Dennis Plante wrote:
I guess I'm a little confused as to what the objection (from the tax-payers League) is. Is it that the building was moved, or that the cost of moving it was too high?
Personally, I find it hard to attach a pricetag to perserving the history and heritage of our city. Or, should we not allow ourselves that luxury?
WM: I have to say that moving the Schubert was not a good solution, I thought taking it down was preferable, though completely unnecessary. Why? Both the Orpheum and the State had been refurbished, thus giving us two great examples of traditional 19th/early 20th century proscenium arch theaters. However, 19th century theater practice won't be coming back, therefore, for the future it would be nice to have at least one modern commercial theater. The Schubert, for all the 'oh, it was so pretty,' it is still proscenium arch and is limited to what fits on the apron and behind the arch.
I once had to work a show that was flown from Albany, NY to DC where it was to have the honor of being shown in the Ford Theater. Everything went smoothly until we tried to sit the set down on a raked stage (18th & 19th century). The play required that a toilet overflow in the second act. In the Ford, the audience is no more than 10 ft. from the low end of the rake. This was not gonna work. Had to move the whole shootin' match to another venue.
At the same time, I think the developer of Block E was given too much latitude. There was no good reason, other than arrogance, not to keep the Schubert where it was. There were much better technical reasons not to keep the Schubert at all.
We do have to continuously ask the question How much of history can we keep and how much has to go the way of Troy (Turkey, not NY) or Memphis (Egypt, not Tennessee).
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