BWW Previews: Centre Stage's Live Streaming Event RHINESTONE COWBOY Premieres Tonight on Facebook Live
By: Neil Shurley Apr. 14, 2020
.jpg "BWW Previews: Centre Stage's Live Streaming Event RHINESTONE COWBOY Premieres Tonight on Facebook Live")
Centre Stage kicks off a new era with their first online concert/fundraiser, RHINESTONE COWBOY.
The show premieres April 14 at 7pm on Facebook Live.
"We'll be streaming remotely - from our homes to yours - to celebrate the classic country music we all know and love," says Centre Stage Marketing and Development Director Mitchell Smith.
The performance is free to view, with the hope that viewers will consider making a donation to the theatre.
We asked Mitchell to tell us a little more about RHINESTONE COWBOY.
What was the genesis of this event?
We had planned on doing RHINESTONE COWBOY as a live cabaret on our stage as a part of our Cabaret Benefit Series. We usually do these 3-4 times a year to raise money for Centre Stage's operating costs. Unfortunately, due to the rise of COVID-19 and the cautions issued by the CDC, doing a real performance seemed out of the question. Then we had the idea for all of our performers to stream their performances remotely from their homes - that way both our artists and our audiences still get to experience what we love most about our cabaret series: sharing the music we all know and love. In a way, this is our effort to show that even in the darkest of times, art, theater, music prevail and will always bring us together as a community.
Who is participating?
We have a whole slew of Centre Stage favorites as well as some new faces including Mary Evan Giles, Kristi Parker Byers, Celia Blitzer, John Leggett, Lena Bledsoe, Mikaela Freeman, Josh Thomason, Charly Ann Roper, Sara Tolson, Bailey Tyler, and Mitchell Smith!
How are you handling the logistics?
We've never done anything like this before, so there's definitely some guesswork happening. This is a very big task we are trying to pull off. The plan is for an event notification/invitation to go live on our Facebook page at 6:30 pm tonight, then the cabaret will start streaming at 7pm. Since there are a lot of technical elements to pulling off something like this, should anything go wrong with the stream (like a crash or interruption) the stream will continue to record and the video will be published to our Facebook page for public viewing at any time.
What can viewers expect to see/hear?
The cabaret will be split into two Acts. Act 1 will consist of classic country tunes we all know and love from favorites like Dolly Parton and Willie Nelson. Act 2 will consist of what we like to refer to as the "New Classics" - songs clearly inspired by the past greats that have solidified their staple in the modern country genre, including artists like the Dixie Chicks and Carrie Underwood. There will also be an encore performance of the song that inspired this project, "Rhinestone Cowboy," that will post to our Facebook page as soon as the livestream ends.
What else are you and the rest of the staff doing to stay sane and engaged during all this?
Our goal through all of this is to stay as active and creative as possible and to stay in touch with our local audiences. We are constantly brainstorming and coming up with ideas of how we can continue to entertain and inspire the Upstate. Hopefully this will lead to more future streaming shows on our page. We are already planning what our next "virtual performance" will be, so stay tuned! This will be a learning experience for us all - and hopefully an entertaining one as well!
RHINESTONE COWBOY
April 14, 2020
7pm
The streaming link will be live on Facebook at 6:45pm and the performances will begin at 7pm. There will be a 10 minute intermission. You must have an active Facebook account in order to view the livestream.
You can donate to Centre Stage via their website.
Comments
Videos