On Friday morning at around 1 a.m., Stephanie Spatz-Ornburn, the event manager at the Folly Theater in downtown Kansas City, answered a call from police telling her the historic venue had been broken into.
Spatz-Ornburn said she was devastated by the extent of the damage. The vandals broke open a glass door to enter and ripped monitors off lobby walls. They proceeded to the bar, where they threw maraschino cherries on the floor and wine up the walls, before emptying seven fire extinguishers on the stage, equipment, seats, and dressing rooms.
The Folly was forced to cancel last weekend’s shows. The perpetrators, meanwhile, are still at large.
A cleaning crew of 29 people has worked 10-hour days cleaning up the glass, food, wine, and debris from every corner. Professionals were needed to clean the fire extinguisher agent from the seats, floors, walls, and HVAC system, since it is a carcinogen.
The venue is aiming to reopen for its next scheduled event on Saturday, Nov. 1.
“She’s very tough, and she's here to be an example to the community,” Spatz-Ornburn said of the Folly. “To think about how many performances and how much community that lady has seen over these decades, a lot of damage, a lot of violence, but also a lot of togetherness. We'll keep on trucking.”
Folly CEO Rick Truman said the cost estimate continues to rise and could be upwards of $750,000. That includes the price of cleaning, as well as the cost to replace what cannot be salvaged and the revenue that was forfeited from the canceled shows.
Even with this high cost, Truman said he continues to be overwhelmed by the community’s immediate willingness to donate. The theater has seen thousands of dollars in donations after the break in.
Anyone interested in supporting the Folly Theater’s recovery can go to their website at follytheater.org/support.
- Rick Truman, CEO, Folly Theater
- Stephanie Spatz-Ornburn, Events Manager, Folly Theater
