Photo by Eric Hausman

The weather can be our worst enemy with outdoor spectacles—it is unpredictable and obstinate. Ten days out from the opening performance, the entire production staff inevitably began to watch the forecast religiously, sifting through as many meteorological conjectures as we could until we found an answer we liked! Our concern is focused mainly on the performance dates: few spectators will come out to any sort of outdoor performance in the middle of the all-too-common Chicago summer thunderstorm. The install process, however, is an all-weather affair. We hope for sunshine and mild temperatures, but we are prepared to work through whatever comes along in order to stay on the tight schedule these events require.

I woke up Thursday morning feeling uneasy. We had anchored a large fiberglass tree and three floating streetlamp off the end of the Pier on Wednesday, with multiple ropes in place to secure them. After I had listened to the wind howling throughout the night, I arrived at the Pier on Thursday morning, to find that we had indeed sustained significant damage to some of our set pieces. One of the lampposts was nowhere to be seen, having broken free of its floats and sunk to the bottom of the lake. The fiberglass tree had split in multiple places and was in danger of sinking, as well. The rest of the day became about recovery and repair, adding flotation and steel and fiberglass reinforcements to the damaged pieces.

Photo by Eric Hausman

Friday afternoon we held a meeting with members of the Ilotopie company to discuss the evening's pending first scheduled performance. The weather was still looking problematic. The company was anxious, not having had a chance to rehearse on our lake because of our technical and weather-related setbacks. After lengthy conversations about safety issues with all the concerned parties, we made the decision to postpone Friday's performance to Sunday's rain date.

The rest of the day was spent finishing reinforcements to the scenery and conducting some much-needed afternoon rehearsal on the water. In addition to giving the cast some peace of mind, the rehearsal was an unexpected marketing opportunity. Tourists gathered the length of the Pier watching bicycles, beds, and cars floating quietly eastward. As dusk turned to night, the winds picked up again. And of course, at that point, there was no guarantee that Saturday or Sunday would be any more hospitable.