By Julie Gindy
Our production of West Side Story has come to a close. As always, we have to(get to!) make so many connections to be able to do what we do. I am so thankful for our very giving community.
At this location the audience was in a parking lot owned by Kankakee County, from the beginning they were very accommodating and happy to have us in their space.
We needed to close city streets alleys & parking lots, control street lights and have a police presence during our shows, the City of Kankakee was very welcoming to us and open to all of our requests.
The owner of the building where our West Side Story stage sat is Marty McNab. Marty owns OPTECH Orthotics & Prosthetics. He allowed us to use the building’s actual structure, fire escapes and roof top, so that we could bring our audiences the most immersive show that we have ever produced. The look of the setting was of ultimate perfection.
Marty also assisted in getting Comcast wires moved, allowed us power for lights and sound, dressing room space, storage space and gave us keys to every door in the building.
Matt McBurnie connected us with ComEd executive Lisa Aprati who facilitated the relocation and covering of power lines for the safety of our cast and viewing pleasure of our audiences.
Key Printing owner, Virginia Pitts is a delightful woman, she told me very early on in the process “anything you need Julie!”, and she meant it. We stored items in their back room during rehearsals, used her power for our key board, and she allowed us to use her front building space for our cast circle times. Not to mention we built our stage on her back door parking space.
Dave Biladeau, Waterworks International, on the second floor where our cast got show ready each performance night and tech week, was helpful, kind and tolerant of us invading his space each evening!
Evan and the crew at Tower Loan changed their parking places for Tech week and shows and attended the Friday night performance. I think we acquired some new fans!
It certainly does take a village to do what we do at Acting Out Theatre Co. We make our home for the summer in someone else’s space and while we try very hard to be good tenants, we certainly understand that we interrupt things while we are there. We appreciates everyone’s sacrifices “for the good of the show!”
We had an absolutely lovely place to call home for West Side Story, Summer 2018.
