ... when the entire sound system went dead. We sang and danced the rest of the song accapella and on pitch. With the lead and 20 chorus members spread throughout the 100-foot span of the tent, this was no small feat. But the worst electrical problem by far was during the 3rd Act of Harvey. The show had run for two weeks without a hitch and was about to close. It was our last Friday night crowd and everything was going great. We had just entered the doctor’s office to put Elwood away when we had a total blackout. NO LIGHTS ANYWHERE. We waited a few seconds and then I said, ”Well, this is a quite a place. They don’t even pay their electrical bills!” We waited…and waited. Still no lights. The audience played along—they thought it was part of the show. I was playing Veta, and the gentleman playing the judge wondered if we should go get someone and started to exit the stage—a raised platform. He was 20 years older than I and had trouble walking. I was so worried he would fall that I grabbed him and made him sit down telling him, “Harvey won’t let either of us go.” Still no lights. It was now obvious to everyone that we had had a power failure. What to do? Well we continued adlibbing—about the power bill, “Could Harvey have had something to do with the missing power bill? What was happening to Elwood?” and again the judge wanted to leave. One of my former students playing the taxi driver chimed in that she would go get the taxi to do what, I didn’t have the faintest idea, but at least we kept the dialog going. Finally after 10 minutes (and believe me that is no exaggeration, it might have been 15) our assistant director found a floor lamp with a bare bulb that somehow was still working. She and the light board operator dangled it out over the stage and asked the audience if they wanted us to continue the show with the limited lighting. Their rousing answer was total applause. We finished the show to a standing ovation. I don’t know if Mary Chase would have approved of the additional dialogue, but the audience loved it! The most interesting technical problem however was not electrical but weather related. It was opening night of The Foreigner, and a July thunderstorm arrived with a vengeance. The wind blew, lightning and thunder followed, and then we had a torrential downpour. The water came in through all the exits and holes in the top. One such hole was directly above the dinning room table. During the breakfast scene the rain poured so heavily that Ellerd got a prop umbrella out of the stand and he, Charlie, and I huddled under the umbrella and tried to carry on the dialogue while Thor rumbled and the rain poured down on us. My husband videotaped the show and you could not hear the dialogue above the natural sounds. It was over shortly and we persevered through standing and dripping water. Interestingly we had no trouble with anything electrical! Summer theatre in the circus tent ended several years later, and the city decided to build a permanent tent-like structure in the same place (pictured above). No summer theatre has been done since but many other wonderful city events have taken place there. | 
