REDLANDS Vandals ruin set at park's theater

Festival organizers cancel Saturday's show; today's performance will be held

The Redlands Theatre Festival was forced to cancel its performance at Prospect Park on Saturday evening after set pieces and other equipment were vandalized overnight.

The festival’s executive director, Shannon Galuszka, said she left the park about midnight on Friday after wrapping up the opening night with a performance of “Bright Star.” The festival, in its 50th season, had been on a two-year hiatus because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The festival has operated as a repertory company in the Inland Empire since its founding in 1972 by Galuszka’s father, Cliff Cabanilla. Each week features five shows performed in rotation Wednesday through Sunday evenings, continuing until Aug. 6.

Saturday, Galuszka woke up to a call notifying her that the set had been vandalized, with doors kicked in, wires and ropes cut and trash and graffiti strewn about.

“We’ve worked so hard the last two months to get ready for our big return and our opening night went beautifully,” Galuszka said. “And now vandals have destroyed our beautiful set.”

Galuszka said she and her company have had problems at the park for years, with people roaming the park “screaming their heads off” and throwing bottles and other objects at the crew, she said.

“I used to stay overnight to keep an eye on everything, but we were told by the city we aren’t allowed to do that,” she said. “We don’t have the budget for overnight security and there’s only so much we can do to secure all our equipment.”

Though Saturday night’s performance of “Noises Off” was canceled, Galuszka said she and her crew would be working to ensure that tonight’s performance of “Something’s Afoot” would continue.

“It’s about the time and effort and the disappointment,” Galuszka said. “My dad founded this company and we’ve been shut down for two years. We just wanted to continue our tradition and make our return special.”

Police on Saturday afternoon said they had no suspects.

A Gofundme was set up by the organizers to help with the cost of repairs.