Lil Abner "on the front patio" of the theatre

RCNELSON

Here's a fun one to tell to revive this subforum....

We have just completed the opening weekend of a 10 performance run of Lil' Abner. Opening night was Friday, July 9 which went well. Last night (July 10), as I drove to the theatre, I discovered a number of traffic lights that were not working. AND... when I arrived at the theatre, I found out that a large part of that side of the city was powerless. Hmmm...what to do. Our directors decided to move the production out to the front of the theatre, on a patio area large enough for the cast and as much of the set as they could move out. The MD sat at a grand piano, our percussionist setup his stuff, and I set up my woodwinds. The 4th member of the "orchestra" who was covering the string parts on an electric keyboard enjoyed the show from the audience. We put out enough chairs to hold the number of pre-show sale patrons, and about 5 minutes after the scheduled curtain, the show was on.

As it was starting to get dark, several members of the crew, including the artistic director of the company, brought their cars to behind the audience and turned on the lights. And thanks go to volunteers who held flashlights so that we musicians could see our parts.

The audience loved it, gave a huge standing ovation to what, considering the circumstances, was an incredible performance. This will be one to remember.
 
Gandalfe said:
Talk about a can-do attitude. Make one wonder why the theater in the park stuff doesn't happen much anymore.
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The #1 reason? Weather. It's not only annoying, but it gets expensive if you have to reschedule for the weather.

Now, I live in Phoenix, AZ where the weather report is, "Tomorrow. Bright and sunny. Hot," for most of the year, except for monsoon season, or it's "Bright and sunny. Not as hot," during the winter. That means we can schedule outdoor events and expect to have sunny weather on the day that they're scheduled.

East coast? Weather's waaay to variable. Washington state? The weather report is, "Rainy. Cool," most of the time.
 
I used to play an outdoor theatre in Kirkwood MO, a typical half-bowl arrangement that did two or three shows a summer. Aside from the normal outdoor performance problems (rain, summer heat, insects, beer splashed from the patron's plastic cups), the venue had one other major league problem.

The back side of the property abutted the twin track main line of the Frisco (more properly, the Saint Louis and San Francisco Railway Company). Trains would roll up on the theatre all unexpected like, in the case of the east bound drags issuing from a tunnel with a sudden roar. Quite aside from the overall effect on the performance, the roar of the freights followed by the rumble and groaning of the rolling stock certainly killed any second act love scene that they inevitably occurred during.

It was almost as if Webster Groves (a local, arch-rival suburb of Saint Louis) consulted the time table and then somehow influenced the show's management to put the critical scenes at the exact time that the 8:20 out of Tulsa slid on through. The standard procedure was to stop what was going on, wait for the noise to subside, and then restart the show at the beginning of the scene or song that was interrupted.

If I was a director, the last place that I would want to put on a musical would be outdoors. As a musician, I just sat there, sweated a lot, and played the chart. After all, it paid the same, rain or shine, locomotive or aircraft noise.
 
Well, truth be known, I eschew outdoor performances for all the reasons stated here. But the one venue I luv is the Ballard Locks where we enjoy a mild climate, lack of bugs (I kid you not), and loud interruptions except for an occasional plane. And the Corps of Engineers take good care of us.
 
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