Smashed Productions presented GAMBITS DISCIPLES with Special Guest Sidestreet.   These two young bands bought in a diverse crowd of many first time Strand patrons.   Each band played about a 50 minute set.   Their fans crowded the front of a stage in true rock concert fashion.  

  - GAMBITS DISCIPLES

 - SIDE STREET

Kudos to Strand Board member and IUPUI student Cody Veerkamp.  Cody came down at the last minute to help us run sound.  He did great job at the board and made the bands sound great!

Three Sisters Bookstore will sponsor a night of poetry reading at the Strand.  This is in conjunction with National Poetry Month.  The event starts at 7:00pm and is free.

The evening features "Reservoir Dogwoods" an Indiana Poetry Tour 2009.  Featuring:

Jason Ammerman, Tony Brewer, Matthew Jackson & Joseph Kerschbaum.   Lock up the thesaurus!  These are four of the hardest working spoken word artists in Indiana.  They join forces to showcase their brand of homegrown performance poetry.

Sponsored By:

The theatre pipe organ project for the Strand is still quietly moving forward.   Many things have to happen before we can start the rebuilding of the instrument.   Carlton Smith of Carlton Smith Restorations will be leading the rebuilding process.   Before we can put the Strand on the schedule, Carlton has a few projects that he is finishing.  

We caught up with Carlton on February 25, 2009 at his Indianapolis shop.  After discussing a few items for the Strand project, we looked at one of the organs in its final stages of rebuilding.

Below is Carlton in front of the Solo Chamber for the organ to be installed at the Circle Theatre in downtown Indianapolis.  This Wurlitzer was originally installed at the Warner Theatre in Youngstown Ohio.   Our own Strand organ crew helped move this organ from its location in Cincinnati to Cartlon’s shop.   The transformation has been wonderful.  What you see in the picture today, along with a smiling Carlton, is what a Wurlitzer instrument would have looked like brand new in the 1920’s in the factory erecting room.

Below is the console for the organ.  It is not complete, but still looks great.

This organ’s music will fill a much bigger space than the Strand’s.  The Circle seats 1786  to the Strand’s 377.  Bit of a difference.  We look forward to hearing the organ after it is installed in May 2009.

Also in Carlton’s shop is the console for the Dixon Theatre in Dixon, IL.  It was built by the Barton Organ Company.   It’s finish is historically accurate.  All the ornamentation had to be re-molded and applied by Carlton and his staff.  The organ for this console is installed awaiting this final (and very important) part.  The citizens of Dixon are fortunate to have an organ that is restored with this level of expertise.  The console is in a much earlier stage of restoration than the Wurlitzer console above.

The Shelby Community Band took the Strand stage on Sunday February 22, 2009.  The band performed their Mid-Winter Concert.   This is the second time that the Band has graced the Strand stage for this concert.  In 2008, with a much smaller stage, the Mid-Winter concert was one of our first few events after re-opening.

The concert contained march favorites, as well as music from Broadway.  This was a FREE concert for all who attended.

Smashed Production produced their first show of the 2009 season on Saturday February 21, 2009.   Rules of Seven made a return engagement to the Strand.  They were joined by special guest Shadowbox.  

A great evening of progressive rock music was enjoyed by a diverse audience.  There were several children in the audience that got to experience live entertainment on the Strand stage.

Both bands sounded great.   All the musicians donated their talent to the Strand project.  Thank you Rules of Seven and Shadowbox!

   -  Rules of Seven

 - Shadowbox

The Strand has hosted several events over the past few weeks.  The month started off with a wonderful lecture hosted by Shelby County Reads.  The speakers, who were in the Japanese Detainment Camps in WWII, gave an interesting lecture.   Thank you to the Shelbyville-Shelby County Public Library and Shelby County Reads for holding their lecture at the Strand.

We are finishing up the final details on the 2009 Strand Lecture Series.  This will be the first, in what we hope, will be an annual series.  We are planning 4 lectures, one each quarter, on various topics.   They should be interesting and entertaining.  All the lectures will be free admission.   Lectures are scheduled for the following dates:

Tuesday March 17
Tuesday May 5
Tuesday September 17
Tuesday October 20

There will be a variety of topics.   More specific information will follow in the next email.

Now that we are doing lectures, we have a little problem.  Remember the picture of Lt. Gov. Skillman on the front page of the Shelbyville News when she was at the Strand in October?   That lectern wasn’t really a lectern.  It is the old ticket box.  When you bought your ticket to the movie, the DeWitt’s tore it in half and deposited the stub in a ticket box.   We painted it and Bob S. built a top for it to make it into a lectern.  That was OK to get going, but as we do more lectures, we really need a proper lectern, with lights, places for the microphones, and PC hookups.   If anyone knows of a lectern we could have, it would be greatly appreciated.   The old ticket box has done a good job, but it is time to give it a rest.

Valentine’s Day was a special day.  The Shelby Arts Council held its Dinner/Dance at the Strand on Saturday February 14th.   The dinner was sold out, but there were plenty of tickets available for the entertainment.   The Rush County Big Band was on the stage providing swing music for all you dancers out there.   We had the dance floor in the Cabaret Area, and it was great time.  Whether you want to just sat and listened, or cut the rug, the Strand was the place for you on Valentine’s Day!   You might remember that the Rush County Big Band came and helped us with our acoustic testing several months before we opened.  It was nice to see them on stage again.

Were you at the lecture on February 8th?   Were you at the Shelby Arts Council Dance on Valentine’s Day?   Did you look down?  If you did…wow!  Gordon H. was busy during our break painting the floors.  The balcony is much nicer with its new color, and the downstairs received new coats of paint down both side aisles.   We didn’t realize was a rush job we did in January 2008.  Only after these two coats, did we see the difference a great job makes. 

All the people at the SAC Dance helped us fill all our nice new CGS Totes.   Really, the more trash we have, the better things are going!  For the first time we didn’t have to worry about overfilling our totes.  Thank you CGS.

This past few weeks we have be wrestling with a few email technology problems, hence no emails.  I know you were going into Strand withdrawal.   Don’t worry, we are working hard to make it better and more reliable than ever.  Soon you will be receiving your emails from our own domain.   It will be nice to transition this to our own servers.

This weekend we have two events.  Saturday night Smashed Productions presents Rule of Seven for a return engagement.  On Sunday at 2:00pm the Shelby Community Band will present their (our) Winter Concert.   Hope to see you at one of these events.

Again, thank you for all the support.  The Strand is a success because of you.   Whether you are here in Shelbyville or far away reading this, the fact that you care is what makes this project so special.

The Shelby Arts Council held their annual Dinner/Dance for the first time at the Strand Theatre.   The entertainment was provided by the Rush County Big Band.   There was a catered dinner served in the Cabaret Area followed music and dancing.  Popular tunes from the 30’s & 40’s big band era were heard all evening.

The Shelby Arts Council was formed in 1979.  Affiliate members include the Shelby County Player, Shelby Community Band, Strand Theatre, Blue River Community Choir, Shelby County Arts Fest, Shelby Art Guild Association and the Shelby County Historical Society.

Below, arts patrons Don & Jackie Polakoff enjoy dinner:

The Rush County Big Band filled the Strand with swing music!

Smashed Productions presents The Complete Unknowns with special guest Adam & Amanda O’Connor.   Saturday March 7, 2009 8:00pm.   Admission $5 in advance, $7 at the door.

Tickets are available at:

Mickey’s T-Mart, Smashed Productions, Mac’s Music & Karma