After recording its best fest ever, last week’s torrential rains has forced it to shut down for an indefinite period.
The 34th Montreal Fringe had recorded its best fest yet at the box office, so its executive and artistic director Amy Blackmore figured the time was ripe for her to take a few days off last week.
But the weather gods were not on board.
Blackmore was on a train heading to London, Ont. to touch base with family when she got word that the Mainline Theatre, the Fringe’s home base for the festival as well as a year-round performance venue, was flooded as a consequence of last week’s deluge of torrential rains.
Whatever joy Blackmore may have felt prior to leaving was quickly dissipated with the news that the Mainline was going to be out of commission for an indefinite period. Damages to the St-Laurent Blvd. theatre were extensive.
Back in town at the Mainline, Blackmore requires a tiny flashlight — because power had to be cut off for electrical security reasons through most of the second-floor theatre — to point out damages to the ceiling, walls, floors, lighting fixtures and all manner of sound and projection equipment. Blackmore’s office is now in shambles.
The destruction is heart-breaking. The Mainline may be no one’s notion of Carnegie Hall, but it has been a most welcoming and warm retreat to emerging artists as well as established theatre performers for years.
The rains had come through the venue’s recently repaired roof and poured through its ceiling, walls and fixtures leaving about half a foot of water on the theatre floors. The principal theatre space somehow managed to avoid the disaster as was the case with the 110 theatre seats recently donated from the Théâtre aux Écuries set to be installed at the end of July. But that’s still small consolation at this time.
“Sadly, we won’t be able to welcome audiences to the theatre space and new seating for quite some time,” says a sighing Blackmore, a former dancer who has been running the Fringe fest and the Mainline Theatre for the last 12 years.
”We’re in insurance limbo right now. It’s the waiting game. That’s the hardest part.”
Blackmore is now dealing with both her insurance company and that of the building’s landlord in trying to assess what damages might be covered. There’s no telling how long it could take for work to start to bring the theatre up to speed. But there’s no doubt that regardless of the insurance pay-out there will be significant costs to cover for the theatre.
“Apparently, water kept pouring out of just about every hole in the theatre,” Blackmore says. “When I first got the call on the train from our artistic producer Kenny Streule about the rain coming in, I had no idea about its severity. I told him to get a bucket to scoop it out. He said he’d need at least 40 buckets.”
It would soon all sink in for Blackmore.
“When I walked in here, it was just pure chaos,” Streule recalls. “There were three different major showers flooding in. But the most frustrating thing was that I couldn’t do anything to stop it all. I’ve never seen anything like that, and I’ve never mopped this much in my life, either.”
“I saw the video footage,” Blackmore says. “It was like a waterfall. It was devastating. We’ve had to cancel all the theatre and comedy shows scheduled for at least until the end of August. That’s over a dozen shows as well as artist residencies just for now. The ceiling will have to be replaced as well as some of the walls and floors. I just don’t know how quickly that’s going to happen. We’ve had to cease operations. And I don’t want any of our four employees to be let go.”
More than a record-breaking 20,000 tickets were sold at the Fringe, which wrapped June 16. That resulted in $160,000 in box office revenues, all of which went back to the performing artists — as is the way Fringe fests operate. Great for the performers, but that doesn’t help the fest or the theatre’s bottom line.
The good news, though, is when word went out a few days ago that the theatre and the festival were in distress, over $35,000 — and counting — has been raised.
“I can’t say enough about how our community — theatre goers as well as theatre companies — have responded so generously. This confirms for me that our arts community is its own ecosystem and that we all play different roles in coming together for it,” Blackmore says.
“We had originally planned to launch our festival fundraising campaign to coincide with World Fringe Day last week, the day after this all happened here. Now it’s become a save Mainline campaign. We have zero cash flow right now,” she sombrely adds. “It’s like being kicked when you’re already down. But we’ll be back.”
Her flashlight by her side, she shrugs after spotting yet another water bubble ready to burst on one wall and yet a few more on another wall.
Blackmore has no plans to resume her vacation any time soon.
“I feel I’m owed a beach day,” Blackmore quips. “But this is not what I had in mind.”