We arrived in Bremerton the night before our show and caused just a bit of a stir in our big truck. Parking is a premier in this community. There’s a lot of new construction, narrow downtown streets and lots of hills! Our hotel was right on the water with a beautiful view and next to the Seattle Ferry (a very busy ferry). We originally parked the truck on the street in front of the hotel but that became a problem for the buses transporting the arriving ferry passengers. We eventually had to move if for a few hours to get through peak arrival times but then we were able to bring it back around 8pm and leave it for the night.
We had an earlier than normal load in at the Admiral Theatre. The first illusion of the day was getting 65 feet of truck and trailer down a narrow alley to the loading dock. I had to back up the alley for almost three blocks. Once we made it, the crew was there and ready to get us in. Mark and Gayle Thomason were our technical contacts for this show – they were excellent. Load in happens from a street level dock to a freight elevator and then up to the stage level. Once we started bringing it in, it was smooth and uneventful.
The Admiral Theatre is a wonderfully restored, truly unique theatre. The main floor can be arranged for dinner theatre as well, so that’s the way they sold our show. Dinner would begin at 5:30pm for those patrons. For all others, doors would open at 7pm. We had a full house and a really mixed audience of all ages.
We kicked into the show right on time and the audience was with us from the very first illusion. The audible responses, wonderful volunteers and enthusiastic applause were almost overwhelming. And a standing ovation topped off the evening. What a great crowd!
A big thank you to the entire crew – Anja, Mark, Gayle, Trevor, Jerry, Troy, and John…and Brian Johnson. They had us out of the theatre and into the trailer very quickly. That was especially important last night because we had to drive a few hours to get closer to Salem, OR. That’s where our show is tonight – the Historic Elsinore Theatre.