A Building Update from the Inside

By Lyndsay Burch – Artistic Producer & Move Manager

T minus 322 days until we open the New B Street Theatre on Capitol Avenue. How unbelievable and exciting that February 1, 2018 will be here before we know it.

Check Out B Street’s Countdown Clock!

As one of B Street’s Artistic Producers and the manager of the move to the new facility, I’m hard at work in many different areas to make sure that we open at our best. Even better than anyone can imagine!

Of course, there are the internal logistics of the move and right now we are working on the production calendar for our new facility. B Street loves producing different types of theatre for everyone and in our new venue, we’ll also be hosting some dance, music and comedy acts for our patrons to enjoy. This week, we had a two hour meeting at Outlet Coworking to determine our calendar of productions and events. As you can see from the picture below, there are a lot of moving parts but we’ll be making some exciting announcements about scheduling and seating over the next few weeks!

Hard at work at Outlet Coworking Space!

Outside of what’s going on inside of B Street’s walls, it’s very important for us to stay connected with the national arts community as we continue to become a nationally renowned theatre company. Part of my job is to manage our national presence by going to conferences, building relationships and looking at some best-practices of other companies that B Street may want to incorporate. I’ve gotten to do some pretty cool things over the past few months such as:

1. Work on a production of A Thousand Splendid Suns at American Conservatory Theater (ACT) in San Francisco. While ACT has a budget that is currently 10 times that of B Street Theatre (!!), I still learned so much from working with this prestigious and successful organization. Most importantly, I learned that all arts organizations face similar challenges and it’s important for us to work together in solving them!
2. Travel to the Southeastern Theatre Conference (SETC) in Lexington, Kentucky to recruit B Street’s newest company of interns. As we move into the new facility, it will be very important for us to have a talented and hardworking group of interns! I had the privilege of traveling to the largest theatre-job conference in the country with Company Member Tara Sissom to audition and interview top-tier talent.
3. Collaborating with National New Play Network (NNPN) Core Member Theatre, Salt Lake City Acting Company for their annual Playwrights’ Lab in Salt Lake City, UT. As you may know, B Street is a Core Member of NNPN because of our commitment to producing new plays. It’s always great when we can work with other NNPN members across the country to discover the best new plays and playwrights that we can bring to Sacramento for our audiences.

Inside ACT’s Geary Theatre

SETC with Tara Sissom!

So for those of you who may be a little nervous about our move to Capitol Avenue, don’t worry! We’re working around the clock to make sure that your B Street experience keeps the same intimacy but now we’ll be able to tell even bigger and better stories.