A Little Bit of This, A Little Bit of That

Posted by Bruce Miller
A bit of a grab bag today.

If you want to know the best diner in the city of your choice, or the best auto repair shop in Richmond, go to Gordon Bass (pictured to the right in our current production of Becky's New Car). In addition to his acting assignments, Gordon is the full-time Tour Manager at Theatre IV. If you ask him for restaurant and mechanic tips, he won't send you to the fancy schmancy places, usually, but he'll give you the names of reliable and affordable places. He toured with us for something like twelve years, eating a gazillion meals on the road, and during the ten or so years since, he's been managing our fleet of nine tour vans.

Anyway, on Saturday, 15 minutes before auditions, one of our actors called to tell me that my daughter's Buick, which he was driving during his stay in Richmond, was making a terrible noise. Chase was just about to start his pre-audition instructions, so I called Phil to ask him to take care of it.

Phil made arrangements for our actor to take the car to a Merchants on Broad. Phil then went to Merchants, gave the actor his own car, learned from the Merchant's mechanic that my daughter's car was dead. Fugetaboutit. It was all over accept for the weeping.

Phil then remembered Gordon's car guy, Abe's Auto Service on Chamberlayne Ave. Phil paid the Merchant guy, drove the car (very slowly and noisily) to Abe's, and Abe just called me this morning to tell me that he thinks he can fix it good as new for $320.

You gotta love Gordon. And Phil. And Abe.

Today's the first day of the big GiveRichmond campaign at the Community Foundation. I hope it worked for other people. I decided I'd make my $50 contributions to the three theatres that emailed me (plus Barksdale and Theatre IV), and used the link provided in the email from Firehouse to connect with the GiveRichmond website. I registered. I clicked Find, found the theatres I was looking to support, I clicked Give, and nothing happened. I spent 40 minutes trying to make contributions, and never made it past first base.

Granted, I'm a computer dunce. But I was really trying, and there are a lot of people a lot worse than me. I hope the rest of you were more successful than I was.

Today is our first student matinee of the year--Lend Me a Tenor. I LOVE seeing shows with students. Couldn't go today, but I'm excited that we offer these. Student matinee sales in early October are never any good, but throughout the rest of the year, we should have a full crop of highschoolers coming to see our shows. Hopefully I'll be able to join them for My Fair Lady ... and beyond.

Today is also the annual trade show for one of our sponsors, The Supply Room. Terrie Powers and David Powers have been creating lots of painted cardboard displays and design elements for the trade show. We get free office supplies during the year, and they get free scenery for their biggest annual business event. It's a win/win.

Tomorrow the Whiteways and the Millers make it out to the Firehouse for Hot Tin. Can't wait.

Hope to see you at a theatre!

--Bruce Miller

PS - I tried again today to log onto GiveRichmond, this time using the Triangle link, and had no problems. Perhaps there was a glitch yesterday morning during heavy traffic. Whatever happened, it appears today that Triangle and Henley Street made it into the first group to bring in 50 contributors and therefore receive bonuses of $2,500. Congratulations!

U-Tkts Help Students Escape the Box

Posted by Bruce Miller
Beginning Wednesday, April 15, we will launch at Barksdale Theatre and Theatre IV a new ticket discount program designed to enable and encourage more college and university students to attend our productions. The tickets, to be called U-Tkts (for University Tickets), will cost $10 each. Normal ticket prices at Barksdale are $38 for a non-musical and $40 for a musical.

Students can reserve U-Tkts in advance over the phone or in person for any performance, pending availability. A student may purchase two U-Tkts to be used by himself/herself and a guest. The guest may be a student or a non-student. A student may not purchase a pair of U-Tkts and give them to a pair of theatergoers who are not students. Students must show a valid student ID at the box office when they pick up their U-Tkts.

It practical terms, U-Tkts will be on the honor system. If you’re not a student, please don’t try to cheat the system just to save a few bucks. We all know how tough the economy is right now. Neither Barksdale nor Theatre IV can afford to lose revenue.

The first shows to be covered by our new U-Tkts program are Well, opening at Barksdale Willow Lawn on April 17, and Annie, opening at the historic Empire Theatre on April 24.

Information about the new U-Tkts program will be distributed next week to all colleges and universities within a 60 minute drive of one of our theatres. The colleges and universities include Hampden-Sydney, J. Sargeant Reynolds, John Tyler, Longwood, Mary Washington, Randolph-Macon, U of R, UVA, VCU, Virginia State, Virginia Union, and William & Mary.

The U-Tkts program was designed with input from 14 university theatre students from throughout the community who responded to questions posted on Facebook.

TenSpot tickets ($10 tickets for high school students) have been in place for the last year and are made available to any high school student who joins our high school connections group, Barksdale Theatre Workshop. More info about this program will be posted soon.

As Greater Richmond’s leading professional theatres, Barksdale Theatre and Theatre IV remain committed to being accessible to all theatre lovers, regardless of financial means or physical disability.

--Bruce Miller