venue

[chhotii]

Various calls and e-mails have gone to the Armory. They do not seem to be in correspondence mode on the weekends.

However, I have just had a completely insane thought: the Somerville Theater! Considering how important the Sci-Fi movie marathon was to him (at least until recently, when everything changed), this would perhaps be fitting. Don't they have a smaller theater space?

Someone, either tell me that I have gone insane, or find out what this would cost.

I have the option to contact Q to talk about the UU church in Arlington. This would be a more traditional-looking option, but with the Jesus sauce on the side. Since Rich, as far as I know, never stepped foot into the UU church in Arlington, I'd rather that that be kind of last resort option.

Oh, to have venue settled, so we know when and where. I am impatient.

Comments

This is actually

[sweetmmeblue.livejournal.com]

a pretty good idea. It would accommodate enough people, give space for music and performing, as well as those who wish to speak.

[rmd.livejournal.com]

The micro theater (which is, afaict, not listed on their rentals page (http://feitheatres.com/somerville-theatre/rentals/)) might not seat enough people, I think it's something like 50-70. The main house is normally way too expensive for an evening thing, but if you're doing it off-peak-hours, I suspect Ian (the guy who runs it) could be very accomodating.

[chhotii.livejournal.com]

Hmm. But, the main house looks like it's huge-- 900 seats? If he was that popular I will be surprised. Don't they divide the main house into halves? Is that the way I've seen it usually, probably?

[ron_newman]

No, the main house is not divisible at all.

[persis.livejournal.com]

What rmd said.

We should check into the theater; especially important is their minimum time allotment (which applies to any venue). Is it 4 hours? 2 hours? How much? When can we get into the space? I would think we could investigate tomorrow.

There will need to be some set-up time for sound gear, pictures, slide show, etc, as well as teardown. The memorial celebration should be in the hour and a half to two hour range, with plenty of opportunity for more music and stories back at the house. We came have a set up crew and a tear down crew so you and the rest of the family can concentrate on seeing people and accepting condolences and stories.

[kimberlogic.livejournal.com]

*hugs*

I've got a friend-of-a-friend who knows the folks working at the Armory making a call for me this afternoon to try to get answers sooner than tomorrow morning. If I don't hear anything today, I'll call them again first thing tomorrow.

I think the Somerville theater is a great idea too - but I don't know if the private room would be large enough.
Tufts has some hall-spaces we could look into too if you like. Does anyone know what the rules of alumni/MIT rentals are? Maybe Kresge at MIT as another option?

[kimberlogic.livejournal.com]

I have still, despite more email and 2 more calls, not received any word back from the Armory. :(
I can post to see if anyone - maybe Chuck? - has a better contact. Or we can see about going forward with the Somerville Theater idea.

[chhotii.livejournal.com]

Well, we wouldn't be able to make a decision today anyway. Not until Thursday will I meet with Persis and look at the possible venue in Worcester. As I'm currently leaning towards Worcester anyway, we can wait and see whether the Armory and/or Somerville Theater get back to us sometime between now and Thursday.

[chhotii.livejournal.com]

I have heard from the Armory. They have availability. The price did not knock me over. They seem to have about the right size facilities. Depending on how picky we want to be about the time and the day of week, we may have a lot of flexibility about date. I have to sleep on the decision of the Armory vs. the place in Worcester. I have a direct e-mail address of someone at the Armory, so they are expecting to hear back from me. Thanks for helping me poke.

[kimberlogic.livejournal.com]

glad you got response
if there is something else i can do easily (with baby in tow), let me know
*hugs*

[ron_newman]

The micro theatre is much too small for your needs. I think it seats 30 people max? I'm looking for, but not immediately finding, a description of that space.

Here's rental information for the Somerville Theatre, and descriptions of their main theatre and their four cinema rooms.

(there's also the Museum of Bad Art, next door to the micro cinema in the basement)

ETA: Ian Judge, the theatre manager, is insanely busy this evening with the theatre's 100th birthday celebration and is unlikely to get back to you any time before tomorrow afternoon.

[tb]

Posting this for lcs, who is not on lj (or facebook) and I believe would like to keep it that way; if you need their contact info let me know:

- the Armory has a cafe area that can be good for smaller and more
intimate events; I'm not sure what the occupancy limit is, though.
The drill room is a big venue and can't really be subdivided.

- the UU church of medford has a big social hall that's quite elegant
but not a bit churchy - that's where [...] potluck seders have
been. I think it'd be a good place to fall back on, and cheap to get
with a contact. [...] I could make connections if they want to consider that.

[ron_newman]

The cafe has a capacity of 52, with chairs and tables for 35. I've seen more people than that packed into there, but it gets pretty uncomfortable. I get the impression that Rich had many, many more friends than that in our local area.

[lyonesse.livejournal.com]

possibly the nave gallery?

Book the Nave

The Nave Gallery is available for literary events, acoustic musical events, and other occasions that help highlight and promote the arts in Somerville. Email proposals to Randy Winchester:
rwinchester@artsomerville.org

or the dilboy vfw?

http://www.dilboyvfw529.org/hall-rental.html

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

As a friend of Ian, the theatre manager, I am happy to take point in terms of contacting them if you'd like. Let me know.

[gilana]

I was at the event at the Somerville last night and I know both Elizabeth Hunter and I mentioned it to Ian, and he indicated that as long as he had the time available he'd be willing to work with people to make it happen -- he said to just make sure someone contacted him.

The main theatre is 900 seats, but that includes the balcony; while we may not fill every seats, I feel very confident that the theatre will not feel empty.

Keep me posted if you do decide to have it there and need tech; my husband stage manages there a lot and has a lighting designer and sound guy on his team. If they're available, they might be willing to help out. You would need a sound guy at the Somerville if you want music, they don't have the equipment for that on site, but it can be provided pretty easily, I think.

[ron_newman]

This page says 399 on the orchestra level, 500 in the balcony.

[chhotii.livejournal.com]

Yeah, thanks. It's still on the list of possibilities, so it would be helpful if you find out what Ian says. I get the sense that Rich was so involved in so many social groups with so many people that we would be likely to overflow one of the 150-ish seat cinemas. Or at least cram it to the rafters. The main area sounds awfully big, but with only 399 seats on the main floor, perhaps we wouldn't rattle around too much. Apparently someone did mention this to Ian, and he was receptive to accommodating something. Thank you!

[rmd.livejournal.com]

The smaller theaters aren't really set up for anything but showing movies, though. The main house would be better for having more milling-around room.