The Holiday Inn Resort is continuing its next phase of renovations at the award-winning hotel by thoroughly upgrading the space that is home to the Dinner Theatre each summer. Plans are to increase the funtionality of the conference room area by adding a fully concealable quick wall to the space, thereby making it possible to host two events simultaneously. The new space will include a new reception area on the north side of the room, adding a new state-of-the-art sound system, adding additional access to the room via the north side, upgrading the lighting system, upgrading the dressing rooms, improving the sightlines for dinner theatre patrons and thoroughly upgrading the carpeting and walls.

As you can imagine, we at the Dinner Theatre are thrilled with the anticipated improvements and are actively involved in the renovation planning and implementation. We look forward to providing a significantly improved experience for our patrons and having the capacity to enhance the technical elements of our productions.

Work began right after the New Year and is moving along at a pace that is, quite fankly, astounding. I must confess that the first time I walked into the theatre space while it was in the middle of the demolition phase, I was shocked and more than a little unnerved. I thought to myself when I saw the room (see photos) "Oh my god. We have to open a show in here in just over 6 months!"

But the work over the past three weeks has been moving very quickly. (In my next post I'll include pictures of the renovation as of the end of January.)

We also uncovered some old graffiti from the 1970's (see photo) when the stage manager's booth was located on the north wall of the theatre space. Some of you may remember that back then the theatre ran from the east wall to the west and the audience sat on the north and south sides. Back then the audience on one side could look "thru" the stage action to observe the rest of the audience on the other side of the stage area. Shows like "I'm Not Rappaport" and "Brighton Beach Memoirs" were staged in this configuration. Remember them?

Anyway, we had some fun looking over what actors and stagehands wrote on the walls of the "tech booth" way back then.

In my next blog I'll include pictures of the most recent renovation progress and give you a bit of an idea of what you can expect when you walk into the theatre this summer.

Terry