“The Houston Theater District has once again sustained a hit from ongoing flooding, this time thanks to now-Tropical Storm Harvey,” writes Natalie de la Garza in Tuesday’s (8/29) Houston Press (Texas). The Theater District is home to the Houston Symphony, Houston Grand Opera, and Houston Ballet, among other performing arts organizations. “Low levels of water penetrated the front of house areas in the Wortham Theater Center.… The Wortham basement is completely flooded. Houston Grand Opera, which calls the Wortham’s two theaters home, noted in a press release that instruments and costumes, including for their upcoming productions of La traviata and Julius Caesar, were moved to high ground prior to the storm and are safe…. There is no discernable water damage to the stage or auditorium in [the Houston Symphony’s] Jones Hall, but the basement showed significant water damage and still has standing water.… ‘Ella at 100,’ the Ella Fitzgerald tribute that was scheduled to open the Houston Symphony’s 2017-18 POPS season, has been canceled.… The Theater District parking garages are currently full of floodwater and have been deemed completely unusable.… It could be days or even months before Harvey’s effects on the nexus of Houston’s performing-arts community are fully known.”
Elsewhere in Texas, the Austin Symphony Orchestra cancelled its August 27 Hartman Concert in the Park due to extreme weather. Some Texas orchestras will not present concerts until later in September and have not announced schedule changes at this time. Several orchestras have closed their offices due to Hurricane Harvey; for the most current information about an orchestra in Texas impacted by the storm, check its Facebook page. The Hub will report on the situation as more facts emerge.
Posted August 29, 2017
On August 27, flooding from Hurricane Harvey in Houston’s Theater District damaged performing arts venues including the Alley Theatre (in photo) and, across the street, Jones Hall, home of the Houston Symphony.
