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Local theater seeks help after flooding

John Berger

Tropical Storm Darby claimed a victim in the local theater community Sunday night when The Actors’ Group facility in Iwilei was flooded by almost a foot of water.

TAG staffers had sandbags and buckets ready, but Darby’s floodwaters overwhelmed them.

“The water poured in from everywhere,” TAG spokesman Frankie Enos said Monday. The furniture and other set pieces for TAG’s current production of “Mothers &Sons” had been moved out of harm’s way before Darby hit, but a lot of things couldn’t be moved in time, and immobile fixtures such as carpeting were ruined.

Enos was awaiting the arrival of water extractors to dry the carpets. Volunteers who’d like to help TAG with the cleanup can contact Enos at 783-9700 or frankie.enos@gmail.com.

She said that in the short run the show will go on.

TAG is determined to have the theater open for the final performances of “Mothers &Sons” this weekend.

The show closes with its matinee performance Sunday. Beyond that, Enos said, things are up in the air.

TAG’s loyal subscriber base came through in 2014 when the group needed $100,000 to pay for upgrades required by the city for its Dole Cannery Square location. All that work was completed last year. Now many of those city-mandated improvements will have to be done over.

“We’re emotionally wrung out,” Enos said. “We had water damage last fall, but it was nothing like this. We’re having to rethink. We don’t ever want to go through this again.”

TAG’s theater also flooded in August, but that did not force the cancellation of any performances.

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