BUFFALO, N.Y. (WBEN) - Shea's Performing Arts Center will host the rehearsal shows for the popular off-Broadway plays To Kill a Mockingbird, Tootsie, and Disney's Frozen starting September 10.
The rehearsal shows, known in the theatre industry as "Teching", will begin September 10.
Shea's President Michael G. Murphy said the entire cast and crew of the shows will come to Buffalo to rehearse for weeks at a time before they go on the road throughout the country.
"Each show will arrive extra early," Murphy said. "They come here and they fill our hotels. They come in and eat at our restaurants...and that helps employ more people in our local businesses. It also employs additional stagehands, musicians, and wardrobe crew because of all the work that brings in."
Officials expect the economic impact to be $25 million for Buffalo and $100 million for Upstate New York.
More than 100 people associated with each play will be visiting Buffalo for weeks at a time.
"Ten shows will be teching in Upstate New York this year," Shea's producer Albert Nocciolino said. "The combination of weeks of all those shows represents 50 weeks that shows will be teching in Upstate New York...100 people at each show eating breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day, plus the local labor. Staying in our hotels, that's over 30,000 hotel nights used in Upstate New York when we open these shows."
The rehearsal shows will not be viewable to the general public.
