Oct 1
7:27 pm
Jada F. Smith
The Ford’s Theater Society receives no federal financing and employs no federal workers, but the site where President Abraham Lincoln was shot has been barred from hosting any shows or performances during the government shutdown.
“Lincoln Legacy” events are being rescheduled or canceled, and Tuesday night’s performance of “The Laramie Project,” about the murder of Matthew Shepard in Laramie, Wyo., was moved to the Woolly Mammoth Theater.
The society, a private nonprofit group, continued its performances during the last government shutdown 17 years ago. But officials with the group said they had received conflicting messages over the last few days about whether the theater — a national historic site owned by the federal government but run by the society — would stay open during the shutdown.
“I think the reality is there were cooler heads prevailing back then,” Paul Tetreault, the society’s director, said of the shutdown in 1996. “We believe that the costs the federal government incurs from Ford’s Theater are negligible. We gave assurances that we would reimburse them for any of those costs. But these decisions are not being made by logical or practical matters, and are being made by ideological matters. Our patrons and employees are being taken in as pieces in a greater chess game.”
The theater’s Center for Education and Leadership, which is across the street from the theater and is owned by the society, will remain open for daytime visits, including two floors of exhibits about Lincoln’s assassination and legacy.
7:27 pm
Jada F. Smith
The Ford’s Theater Society receives no federal financing and employs no federal workers, but the site where President Abraham Lincoln was shot has been barred from hosting any shows or performances during the government shutdown.
“Lincoln Legacy” events are being rescheduled or canceled, and Tuesday night’s performance of “The Laramie Project,” about the murder of Matthew Shepard in Laramie, Wyo., was moved to the Woolly Mammoth Theater.
The society, a private nonprofit group, continued its performances during the last government shutdown 17 years ago. But officials with the group said they had received conflicting messages over the last few days about whether the theater — a national historic site owned by the federal government but run by the society — would stay open during the shutdown.
“I think the reality is there were cooler heads prevailing back then,” Paul Tetreault, the society’s director, said of the shutdown in 1996. “We believe that the costs the federal government incurs from Ford’s Theater are negligible. We gave assurances that we would reimburse them for any of those costs. But these decisions are not being made by logical or practical matters, and are being made by ideological matters. Our patrons and employees are being taken in as pieces in a greater chess game.”
The theater’s Center for Education and Leadership, which is across the street from the theater and is owned by the society, will remain open for daytime visits, including two floors of exhibits about Lincoln’s assassination and legacy.
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