SEQUIM – The show will go on, but the venue will change – or so hopes the Olympic Theatre Arts members.
The group is searching for another location to hold its Friday, Saturday and Sunday performances of “Auntie Mame” after its building at 414 N. Sequim Ave. was shut down by the city on Wednesday.
The performances are canceled for now.
Elaine Caldwell, coordinator of the reconstruction project’s third phase, said patrons will be given the option of getting their money back for the canceled performances or making the ticket price a donation to the group.
The performances were canceled because Sequim Public Works Director Jim Bay said it was unsafe to have performances in a building undergoing demolition.
The demolition is part of the building’s third and final phase of reconstruction.
“I really feel bad about it, but I can’t put somebody’s life in danger and say its OK,” Bay said Wednesday afternoon.
“I shut them down.
“They have no authority to have anything going on in there except demolition,” he said.
“If I say they can’t proceed, then they can’t proceed.”
Bay talked with board members on Tuesday.
Caldwell – who with her husband received the 2006 Sequim Citizen of the Year award Tuesday in part for her stewardship of the OTA project – said the group just started the building demolition, but that area is completely sealed off.
In the past, the group held performances in part of the building during construction of another part, she said.
“If they shut us down, so be it. We’ll move to another venue,” said Caldwell on Wednesday prior to final discussions with city officials.
The theater group had just added three performances to replace those that had been canceled because of illness in the cast.
