The Palace Theater is Rocking This Summer!

Marion Palace Theatre Executive Director Kirk Detweiler joined the show to give us a run down on everything going on at the theatre this summer. From the musicals, to several themed dance nights and a very special giveaway... the Palace is rocking this summer!

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Join me in studio this morning isKirk Detwiler from the Marion Palace Eater.
My friend, how are you?I'm good, Paul James, how are
you? I am good. You'vegot a ton of stuff going on at
the Palace. Many. We hada busy summer, very busy summer.
Yeah, and you got things beginningactually this week talk about sock Cops.
First Friday Night. It's the firstof our Friday night fundraisers. No,

(00:20):
no, I can't say it's asecond in a series because I could the
seventies Disco Night a couple a coupleof months ago. So it's gonna be
Friday night fundraiser. Um. We'vegot it's oldies rock and roll, sock
hop, fifties and sixties rock androll. We're just gonna have a great
evening. That'll be in the MayPavilion seven thirty, the doors all open,
eight o'clock, the music and fundbegin. Oh, it's something very

(00:41):
special. Tell me about that,Okay. I was approached by Marcy dewitz
Um. She is a travel agentin town, and she said, hey,
what can we what can I doto help you, you know,
fundraise for the Palace. As youknow, the palace is a nonprofit,
so we uh, you know,we we break even on our shows,
but we you know, have todevelop operating costs, you know to keep

(01:03):
the lights on and the heat onand the air conditioning on. So we're
always doing fundraising things, you know, we have membership drive, etc.
But she goes, I have afriend who works for Viking River Cruises.
I can set you up with afree cruise and you can raffle it off
or do whatever you need to doto raise money for the palace. So
we are going to raffle off aneight night European cruise for two good this

(01:26):
year and next year. Um,you choose your itinerary. The only thing
you can't do is do a Christmascruise. Wow, that is awesome.
Yeah, so that is fantastic.You know, Viking now is doing great
Lakes. They're they're going from Clevelandover to Duluth and back Vikings unbelievable.

(01:48):
So so you're gonna be selling thosetickets throughout the sum Yeah, we're going
to us. We're gonna start thisthis Friday night at the Sacop. We're
gonna start selling that's a kickoff.Uh, and then they'll be in the
box office. In August, We'vegot another Friday night fundraiser. We're going
to do a big Eighties dance partyAugust twenty fifth. We'll sell them there.
We're gonna give away the free cruiseat the September twenty second show.

(02:09):
It's an evening with friends. It'sa benefit concert for the Palace. You
don't have to be present to win, but we do encourage you to be
there. But yeah, we'll giveaway the free cruise that night, and
you got a year and a halfto take it. So awesome. Yeah.
No, we're very excited about it. So let's talk a little bit
about Beauty and the Beast. There'sa lot of working parts with Beauty in
the from patron parties to branches.Talk talk what's going wrong with beauty.

(02:31):
First of all, it's it's gonnabe uh yeah, we are because Claire
always says, go bigger, gohome. So we are renting the most
beautiful costumes out there for this purposethat has made for Beauty and the Beast.
We rented the set. It's allcoming on Friday. Yeah, and
uh yes, it's gonna be agreat show. And Claire is so excited

(02:54):
about it. I try not totend too many rehearsals all. I mean,
the palace about ten hours a dayand that would just adds to my
time clock. But I also liketo be surprised and impressed on opening night,
so that's the first time I willsee it in its entirety. But
if she's excited, she's just realexcited how it's going, then we know

(03:15):
it's going to be good. Openingnight is July eighth. July eighth,
it'll run that weekend Saturday and Sundaymatinee, and then the following weekend fourteenth,
fifteenth and sixteenth of July. Wow. And like I said, there's
lots of different things to get interesthit in. You can do the patron
VIP party, they got the beautyand the brunch going on. But for
the final performance that's happening, it'sjust really cool. I mean, just

(03:38):
so many different things happening. Opportunitiesfor you to take your kids, your
grandkids, your niece's nephews, whoeveryou'd like to go see the Yeah,
yeah, and it would be agreat you know, after church thing,
you go to the beauty and thebrunch and then see Beauty and the Beast
and It's just it would be agreat day. That's cool, exciting things
are happening at the Palace. Ilove it. So tell me about your
sock cop you've got coming out?Well, yeah, well we used to

(04:00):
do this similar thing when I wasCruise director. We'd always have these theme
nights, and I thought, youknow, I'll whip out. I've got
this. Uh yeah, I gotthis nerd character named Francis a Mark work
Farkin Parker. That yeah, hecomes out usually Halloween, and I'm bringing
him out now. Was he thesame guy at the seventies show? And

(04:21):
he will? He be the sameguy at the eight the same guy the
dj smally bigs Small BIG's Mark warkkarWell, I don't know what's happening to
the day's yet. Who knows?That's down the road? Tell me about
Next to Normal? What's this?Oh? Yes, because we're doing two
summer musicals. As soon as weclose Beauty and the Beast, we start
rehearsals for Next to Normal. It'sa small gast musical, only six people

(04:43):
in it. Uh gonna be umdirected by Dustin Rawlins. But auditions are
this Sunday, June twenty fifth,So looking for a cast of six.
It's a rock musical, so it'sall kind of rock music. It's I
saw it on Broadway and it's itis amazing at one Tony Awards, it
won the Pulitzer Price for Drama theyear came out. It is just an
amazing, amazing show. That's awesome. So a lot of great things going

(05:06):
on. You can get details atmaryon Palace dot org. Anything else you
wanted to mention today, Man,you've got a ton going on. Nothing
nothing comes to mind. Yeah,just come to the Palace. It's yeah,
go to the website, get details. You can get tickets, of
course, you can go to thebox office and get tickets. And you
can also get those tickets for theViking cruises. Yes giveaway. That is

(05:29):
a really cool man. I amjust I am juice about that. What
a great opportunity is Yeah, it'syeah, Yeah, I'm excited about it
too. I want to buy tickets. I can't. You're not allowed an
employee of the Palace, are eligibleallowed? Yeah, maryon Palace dot org
for all the details and to getyour tickets. A sap because you're gonna
want to get in on this stuff.