Whistling backstage at a performance venue is taboo.
There?s a reason for that.
Also, unlike other performance venues, the seats in Bowlus Fine Arts Center auditorium are set back farther from the stage.
There?s a reason for that, too.
Mixing bits of trivia with facts and figures about the 54-year-old building, Bowlus executive director Daniel Kays and technical director Jeff Jordan led a dozen audience members through a backstage tour Thursday evening.
The tour was part of the Iola Public Library?s educational programs for March.
Bowlus director Daniel Days, left, shows how the Bowlus auditorium?s rigging system works (from atop the 65-foot stage ceiling).
?You?ve seen what happens from out here,? Kays said as
the visitors gathered in the auditorium. ?Now you get to see what it?s like in there.?
The 80-minute tour gave Kays and Jordan a chance to show off the auditorium?s elaborate rigging, lighting and sound systems, plus an up-close view of other areas typically off limits to the general public.
The seats to the Bowlus Fine Arts Center are slightly smaller than most found in newer performance venues today.
Few know, for example, the stage itself has a small trap door, which is used occasionally for some productions, Kays explained. (It will be used once again in April during the Iola High School presentation of ?The Wizard of Oz.?) The trap door leads to a workshop directly below the stage, but above the basement level, which sports the Creitz Recital Hall.
Speaking of which?
Situating the recital hall in the basement meant architects had to shift course when they first designed the Bowlus.
Original plans were to have an orchestra pit between the stage and seating, capable of being lowered slightly, thus keeping musicians out of view during performances, or raised to stage level during other occasions, putting performers even closer to the audience.
But the late Dale Creitz, long-time music instructor and the first director in the Bowlus Center?s history, encouraged planners to forego the orchestra pit, and instead focus on creating a smaller performance venue blow.
The recital hall now bears Creitz?s name.
?It?s a perfect location for more intimate performances,? Kays said.
