Krannert Center for the Performing Arts (50 years), Urbana, IL

As a young man on the campus of a Big10 school, with a summer's worth of time to kill, I found myself gravitating to where a couple friends worked and could get me into their employers multiple shows, either at a reduced price (cha-ching!) or on short notice (they would tell me when tickets were leftover). The place was the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts on the University of Illinois campus in Urbana IL. 

I also happened to graduate from my bachelor's business program a bit "off schedule", in January of 1998 (please, don't do the math). Due to this "Spring Graduation", our ceremony was held in the Krannert Center, the Foellinger Great Hall to be exact. While I'd seen a number of amazing musical performances in this hall, like YoYo Ma & Wynton Marsalis, this was the first and only time I was ever on the stage myself. It felt good... as good as it could have, I guess. My parents and some siblings had come down for the ceremony, marking, I think, the 2nd time they had visited since I started school in C-U. (To their credit, we had many children to take care of, and a new small business to run, so partying with #3 wasn't high on the list of priorities).

Anywho - This post is simply a walk back in time for myself and the friends that I spent many hours with in this space. Check out the images below and be transported to a simpler time. Also note that this 2019-2020 season is their 50th anniversary. Pretty special. Pretty special place too.

You are told on the tours, I presume still, that while the wood Teak is no longer allowed to be imported into the USA, they received the US' entire annual allotment when this floor was put in. It also is said to represent the look of IL from the air, with all the corn fields in the area...

Don't forget the outdoor auditorium. It looks like it has some fresh new white paint, visible all the way almost to the Quad too.

I love this performing arts center, always have and always will. If you're in the neighborhood in the coming months, you might be able to sneak in a show in their 50th year.

Soft Power @ Curran Theater, San Francisco, CA

WOW! What an interesting, daring, though-provoking evening in the "big city".

I'll let the people that make the show tell you a little more about it:
"A contemporary comedy explodes into a musical fantasia in the first collaboration between two of America’s great theatre artists: Tony Award® winners David Henry Hwang (M. Butterfly, Flower Drum Song) and Jeanine Tesori (Fun Home). SOFT POWER rewinds our recent political history and plays it back through a Chinese lens: a future, beloved East-meets-West musical. 

A Chinese executive in 2016 America finds himself falling in love with a good-hearted U.S. leader, as the power balance between their two countries starts to shift and a new world order arrives. As original as it is topical, SOFT POWER overflows with the romance, laughter, and cultural confusions of the golden age of Broadway. Hwang and Tesori have created one of the most eagerly anticipated new works of the year.

SOFT POWER is produced by Center Theatre Group in association with the Curran. SOFT POWER comes to the Curran following its world premiere at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles."

That's an interesting description of the show, but I could not have imagined from reading that before going in that the show would be what I saw/witnessed in-person. Basically, there is no way to describe it. It's such a unique production, like nothing I've ever seen. But, by the end, it made sense to me, gave us more to discuss, and seemed perfect.

I didn't take pics during the production, duh, but here are some pre-start pics...

Another awesome, old gem of a theater from 1922, recent restoration only finished in Jan 2017. It looks amazing...

This is the opening scene/set...

The production invited everyone in attendance at the shows SF opening night to an after-party hosted in the theater. It included, small appetizers, drinks/cocktails, cotton candy, DJ, etc. Not only that, but we were able to mingle with members of that cast, getting selfies and autographs. Pretty awesome way to end a delightful evening.

If you're in town and have the time, I'd definitely look for tickets to this show.