Fire snuffs out Saturday plans
Saturday, July 10, 2010 at 2:15PM By Jessica Pickens
While Owens Hall was ablaze on Saturday, some students’ plans went up in smoke as well.
Due to the fire, all on-campus events were canceled on Saturday to eliminate traffic around the area of the fire, according to a campus wide e-mail from President Anthony DiGiorgio.
Events that were canceled included the opera put on by the music department, “The Magic Flute,” and a DSU event with mentalist Craig Karges.
“I didn’t think the fire would affect us, because it wasn’t in the building that we were in,” said Andrea McAllister, who was an actor in “The Magic Flute.” “Then I saw the smoke and knew it was going to spread around campus.”
McAllister, sophomore music major, was disappointed, because her mother and sister were coming from out of town to see the show.
“A lot of friends and parents were coming Saturday that couldn’t come on other days who drove out from different parts of the state,” McAllister said.
Several of the students thought “The Magic Flute” would be performed twice on Sunday or have one show on Monday.
“We couldn’t reschedule for Monday,” she said. “The students in ‘Godspell’ are rehearsing and were nice enough to give us the theater last week.”
Junior music performance major, Heather Barley had mixed feelings about the opera’s cancelation.
“I am kind of glad that it was canceled because shortly before everyone was about to leave I passed out and had to be taken to the ER,”
said Barley, one of the leads in the opera, said. “Apparently I had too much smoke inhalation. I was able to perform in our last show on Sunday. I am sad we didn’t perform Saturday, but I’m glad I didn’t pass out on stage and ruin the show.”
Students, family and faculty were reimbursed for their tickets or could use the tickets for Sunday’s show.
Craig Karges, mentalist, was already in Rock Hill when it was announced that on-campus events were canceled.
Boyd Jones, university programs director of student affairs, said luckily he knew Karges because he had visited Winthrop several times before.
He said he tried talk to three of the university’s vice presidents to see if the event could be moved to another building on campus but exceptions could not be made.
“All we could do is apologize and offer him his check, which he didn’t take, and said we would work it out,” Jones said. “He knows that I tried to make it happen.
Karges has been rescheduled for 8 p.m. on Thursday, April 1 in Plowden Auditorium in Withers.
