The Academy of Music

The Academy of Music

Tuesday, March 20th

The Academy of Music was built as an opera house in the 19th Century. It opened in 1857 (they celebrated the 150th anniversary with a concert and ball earlier this year) making it the oldest opera house in the country still used for its original purpose. The Philadelphia Ballet and Opera Companies make their home at the Academy while the Philadelphia Orchestra has moved just down the street to the Kimmel Center and their new Concert Hall.

The opulent house seats about 2,900. It is designed like a European opera house with 3 horseshoe shaped balconies. (The folks seated on the sides of the balconies have seats that face the center of the auditorium, rather than the stage.) Walking out on stage, one feels like you're entering a scene from Amadeus! It must be said that our set looks a little strange sitting out there, but this is the big touring house in town.

The theatre from the street.

The auditorium.

The stage is plenty deep - we have tons of room upstage. It's wide enough for our set, but all of our quick-changes will have to be upstage of the set (there will still be tons of room). I don't see any major headaches coming - knock wood.

While we're here in Philly, I intend to create a blog (or maybe a series) entitled: "How We Do It". I hope to answer lots of questions about how we accomplish the show and how we move it. If you have any questions I can answer - drop me a comment or shoot me an email...

JV