I have been asked to take a look at what is going on in the Muny, so I strapped on my gear today and marched resolutely to the door of the offices of the nation’s longest running outdoor municipal theater. And I rang the doorbell. And I waited, wondering if I looked slightly ridiculous in my cold weather gear adorned with two cameras and a backpack. At least I didn’t look threatening, as the door lock buzzed and I was able to open it and walk up the steps.
I didn’t have to walk far, as a pleasant young woman whose name turned out to be Joy met me halfway on the staircase. I explained my mission, and she told me no-one was allowed into the theater backstage at the moment as they were in the middle of a two-year project to rebuild the stage and all that goes with it. There is, however, a view of the project from the design team room and I was welcome to take a quick look. No photos, please.
So we traipsed up the steps to the third floor to get a look out the window at the back of the crane being used to build the new stage, and a backhoe that was handling a large pile of gravel. It wasn’t the most exciting scene I had ever encountered, but it was something.
Emily then trotted me back down to her desk and set off to find someone from marketing who might let me have a photo. That someone turned out to be Emily, a svelte young thing who promised me some photos of the progress taken by their contract photographer. She was as good as her word, and a short while later I had three sunny day photos in my email in box. Not quite the same as taking them myself.
The black fence, I was told, is there to stay (it looked rather permanent to me, but others insisted to me that it was not); it solves a security issue for the Muny.
That was when I had the privilege of going back out into the rain. The soundtrack was occasional chirps and tweets from various birds that I disturbed as I wandered the wild areas and the sirens of the city in the background. Did I mention the wood ducks?
I spy my first wood ducks today!