The kind folks at The Aronoff Center and Broadway Across America Cincinnati recently took some folks from “365 Things to do in Cincinnati” on a behind the scenes tour. Our tour consisted of a look at both the Aronoff itself PLUS the the backstage area for Broadway Across America’s The Addams Family. It truly was an event to remember!
We were lucky enough to have Chris as our tour leader for the Addams Family part of the tour. Chris travels with the show so he knew all about all the “behind the scenes” equipment, the wardrobes, the set, etc. And, wow, was he knowledgable! This wasn’t the first time he’d been to the Aronoff either so he knew the “arena” like the back of his hand. It was a true pleasure to tour with Chris (pictured in plaid shirt below).
As you can see, we got to go onto the stage where Chris talked about setups and curtains and backdrops. I’m afraid I don’t have a lot of pictures to show you here as those were all things we could not photograph. But we were able to get some fun shots as we walked behind the curtains.
We got a close up look at the props from the show (again, sorry, no pics allowed). The Addams Family was a great production to see behind the scenes. The props, as you can imagine, were crazy!
We even got to go inside the dressing areas where we saw their wardrobes, makeup tables, and wigs.
After Chris’ part of the tour, we continued our tour with Todd Deusing (Director of Operations for The Aronoff Center) as our leader. Todd took us through the building where we got to see more of their dressing rooms and the room where the actors “hang out” while they’re waiting for their shows to start. We saw practice areas and production areas. It truly was an amazing look at what it must be like (in some small way) to be an actor.
After our behind the scenes tour, Todd took us through the neighboring Weston Art Gallery and then into the lobby of the Aronoff Center. He explained the thoughts and ideas behind the architecture and discussed the sourcing of the materials that went into the building. The next time you’re there, be sure to just admire the building’s beauty before you hurry in to get your seat. It is a remarkable space!
We really enjoyed our tour and hope that the Aronoff will have us back for another one soon!
The Aronoff Center for the Arts is located at 650 Walnut Street (downtown)
Thanks goes out to Tim Jeffries, photographer extraordinaire, who took many of the photos in today’s post.
