Shelbyville Screams……………..THIS WEEKEND.
With great anticipation, much planning and generally goolish activities, Shelbyville Screams will be coming to the Strand. This is the brainchild of Strand board member Joey G. It includes zombies, zombies and more zombies. You will also see classic horror films, ghost investigations, a film festival and even a children’s play! The weekend will be a smash hit at the Strand as well as the Skyline Drive-In. It all starts with a Zombie Walk on Friday night.

The Zombie walk starts at the Porter Center and finishes at the Strand. (There are people all across the country who read this. The next little discussion is very Shelbyville, you’ll know what we mean.) Local observer Kris Meltzer mentioned to the Strand that the Zombie walk is quite appropriate. His rationale is that behind the Porter Center is an empty field that used to be filled with apartments and homes. These were all purchased and razed because the ground was deemed contaminated from actions decades ago. Here’s the Shelbyville part. What is next to that land? If you guess the old City Cemetery, ding ding ding, you are correct! What is the recipe for Zombies: Toxic waste and dead people. According to Mr. Meltzer it’s just like shopping at Mickey’s…you have everything you need. So when you walk with the zombies on Friday night take a close look, those might NOT be costumes.

The paranormal hunters gather at the Strand late Friday night for an overnight visit to hunt for any ominous activity. The “reveal” of the findings will be on Sunday afternoon. Several people are looking forward to this. If you think the Strand is haunted this is your chance to find out. We can tell you that several performers have sung haunting melodies, but we don’t think that is what they hope to find.

The film festival is on Saturday morning. These are shorts that have been submitted from people near and far. The closest submission appears to be from Miss Jill’s School of Dance just out our front door. We wonder if their zombies have pon poms and glitter? We know that Strand friend Tom B. from the Italian Zombie Movie fame has also submitted a masterpiece. Come and find out.

Saturday night is your chance to see a classic on the big screen. Dawn of the Dead, the 1978 George A. Romero classic, will show at 7:00pm. This is an opportunity to see this film in a theatre and even while sitting in the balcony. The Strand looks forward to this presentation. (warning, tech talk ahead). Things like this are not as easy as they seem. The problem with showing this movie is that the owner of the film was hard to locate. We cannot just show a movie, we have to pay the rights and royalties for this film. It took quite the effort to track this down. Board member Gary N. is in charge of all our movie booking. He contacted our normal agent. They at first thought they could secure the rights, but then informed us they couldn’t. We engaged the help of Joey G. and his booking service for the Skyline Drive-In. His agent worked diligently on our behalf and located the owner. Gary then contacted that group out of New York City and found the details. After getting a commitment of the showing, the Strand then sent a check to cover the advance cost of the film. We then had to sign contracts and give proof of the version of the film we were showing. They only license one version. With all that done, we received the countersigned contact this week. We are good to go for Dawn of the Dead. It was quite a job. Thank you to Gary N, Megan F. at our distributor. Joey G. and Matt at Indiana Booking for helping us jump through these hoops. Thank you to the MKR Marketing Group, owner of the film, for helping us on such short notice.

Sunday we will have the children’s play “Swamp Zombie Pirates” live on stage directed by Lora Norris. This is going to be fun. This is the third theatrical production done at the Strand in October! It is nice to have so many actors using our stage. Bring the kids and grandkids for this enjoyable production.

The Strand is transitioning from its summer mode to its winter mode. Our volunteers have been checking door seals, replacing filters and testing our heating equipment. This year our furnaces turn 57 years old. We want to keep them very happy this season. The AC units (which aren’t spring chickens either) are taking a needed rest. Those units did a great job cooling our theatre during a very hot and busy summer. The Strand spent almost $10,000 in cooling costs alone this summer. We are very fortunate to have wonderful users and great supporters of the theatre. We have been able to navigate through this financial spike without running out of funds. Lets hope for a very snowy, but very mild winter. The type that looks nice but doesn’t take a lot of heat.

Thank you for your support. We are grateful for all the encouragement and participation in the Strand project. See you at the Strand!

BUY TICKETS

Comedy Off The Circle presents an All-Star Comedy Lineup
featuring three nationally touring headliners.  Chris Bowers is the winner
of The Midwest Funny Championship, he was featured on Comcast’s Who’s
Laughing Now, and he performed at the prestigious Laughing Skull Comedy
Festival in Atlanta, GA.  Cleveland Jackson has opened for Dave
Chapelle, he is the star of his own Rockstar on a Budget Show, and he
has appeared on Fox Television.  Rich Ragains was the host of Speed
Channel’s Busted Knuckles, he has appeared on CMT and NBC’s Last
Comic Standing.

Partial proceeds go to benefit The Triton
Central Alumni Scholarship Fund and The Strand Theatre.  Both are great
causes both the show’s fundraising efforts are not the only reason you should
buy a ticket for this event.  This will be an amazing comedy show!
One you will not soon forget.  At a comedy club you only get to see
one headliner.  This show features three!  Buy your tickets
now!

BUY TICKETS

The Shelby Community Band performed on a beautiful Sunday afternoon.   The concert featured Hollywood Hits.   The band was joined by guest performers Doug Buchanan on violin, Jon Masters on trumpet, Garry Lauzierre on trumpet and Jerry Bell on Alto Saxaphone.

The concert featured Garry Lauzierre the second half.    Everyone had a great time.

Kurt von Schakel was joined by Kathleen Miller and Robin Hopkins for an program that included many types of musical genres.   The evening finished with Kurt providing accompaniment to the Buster Keaton comedy ”The Haunted House.”

BJ Fairchild-Newman brought Edgar Lee Masters Spoon River Anthology to the Strand as part of the Shelby County Arts Fest.   She assembled a cast of community leaders to bring the characters from the dead to life.

The cast included:

Tom Krughoff (narrator), Chris King, Tom DeBaun, Denise Holland, Jamie Meyer, Angie Davies, Ron Hamilton, Chris Browder, Jeff Sponsel, John Hartnett, Angela Gill, Gaye McKinney, Candy Miller, Brooke Collins and Scott Asher.

John R. Scott was the auctioneer for the 2011 Shelby County Arts Fest.   This year John R. auctioned the decorated old Strand Chairs.   All proceeds benefit the Shelby County Arts Fest.   The Strand Theatre donated all the chairs for auction.