Storm’s horror show returns to arts district
The gems of Houston’s vaunted arts district have been swamped by floods from nearby Buffalo Bayou and face significant repairs, threatening the fall performance season that would have begun next week.
The Alley Theatre, which completed a $46.5 million renovation just two years ago, appears to have suffered the most damage so far, although arts companies will not be able to fully assess the destruction for a week or more.
Venturing into the Alley with a flashlight on Monday, managing director Dean Gladden found water slapping at the ceiling of the downstairs Neuhaus Stage and its lobby. Those same spaces were submerged in 2001 during flooding from Tropical Storm Allison, forcing them to be gutted and renovated for $4 million.
“You can’t drain it. You can only pump the water, but it’s already up to the ceiling as high as it can go,” Gladden said.
The basement level dressing rooms are also submerged — and, most importantly, the power supply for the whole building.
“We’re completely out of commission ,” Gladden said.
He and artistic director Greg Boyd promptly canceled remaining performances of “The 39 Steps,” and they are scrambling to find alternative venues for the next two shows.
Astonished at flooding
Houston Grand Opera managing director Perryn Leech, who is also board chair of the Houston Theater District, was astonished when he and district CEO Kathryn McNiel entered the dark Wortham Theater Center on Monday.
“The scene dock is a big swimming pool,” Leech said.
Water breached the top of a metal barrier there that’s 14 or 15 feet above the bayou, then was trapped and couldn’t flow out.
Leech and McNiel also found a completely flooded basement. The dressing rooms, the HGO costume shop and storage areas are under water. HGO staff removed costumes for upcoming productions from those rooms on Friday, but not sewing machines, washing machines and other materials. It will all have to be renovated, Leech said.
He estimated that more than an inch of water had also soaked the venue’ s large Brown Theater stage, which will have to be resurfaced.
“Everything that was stored under the stage is now sitting in water.”
The damage immediately drew comparisons to scenes from 2001’s Tropical Storm Allison, whose $9 billion cost included significant damages to the venues and companies within the 17-block district, the nation’s second-largest theater district.
Then, as now, a series of 15 floodgates failed to save the district’s underground parking lot and the subterranean levels of buildings that house the city’s major ballet, opera, symphony and theater companies as well as a few smaller per- forming arts organizations.
Carolyn Campbell, spokesperson for Houston First, which operates the city-owned Wortham Theater Center, Jones Hall and parking garage, said all of the flood gates had been deployed, “but this was catastrophic, so water breached. We haven’t been able to assess what happened.”
The arts organizations are anchors of Houston’s downtown, with significant budgets. The Houston Symphony, for example, has a $33.9 million budget. Houston Ballet operates on a $33 million budget, while the Alley’s annual budget is about $18 million.
They also are major contributors to Houston’s arts economy and cultural tourism, which accounts for 9.2 million visitors to the city per year.
Closed until Labor Day
City-owned facilities in the district will remain closed through Labor Day. All of the area’s arts organizations were still without power, phones and email servers late Monday.
In a statement for the district, Leech and McNiel said Jones Hall’s basement rehearsal room also still had standing water, with significant damage. (During Allison, Houston Symphony’s historic music library and many priceless instruments, which were stored there, were severely damaged or destroyed.)
Water also penetrated to the Hobby Center’s Zilka Hall through its loading dock and foyer.
Houston Ballet’s $48 million Center for Dance, which opened in 2011, took on an inch or two of water. Executive director Jim Nelson said he had not yet assessed the damage there. He was not yet ready to announce changes to the company’s season, which was due to open Sept. 7 at the Wortham.
Even if companies could miraculously scramble to put on shows next week, their patrons would have nowhere to park. The district’s parking garages are full of floodwater.
The massive task of pumping them dry will not begin until officials have assessed the situation with “the experts who will clean it up,” said Houston First’s Campbell.
Houston First will not allow tenants into the city’s facilities until next week.
“Right now, people matter more,” Campbell said, explaining that Houston’s theater district operations staff has been deployed to help manage the command station for the George R. Brown Convention Center, which is operating as an evacuation center for flood victims.