Tibbits Opera House

How fast time flies, our first week of Chicago has already whizzed by.  Chicago will be running one more week with a Wednesday matinee July 18th, and evening performances on the 19th, 20th and closing the 21st. 

One of our cast members is Coldwater born and raised, Jessica Bracy.  Jessica studied dance at The Academy of Dance here in town from age six, the same studio her mother also took ballet from as a child. Jessica remembers performing her recitals on the Tibbits stage as a child, and also appeared in The Snow Girl  here at Tibbits. 

Jessica attended Indiana University on an academic full ride scholarship, she graduated with a BA in Political Science and Anthropology, all while continuing to dance at IU.  After graduating, she spent the next year dancing for the Fort Wayne Ballet.  Then she set her sights on NYC.  Jessica has been living in NYC for the last two years.  She began in NYC by dancing for the Eidolon Ballet Company and now currently is a cast member of "The Ride," an interactive Musical Theatre Tour of the City.  Jessica dances both the tap and the ballerina tracks on "The Ride," but also teaches at Ballet Academy East on the Upper East Side.  When Jessica leaves Tibbits after Chicago closes she will be returning to NYC and will be seen in the new musical KRiEp premiering in August at the NYC Fringe Festival. 

Jessica began her summer at Tibbits choreographing our On Broadway 1956 show.  While she has choreographed ballets before, this was her first full musical theatre show to choreograph.  Jessica said she enjoyed pulling from lots of different dance styles for the show.  For example, "Steam Heat," is the original Fosse choreography, "Jubilation T. Cornpone" was based on country dancing, she used 1920's dance steps for "Won't You Charleston With Me,"  she used ballet and court dancing for the My Fair Lady medley and based "Lola" on Spanish dancing styles.

Jessica's dream roles are Meg in Phantom and Victoria in Cats.  Jessica's advice to young people is to keep your determination, you create your own path.  "When a door shuts, open a window."  She said you hear no so many times in this business, you just have to search for a yes.

Now for all of our Mainstage shows, lighting designer Jeff Hannah, is creating the different worlds of Tibbits.  This is Jeff's 3rd summer at Tibbits, he is from Troy, MI and now lives in Champaign-Urbana, IL.  Jeff keeps busy working for several different companies throughout the year.  Specifically he mentioned Champaign-Urbana Ballet Company, Krannert Center for Performing Arts and Celebration Company.  Jeff holds a BA in Theatre Performance from Oakland University and an MFA in Lighting Design from University of Illinois.

Jeff tells me that Chicago and Nymph Errant will be his most difficult shows of the season, based on the limited resources he has to use and the time frame.  For instance, most theatres have 98-120 dimmers to use, Tibbits has 55.  Another challenge is the batons on which we hang lights from, on stage in our fly rail with its limited capacity.  Jeff returned to Tibbits because he likes the people he works with here, especially Artistic Director Charles Burr.  He says working with this kind of quick time frame, it is always interesting to see what he can design in the 2 days allotted for tech.  He says designing at Tibbits is like figuring out a puzzle and really likes the side boom lights Tibbits has to use.  This year they do have a new lighting toy, an I-Que, it is a rotating mirror, attached to a light fixture that can rotate and move the focus of light, much like an intelligent light does.

Jeff's dream show to lighting design is Midsummer Night's Dream.  He always seems to show up at theatres that have just done the show before he arrived.  Jeff fell into lighting by working crew during his undergrad years.  His advice to people interested in the lighting field is to volunteer, take classes, work electric crews as much as possible, help hang lights and get light focus experience.  Jeff also mentioned that his Master Electrician for the summer Dan Janes, has it really tough.  Dan designs for the Popcorn shows, but since the Popcorn shows straddle two different Mainstage shows, Dan basically has to redo all his cues and certain designs based on what the new Mainstage show is using.  Jeff said that he and Dan try to chat about what each of them need in their shows, so as to not make any one's job harder than it needs to be. 

Summer stock is always tough on the Tech crew, they pull the longest and strangest hours, many times working through the night to make a show run more smoothly the next day.  I know we all thank you for your hard work Tech crew.  Chicago looks fantastic, don't miss this one folks!

See you at the show!!!

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