"SNAPPING TOURS" Part One: Backstage at the Pantages Theatre

This will be the first of several snapshot tours of the places YOU may visit as part of AACTFest '09. First we'll start with the Pantages Theatre. Since some are already making their plans how they are going to get their productions here, we'll start with the backstage, and in future installments visit the Dressing Rooms, the Lobby and House as well as other venues at the Broadway Center and through out Tacoma that will be part of AACTFest '09.

Part One: Backstage at the Pantages Theater . . .

Most of you will approach The Broadway Center from the down hill side, but the up hill view gives you a better idea of the approach. South 9th Street runs up/down the hill, and Broadway crosses it running north to south along the hill that is downtown Tacoma. Most of the Broadway Center (The Jones Building containing offices and The Pantages; Theatre on the Square) fronts onto Broadway. The Jones Building/Pantages was built in 1918. Theatre on the Square was built in 1993 adjacent to the older building.


The Lobby entrance is through the doors that start to appear in the far left of this snap (we'll come back to that another time). You can see better here where the older building and the newer one meet. That's where we are heading! That's where participating companies will be loading their shows into the Pantages back stage. Just where you see the white truck is what we call "Rock Star Parking." It's where the Broadway Center pulls in trucks loading in shows like Rent, Movin' Out, Putnam County Spelling Bee and where limos carrying K.D. Lang, Martin Short, Queen Latifah, Lily Tomlin, David Sedaris and more have pulled in.
There it is! Just around the corner of the box office, where the old and new buildings meet is "The Red Door" which (if the snap where big enough so you could see) has printed "Pantages Theatre Stage Door" on it . . .







. . . and here's the other side of "The Red Door." The ramp is pulled up because the Genie lift was being used on stage for lighting maintenance this day, but there is a 20' ramp that comes down from the doors, as street level is 2' above stage level. To the left, out of picture is where scenery storage will be for AACTFest '09. At the Broadway Center we refer to it as "The Chute." The back 10' of the stage are actually part of the 1993 construction. The wall you see just left of center in the snap is the actual rear wall of the 1918 building and stage.


On stage at last! Here's some of the views you get of the Pantages Theatre's 1169 seats from the stage, including the Boxes located both House left and right (just one set shown here), the Orchestra Level, Balcony Level, and Mezzanine Level seats, the Front of House Audio position at the rear of the Orchestra Level, and the Lighting Booth (or "Bird House" as the crew calls it) at the rear of the Mezzanine Level. It is a long way up there! Though the Blumenthal Center's (AACTFest '07) Booth was seven stories above stage level, the "Bird House" at the Pantages is only five.







In Part Two: Down to the Dressing Rooms!
(No worries . . .the stairs aren't the only way), when "SNAPPING TOURS" continues!