Fire At Folger, But The Show Must Go On

Nothing strikes fear into the hearts of archivists like the threat of fire (well, perhaps fear of flooding is up there as well).

So it's safe to say a few nerves were frazzled with the news that a small fire broke out in the Folger Shakespeare Library, as we briefly noted on Monday. An electrician discovered the fire in a costume storage area in the building's theater.

Thankfully, the fire was confined to a small area and none of the Folger's rare artifacts were harmed. NBC attributed the fire to a faulty spotlight.

Unfortunately, there still needs to be clean-up and assessment of water damage in the area, so the company's anticipated production of A Midsummer Night's Dream will be bumped until Oct. 24, and the library's current exhibition, Technologies of Writing in the Age of Print, has been moved elsewhere and will re-open next week.

Midsummer isn't the first production to be plagued by a theater fire recently. Landless Theatre Company's production of Cannibal the Musical! was bumped from DCAC after a fire damaged that venue. We're glad the shows have been able to continue despite the issues — let's just hope D.C. theatre fires don't come in threes. DCist has three productions to see this week and doesn't want to have to do any evacuating.