ShelbyIdol was a success.   Did you catch the very nice front page article in the Shelbyville News?   For those of you who live out of town, you can view it on-line at www.shelbynews.com    They have been great supporters of the Strand and have written numerous articles highlighting the great things that take place in the theatre.   In addition we publish an ad every Wednesday for upcoming events.   We find it is very worthwhile.  We know that this may be hard to believe, but there are those of you who are not on Facebook (are you a Strand Fan?), don’t have email or don’t have web access (in which case you are not reading this).   You can still find our events by reading the newspaper.   It might seem old fashioned, but to us it is still cutting edge.  Please support them.    If you look on our web site and keep going back, you will find newspaper articles from 1916 posted.   Some things never change.

ShelbyIdol is one of those shows that utilizes the Strand very well.   We had over 600 audience members visit during the course of the competition.   Energy2Action, LLC produces this event.  Gretchen Morgan usually organizes running and athletic events.   This foray into the Arts has been worthwhile and appreciated.   ShelbyIdol has proved to be an effective and enjoyable format.   We look forward to ShelbyIdol 2011.

This week the Shelby County Players will be rehearsing their show “And Then There Were None” at the theatre.   This play opens on August 5th for a total of 4 performances.   The director, Tiffany Wilson, is no stranger to the Strand stage.  She has performed and directed productions in the Strand many times.   We look forward to an exciting opening for the first production of the Shelby County Players 2010-2011 Season.   Get your tickets early, this is something you will not want to miss.

Between now and next week, we would like to send you on a little scavenger hunt.   We have a major announcement to make, but before we do, we would like to give all of you a hint:   Check out John Calvert (imdb will be a good start).   We’ll say more later.   Good luck.

Thanks for the support the Strand is FUN.   We hope you think so too.

Electricity, plumbing, heating and A/C….the list goes on.    Work continues at the Strand.   The big push is to complete our electrical work.  The carrot at the end of the stick will be the ability to finish our marquee.  Unfortunately we have to do things in order.  We wish we could pass GO and collect $200, but that is not the case.   We have located the path where our new wire will go.  This is to get the electrical feed from the west wall to the east wall…not an easy job.  
Our A/C units have been working overtime in the heat.   We have had a theatre full of people our last two performances.   Everyone remained cool, but our electrical meter worked overtime.   We have 25 tons of cooling, and according to Bob S. we need 30.   The only time you notice is on very hot days will lots of people…like the summer of 2010.

We are pleased to announce that the Blue River Community Foundation has awarded the Strand a grant for roof repair.   There are some jobs that are just not suited for volunteers.  The roof is one of them.   It is too high and too old.   The contractor doing the work (at an outstanding price) has put us on his schedule.  We anticipate starting in the fall when it is not so hot.   One way or the other, it will be completed by the time winter sets in.    The grant covered just under half the cost.  We have been saving our pennies, and we have enough funds to complete the project.    It will not be a permanent fix, but should buy us another 10 years.

So much to do, so little time.  Ever suffer from that?  We do, however slowly but surely we work our plan and continue our efforts.  The Strand is 94 years old.  If it takes us a few months to accomplish things, so be it.  Remember, we opened the doors for renovation just over 3 years ago.   In that time we have re-opened and now we are waiting for our 20,000 audience member to walk through the theatre doors.    That day is coming very soon!

A quick mention that our friends at Indiana Downs have a concert coming up.   There will be a Rock Concert to benefit Ronald’s House on July 16th (today!) at 7:00pm.   One of the bands is a former Strand performer with musicians that volunteered during our renovation.   We don’t have anything scheduled, so go out and support a great cause at Indiana Downs!

Thanks for the support.

This week we did not schedule any events during the July 4th weekend.  It gave Gordon H. the chance to get in and paint part of the auditorium floor.   The type of concrete paint that is used needs to dry and cure for at least 2 days.   Ray Wetnight gave great advice when he specified the type of paint.   It takes a beating.   Too many Coke spills, too many cables taped and a couple of thousand people will cause the paint to need a little help.   We are fortunate that the major walkways lasted 6 months!   We repainted in January.    Next time you are in, hopefully you will NOT notice that new paint.   If we keep it looking good all the time, then the paint will always look fresh.

The electrical work continues.   Take a drive down the alley (Post Street) in back of the theatre.  Look up…you won’t see those old transformers much longer.   The day is getting closer to finishing what we started, a total electrical system upgrade for the theatre.   Steve Dennis and Darin McIntyre are working diligently on accomplishing the task.

Pipe organ work continues.   This past week Strand volunteers made a return trip to Richmond Kentucky to retrieve remaining parts of the Louisville Theatre Pipe Organ Company instrument originally installed in the Oak Theatre in Louisville.   After doing at thorough inventory, Strand board member Kurt S. discovered that we were missing 6 pieces that are vital to one set of pipes (warning, tech talk ahead).  These would be the tenor boots from the tuba.   Without the boot and reed, the pipe is useless.   The six pipes affected were in the most used section of the rank.   This tuba was built by Dennison and played at 16′, 8′ and 4′.   The 16′ octave has wood resonators, not metal.  It should sound glorious.   We aren’t quite sure if it will be included in the final tonal specification, but 16′ wood tubas installed in an LPO theatre organ just don’t grow on trees….so we are lucky to have it one way or another.

Pipe organ work still continues.   The Shelby County Historical Society endowed the funding for this instrument.   At this point in the project everything we have done has not depleted any funds.   All the acquisition and moving expense of these LPO organs has been somewhat anonymously donated to the project.   There is yet another organ with quite a story that is going to be moved this week (Sunday if anyone wants to help).   This Louisville Pipe Organ Company instrument was installed in a church on the near east side of Indianapolis.  When the church closed, the organ was sold.   Considering the age of the church (late 1800’s) the Louisville organ may have very well been a transplant from a theatre!   At some point a replacement console (the part with the keyboards) was put on the organ.   This console was built by the organ supply firm Reisner.   When the organ left the church, the console was reinstalled on the historic Sanborn organ in Central United Methodist Church.   The original Louisville bench went with the console to the new location.    We are getting what is remaining of the Louisville instrument.  It has several items that are crucial to the Strand project.    The story doesn’t stop there.   The Central United Methodist Church was renamed the Old Centrum and was almost doomed to a bad fate having been empty for many years.   One of the best friends of the Strand project has been Indiana Landmarks.   They acquired the Old Centrum for their new headquarters.   As part of the total rebuild of the facility, the organ too was included on the project list.   Bill Cook of Bloomington has been instrumental in this project, including the organ.   The organ was sent to our friends at Goulding and Wood Pipe Organs in Indianapolis.   So here is this historic Sanborn organ that is getting refurbished, while at the same time the Strand is getting the organ that used to be played from the console later placed on the Sanborn.   What a coincidence.  Unfortunately the LPO bench did not survive.

The fun continues.   SHELBY IDOL this Saturday at 7:00pm.  Get there early, we anticipate a capacity audience.   Come out and support our local talent.

Thank you for all your kind words and gracious support.   Our friends at Shelbyville Paint and Wallpaper, Steve Dennis Electric, Indiana Landmarks and many more are making a difference in our ability to bring you a variety of entertainment in a facility in which to be proud.   Thank you.

The theatre has been hopping with activity this past week.   We are working hard on upgrades so we are prepared for the shows ahead.   The Shelby County Players will be using the Strand extensively in the next year, and these changes will be especially helpful for them.   Before we get to some of the changes, we would like to mention two very humorous things that happened recently.
First, we have arrived!   In a performance a few weeks ago, someone was outside the theatre scalping a ticket.   We took this as a badge of honor.  The person was successful scalping their ticket.   It would be nice if we sold out every show…at least the scalpers would like that.

Second was a practical joke by someone that indirectly affected the Strand.   The City of Shelbyville has beautiful flower pots throughout the downtown area.  The Strand is fortunate to have 2 of these pots in front of the theatre.   They always look great.   A few weeks ago one of our volunteers noticed a new plant sprouting above the flowers.   It was corn!    We also noticed about a dozen of the pots had stalks of corn.   After several days, and lots of rain, the corn grew bigger and bigger.    Whoever did this had a great sense of humor.   Alas, this week we found that someone “harvested” the rouge plants out of the flower mix.   We were looking forward to the corn as high as an elephant’s eye, touching all the way up to the “marquee”.     By the way, we didn’t do it. 

The Strand is continuing the renovation of the theatre.   (warning, heavy duty tech talk ahead).    This past week continued the work that was started last week.  First was a maintenance item that caught us off guard.   We have had an alarm fault in one of the back doors.   Steve Dennis, who is the alarm guru, figured it out this week.   The door in question in a very old wood door that desperately needs replaced.   It exits into the alley behind the theatre.   When Steve was working on the electrical system, he went to exit this door.   It wouldn’t budge.   It took Steve, Darin plus Strand volunteers Bob S. and David F. to pound the door open.   As soon as it opened, Steve found the problem with the alarm switch.  Due to the vast amount of rain and the very high heat, the door swelled shut and moved the alarm switch.   Bob S. brought his power planar to the rescue and problem solved. 

The electrical work has been proceeding steadily.  More circuits have been moved off of our Frankenstein switch and onto our new panel.   The lights above the stage were tied to the new power.   This wasn’t as easy as it seemed.   Those circuits ran from above the stage to the Men’s restroom and back.   Now they are an efficient run from our new panel.   All the outlets that we are installing are single circuit too.   This will help us avoid problems during shows.   

The pipe that fed Son of Frankenstein (which bit the dust last week) ran the length of the theatre in the tunnel.   This was never secured and just flopped around.  It was a very heavy 1-1/2″ threaded pipe.   That is now gone.    Inside that pipe was lots of old wire.  Thanks to our friends at Pettit’s, the Strand was able to recycle $138 worth of metals this week.   Now that the old pipe is out of the way, we have the room to install new things.   One of the new things was a request from sound guru Ron B.   He requested an outlet in the center of the balcony.   This isn’t as easy as it sounds, but it was installed.   This will allow Ron some flexibility with things that will be handy in the future.   It will also be nice for people who film from the balcony, they will have power that is right where they need it.

The most important circuit needed was run this week.   It is to the new ice machine.   While Steve and Darin were at it, they also moved the popcorn machine to the new service too!   That is a big deal, since we could not use the popcorn machine when the stage lights were on!   That is now a thing of the past.     We will talk about the plumbing work next week….all exciting improvements.

This past week we hosted the Blue River Community Foundation annual meeting.  The BRCF has been a wonderful partner for the Strand.   We strongly encourage everyone to support our local Foundation.   

Friday night MUTHASHIP will perform at the Strand.   The performance starts at 8:00pm.   Tickets are $7.00.  

Saturday night SHELBY IDOL returns from the first round of Semi-Final competition.   The performance starts at 7:00pm.   Tickets are $3.00

Thanks for all the support.   The Strand is proud to be able to be an option for entertainment and enhance the quality of life in our community.

We have so much going on, we would hate to clog your inbox with the Tolstoy text, but this week we’ll condense a few things down so you are in the know.   We need to discuss a little power (warning, tech talk ahead).   As all you regular readers know, the Strand has had a power struggle since day one.   Our power issues are with the electrical type power.   We have too little some places, and plenty others.   This week we had great progress on our overall plan for the complete upgrade of our electrical system.  

The Strand will soon be on a single service entrance with 120/240 4 wire 3 phase.   Until that occurs, we still are running on two separate single phase drops, and two different 3 phase drops.  Basically one set feeds the back of the theatre (by the alley), the other set feeds the front of the theatre (by Harrison St.).    The panel at the front of the theatre is the original.   Now think about it….the Strand was built in 1916…..the panel was original…..wow, it is 94 years old!     Our electrician Steve Dennis has dubbed it our Frankenstein switch.   There are pictures of this bad boy on our web site.   It isn’t a pretty site.   To get rid of it is the process we are doing now.

First off we had to remove all the circuits feeding from the Frankenstein switch to the stage area.  At the stage these wires met at another panel (you guessed it, Son of Frankenstein).   Steve had been slowly working the plan to get everything rerouted so we can remove Son of Frankenstein.   This week it was finally put to rest.   Our furnaces have been operating from electricity that entered the theatre over the concession area on the south wall, went over to the middle of the theatre, down the wall 2 stories, into the basement, through the tunnel, up the tunnel under the concrete, over to the north side of the theatre back stage and to this electrical box, then up to the on stage furnaces.     Now it is gone!   All those circuits are fed from our new 400 amp panel under the stage.   This is a big improvement.   We now have separate circuits for our furnaces, emergency lights, floor lights and all sorts of things.   It also lowered our load on the original panel.   Frankenstein, the clock is ticking.

That is not the only work that was done at the theatre.   The Strand was able to re-open because Steve Dennis installed our fire alarm system.   This is his main business.  The Strand is the beneficiary of his work not only with the alarm, but also the security video, real-time security video feed, security system and a whole bunch of other things.   Steve also installs this handy gadget on cars that allows someone to track that vehicle via the internet.   All the Strand volunteers with teenagers are looking at that one….but back to the alarm (even if Ron B. wants that on our microphones).   We had a major upgrade in our alarm system this week.  All the components were checked and certified.   There are quite a few smoke detectors and strobe in the theatre, so this is no small feat…..thank you Steve and Darin.

Not wanting to be left out of the fun, we had plumbing work done too.   This was courtesy of Indiana-American Water Company.   They installed a new water main and meters for everyone in our block, including the Strand.   Strand friend Rick R. was contracted by the water company to remove our old water main, and install the new feed.  Along with this was the much needed new ball valve main shut-off.   Should we ever have a leak, the easiest and quickest thing for any volunteer to do is to just turn this valve and shut the water off.   This is a big improvement and we are thrilled to be included by the water company in this work.

We had a real spirit lifter this week.   The Strand received a call from someone asking if we still needed tables.   We said “yes we did”.   They asked how much and we said that the 60″ round tables that we need were $100 each.   Sure enough this week we were informed by the Blue River Community Foundation that we received a donation of $200 with the instructions to “go buy 2 tables.”    We live in a GREAT community.   Thank you to the donor for making that possible.

The rest of the month has the following:

• Sun  June 20th    2:00pm           Shelby Community Band      FREE
• Wed June 23rd   6:00pm           Blue River Community Foundation Annual     Meeting      RSVP 317-392-7955
• Fri    June 25th    8:00pm  Muthaship – Rock Concert            $7.00
• Sat   June 26th    7:00pm  Shelby Idol First Round                 $3.00

We look forward to seeing you at the theatre.   We appreciate your support.   Stop in and say “hello”.

A story to tell.   We do that each and every week.  The Strand is a concept for our community that lives and breaths.  Sometimes we talk of good things, other times we tell of funny things.   There is “tech talk” and every so often our news isn’t so good, we tell that too.    Last week was just one of those times.   We spoke of the of a very serious topic.  (We know right now you are all going through your emails to see what was said last week!)

We had some wind damage to the metal fascia on our soffit.  We spoke of the hazards involved.   The board member who guides the upkeep of our 94 year old theatre, Bob S. said it had to be fixed immediately.   He ran the red flag up on Wednesday.   We spent Thursday investigating options.   On Friday we sent our weekly email that spoke about it.   We sent the email out at 12:36am on 5/14.   We said: “We don’t know quite what we are going to do, but we know we have to do something.  We will tell you it is a bit depressing for us, but more on that next week.”

Next week is here, and boy do we have more.   At 10:30am on Friday 5/14 Strand board member David F. received a call.  It was from Jim Marshall of R.D. Marshall Construction.   Jim’s words were short.   He told David that a group of “clandestine” contractors had instructed him to let us know “don’t worry about your soffit.”  The other question was “what color does it get painted.”    When David asked for details, none were given.    Needless to say we were THRILLED.   We didn’t know who the rogue accomplices were, but we sure did appreciate it.   Nothing more said.   That was Friday.
On Tuesday night David’s phone rang once again.   At first he thought it was Purdue Pete, but no, it was Jim Marshall.  In his cryptic way he said; “I think you need to have the Strand open at 7:30 tomorrow morning.  Some people might need to plug in power tools.”  Again more details were asked, and none given.   So dutifully David drove to the Strand at 7:25 only to see the parking spaces in front of the theatre were all blocked off.   Hmm, something was happening.   Remember, this is Wednesday, and our email went out on Friday.   Meeting David at the theatre were 3 pirates.  They all had the same uniform.   It was a gray shirt with red lettering.   Yep, it said “R D MARSHALL, GENERAL CONTACTORS”   The door was opened.   A few minutes later a really big truck delivered a 60 foot bucket lift.   Did it look pretty.

Work began, and soon the offending metal was safely off the building.   Strand friend Dick Delaney (and former owner of the Strand) stopped by to say that metal was put up 35 years ago.   It did its job, but it was time to go.   To the contractor’s surprise, the wood beneath wasn’t as rotted as expected.    Slowly but surely the three worked their way from north to south, fixing the rotted wood, and installing a new fascia board.    It looked beautiful.
Now at this point we STILL didn’t know all the accomplices.   One thing we did know is that this is a wonderful thing.   Since no good deed should go unpunished, a call was placed to our friends at the Shelbyville News.   Soon, BJ Fairchild-Newman was on the scene.   The excellent writer and reporter she is, the story became a little clearer.  Who was there to meet her but our good friend Jim Marshall.   We didn’t learn until Thursday’s front page story, but he sang like a songbird.

Let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves.   Midway throughout the day (Wednesday), the gentlemen working on the lift asked David to make sure there was the correct color of paint waiting at the theatre after lunch.   With a quick trip to Shelbyville Paint and Wallpaper, we had the paint ready and waiting.   Guess who showed up…..John Huber.   That would be John Huber, owner of Huber Bros. painting.    The plot thickens.

By the end of Wednesday the entire soffit was repaired.  The poor birds didn’t know where to go, there nesting place was no more.   We sat back, looked up and saw that is was good.

Thursday that lift was back in the air, this time with one of the pirates from the previous day, and also John Huber….safety belt in place and a paintbrush in hand.   The paint was our stone color that we used for the windows.   As the dark brown soffit details emerged with the light colored paint, David’s phone started ringing.   The calls were all similar “Wow, just passed the Strand, looks great.”    Then the Shelbyville News was delivered.  Right there on the front page (along with an excellent article about the Shelbyville Middle School’s performance at the Strand that night) was a picture of those pirates on the lift in front of the theatre.   The article went on to unravel the mystery.  It seems Mr. Marshall and Mr. Huber were the head pirates.   They enlisted the help of Dennis Baker from Builders Lumber.   Dennis supplied all the material.   They also enlisted the help of AirWorx.   They supplied the lift.   All four businesses teamed together to get the job done….all at no cost to the Strand!  By Thursday afternoon, the job was finished.   Quite amazing.

We live in a great community.   The Strand is humbled by the generosity and dedication given us by these four businesses.   They showed true community leadership.  They were not asked to help.   They received our email and knew they could solve our problem.   I am sure Jim’s Dad is smiling down at him this week!

ROBERT D. MARSHALL CONTRACTORS

HUBER BROS. PAINTING

BUILDERS LUMBER AND HARDWARE

AIRWORX

These are all heroes in our community.   The Strand not only benefits from having our facade safe, but also having the beautiful architectural details seen once again.  Next time you see any of them, please give them a BIG thank you from the Strand.   Several have helped us when we were down.   This time, these businesses came to the rescue….THANK YOU.

The SMS Jazz Band and Jazz Choir played to a full house on Thursday night.   These kids did a great job.  We are thrilled they are cutting their jazz chops at the Strand.   They’ll be back next year!

Thanks for all your support.  We are humbled and honored by your words of encouragement, patronage at our events and even in the case for a few this week, a trip up to the top of the facade.   Thank you.