Styles: Olde Town Hall Theatre

Michael last performed the outreach tour in 2009, three years ago, but remembered correctly that it is 26 steps up from the ground floor to the auditorium at Olde Town Hall Theatre in North Ridgeville.

It is however, worth the climb (and they now have an ADA compliant chair lift) to visit this intimate hall for a performance, and always one of my favorite stops on the tour because of it. There were more pleasant surprises, as they have expanded the width of their stage and the entire set of The Bells Are Ringing -- now playing -- had been packed away for our performance.

Turnout, again, was very high, much higher than we expect at this venue, and plenty stayed afterward for the talkback. Dame Agatha has fans everywhere, it seems, and Olde Town Hall was full of them tonight. The show went very well, the audience was quite vocal in their appreciation and the post-show discussion felt very relaxed and comfortable. Tonight seemed to be the first night the discussion was largely about Christie, Poirot, issues relating to the stagecraft involved in a mystery play, and differences between this adaptation and the original book.

Students who already saw the show at Elyria Catholic brought friends who had not, and many young people were on hand to help us load the set back down those 26 steps. It was another highly enjoyable evening in Lorain County.

Tomorrow we visit our first venue in Summit County this year, the Cuyahoga Valley Art Center. Last year was our first at this site. CVAC is a small space, which features art instruction and appreciation and its own gallery. When we arrived last year, one class was wrapping up and as we departed another had begun! There were only about forty seats, but they were mostly filled and by a very appreciative audience. I am curious as to how many will be with us this year, now that word has hopefully spread about the Great Lakes outreach tour and this production in particular.

Here's something awesome -- in anticipation of the production, CVAC is featuring a collection of works inspired by mystery titles, which will be on display at the center all this month! The performance at CVAC begins at 5:30 PM tomorrow, Wednesday, February 22 and is free and open to the public. Please join us!