Children's Experimental Theater, founded in 1960 by its longtime artistic director and matron, Marcia Gambrell Hovick, has recently been buffeted by a perfect storm of an ailing economy and the ailing health of key family members.

Last Sunday, Marcia's son Nick Hovick, who had stepped into the considerable role of head of CET and Staff Players Repertory in his mother's stead (while also running a light industrial commercial design business), made the announcement that the "AD [artistic director] is staging one last weekend of performances as a farewell to CET. This will be our last season in the Indoor Forest Theater."

That farewell performance was to entail a musical, assembled by Lynda Jardine, in which Nick Hovick and Taelen Thomas would reprise "'Child's Christmas in Wales' as well as a setting of 'Good King Wenceslas.'"

But hours later, another e-mail carried even more bad news: "We have had another death in the family. I cannot go forward with this project."

When reached by phone, Nick Hovick, normally convivial and witty, was somber.

"I can't do [the show]. I can't spare the time and I don't have the energy."

He deferred questions for a future date to tend to family affairs.