We’ve finally done it! The new theatre is open, but that does not mean the hardwork is done. As you can tell from the recent posts here on this blog we’ve been doing a lot of press lately; however no one has had much time to write a new blog entry to update you on how things are going with the move into the theatre.

When the theatre opened there were a few things not completed that are now getting finished. Our new door hardware has been installed, the actual exterior doors have arrived (did you know you could have “temporary doors”?), and the exterior signage has been installed.

Probably most importantly, our Box Office has moved down to the theatre from our administrative offices on the fourth floor of Tower Centre. It’s nice to have Stephanie down there to greet all the people, but her move certainly hasn’t been without its difficulty! Apparently running a network cable - so the box office computer could have its all important access to the ticket sales database - was not possible. As a result we had to create a VPN connection and to do that we had to have a dedicated internet connection in the theatre. Telus couldn’t hook it up for over two weeks and that just wouldn’t do. Two weeks with no Box Office! Fortunately Shaw said they could do it the next day. Of course once the internet and VPN connections were in place we found that it took FOREVER for Stephanie’s computer to process a credit card. Apparently our internet connection in the upstairs office was just too slow. So now we are in the process of switching from Telus to Shaw upstairs too. Which sadly means our Online Box Office will be offline for a couple of days.

This is just one example of the trials faced when opening a new theatre. Lately, it has not been uncommon to hear the phrase “why can’t things just be easy” bellowed around the office!

The theatre itself is beautiful though. I think the theatre is “very Lunchbox”. It could have been painted all black and been a “black box theatre”, but I think the burgundy walls keep the same charm the old Bow Valley Square theatre did. Except that burgundy is better than the old purple! While A Life in the Theatre is getting a pretty good audience reaction I think the main thing audiences are noticing when attending the first show is the TONS of legroom, and the stage setup for the production - the theatre is in an alley configuration right now.

It looks like our audiences are really liking the new theatre. I just can’t wait to get everything else finished so we can enjoy it just as much too!