Signs point to signless Mad Cow Theatre getting new marquee
For more than a year, downtown Orlando theatergoers have been looking for a sign.
Mad Cow Theatre, downtown's sole professional theater company, installed an illuminated marquee overlooking Church Street in August of 2015, and for more than two years it served as a beacon to those looking for the second-floor venue in the 55 West development.
But in 2018, a malfunction changed things.
“A glass panel fell late in the evening in February 2018,” said Audrey McGowan, the theater's director of operations. “Thankfully, no one was out there or got hurt.”
The sign stayed up a while longer, secured by straps, but “out of extreme caution, we agreed it was best to remove it.”
Since then, “we have been signless,” McGowan said, but now the theater is starting to look at new options to boost its visibility.
The theater has experimented with temporary signs at street level, but with wear and tear “we were constantly replacing them,” McGowan said. There also are decals in the theater's windows, but they can be hard to see after dark.
One intriguing idea by theater officials is to use video projections to identify the venue. Projections could also promote future productions and possibly advertise other local events and businesses, as a way to bring income to the theater.
Such discussions are in an early phase, McGowan said, and any new signage — whether video or of a more physical nature — would have to be approved by the city and the property manager. The city is responsible for the space, as part of its deal with the 55 West developers, and then leases the venue to the theater.
Whatever the outcome, theater executives hope a new sign will prove less troublesome than its predecessor, which never lighted up correctly. It has since been returned to the vendor.
“As the sign was never completed and proved to be unsafe, Mad Cow did not complete the full purchase of the sign,” wrote executive director Mitzi Maxwell in an email. “Mad Cow is exploring its options with its board of directors, attorneys and other contractors.”
The theater did not release the name of the vendor, but McGowan said it was not local.
Meanwhile, theater staff have made it part of the routine to inquire if ticket buyers are newcomers — and then provide them with help in finding the theater.
“We tell people, ‘You have to look up to find us,'” McGowan said. “Direction education has become important to us. We want people to see we're tucked away up here.”