tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9221545944710995423.post-74007041619758088812008-05-19T08:58:00.003-04:002008-05-19T09:18:33.428-04:00<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>This had to be the most idiotic scheduling Wilson has ever seen. The opening night of "Fair and Tender Ladies" — one of two plays highlighting the third annual <a href="http://www.theateroftheamericansouth.org/">Theater of the American South</a> — was nearly ruined Friday night by the blaring of a rock band half a block away. The band was so loud that theater patrons, who had paid $20 a ticket to see (and hear!) the play, strained to separate actress Quinn Hawkesworth's words against the thump of the bass and the screaming lyrics. The music very nearly drowned out the play. Some people moved closer to the stage so they could hear what they paid for instead of the uninvited intruders. It did little good. Silent pauses in the script were not silent at all, thanks to the band next door.<div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>It's a tribute to Hawkesworth's professionalism that she did not allow the distraction to throw her off. She would have been justified, as some college professors and preachers have been known to do, to simply stand and glare or walk off the stage at the inconsiderate interruption.<br /></div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>The rock band was hired by the Wilson Chamber of Commerce. The block of Pine Street next to the Chamber (and a half block from the Boykin Center, where Hawkesworth was performing) was blocked off for the Chamber's Small Business Week party. As I was arriving at and later leaving the play (and hearing others from the theater audience complaining), I saw no more than a dozen or so people at the Chamber's outdoor event. There were probably 250 people at the theater.<br /></div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Here's the big question: Why would the Chamber schedule a band at the same time as the Theater of the American South's performance? The theater festival schedule was set a year in advance. Surely the Chamber could have scheduled Small Business Week another time or at least rescheduled the street party with a band or moved it away from the theater.<br /></div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>The Theater of the American South is attracting patrons from Raleigh and other cities. I only hope that Friday night's audience was exclusively from Wilson because the Chamber's attempt — unintentional, I hope — at drowning out "Fair and Tender Ladies" would give outsiders a horrible impression of how this city organizes events and respects others.<br /></div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Presumably the Chamber is not opposed to the Theater of the American South, which has a considerable economic impact already and is likely to grow into an event that will put Wilson on the map both culturally and economically. So why would the Chamber allow its party to sabotage this event?<br /></div>Hal Tarletonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10736629619718340570noreply@blogger.com