Theater moving
Theater is here again. Rehearsals two days a week for months, followed by a solid week of tech and dress rehearsal, then performance. It’s intense. We have enjoyed it.
My son started onstage as ensemble in Seussical, Jr. several years ago. He’s been in several shows since then as part of a homeschool theater group, Fire & Light Academy. When we started they rehearsed in the local Salvation Army center, which had a small auditorium for performance. They’ve switched locations multiple times in the years since, averaging two years in each place. Rehearsals and performances have often been in separate locations, with an entire day before each tech week devoted to moving sets and costumes.
The thing is: they need classrooms, a large rehearsal space or stage, a room for currently making costumes, a room for storing costumes, and a large space for building sets. Usually this requires multiple buildings: painting and set building in someone’s garage, longterm storage of sets and costumes in a warehouse. Music classes, dance practice, and stage-size rehearsal space are usually in an underused school or church, along with costuming, active sewing and storage of hats and shoes.
Every time we move, the building we’re in changes their policies or has structural problems or is sold.
The University of St. Francis and Canterbury High School both allowed performances on their stages. Last year we started performing at Artlink and the Civic Theater. The University sold their enormous performing arts center. Canterbury is using their stage. The Civic Theater went into construction. Life House—Forest Park, the church we were meeting in last year, is up for sale.
So on Tuesday this week we moved yet again, to another large church-and-school. It has a gym and a stage, along with lots of classroom space. Naturally we’re sharing the building with the events already going on there: church meetings, church auxiliaries, food and clothing ministries, and pickleball.
Fire & Light is a great organization. We love it. We wish for more money to get our own building, but honestly, it’s unifying to spend a day moving hundreds of bags of costumes and piles of building materials. We’re sweaty; we’re tired, but we’re friends, and we’re in it together.
