For UNCG Opera The Show Goes On After Fire Strikes

Earlier this week, a local production of a tragic opera nearly took a tragic turn when a UNCG Opera rehearsal ended abruptly due to fire.

It was the company's final dress rehearsal for Gian Carlo Menotti's Pulitzer Prize-winning opera, "The Consul." In it, an immigrant arrives in America through Ellis Island to rejoin her husband and sickly son. After being denied entry, the heroine takes her own life. 

UNCG's David Holley says, on Tuesday night in UNCG Auditorium, he found himself facing a life-and-death struggle of his own.

"I'm conducting away—I have my graduate assistant sitting next to me taking notes for me and he taps me on the shoulder and says, ‘Mr. Holley!' And I look up and above the supertitle screen, there's this ball of fire!” says Holley. “My wonderful school of theatre colleagues—they were on the stage, bringing the curtain in, and they had fire extinguishers on the drape before it hit the deck.”

Holley says the cause of fire was a stage light positioned too close to the main curtain, which eventually burned to the ground. No one was injured.

The show will go on, at Taylor Theatre in Greensboro. Holley says the response to the fire and its aftermath by the entire crew and performing cast was stellar.

“It's just been a great banding together of art for art's sake. There's not been one grumbling, not one complaint. Everybody's said, ‘Hey, this is just what we're facing. Everyone's put in so much work into this. We don't want to just cancel the show. We're going to do our best to put on the best show we can. We want people to come see it.'”

Holley says, to encourage community turn out, UNCG has opted for a pay-what-you-can admissions policy. The weekend performances are open to the public.