Latest / WIXN AM 1460 - Shaw Local Radio / Talk Line 08-04-2026: Spencer Aurand & Tori Highley share updates from The Dixon: Historic Theatre

Transcript

Talk Line 08-04-2026: Spencer Aurand & Tori Highley share updates from The Dixon: Historic Theatre · WIXN AM 1460 - Shaw Local Radio

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: It's eight thirty five on your Tuesday morning, and that
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: means it's time for talk line and I'm joined in
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: the studio once again by our good friends from the
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  Speaker 1: Dixon Historic Theater, Tory Highley and Spencer Iran.
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: How are you folks doing fantastic? Are you great?
• 0:13
  Speaker 3: Thanks for having us.
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  Speaker 1: Always a pleasure to have you, and you're always so
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: much going on at the Dixon Historic Theater, so I'm
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: glad that you guys come in give these regular updates.
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  Speaker 2: It's a good problem to have.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, absolutely a good problem to have. Speaking of
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  Speaker 1: I guess maybe not so much good problems, but you
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  Speaker 1: wanted to kind of start off addressing recent concept.
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  Speaker 2: We have a lot of things going on, but we
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  Speaker 2: are going one show down this month. We have Vandenberg.
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: Adrian Vandenberg was scheduled for a concert on the fifteenth.
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  Speaker 2: We are going to have to cancel that show. Adrian
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  Speaker 2: had some medical complications on his doctor basically told him
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  Speaker 2: that he needed to not go on the road, not perform,
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: take it easy for a few months. So we are
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  Speaker 2: just postponing the show for now. We are currently looking
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  Speaker 2: for twenty twenty seven dates to make it work out,
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  Speaker 2: but Obviously, his whole US tour got canceled, so everyone
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  Speaker 2: is looking to reschedule it at the Dixon Theater. We've
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  Speaker 2: already got about half of our twenty twenty seven season
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  Speaker 2: planned out at this point, so like, there are some
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  Speaker 2: dates that are like, can you do this thing? I'm like, nah,
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  Speaker 2: I can't do that date. I'm sorry. So we're trying
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  Speaker 2: to find a date to make it work. But we're
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  Speaker 2: definitely going to bring him back as soon as his
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  Speaker 2: health has recovered.
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  Speaker 3: Absolutely, Yeah, if you have a chance.
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  Speaker 4: He put out a nice public statement on his own
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  Speaker 4: website and Facebook pages and it was pretty heartfelt.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, And for anybody that did buy tickets, if you
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  Speaker 2: want to hold onto those tickets, we are going to
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  Speaker 2: honor them when we reschedule that show. And in the meantime,
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  Speaker 2: if you are interested in coming to see one of
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  Speaker 2: the other shows we have coming up in August or
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  Speaker 2: in September, you can reach out to the box office
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  Speaker 2: and we'll comp you some tickets to go see something
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  Speaker 2: else you want to see. Since you can't go see
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  Speaker 2: the Vandenberg show this month. There you go.
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  Speaker 1: You can hold onto those tickets watch something else. There's
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  Speaker 1: always so much going on, So you don't got to
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  Speaker 1: worry about that, and we'll keep that going. What's going on?
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  Speaker 1: You know, summer's not quite done yet in the children's
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  Speaker 1: theater summer camp.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah.
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  Speaker 4: So this is our second year of offering a free
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  Speaker 4: summer camp for our children's theater program.
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  Speaker 3: It's been really exciting. We're on week two. We've got
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  Speaker 3: a little performance happening on Friday at seven and Saturday
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  Speaker 3: at two o'clock. It's just like a little review.
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  Speaker 4: We have around twenty campers and then five student helpers
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  Speaker 4: who've been assisting with it, and then three directors.
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  Speaker 3: It's been a lot of fun.
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  Speaker 1: That's really cool. What was kind of the inspiration to
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  Speaker 1: get this thing started?
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  Speaker 4: So last year Janfaitizi and I kind of sat down
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  Speaker 4: and went, we want to give back to the community.
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  Speaker 4: We have a regular children's theater program, but that's a
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  Speaker 4: paid tuition kind of based program, and so we had
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  Speaker 4: gotten to a point where we wanted to donate our
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  Speaker 4: time and give back to the kids who give so
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  Speaker 4: much to us and the families who give so much
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  Speaker 4: to us. And so I'm really excited to continue this
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  Speaker 4: program again this year, and we've already got a plan
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  Speaker 4: for next year, and we're hoping to add a tech
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  Speaker 4: camp as well for some students to let them learn
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  Speaker 4: kind of the behind the scenes part of theater as well.
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  Speaker 2: We'll tell Scott about that eventually.
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  Speaker 1: I like that though you're getting you're getting the acting
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  Speaker 1: portion of it, but also the behind the scenes that actually,
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  Speaker 1: you know, gets kids.
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  Speaker 3: Involved in that kicked off that a little bit. This year.
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  Speaker 4: We have a student who's designing our lights, and we
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  Speaker 4: have another student who is running our spotlight, and then
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  Speaker 4: we have another student who's backstage doing all of our curtains.
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  Speaker 4: So there's a few kids who are kind of getting
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  Speaker 4: a head start in that program.
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  Speaker 1: That's fantastic. Parents, If you're listening and you think that
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  Speaker 1: might be a great way to kind of segue into
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  Speaker 1: getting your kids introduced into theater, that sounds like a
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  Speaker 1: fantastic way to do it. I love hearing about that
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: Sidewalk Profits. You know, when you first said that, I
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  Speaker 1: had to ask twice. I was like, I heard that correctly,
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  Speaker 1: didn't I Yep.
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  Speaker 2: It's Sidewalk Profits. On August thirteenth, they are coming in
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  Speaker 2: for a stop on their tour. They are a fantastic
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  Speaker 2: Christian music group. This is just an acoustic show, so
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  Speaker 2: it's actually just the main two band members. They're going
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  Speaker 2: around doing a very small, kind of much more intimate
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  Speaker 2: tour concert than they're used to doing. But we were
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  Speaker 2: able to get on that. So that's going to cup
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  Speaker 2: up on Thursday. That show is at seven o'clock, not
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  Speaker 2: seven thirty. And if you go to buy tickets, they
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  Speaker 2: are actually doing all of the ticket sales themselves through
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  Speaker 2: their own service, so you won't actually go to our
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  Speaker 2: normal ticks dot com ticketing site. So when you go
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  Speaker 2: to our website and it re links you to their site,
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  Speaker 2: don't get thrown off. It's not a scamm or anything.
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  Speaker 2: It's just they're doing all of their own ticket You could.
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  Speaker 3: Also go to Sidewalk Profits website as well.
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  Speaker 4: They have links directly to that ticketing YEP site.
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  Speaker 1: So there you go. You've you've got the site. Just
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  Speaker 1: a great way get ahead of it. Now, was it,
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  Speaker 1: Dear Amy, did I hear that right when we were
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  Speaker 1: going through the list or did I get that mixed up?
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  Speaker 2: Was it?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah?
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  Speaker 4: That's an Amy Winehouse tributa Banh've got coming. Okay, it's
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  Speaker 4: the only Amy Winehouse that's endorsed by her father yep.
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  Speaker 3: So it's really cool. It's a full band with horns.
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  Speaker 4: I'm really excited for that concert that's at the very
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  Speaker 4: end of August, So August twenty ninth at seven thirty.
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  Speaker 2: That one's going to be an amazing show. It's probably
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  Speaker 2: one of the best Amy Whitehouse tributes in the country.
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  Speaker 4: Definitely get on our website or on our Facebook page
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  Speaker 4: and check out some of those promo videos. She Frankie
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  Speaker 4: is her name, the woman who portrays Amy, and she
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  Speaker 4: does such a great job.
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  Speaker 3: She puts on fake tattoos to resemble.
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  Speaker 4: All of Amy's, she does her makeup, she does the hair,
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  Speaker 4: she sings, it's it's fabulous.
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  Speaker 3: She's such a good job at bringing Amy's spirit really
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  Speaker 3: to the stage.
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  Speaker 1: That's so cool. How do you go about finding these
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  Speaker 1: these kind of acts?
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  Speaker 2: It is It is not necessarily complicated process, but a
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  Speaker 2: tedious process. There are thousands of different tribute bands and
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  Speaker 2: acts and performances. There are. I mean, I work alone
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  Speaker 2: with probably three dozen different talent agencies that represent tribute acts,
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  Speaker 2: headlining artists, different kinds of like circuses and magic acts
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  Speaker 2: and things like that. And I've barely scratched the surface
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  Speaker 2: in terms of the actual number of agencies that are
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  Speaker 2: out there representing people. So a lot of it is
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  Speaker 2: kind of me reaching out and being like, hey, I
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  Speaker 2: want this kind of thing, and then agents will get
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  Speaker 2: back to me and be like, I got five hundred
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  Speaker 2: different things like that, and I'm like that's too many.
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  Speaker 1: Narrow it down more, yeah, because I feel like it
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  Speaker 1: would take several people full time reviewing and going through
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  Speaker 1: so much of it.
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  Speaker 4: There are some different websites and things that Sensor can
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  Speaker 4: utilize to kind of view things before he picks out
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  Speaker 4: what he's going to do.
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  Speaker 3: You can see how the numbers did.
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  Speaker 4: At other places or some similar sized venues to us.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. And I've also in the last eight months or so,
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  Speaker 2: we did start a booking committee at the theater. So
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  Speaker 2: we've got some really great community members that have joined
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  Speaker 2: that committee that helped me pick out shows they bring
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  Speaker 2: me suggestions. When they bring me suggestion, it makes my
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  Speaker 2: job way easier because they're like, you should reach out
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  Speaker 2: to this Tribute Act and I'm like, okay, and I
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  Speaker 2: reach out to them directly, and then I can get
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  Speaker 2: them booked and I don't have to do the back
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  Speaker 2: and forth the agents and can just be like the
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  Speaker 2: audience told me they wanted to see this specific act.
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  Speaker 2: So the booking Committee's been fantastic to work with. They've
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  Speaker 2: given me some really good ideas of different kinds of
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  Speaker 2: acts to look into, different future kind of larger events
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  Speaker 2: we can look into doing in the future. So I'm
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  Speaker 2: really excited for that committee kind of growing into something bigger.
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  Speaker 4: Speaking of committees, I'm going to do a shameless plug
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  Speaker 4: here if you're interested in joining committees. There is an
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  Speaker 4: information button on our website where you can sign up
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  Speaker 4: to joint committees, and we have quite a few that
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  Speaker 4: we're have running.
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  Speaker 3: We have quite a few we want to get going.
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  Speaker 3: So if you're interested in.
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  Speaker 4: Kind of getting involved behind the scenes in the theater,
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  Speaker 4: that would be a great way to happen.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, anything from facility to marketing to children's theater committee.
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  Speaker 2: There's all kinds of things going on at the theater
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  Speaker 2: that we would love more community involvement with in community support.
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  Speaker 1: With so tons of ways to get involved, I love that.
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  Speaker 1: Get on the site, give them a call, find out
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  Speaker 1: how you can get involved. I want to know is
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  Speaker 1: there a band, you know, be it a tribute band
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  Speaker 1: or whatever that's like in the crossairs. Haven't gotten them,
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  Speaker 1: but really really want to. You guys, get right, you
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  Speaker 1: got bucket You do this all the time? Do we
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  Speaker 1: have bucket lists?
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  Speaker 2: This season is kind of like my fulfillment of the
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  Speaker 2: bucket list.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, we got a lot of bucket lists coming right now.
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  Speaker 4: I mean Amy was a big one, I think for
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  Speaker 4: a few of us at the theater.
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  Speaker 3: We've got an Elton John coming.
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  Speaker 2: At the end of September. It's the Rocketman Show. It's
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  Speaker 2: a full uh, it's a full like uh Las Vegas show.
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  Speaker 2: He has he has a residency in Vegas where half
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  Speaker 2: the year he has his show in Vegas and then
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  Speaker 2: the other half of the year he tours around the country.
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  Speaker 2: So that that one's gonna be amazing.
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  Speaker 3: Promos on our Facebook for that one too. It looks
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  Speaker 3: so cool.
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  Speaker 2: I'm soyeah. And then one that a lot of our
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  Speaker 2: volunteers have been asking for for a long time is
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  Speaker 2: a Queen tribute. Queen coming in at the end of October.
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  Speaker 2: Uh to kind of end October, which is going to
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  Speaker 2: be really fantastic. And we we went through a lot
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  Speaker 2: of pain uh and uh uh. We reviewed over a
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  Speaker 2: lot of different Queen tributes. There are more than you
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  Speaker 2: would think.
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  Speaker 4: So we did a lot of nearing down to get
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  Speaker 4: to this one, and I am so excited for almost Queen,
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  Speaker 4: who is our tribute coming in October.
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  Speaker 2: They're going to be fantastic.
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  Speaker 1: What was it would you guys say about them that
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  Speaker 1: made you say, like, there's all these queen tribute bands
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  Speaker 1: like these these guys we had.
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  Speaker 2: I made a like a review sheet with what we
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  Speaker 2: had discussed were like the most important aspects of like
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  Speaker 2: a Queen tribute. The number one was having a good
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: Freddie Mercury.
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  Speaker 4: So we were like, this one, absolutely, hands down, was
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  Speaker 4: the best Freddie Mercury that we saw that day.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: He's phenomenal.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, he's got he's got the look he does all
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: of Freddy's like costume changes, the dancing around the stage.
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  Speaker 2: He sounds fantastic.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, and his vocals are phenomenal. It's so cool to see.
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  Speaker 4: I cannot wait to have him live. I've even gone
• 10:35
  Speaker 4: through and watched many a YouTube videos after.
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  Speaker 3: We picked him, just because I'm a man, I'm excited.
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and then just in general, also like the band
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  Speaker 2: behind him is fantastic, their presentation is great, all of their.
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  Speaker 3: Their costume changes, galore.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, Tory cares a great deal about bands having really
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: good media for us to promote the show. They had
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: fantastic media. I was like, ah, good, Tory will be
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  Speaker 2: happy with this.
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: I feel like the checklist needs to be framed and
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: hung up somewhere. I think we still have them because
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: we had. We had the whole staff and a couple
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  Speaker 1: of volunteers come in and we all just sat down
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  Speaker 1: and watched Queen like promo reels for different tribute acts.
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  Speaker 1: We watched I think like thirty different promo promo.
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  Speaker 2: Reels and rated them. Yeah, we spent a long time
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  Speaker 2: doing it.
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  Speaker 1: So cool. I mean, talk about having a day, what's
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: your day going to beat? My day is going to
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  Speaker 1: be Queen Darling?
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: Just Queen, just the same, like three or four Queen
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  Speaker 2: hits over and over again on very similar promo videos.
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  Speaker 1: Yes, oh, very cool. We still were just about out
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: of time, but we got a minute or two left.
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: Anything else you guys wanted to share?
• 11:45
  Speaker 4: Coming up on August fourteenth, We've got Retreth Project Rio,
• 11:48
  Speaker 4: So if you're a Rio Speedwagon fan, this is definitely
• 11:51
  Speaker 4: for you. Michael Jans, who is the headliner four for
• 11:56
  Speaker 4: Truth Project. He actually toured with Garytreth Decade is Gary Ritress,
• 12:01
  Speaker 4: frontman and lead vocalists. So for sure, you definitely want
• 12:05
  Speaker 4: to come check that out. We also have Breakfast in
• 12:08
  Speaker 4: America coming back to us. We had to cancel that
• 12:11
  Speaker 4: show last year due to a medical emergencies.
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we have at least one every year, so this
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: year we were able to get them booked. I think
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: we had them originally booked for early summer last year
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: and we were able to get them on the schedule
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: this year. So especially if you were, yeah, if you
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: were looking forward to our super tribute last year, we
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: finally brought them back. They're coming. They're going to be fantastic. Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: So it's Friday, August twenty eighth at seven thirty.
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: Awesome, mark your calendars, give them a call, any of
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: this information and make sure you've got these shows marked
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: on there. Get involved with the theater. So Spencer Tory,
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: thank you so much for coming on the show, always
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: giving these updates, these behind the curtain peaks if you will,
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: and we look forward to the next update.
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: Thank you for having us