With everyone now in Southern California, we were ready for our first performance here. Â We arrived at the Santa Clarita Performing Arts Center around 11am. Â This is a really beautiful space and relatively new, less than 5 years old.
I backed the truck into the loading dock and was greeted by the crew, ready to go to work.
The crew, under the direction of Brody Steele, was GREAT! Â They were ready to roll as soon as we pulled in. We made a few adjustments to the soft goods on stage and then opened the trailer to start bringing it all inside. Â Cindy and Ethan coordinated things well.
Once all the cases were in, the real work began of putting the show together. Â We all have our responsibilities and everyone got to work. Â I also realized that I had some repair work to do on the truck. Remember those terrible winds in the California desert? Â Well, turns out the peeled back the roof on my truck considerably!
Now, I’m not a repairman of any kind but this couldn’t wait. Â A quick trip to the hardware store for liquid nails, a few screws, and some roof sealer and I was ready to go to work. Â In the end, it’s not pretty – but it’s functional!
I headed back inside to find that we were having some technical problems. Â Seems our light board wasn’t “talking” to their dimmers – that’s a big problem! Keith and Brody worked on it for several hours before we decided to move to Plan B.
Keith and I completely wrote a new show on the house light board, programmed the intelligent lights on our board, and then moved forward with making it all work. Â With this challenge behind us, we moved forward with tech rehearsal and made ready for the show.
Doors opened at 7:30pm and the audience rolled in. Â What a great crowd! Â The theatre was a full house, almost 1000 strong, and they were full of energy and excitement. Â This is the perfect crowd for a performer!
Several of our friends drove in to see the show including two of our favorite people – Jim Steinmeyer and Frankie Glass. Â In addition to being our friends, Jim is also one of the creative forces behind our show. Â His brilliance can be seen in so many area of our production – the show would be very different without him.
I also met up with Ron Porter and his family. Â We had had several email exchanges over the years but I had the chance to “officially” meet Ron at the 25th Symposium of Project Magic in 2007. Â Ron was one of the founders of the Project Magic program with David Copperfield. Â It was great to see the whole family at the show – and they drove a LONG way!
We had a wonderful time in Santa Clarita. Â The audience was fantastic. Â The staff and administration were exceptional. Â And the technical crew was a blast to work with. Â Now, we’re on the way to Redding, CA and the Cascade Theatre.