The day after Thanksgiving, we visited Chico to see our son. Ron showed us his house and we did our traditional winter walk around downtown Chico. But this time, he also gave us a tour of Laxson Auditorium on campus. Since he works there, we were able to see the place when it was completely empty. It was quite a tour.
I had not given much thought before to what exists on the back side of a theater, but it is very interesting! There are all sorts of rooms and nooks and equipment - I can see how it would be a very intoxicating environment to work in.
Let's give you a quick tour. That's Ron pointing out a feature of the balcony to my wife above. Unfortunately, my wife and I missed the opportunity to see Jethro Tull in this auditorium this fall - in retrospect, it was a very dumb decision not to go up for that concert.
The ceiling of the theater looks very medieval, though the auditorium was really built in 1930 at a cost of $288,703, to replace a previous building that burned in 1927. The auditorium holds 1400 people.
The array of lights is really impressive, as are all the backdrops that can be used. There is much more to running a show than I had realized as an average audience member - and I guess that's exactly how the staff has planned it
Ron showed my wife the pamphlet from the latest show in the box office and then took us to what we have dubbed the Cosby Room - one of the two dressing room for entertainers. We call it the Cosby Room because one of our favorite Ron stories is the afternoon he spent there with Bill Cosby.
And that, in a nutshell, is a quick tour of Laxson Auditorium. It is really much more fun in person, I assure you.
It was a very enjoyable afternoon. We had lunch at our favorite spot (Mo's BBQ), toured Laxson, had a drink at Ron's favorite watering hole, then on to dinner at the Sierra Nevada Brewery (an establishment not to be missed should you ever make it to Chico).
Hi, I sure thought I commented yesterday, must be losing my mind.
ReplyDeleteI've never been in to Chico. Enjoyed the photos and thanks for your visit.
I love San Diego. Have you been gettng lots of rain.
sandy
Thanks Sandy.
ReplyDeleteYep, quite a bit the last few days! It finally returned to blue skies today.
Chico is a nice town. First thing that jumps out to someone from SoCal is how many huge beautiful trees there are in the city. The second is how much of a hippy town atmosphere it has! (though it is really a college town in the middle of farmland)
Oh...hippytown. I need to visit.
ReplyDeletesandy
Wow...good old Laxson. I didn't see many concerts there while I was there. (Too much time spent in the computer lab!) Actually, I can think of only one event I went to there--that was the "Nutcracker" ballet roadshow that the SF Ballet did there. That was my first time at a ballet, and I was enchanted.
ReplyDeleteIt seems like all the concerts I went to in Chico were at other locations. I saw Jane Siberry at the student union, and some shows at the gymnasium down the street from the computer science building (is that Walnut ave? My brain is fading on me..) Saw Cheap Trick and Berlin there. Fun times.