Coronavirus: Benefit Goes From Theater To Livestream To Canceled

SAN CARLOS, CA — Organizers of this year's Chickens' Ball, a volunteer-run variety show held every two years in San Carlos to benefit local schools, on Tuesday announced that plans were scrapped to perform multiple performances before live audiences, a decision made with coronavirus concerns in mind.

The chosen option was to livestream the extravaganza with one show, on Saturday, March 14, that could be viewed by the community via the internet.

Now that plan, too, is dashed.

"Since we are a group of over 50 people with individuals in 'high risk' categories, we are required by the San Mateo County Health Department and the San Carlos School District to cancel all performances, including the livestream event," promoters said today of the vaudeville-style Chickens' Ball, known as the "Longest Running Show in the Peninsula."

Prior to COVID-19 woes, the Chickens' Ball was to be staged March 13-15 and March 20-22 at Central Middle School in San Carlos. Presented by San Carlos PTAs and the community, the event supports performing arts programs in San Carlos public schools.

The tradition dates to 1939 when a former teacher at Central, Howard Demeke, was seeking ways to help fund the public schools and "to raise milk money; early in the war years," according to organizers.

This year's show, with a "Night They Invented Champagne" theme, included original melodrama and variety skits written and submitted by community organizations and based on the history of the Barbary Coast Era, circa 1889 to 1918.

When live performances were nixed due to growing health and safety worries, the group turned to and began promoting its livestream option "to protect the public from the perplexing coronavirus threat." Ticketholders and the general public could remotely view and still support the 2020 Chickens’ Ball.

“For the safety of our performers, volunteers, musicians, technicians and our wonderful audiences whom we have in mind, we decided to utilize modern technology to still give the public what they hope to see,” CB General Chair Mona Klein said on Tuesday.

Ticket holders were asked if they could convert their purchases into donations in support of the program’s fundraising goal.

The livestream plan now, too, is canceled as of today, according to the production's website. Community members can follow along here for any future updates.

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