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Roadhouse Theater: Laters
Initially, I was sad to read of the closing of Erie's Roadhouse Theatre. It's unfortunate that Erie will be losing a home for different kinds of entertainment and the Great Lakes Film Fest. As I read the article something jumped out at me:
Roadhouse started to experience major financial woes following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Scott McClelland said. The Roadhouse co-owner said corporate sponsorships in Erie dried up after 9/11, with sponsors "going to safer arts projects and not the edgier programs we had."
Sorry - I fail to see how terrorist attacks closed the theater. A switch was not flipped at every local business that made them only support certain arts programs. That's a cop-out. I think they'd get a lot more sympathy and future goodwill if they played it straight. We understand operating a theater is expensive and creating quality productions costs a lot money, but don't try to put this on 9/11. That's lame, and it dishonors the people who died that day.
Either he meant that local donation money was being redirected away from them because of the attacks or he used the standard political standby and blamed it on the terrorists.
Posted by: Joe Blow at November 7, 2007 3:26 PMOr else this is a variation on the "After 9/11 there's been a systemic attack on free speech led by the evil neocons and their culture of fear" tinfoil-hattery. Dunno--perhaps I'm wrong to read the use of "safe" to be a nod in that direction. As you said, in any light, the linkage is seriously weak.
Posted by: Jerry at November 7, 2007 8:51 PMJust came across this entry on your blog as I was searching for info on the Roadhouse - I understand they're trying to relaunch it.
Scott's comments seemed odd to me too. For him to blame it on 9/11 is insane - anti-establishment is not the same as anti-American. I think that's awfully paranoid of him to say.
The problem that the Roadhouse has, and always will have, is that Scott and Kim Mc are great artists - vibrant, daring, and a little crazy. But they are not good businesspeople, never have been, never will be. Having them RUN a theater is like putting Courtney Love and Mickey Rourke in charge of the cashbox.
Posted by: Spike at January 19, 2008 12:42 PM
