ArtsBeat

Studio Arena Theatre has, for all intents and purposes, been dark for more than a year. Its de facto closure has been hard to take for many. But -- as my story in today's Spotlight section brings up -- its absence from the scene has had some positive effects on the theater scene at large. What's up in the air is how long those effects will last, and, five years down the road, whether Buffalo's theater community will be hoping for its return.

What are your thoughts? Is Studio Arena's absence from the scene a deep blow to an already suffering community or, as many in the theater community have said, did they simply have it coming?

--Colin Dabkowski