No lights, no cameras, no action.  That was the scene in the NASH Auditorium on Saturday.

Last weekend’s power outage sparked turbulence in the NA community.  Power across many locations in the district and throughout western PA was lost sometime after 11pm last Thursday.  Administrators used the initial 2-hour delay to gather information about the situation and called the cancellation when running classes was deemed impossible, considering that the campuses of NASH, Marshall, Peebles, Hosack, and Bradford Woods had all been affected.  

North Allegheny was told by the power company that power would be restored within 24 hours and that the school was considered high priority. Unfortunately, due to the large scope of the power outage and other general complications, the electricity was not restored at NASH until after 5pm on Saturday.  Numerous events scheduled to take place on the high school campus were cancelled.

“I think the response was relatively positive, understanding that we were handcuffed with what we could do,” said Dr. Kreider.  “We are extremely limited without power, but we were very fortunate to have a lot of people in line to help out.”

The outage affected large numbers of school-sponsored activities, forcing reschedulings and cancellations that were only accessible through the district’s Twitter and Facebook pages due to the downed staff email.  The Turkey Ball kickball game supporting TigerThon was officially called off, and basketball tryouts were moved to NAI. Other school groups, like NATV, dealt with technological difficulties that still have not been resolved.

“The logic board failed on the Mac that we use around the clock to display messages and graphics on the cafeteria TV, and we’ve been unable to connect to the LED sign at the front of the NASH campus since Thursday night,” Mr. Morris said.

However, no group was more affected than the cast of this year’s fall play.  

“It was upsetting to hear about the cancellations,” said cast member Evan Diulus.  “At some points, I was more angry than upset about not being able to do one more show.”

Forced to call off two performances due to the outage, the cast of Spelling Bee ended their run — which began last spring — confused and upset by the circumstances.  However, after believing the show was through, members were overjoyed by the announcement of a final show on Tuesday, November 20 at 9:00.

“It is probably the worst day of the week and time of the day to have a show,” joked the show’s director, Mr. Truesdell.  “But we’re hoping that everyone joins us in celebration of our community so we can say goodbye to this great show and go out on the right note.”

The NA community is excited to show their support.

“Some of my closest friends have been working on this production for months, and I was devastated along with them to see their hard work go to waste,” said senior Natalie Daninhirsch.  “If they’re willing to put on a show late at night and strike the set well past midnight, then I am willing to be there to show my support.”

To keep the show from running too late, Tuesday’s performance will be without an intermission or assigned seating.  All tickets from Friday and Saturday shows will be honored, and they continue to be sold at lunch or at the door.