We got to spend two days at home before climbing back into the rig and heading up to New England. With performances in North Andover at the Roger Center for the Arts and Pittfield’s Colonial Theatre, we would travel the state of Massachusetts from east to west.
ROGERS CENTER FOR THE ARTS – NORTH ANDOVER, MA
This is our third performance at the Rogers Center working with Peter and Maureen. We very much enjoy working one this stage with this team and performing for this audience. There was a terrific article in the local news paper the day before the show. The box office phone was ringing off the hook and we ended up with a very full house!
The day moved along at a great pace, actually we worked ahead of schedule for the entire day leaving plenty of time to enjoy a good dinner before the doors would open. We played with the lighting a bit too just to make sure that everything looked a good as it possibly could.
We had a very enthusiastic and energetic crowd for this show. They were great and meeting so many of them in the lobby afterwards was a highlight for me. We will look forward to coming back for a fourth appearance at the Rogers Center in the near future! Thank you Peter and Maureen for a great day!!
Once we were loaded back into the truck and trailer, we started the 3 hour drive to Pittsfield (the other side of the state). We arrived at our hotel around 1:30am – it was going to be a short night.
THE COLONIAL THEATRE – PITTSFIELD, MA
Our only disappointment on this leg of the trip was that we arrived in Pittsfield around 1:30am and left the following day around 10:00pm. We spend the day inside the spectacular Colonial Theatre so, while we saw lots of beauty, it was not the beauty of the Berkshires!
The Colonial Theatre is a spectacular 1903 restored theatre. To say this place is amazing is clearly an understatement!!
We arrived in the morning to find Chrissie, Joe, and the crew ready for load in. After a few formalities, we unlocked the trailer and started rolling in about 8 tons of equipment. We were going to be in every corner of the stage once we started setting up. Thankfully, they also have a large shop just off stage right where we could store some of the larger illusions during the show.
This crew said they were accustomed to “setting records” for load in and load out. So, we threw out the challenge – we need to be loaded at the end of the day in less that 45 minutes…
The day moved along extremely well. Everyone was so willing to do whatever needed to be done to make the show flow as easily as possible. And it did! The entire day was a fantastic experience – beautiful theatre, hard working crew, and a great team. I’ve had the privilege of working with Seth (the executive director) at a couple of other venues. I knew working with him here would be a great experience as well. He did not disappoint in any way at all.
The audience was large and ready to have a good time. We had also made arrangements to videotape this performance with a local crew. I was glad to have a full house, expressive audience members, great lighting, and a top-notch crew for this show! I can’t wait to see the final product.
…and about that load out, 30 minutes! An all time new record for us. We were on the road for New Jersey by 9:30pm….with a five hour drive ahead of us (another short night).