About 20 of us gathered at the Performing Arts Center for an “Insider’s Tour”. We started in Room 180 for lunch. During a big show, this room would be filled with wigs and costumes. After some enlightening theater trivia, we were joined by the Center’s Production Stage Manager Pete Duecker and proceeded on our tour of the dressing rooms, the stage (where we encountered the ‘ghost light’) and we even got to “ride” on the Orchestra Pit Lift. We learned about lighting, screening and just how all those big sets can be literally “dropped in” during a show. Upon leaving the stage, we split into 2 groups. One group accompanied Susan to the second level of the house to see the Partner’s Lounge, Founders Room and Entrance 21 and walk through the theatre from the point of view of the first row of the Dress Circle.
The more adventurous among us went with Pete up a lift the size of a phone booth to the fly rail for a bird’s eye view of the stage and saw the rigging. We were then taken up to the lighting grid which is 8 stories above ground level! After this tour, I have a far greater appreciation for many of the “Behind the scenes” things that happen to make a show come off well. I will, no doubt, enjoy my next show at the PAC a little more as a result. By: Matt Rehbbein
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