Tragedy for Local Theater

Acting's been a hobby of mine since the seventh grade. I fell in love with theater from the first play I witnessed in junior high. When I came to college, it was so hard to realize I no longer had time to take part in theater. I've taken a few theater classes luckily, attending a few plays here and there.

Sunday night a friend of mine told me he went to a play over the summer at this outdoor theater. He said he the audience sat outside and watched the play; it's stage was outside too. There was a barn behind it as it's back stage and storage place.

On the night of Monday, April 5, that very barn theater went up in flames. I couldn't believe one day after my friend told that story, the theater was gone. My friend Laura and I were jogging that night nearby and saw the giant cloud of smoke from afar. Then, the sirens came. One fire truck after another after another flew past us on Grindstone Parkway. To make a long story short, we tried to get closer to the fire to see what exactly was up in flames, but we never got close enough to figure it out.

We ran back and I immediately got on twitter. There were several tweets from KOMUNews that the Maplewood Barn Theatre was on fire. I learned the following morning it had burned to the ground completely.  This is one great thing I love about news nowadays. You can get instant coverage from reporters and citizens on Twitter. I'll always use this in my reporting.

Tuesday afternoon I walked into KOMU wanting to know more. KOMU 8's Allison Archer was already working on the fire investigation story. I spoke with her and found out what she knew and also looked at her video. I was purely interested in the story on my own without knowing what happened next. Randy assigned me to cover the board members' meeting that night; they'd be discussing what to do now that the theater is gone. Looking at the video and asking Allison really helped me get a better idea what was going on so I could further my story. I'm so glad I was so curious.

I started looking into finding out the exact time and location of the meeting by searching on the theater's website, looking for phone numbers. After I got several voice mails, I realize that I should've asked Allison before I did all the unnecessary searching. She had the president's cell phone number. I called him and told him I'd like to attend the meeting and get an interview afterward. He said he'd love to have me and felt it was necessary for the media to cover what they'd be discussing.
                                                             
Thereafter, I went through media manager and pulled in all the potential video I could use of the fire the night before and the destruction video Allison had shot Tuesday morning. I'm really glad I did this because it really saved me time later on.

I pre-wrote my script as much as I could so that once I got back from the meeting, I could just plug in the rest of what I got from the meeting. I decided I'd talk about the brand new stage built three weeks ago in my stand-up. I asked one of the other reporters who was covering the election if he'd like some photog experience to shoot my stand-up. Chris Saunders and I headed out to the scene. We both learned a great deal how to use the cameras in tough lighting and how to make my stand-up look the best it could to show the burnt stage. I'm very proud that we took the time to make it look good. The only thing I wish I did was say, "it's just a burnt platform" instead of "just a burnt platform." The "it's" would've named the stage that I left out.

I pulled in my stand-up and laid it down on my sequence. I did as much as I could before I headed to the meeting. I'm glad I pre-planned like I did. I learned a lot about creating your own luck, being organized and planning ahead.

When I got to the meeting at Flat Branch, I was a little overwhelmed because the lighting was poor and it was so loud, I could barely hear what was being said. I adjusted everything on the camera so the lighting was decent. That turned out okay, I wish I got more shots that weren't so shaky. I took the camera off the tripod to get a different angle, but it was still too shaky. I got all my information written down and asked the president, Michael Scott, to verify what I had overheard. Then, I did my interview with him and another board member. I got great sound bites, but Michael spoke softly. I pulled him away from the crowd, but it wasn't enough. I learned that in that kind of situation, maybe I should have pulled him outside the restaurant.

I got back and put the package together in less than an hour. It was pretty difficult but I got it done. It wasn't the very best, but I learned a lot and I think I did well with the timing and all. I got a lot of compliments on my stand-up. I'm definitely proud of that.

Theater board members want to try and fix up the burnt stage and put on next month's play at Nifong Park. It all depends if they can afford to put up tents to store the costumes, props, tools and such to use in place of the barn. The other option is to perform at local colleges.

Covering a theater fire was interesting and sad at the same time. I felt sympathetic for the board members as a reporter and a theater lover. I'm glad I can add this story to my background. I learned a great deal.