While construction crews cleaned up a downed power line just outside, actors onstage at the Cape Playhouse, the country's oldest professional theater in Dennis, Massachusetts kicked off a matinee performance of "A Chorus Line."
A single generator droned outside, supplying a fraction of the power needed for the normal stage lights, sound and scenery. The doors of the 93-year-old theater were swung wide open to let the occasional breeze punctuate the repressive heat, and everyone on stage was dripping with sweat.
"Everyone, from the very beginning, [said] we're going to get through this, we're going to make this work no matter how we have to do it," Artistic Director Michael Rader said. "If we have to do it with flashlights, whatever — we wanted to do this for the community and make it happen.”
Rader said that after two tornadoes came whipping through Cape Cod this week, downing trees, flooding streets and wiping out power, there was no talk of stopping the production.
“Of course it's nerve-wracking, but it's also exciting, and the cast really wanted to make this a priority,” Rader said. “I feel like we're all in this together today, and we're all doing it for the community.”
While the orchestra and many crew members are local, the actors came from New York, including John T. Wolfe, who plays Larry in "A Chorus Line." Wolf said the production was trying to rehearse in New York City earlier this month during a major power outage there.
“We had to deal with that, and then as soon as we came up here it's been one thing after another,” he said. “Honestly it has really brought us together. It's an incredible team to work with, so there was no question if we were going to keep performing or not."
Production Director Daniel Whiting joked that the actors brought the storm with them. He works at the Cape Playhouse every summer and said he hadn’t experienced an issue until these actors showed up.
“It got a lot worse once they showed up,” he said. “Everything was fine until the creatives came.”
The crew deconstructed the set from the previous show without power, Whiting said, which produced other challenges.
“We can't even use power tools to do it, he said. “So we're just beating it apart with hammers, and it's taking a lot longer and it's a lot harder than normal.”
Whiting is one of 30 crew members, many of whom lost power in their own homes and leaned on neighbors for help.
“We've had to run extension cords from nearby houses to power the refrigerator,” he said, “so our food doesn't go bad while we're here working.”
Mary Hatch works as an usher at the Playhouse. She's been coming to the Cape since she was a child and now owns a house in Dennis. She said the spirit of coming together in hard times and toughing it out is part of what it means to be from the Cape.
“I think there's a lot of neighbors that are helping neighbors. People go around checking on people's property, or neighbors, or responding you know, come on over,” she said. “That's how it is.”
