Where to Build the Show - Searching for a Rehearsal Hall...Again
Tuesday, October 14th has been one of THOSE days.
I arrived at my office at 7:30 AM, toting my makeup, curling iron and evening attire for the “P” is for Puccini event at the Public Museum tonight. At 8:00 a.m. was the meeting of the Facility Committee, on which I sit. We are working on all the details for The Betty Van Andel Opera Center. At the moment we are down to making decisions on construction materials, faucets for the bathrooms, numbers of and locations for electrical outlets, computer networks, phone systems—all the nitty-gritty nuts and bolts of the building. It is both exciting and incredibly tedious all at once. Groundbreaking will occur when we have met our capital campaign fundraising goal—and not a minute sooner! Everyone in the industry has heard about or even lived through the nightmare of an organization building a facility only to discover that they haven’t raised enough money to pay for it. Our Board of Directors has sworn not to let that happen to us!
Unfortunately just before the meeting was supposed to start, our Interim Executive Director called. She was in a fender-bender on the way to the meeting and got a pretty big knock to the head resulting in a concussion. No “P” is for Party for her tonight! To add insult to her injury, our Marketing Director is also among the walking wounded. She called to let us know she’d be working from home today, but would stagger (literally) into the event tonight to do her thing.
The rest of today has been absorbed by the search for a rehearsal hall. Still homeless with 4 days to go, I’m beginning to perspire a bit. It’s tough to find a space that is big enough, hasn’t got too many supporting columns, has heat, lights and enough bathrooms and parking for a cast of 50. I’ll be so glad when we can finally move into a facility of our own. This will save me countless hours, miles and grey hairs, not to mention making the process of creating art a whole lot more productive for everyone involved.
At 4:00 was the fastest meeting of our Executive Committee on record. Everyone was out the door by 4:45 and on the way to get changed for tonight’s event. I joked with one committee member that I’d be having breakfast and dinner with him today. It is days like these that I am most grateful for our Board volunteers. These are all people with, you know, day jobs. They don’t get paid to spend hours working for Opera Grand Rapids. They do it because they love it and because they love the community where we all live and they know that having strong, vital arts organizations makes that community better. These are the people who lend their expertise to us on an hourly basis for free. What could be better than that? Nothing, I tell you!
And now it is time for me to get down off my soap box and curl my hair. “P” is for Puccini starts in 1 hour and it would be ever so nice if I didn’t look like I’d been dragged behind a truck when I get there.
Hope springs eternal.
I arrived at my office at 7:30 AM, toting my makeup, curling iron and evening attire for the “P” is for Puccini event at the Public Museum tonight. At 8:00 a.m. was the meeting of the Facility Committee, on which I sit. We are working on all the details for The Betty Van Andel Opera Center. At the moment we are down to making decisions on construction materials, faucets for the bathrooms, numbers of and locations for electrical outlets, computer networks, phone systems—all the nitty-gritty nuts and bolts of the building. It is both exciting and incredibly tedious all at once. Groundbreaking will occur when we have met our capital campaign fundraising goal—and not a minute sooner! Everyone in the industry has heard about or even lived through the nightmare of an organization building a facility only to discover that they haven’t raised enough money to pay for it. Our Board of Directors has sworn not to let that happen to us!
Unfortunately just before the meeting was supposed to start, our Interim Executive Director called. She was in a fender-bender on the way to the meeting and got a pretty big knock to the head resulting in a concussion. No “P” is for Party for her tonight! To add insult to her injury, our Marketing Director is also among the walking wounded. She called to let us know she’d be working from home today, but would stagger (literally) into the event tonight to do her thing.
The rest of today has been absorbed by the search for a rehearsal hall. Still homeless with 4 days to go, I’m beginning to perspire a bit. It’s tough to find a space that is big enough, hasn’t got too many supporting columns, has heat, lights and enough bathrooms and parking for a cast of 50. I’ll be so glad when we can finally move into a facility of our own. This will save me countless hours, miles and grey hairs, not to mention making the process of creating art a whole lot more productive for everyone involved.
At 4:00 was the fastest meeting of our Executive Committee on record. Everyone was out the door by 4:45 and on the way to get changed for tonight’s event. I joked with one committee member that I’d be having breakfast and dinner with him today. It is days like these that I am most grateful for our Board volunteers. These are all people with, you know, day jobs. They don’t get paid to spend hours working for Opera Grand Rapids. They do it because they love it and because they love the community where we all live and they know that having strong, vital arts organizations makes that community better. These are the people who lend their expertise to us on an hourly basis for free. What could be better than that? Nothing, I tell you!
And now it is time for me to get down off my soap box and curl my hair. “P” is for Puccini starts in 1 hour and it would be ever so nice if I didn’t look like I’d been dragged behind a truck when I get there.
Hope springs eternal.
posted by Cat W. at
4:58 PM
1 Comments:
I miss Cat!!
Darla
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