New Phones and Old Friends

Posted by Bruce Miller

Barksdale and Theatre IV have a new phone system, which is long overdue. Our old phone system lasted over ten years, which I'm told is pretty remarkable. Hopefully our new one will do as well. New phone systems don't come cheap.

Our phone system is pretty complicated. It connects our lobby, offices and box office at Willow Lawn with our lobby, offices, box office, tech shops, backstage, and soon-to-be gift shop at the historic Empire complex. It also connects all that with our administrative annex on W. Marshall St.

I'm told there's even a new mechanism that allows us to connect our Richmond phones with our box office phone at Hanover Tavern. Add in the several toll free lines that are accessed by out-of-state customers who purchase tickets to our Theatre IV America programs presented around the country, and the Vonage line that allows us to talk with our webmaster in New Zealand, and you have quite a system.

None of this was even possible a few years ago. Starting soon, I'll be able to use my desktop intercom to buzz any Theatre IV / Barksdale employee whether their workspace is down the hall, down the block, across town, or on the other side of the world. It's not all completely glitch-free quite yet, but I've been assured that it will be up and running with no problems in the very near future.

There is a significant downside to all this--significant to me and several other old souls on the Theatre IV / Barksdale staff. To accommodate all the new technology, we have had to say goodbye to our daily fix of the late, great B. J. Printz.

It saddens me to think that many of you may not have known and therefore may not remember B. J. Phil once referred to her as "the conscience of Theatre IV," a sentiment I can't claim to have originated but one with which I heartily concur.

B. J. went to U of R with Phil and me. Her husband Donny also was a U of R man. In the late 70s, after the Printzes returned to Virginia from Donny's military service in Germany plus a three-year post-Army stint in West Virginia, both husband and wife joined the staff of Theatre IV. Their daughter Jessica Printz Daugherty grew up in our midst. After she graduated from U of R, she too came to work at Theatre IV as a touring actress. She morphed from that job to become our first IT Manager, a position she still holds today, even though she and her husband moved to New Zealand several years ago.

After years of service as our Tech Director (he also performed in our production of Cotton Patch Gospel), Donny died of brain cancer in 1993. After more than a quarter century of service as our first professional stage manager, then our Director of Development, and then our Director of Operations, B. J. also died of cancer in 2002.

The stories could go on forever. Suffice it to say that B. J. was invaluable to our organization and greatly loved.

A couple years prior to her illness and death, B. J. recorded all the welcoming greetings onto our then brand new phone system. The cheery voice you've heard when calling Theatre IV's offices during the last decade has been B. J.'s. I hope it doesn't sound macabre--it wasn't. Keeping her voice on the phone system was like keeping her photo on our desk. It was a great way to remember her beautiful spirit every day.

And now her happy hellos are gone.

So, consider this a final hail and farewell to what was, after all, only a recording of the voice of a much loved friend. B. J. will not be forgotten. Her character and vision will continue to guide us through this New Year and, God willing, many more to come.

Nothing of real value has been silenced. I need to keep telling myself that.

--Bruce Miller