Good morning, good morning, good morning. Welcome, welcome, welcome. It's time now for our community connection right here on K one, the one you trust in. Boy, we are going to Broadway and bartles William Style today. How are we doing, Miss Valerie doing well?
Thank you? Thanks Tom for having me too.
It's always a pleasure having you in here today. You're the director of Development and Programming of course here at the Center for Arts, Events and Community. That's our big name change.
Well, we're still the Community Center. Yeah, and we've kind of always had that nickname of the Center or the BCC, so we use that interchangeably and it works. Yeah. We are the center of everything, everything fun and exciting, center of.
The fun universe.
That's right.
Speaking of fun, we got a lot going on. We've got the summer Citizlings series, plus we got Broadway. We've got just a little bit of erasmut as for everybody, don't we.
Yeah, we're super excited. We've got just a wonderful lineup of Broadway and Bartlesfield shows this year. We've got four main stage shows and then we've got two add ons. This year, we heard the cry from the public that yes, they wanted some family programming that was, you know, very strategic to families, and maybe a show that wasn't two and a half to three hours long. So we've done some add ons and I'm happy to tell you about all of the shows.
So let's start off with what's what's coming from Broadway right here to Bartlesville.
So we're starting off. Our first Broadway show is going to be on Thursday, November the twentieth, and it's Cirk Dreams Holidays, which is kind of a feast for the eyes. It's the circus right on the main stage.
Wow.
So they're going to be acrobatics and aerials and all kinds of fun things. People jumping around, great costuming, holiday music. It'd just be a great way to a sh you're in the holiday season, right before Thanksgiving.
Remember the lions or elephants we're talking about.
We're talking about like the circus l a type thing.
To make sure that folks didn't get the wrong idea, there.
Will be no elephants, I don't think not this time. But it's really cool, Tom. I got to tell you we are doing what they call a tech, the tech for the show. So what happens is the we're the start of the national tour for Service Dreams Holidays. So they'll all roll into town. They'll come into Bartlesville, stay in our hotels, eat in our restaurants, shop at the local stores, and then they'll be putting up the show,
as they say, right on our stage. So they'll be learning all their moves, focusing lights, working on the sound, choreography, all that good stuff. Yeah, but they'll they'll bring all their creative team and they'll all just be here working on our stage and kind of living in Bartlesville for a couple of weeks and then they put up a show on the twentieth of November and then off they go.
Wow.
So yeah, we're really excited about that one.
Well, we have coming up next.
So after that we jumped to the new year. We have the Choir of Man, which that's in January, and you all have seen that before, so it was it came through town a few years ago and it's such a great show. It's ninety minutes straight through just foot tapping.
Think about like, I don't know, the ten tenors meets kind of a dueling piano type thing where they use kind of a stomp thing too, where they use everything on the stage that's set up like a bar as an instrument, and there's a lot of harmonies and a lot of a cappella and really fun.
Yeah, that's going to be on my bucket.
Oh yes, and they're Irish, so it's.
Like that makes a difference in my family.
You know, they're doing a little bit of you know, oh, Danny Boy might be included in there. Don't quote me on that, but it's happened before, so yeah, I think it'll be a good one.
Let's see Irish guys in the bar Danny Boy. Yeah, it can happen.
It's super fun. It's just a lot of fun. And they'll be singing songs off Broadway just you know, just great songs that people are going to recognize and want to sing along. So it's exciting.
Don't mind the prey behind us, Yes, really, it happens here.
All the bills and whistles happening.
I see. You have one of my favorite productions of all time coming up in March, The music Man.
The Music Man, Yes, that's going to be on March twenty third, and just your classic you know, Mary and the Library and You Got a Lover. It's going to be one of well, definitely our classic show. So and then we finish out the season kind of early again this season because the end of March we're bringing in the Tina Turner Musical and that one is incredible. So it's the Life Life of Tina Turner tribute show.
So yeah, that's going to be a little bit of everything. Yeah, from the days to days where she's collecting Grammys like people collect, you know as Nate screen stamps, one of those. Wow, she had a career.
Yeah, but there's more, there's more, Tom, Yes, I mentioned those add on shows. Yes, So what we're doing is we're flanking the season with an add on show, all right, And so on September the thirtieth, we've got blank Space, the unofficial Taylor Swift Tribute Show coming through and the gal that plays Taylor Swift, if you bumped into her in the grocery store, you might just think you met Taylor Swift. That it's it's uncanny there. The resemblance is uncanny,
and so we're in for a great treat. She's out of Los Angeles, travels with the full band and backup singers, and it's just a really fun show with all all the era you know, the different songs of Taylor Swift eras. It's going to be a great way for families to get a Taylor Swift tribute experience, you know, without paying that high dollar for the.
Ticket or traveling around the world to catch her. Right, this is coming up on Tuesday, September thirtieth, and I'd be anticipating to sellout crowd.
I think we're going to get close. We we have priced those tickets to sell to families, so we have family bundles available, you know, for under ninety dollars for four seats, just so we want you can get the people in the door to experience what Broadway is all about and kind of get them hooked.
Wow, it's a good way to do it. Yeah, I see we got something. Dinosaur World what's this? Dinosaur World Live.
Dinosaur World Live is a wonderful theatrical experience for children and families. It is life size puppets that look you know, very very real. So and it's also shorter program so for those littles that can't sit still for three hours, or for the adults that can't sit still for three hours. Yeah, So it's it's a very fun show just it's interactive, so there's there'll be a lot to keep their attention during the show.
That is really going to be cool. I I have yet to meet a youngster that didn't think dinosaurs are cool.
Of that, I love them, and that one is also we also have family packs available for that good so it's just a lot of great programming family style we have. We actually have a season ticket that includes the four main stage shows, so Cirque, Choir of Man, Music Man, and Tina, and then we have a family kind of package that we've put together that includes Blank Space, Cirque, the Music Man, and then Dinosaur World, so it leaves out Choir of Man and Tina, which are geared a
little bit more toward the adult. The adults.
Well, god, you did your whole work, and my goodness, this looks like a winning lot. Wow.
Our team's been working hard. We start working on Broadway at least at least a year before we even announced the series. So right now we're working on next season already, which I can't tell you about, so don't even ask.
I won't. I'm trying to digest this. This is really good. I'm really looking forward to this season. It's going to be wonderful, Like you said, just a little bit of something for everyone, and a lot more heavier on family side. You have so many families that want to show their kids the experience of the Broadway entertainment and things like that. This is a great way to get a taste right here at your very own center in your hometown.
Right You can be home in ten minutes after the show.
You know something about this is one thing that kind of sold our family. When we came to Bartlesville six years ago. I didn't know exactly where I was going. I was on Adams Street trying to find Frank Phillips so I could come here and you know, talk to people and see about things. And I stopped at the on queue. I said, what's that. I said, Oh, well that's the Community Center. I said, oh really, what do they do there? I said, Broadway stuff and big shows
and everything. Oh, it's really popular. They said Broadway shows in this town. Oh yeah, it happens all the time. And it was like, no sweat. Nobody was trying to sell me anything. They're just like, yeah, that's kind of what we do here. And I'm like going. I saw that in the Price Tower and I'm thinking myself, well, listening's out too bad. It sounds actually pretty darn good.
Well I'm glad you brought that up, Tom, because a lot of people assume that the shows that are on the stages in the Broadway shows in the Broadway Series are local or regional acts. But these are national touring shows. They are so they're the cast, the same cast that you would see in Tulsa or Kansas City, or Dallas
or Chicago. So what happens is the after the shows sit down in those larger cities where people are coming to the larger cities to fill the house every night, then they start going out on the road and they'll do full weeks or split weeks, and then eventually they cut it down to single nights. So you can imagine how the cast is. You know, they're very energetic, but they're in a different town every night, kind of like a band is on the.
That makes it exciting too, because although you get there, you get a little bit of a walk through and everything, okay, that's where this is. Okay, there's the bathrooms. We're good, and the next thing you know, they're putting on that show and it's not the same old, same old. This is fresh. This is as exciting as a dynamic. This is new. I might have been doing these lines for
ten years, but you know what, it's fresh tonight. And we're the beneficiaries of that because they're coming out there, you know, all filled with adrenaline, ready to perform just for you in a new place, in the new setting.
They're always amazed. They walk in our stage and they you know, they hear Broadway or Bartlesville Community Center and they're like, oh, we're you know, we're going to be in a school hall kind of thing. And they walk in and see that Marie Foster performing Arts hall and they're just blown away by the acoustics, the way the you know, the building looks that the architecture have in the Price Tower right across the the green space from us. I mean, they're very thrilled.
Oh my gosh, it is really something else. I think the first program that we saw it was actually CMT's Oklahoma when we moved here and the kids did it and we were looking around like this is We thought it was big on the outside, it's a huge. And they stopt that room over there for other things and wow, and then the sound We then later saw our Jersey Boys and the Million Dollar Quartet, the Beatles Group of Liverpool.
Yeah, Liverpool Legends, and the sound.
The acoustics are just absolutely awesome, you know.
The world renowned, and we take great pride in that. Even you know, probably it's probably even fifteen years ago. We redid the acoustical drapes in the building. We went to great lengths. The Trust Authority did all their research by bringing in experts from around the country measuring the acoustical properties of the room before they took the old drapes down, making sure that the new fabric was the right caliber, and then they measured the afterwards and they
were just like right there with the same quality. And I mean, it makes all the difference for a great stage like ours.
One thing I've noticed too, is that there's a little bit of a change in the sound system used to be. If you went to something like this, I'll compare it to the Phillips Center at the University of Florida. You'd see these big speakers just hanging off the ceiling and off the wall, and you're going to get crushed by one if you had anything the signs of a trummor well we've got you. How do you make so much sound with so much less you don't have all that bulky stuff.
Around there definitely a question for our tech director, Bill Sheverton.
Oh wow, sounds awesome.
But yes, technology is just amazing. I mean, you know our lighting texts and Bill and his crew they're walking around with an iPad now instead of a big light board, you know, and just monitoring sound and lights from their iPad. And the equipment is getting smaller too, so those those big you know, the big speakers you were talking about, are now smaller but better quality. It's just unbelievable how quickly that changes all for.
The good too. And this is really awesome. So how can we find out online what's coming up and then just by saying, oh that looks good, punch a button on our keyboard and buy tickets.
Yes, so you can go to Bartlesville Center dot com and in the top right corner there's a button that says tickets. Huh it's that easy.
Well, you've been an idiot like me can do it.
That's super easy. So you can do that online. And I know we have not lost touch with the public and just our patrons in Bartlesville. You can actually pick up the phone and call nine one eight three three seven arts and get a live person on the phone between nine am and five pm and we'll help you with all your ticket needs just on the phone.
And you know something, there's a good segment of the population who just likes hearing a friendly voice on the other end, and you've got a lot of friendly voices where you guys are.
Our team is awesome. Yeah, I lead, You're awesome, and we're ready to sell you tickets or book a room for you if you have an event coming up that you just don't want to get your house cleaned, or you don't have quite enough space. We've got three or three to four very versatile rooms for every need you can imagine.
So val, thanks for coming in.
Absolutely pleasure to be here. Yes it is alrighty, Well back soon.
All right, we'll see you there at the center. Folks, you've been watching and listening to our community connection. Thanks for listening to one on one with a professional A paid presentation at fourteen hundred K one