The past weekend was quite a treat for everyone who came to theStrand.   The Super Celebration events on Saturday were a big hit.   The movies were great and the games were fun.  Thank you to Shelby County Tourism for helping us celebrate the big game at theStrand!   Have a SUPER Day!

The Klezmer concert on Sunday brought a truly unique style of music to our theatre.   Violinist Steven Greenman and Tsimbl player Pete Rushefsky played beautifully.   The two artists mentioned something during the their performance.   They wanted to acknowledge that they ate at the Chaparral Café before the concert, and enjoyed “the best onion rings ever”.    This is coming from people from New York City!    Maybe we all need to check out the onion rings at Shirley’s.

In addition after the concert someStrand volunteers went to Cagney’s and noticed a large table in back with concert patrons from out of town.   TheStrand is thrilled to bring people to downtown and especially when they stay and visit our restaurants and businesses.  Thank you to the Indianapolis Hebrew Congregation and Cantor Janice Roger for bringing this concert to theStrand.

This week was warm.   Our wonderful electrician Steve Dennis informed us that he intended to work on our marquee on Wednesday.   During the winter months we have been working on making sure we have enough electrical capacity to light up the 300+ bulbs in the marquee.   The electricity is now ready and this week saw the installation of the remaining sockets and bulbs.   Steve and Darin worked all day on Friday to finish the project.   At4:00pmfor the first time in over 30 years theStrandmarquee was ablaze with light from 340 individual bulbs!   It was a thrilling site.   We will post a picture of the test on our web site for everyone to enjoy.   We aren’t done yet.   We still need to relamp the fluorescent lights and install the front panels.   We also have one or two special things to do too.  When we are ready we will have a HUGE party for the official lighting of the marquee.   It will be just a few short weeks away.   We will let you know when we are ready!

Next weekend we will have a very special event.   Comedian Mike Malone will be filming his DVDat our theatre.   This will be very similar to other concert presentations you might have seen on TV.    We hope you come and be part of the audience for this great event.   We have all sorts of ticket promotions.   Our guru of the tickets, that would be Gary N., has decided that we will give away tickets via a survey.   Click on this link to enter: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/6PKGM6Q

Check out our Facebook page as well.  If you aren’t a Strand Fan, please “like” us.

OnSunday February 12, 2012the Shelby Community Band will be playing a concert at theStrand.   The theme of the concert is “Space Music”.   This is in conjunction with Shelby County Reads.   The book for 2012 is October Sky by Homer H. Hickman.   In support of this theme the movie October Sky will be presented after the concert.   Both events are free.

 
TheStrand is a fun place.   We hope to see you at an event soon.  This weekend theStrand is not booked so that all our volunteers can enjoy the weekend activities surrounding the football game inIndianapolis.    Next week we are back.    You make it all possible.  Thank you!   See you at theStrand.

‘Tis the season of great entertainment at the Strand.

We continue the Holiday Season with the Shelby County Players’ production of “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever!”   This is a delightful children’s show and is appropriate for all ages.   They will be performing this weekend and next on Friday, Saturday and a Sunday matinee.   The cast and crew are ready to get you in the Holiday spirit.   Please come and support the Shelby County Players and enjoy a play at theStrand.

Before we go any further we must admit a mistake.   As you know we talk about everything, the good, the not so good and even the embarrassing.   This problem is the latter.  It seems as though the spell check in our marquee is on the fritz again.   We had PAGEANT spelled wrong for 2 weeks.  Does anyone notice it ends in “EANT”, neither did we.   It is now spelled correctly.   There is a solution to the problem.  If anyone would be gracious and donate $85,000 to the Strand, we could retrofit our marquee with full color LED reader boards.   They come with spell check!

The past weekend we passed the 10,000 patron for 2011 during Shelby County Bank’s presentation of ELF.   This is quite the milestone for our theatre.   Our total attendance is over 35,000 since we started.   Thank you to everyone who has attended a performance at the Strand.

The Strand is looking forward to all our December performances.   Below is our schedule from now until the end of the year.    Thank you for all your support.  We hope to see you at theStrand!

THE BEST CHRISTMAS PAGEANT EVER

Shelby County Players

Friday December 2, 2011 7:30pm

Saturday December 3, 2011 7:30pm

Sunday December 4, 2011 2:00pm

Friday December 9, 2011 7:30pm

Saturday December 10, 2011 7:30pm

Sunday December 11, 2011 2:00pm

ROCKPHORIA ROCKS AMERICA

Friday December 16, 2011 8:00pm

Saturday December 17, 2011 8:00pm

IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE

Sponsored by Habitat for Humanity

Sunday December 18, 2011 3:30pm

WHITE CHRISTMAS

Sponsored by Habitat for Humanity

Sunday December 18, 2011 7:00pm

HOLIDAY FAMILY MAGIC SHOW

Daniel Lusk – Magician

Tuesday December 20, 2011 7:00pm

The Strand continues to enjoy a very busy schedule from now until the end of the year.   Our theatre will be cleaned, swept and made ready many times yet this month.   Our volunteer ensure that the Strand is ready and clean for each and every performance.  We understand that our 95 year old theatre wouldn’t take to kindly to being neglected!

On Thursday night November 17th Freeman Family Funeral Homes will present their annual Community Rememberance Service.   This program has occured every year since we re-opened as a performing arts center.   This year Mike Freeman is changing things a bit.   The program will include entertainment by Robin Hopkins and Kathleen Miller.  This dynamic musical duo has graced the Strand’s stage several times in the past.   The audience will be in for a treat with their upbeat Dixieland flare they will bring to the evening’s program.   The event starts at 7:00pm and is free of charge.

On Friday night the Strand will be participating in the Annual Downtown Shelbyville Holiday Parade.   This year we will be walking with the Maurice Finkel’s calliope.   We will have free tickets to the November 25th presentation of the holiday movie “ELF” presented by Shelby County Bank.   Look for the Elf costume and make sure you comment to the volunteer wearing it how dapper and distinguished they look.    The straws have not been drawn, so the idenity of the the wearer is still a mystery.   To be honest, and we know this is hard to believe, but some of us just don’t look that great in tights.

On Saturday night comedy returns to the Strand.

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’sLaughing 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.

The cost is $15 with a portion of the proceeds going to the Triton Central Alumni Scholarship Fund.   This is sure to be a funny event.   We hope you come and “get happy” at the Strand on Saturday night.

Next week is holiday decoration week at the theatre.   Out comes all the goodies that have been donated to the Strand the past several years.   When finished the theatre will be transformed into a holiday destination.    We have a great time decorating the theatre.  If you would like to help, we will be sending an email with the date and time we begin.   We would love to have you join us.   As always we expect more popcorn to be eaten that strung… but that is OK.   We can make enough popcorn in 14 minutes for 200 people!

To do list:  Thursday, eat too much turkey.   Friday, come to the Strand to see ELF.   Again this year we will be showing ELF the day after thanksgiving.   This FREE event is made possible by our friends and supporters at Shelby County Bank.   Thank you to Larry Lux and all the SCB crew for bringing the joy of ELF to the Strand again this year.    There are two showings 12:30pm and 6:00pm.   Bring the gang and have fun at the Strand!

As we approach Thanksgiving the Strand is truely honored to be a part of this wonderful community.  Your support is greatly appreciated and you make everything we do a pleasure!  Thank you for being a part of the Strand.   See you at the theatre!

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!

The Strand is pleased to welcome the 2011 Shelby County Arts Fest events to our theatre this weekend. The SCAF will be held downtown Shelbyville with events on the Public Square, Gallery, Grover Museum and elsewhere. The Strand is please again to host a variety of entertainment.

Please note that all SCAF entertainment at the Strand is FREE of charge.

Starting tonight we have Brian Ernstes performing at 7:30pm. Brian will present a program of opera favorites and other music. Originally from Shelby County, we welcome Brian back into our community to perform for us.

On Saturday we start performances with the Blue River Community Choir at 3:00pm. Following their performance will be a reading of Edgar Lee Master’s Spoon River Anthology. Community leaders under the direction of B.J. Fairchild-Newman will be presenting this performance. If you are not familiar with this work, it will be something you will want to come and experience. The subject matter coupled with the reading by our leaders that you all know, will be a memorable experience.

After Spoon River, the SCAF will auction of decorated 1938 vintage Strand Theatre seats. This will be your opportunity to own a piece of the Strand while supporting the Arts in our community.

The evening concert on Saturday night will feature pianist Kurt von Schakel. Kurt will be joined by veteran Strand performers Kathleen Miller and Robin Hopkins. For the second half of the performance, Kurt will accompany the hilarious Buster Keaton silent comedy “The Haunted House”.

On Sunday the Shelby Community Band will perform to end the weekend’s festivities. The theme of this program is Hollywood Hits. This performance will include trumpet soloists Gary Lauzierre and Jon Masters. There will be an alto sax solo by Jerry Bell. The SCB will welcome it’s first ever violin soloist Doug Buchanan playing the beautiful theme from John Williams score for Schindler’s List.

(Warning, classical music tech talk ahead). In preparation for this performance Doug came to the theatre an tested out the acoustics. As he stood on an empty stage he darted through many of the wonderful violin classics. He started with the Williams theme, then transitioned to the oddly similar opening for the Sibelius Violin Concerto. After playing a good majority of the first movement, he then played by request, the theme from Smetana’s “The Moldau” from the orchestral suite Ma Vlast. Doug, being the excellent musician that he is, played the arpeggio violin introduction as well as the theme from that movement. He then finished off the test with most of Rimsky-Korsakov’s violin solo from “Scheherazade”. For those of you out there that know this literature, suffice it to say we had an excellent time sitting and listening. You are in for a treat on Sunday.

The Strand has also been busy this week too. The Shelby County Players held auditions on Monday and Tuesday for their Holiday children’s show. This drew an amazing amount of actors to audition. Congratulations to the SCP on continually expanding their offerings and interest in their activities.

Next week we start the week off with the induction ceremony for the Shelbyville High School Jobs for America’s Graduates program. This is a wonderful event highlighting students taking the steps to be productive members of our community. This will be at 6:30 on Monday October 17th. Come and support these young adults in the journey.

Starting on Tuesday rehearsals begin for the play Swamp Pirate Zombies during the Shelbyville Screams Halloween Extravaganza. Shelbyville Screams will be a fun time at the Strand. It will also help us financially too! More on that next week.

Thank you for your interest in the Strand. The Shelbyville News, WSVX Radio, Shelbyville Today and all the other media outlets help you stay informed about the Strand. We are grateful for all they do to help promote our mission. The key is your support. We look forward to seeing you at the Strand soon! Thank you.