WILMINGTON — There will be no performances at the Murphy Theatre for the rest of 2020.
The theatre’s executive leadership and board of directors regretfully announced the cancellation of all remaining performances through Dec. 31, including: the Murphy Theatre’s Veterans Tribute, Dancing with the Stars, the Annual Christmas Show, FireFall, Mike Albert and the Big E Band, The Drowsy Lads, Rockstar, and the annual Rocky Horror Picture Show.
With the State of Ohio’s social mandate of only 15 percent capacity in a performing venue, that is only 103 patrons — the Murphy Theatre cannot make financial sense with those numbers.
In light of these cancellations, the Murphy Theatre also made the difficult decision to lay off their staff, in the hopes that by weathering this crisis financially intact, they will be able to provide stability, artistic work, and a place of community again as soon as possible.
The Murphy Theatre encourages the community to show support by becoming a member in the Fall Membership Campaign which will begin Oct.1.
Despite these cancellations, the Murphy Theatre remains committed to return in 2021 stronger and with a great line-up of live events. The Murphy Theatre will focus their work in the coming months on weathering the current health crisis and returning strong and vibrant in January of 2021. Most of the events that have been cancelled are rescheduled for the 2021 season.
The theatre will go dark until January.
During this time, we hope our community will stay with us. We will leave our ghost light on the stage. The ghost light has become a tradition in all theaters. We know that staying out of the theatre is the safest option for our patrons and the Murphy Theatre Staff.
But, we will leave our ghost light on as a symbol of hope that we will be back in the Murphy soon, hearing live music, watching our community Star’s and youth perform as well as saluting our Veteran’s. We count on our patron’s support to help us build a stronger community when we’re finally back together.
Our mission is to preserve the Historic Murphy Theatre as a place to Inspire, Enrich and Entertain our community.
