Summer Vacation?
The Opera Grand Rapids 2009-2010 Season has officially drawn to a close. Three opera productions, 6 performances, 12 rehearsals with the Grand Rapids Symphony, 27 chorus music rehearsals, 38 staging rehearsals, 3 rehearsal venues, 1 dropped piano and the birth of the Betty Van Andel Opera Center have made for one amazing little arts organization.
With our move to the (beautiful!) new office/rehearsal/costume shop space life has improved dramatically for pretty much everyone who is involved with Opera Grand Rapids. The planning of this space took three years of nonstop work, some reality checks, more than one reexamination of policies and procedures and a giant leap of faith. In the end we have a building that is elegant in its simplicity and located in a great neighborhood near Aquinas College on the near east side of the city.
For the past 43 seasons the opera has rehearsed in a variety of good and bad locations. Since I joined the company in 2007 I have been extremely lucky in finding places that were large enough to accommodate the floor plan of the DeVos Hall stage, had enough parking for everyone, working bathrooms and a door large enough to roll a piano through. Of course because I often paid the low, low rental rate of “gratitude” for each production we would move props, equipment and furniture into the space 24 hours before the first rehearsal and would move everything out when we went to DeVos Hall for tech and dress rehearsals and performances.
For the 2007-08 season we were able to rehearse all three productions in an empty storefront in the Grand Central Plaza on 28th Street just west of Breton Rd. This place was just barely big enough and sported only 8’ ceilings and just one bathroom. This made work on Carmen (cast of 14, chorus of 40, 12 children and 8 members of the GR Ballet) interesting. As the lovely ladies of the ballet were being lifted through the air their hands (and in some cases heads) brushed the ceiling. The line for the bathroom was lengthy during breaks in rehearsals. This location is now a Rent-A-Center.
During the 2008-09 season we were extremely lucky to work in the former Dunhams/Pet Warehouse adjacent to Best Buy at 28th Street and Beltline for all three productions. This place was HUGE! The chorus had plenty of space to set their lawn chairs—yes, the opera only owned 12 folding chairs so for rehearsals it was BYOChair. The Tosca chorus of 44, cast of 9, 12 children and 8 supers had access to real bathrooms—after I played the role of plumber and fixed the women’s room sink and the men’s room urinal. Unfortunately the lighting in the building, while being nice and bright, hummed at a constant E-flat. This would not even be noticed by shoppers in a store but was deadly annoying for music rehearsals. This location is now a resale/antiques shop.
This past season we began at the former Classic Stereo location (thank you, NAI West Michigan!) at 28th Street and Radcliff which was so great that it was leased out to a golf store within days of our departure. Then we went to the former Frank’s Nursery and Crafts at 28th and Breton Rd (thank you Dick Jasinski at Wisinski & Co.) where we have worked on and off for many years. The Frank’s building had been empty just long enough for a family of raccoons to have taken up residence in the women’s bathroom. After repairing the gap in the back door, therefore cutting off the wild animal access, I called the plumber and the furnace fixers and went to work cleaning the place up for Pagliacci rehearsals. Knowing that we were moving directly to our new building at the conclusion of Pagliacci production my mantra during the raccoon refuse removal was “never again, never again, never again, never again…”
There were only 14 days between the final performance of Pagliacci and the first chorus music rehearsal for Porgy and Bess, so we had to move FAST! Telephones, computers, office equipment, files and all the other garnishes that accompany our offices needed to be moved from our former home in the Waters Building downtown. The staff needed to adjust to working in a new office. We needed to take delivery of at least one piano. Knowing this was the plan I had settled in with a marathon-like work pace at the beginning of Pagliacci rehearsals and just kept going through Porgy and Bess production to the completion annual Gala on May 8th.
And now as I am writing this I am listening to a rehearsal for a choir performance tonight. A choral group has rented the building for the day for their end of season performance. There are some very familiar faces out in the rehearsal hall—parents and teachers who are regular members of our chorus, students who have been members of the children’s chorus, volunteers, season ticket subscribers. I am very glad to have crossed the finish line at the end of this marathon of a season. I am very glad that Opera GR now has a home where we can host music and foster the love of opera.
I am looking forward to summer vacation and a bit of a break, but before I drag the boat out of storage and find my sun block there is one more production to plan. We will be holding the official Grand Opening of the Betty Van Andel Opera Center on June 16th. There will be music and food and champagne. For me there will be sound systems and lighting systems, volunteers to coordinate and music to rehearse. One more to go!
With our move to the (beautiful!) new office/rehearsal/costume shop space life has improved dramatically for pretty much everyone who is involved with Opera Grand Rapids. The planning of this space took three years of nonstop work, some reality checks, more than one reexamination of policies and procedures and a giant leap of faith. In the end we have a building that is elegant in its simplicity and located in a great neighborhood near Aquinas College on the near east side of the city.
For the past 43 seasons the opera has rehearsed in a variety of good and bad locations. Since I joined the company in 2007 I have been extremely lucky in finding places that were large enough to accommodate the floor plan of the DeVos Hall stage, had enough parking for everyone, working bathrooms and a door large enough to roll a piano through. Of course because I often paid the low, low rental rate of “gratitude” for each production we would move props, equipment and furniture into the space 24 hours before the first rehearsal and would move everything out when we went to DeVos Hall for tech and dress rehearsals and performances.
For the 2007-08 season we were able to rehearse all three productions in an empty storefront in the Grand Central Plaza on 28th Street just west of Breton Rd. This place was just barely big enough and sported only 8’ ceilings and just one bathroom. This made work on Carmen (cast of 14, chorus of 40, 12 children and 8 members of the GR Ballet) interesting. As the lovely ladies of the ballet were being lifted through the air their hands (and in some cases heads) brushed the ceiling. The line for the bathroom was lengthy during breaks in rehearsals. This location is now a Rent-A-Center.
During the 2008-09 season we were extremely lucky to work in the former Dunhams/Pet Warehouse adjacent to Best Buy at 28th Street and Beltline for all three productions. This place was HUGE! The chorus had plenty of space to set their lawn chairs—yes, the opera only owned 12 folding chairs so for rehearsals it was BYOChair. The Tosca chorus of 44, cast of 9, 12 children and 8 supers had access to real bathrooms—after I played the role of plumber and fixed the women’s room sink and the men’s room urinal. Unfortunately the lighting in the building, while being nice and bright, hummed at a constant E-flat. This would not even be noticed by shoppers in a store but was deadly annoying for music rehearsals. This location is now a resale/antiques shop.
This past season we began at the former Classic Stereo location (thank you, NAI West Michigan!) at 28th Street and Radcliff which was so great that it was leased out to a golf store within days of our departure. Then we went to the former Frank’s Nursery and Crafts at 28th and Breton Rd (thank you Dick Jasinski at Wisinski & Co.) where we have worked on and off for many years. The Frank’s building had been empty just long enough for a family of raccoons to have taken up residence in the women’s bathroom. After repairing the gap in the back door, therefore cutting off the wild animal access, I called the plumber and the furnace fixers and went to work cleaning the place up for Pagliacci rehearsals. Knowing that we were moving directly to our new building at the conclusion of Pagliacci production my mantra during the raccoon refuse removal was “never again, never again, never again, never again…”
There were only 14 days between the final performance of Pagliacci and the first chorus music rehearsal for Porgy and Bess, so we had to move FAST! Telephones, computers, office equipment, files and all the other garnishes that accompany our offices needed to be moved from our former home in the Waters Building downtown. The staff needed to adjust to working in a new office. We needed to take delivery of at least one piano. Knowing this was the plan I had settled in with a marathon-like work pace at the beginning of Pagliacci rehearsals and just kept going through Porgy and Bess production to the completion annual Gala on May 8th.
And now as I am writing this I am listening to a rehearsal for a choir performance tonight. A choral group has rented the building for the day for their end of season performance. There are some very familiar faces out in the rehearsal hall—parents and teachers who are regular members of our chorus, students who have been members of the children’s chorus, volunteers, season ticket subscribers. I am very glad to have crossed the finish line at the end of this marathon of a season. I am very glad that Opera GR now has a home where we can host music and foster the love of opera.
I am looking forward to summer vacation and a bit of a break, but before I drag the boat out of storage and find my sun block there is one more production to plan. We will be holding the official Grand Opening of the Betty Van Andel Opera Center on June 16th. There will be music and food and champagne. For me there will be sound systems and lighting systems, volunteers to coordinate and music to rehearse. One more to go!
posted by Cat W. at
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