Good to Know The Strand Theatre

Paul Reiser and Jeff Beimfohr talk with Jenifer Hill about The Strand Theatre, it's history, the future, and what entertainment is scheduled for the season.

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KTBS Podcasting and the Committee of 100 present Good to Know Shreveport-Bossier, a podcast series showcasing the good things happening in our area. We’ll go in-depth about economic development, community growth and other topics about initiatives that are having a positive impact in our community. We’ll have new episodes every other Wednesday. You can find the KTBS Good to Know podcast wherever you listen to podcasting. Or go to KTBS.com or KTBS Now on your streaming device to see the full interview.

Hello again, everybody.

Welcome to another edition of Good to Know
Shreveport, Bossier.

This is a podcast showcasing
all the good things

happening in our community,
the Shreveport Bougie area.

My name is Jeff By and for over here,
my inimitable co-host, Paul Reiser.

I almost got that out without stumbling
over a member of the Committee of 100

and every podcast,
we focus on topics and initiatives

that have positive impacts
on the community.

We have new episodes
every other Wednesday, and you can find

good to know
wherever you listen to your podcast.

And Paul, as always, please
introduce our special guests.

First, I have to go
look up. Inimitable, inimitable.

I'm so inevitable.

You know, I speak a lot for a living
and occasionally I stumble.

Well, I appreciate.

I'm sure it's something wonderful
if you called me that.

So don't be so sure.

So talk about great things in the area,
in the community.

One of my favorite buildings
downtown is the Strand.

It's alive. It's
something going on there all the time.

And today we have the executive director,
Jennifer Hill.

Jennifer Hill, he's got

Jennifer Hill,
the executive director from The Strand.

Thanks for coming and joining us today.
Thanks for having me.

Because the Strand, you know, it's

one of those that a lot of people say,
oh, it's our jewel of downtown.

It's this building and people drive by
and look at it.

But there's a lot going on in there.

Tell us a little bit about it.

Well, we have first of all,
I want to say how lucky we are

that this building is still
isn't Shreveport at all.

It's kind of

amazing to have some something of that

beauty.

And, you know, in in our
what is basically a fairly small town.

Mm hmm.

But we, you know, managed to keep it open.

In fact, we're celebrating
right now is our 99th year. Wow.

And yeah,
and still have a performing arts center.

So we do if you can dream it

and it's legal, we can make it happen.

I'm coming.

Right.

So that's almost 100 years
if I'm added, right?

That's.

Well, you know,
you might want to go check your mind,

but it's very yes,
we opened in 1925, in the summer.

So we're going to start

celebrating this next summer
and we'll celebrate for a year.

We're going to celebrate the centennial
year up until July the third.

Well, that's a pretty
I mean, that's a big deal.

What are some things that you have planned
for the centennial?

We are talking about doing some type
of ball, you know, having a big kind of

and we hope to keep,

you know, ticket prices at a point
where everybody feels welcome.

It's not going to be a huge fundraiser.

It's just going to be something
to celebrate Shreveport

and celebrate the Strand.

I love going to the theater.

I particularly like musicals. So.

Like, what's the favorite
your favorite show you ever had in there?

Can you possibly narrow it down?

How about top three? Top three.

Pippin was amazing. It was so beautiful.

We had this huge

fire thing in there and I was back on rope
and I could feel the heat from it.

Really nice. Wow.

So that was one of my favorites.

Gosh, I don't know.

I enjoy all of them.

Have you ever had touring?

Just throwing this out there, Peter Pan?

I've seen that at the fox
and we've done Finding Neverland. Yes.

So twice.

I think we were close
enough and close enough.

So the Strand, it's a playhouse.

You bring in.
You have a lot of plays there.

I want to talk a little bit

about how you choose the plays
and what's coming up and how many.

But are there

other things that happen in the Strand
besides just the the seasonal plays?

We do dance recitals in the spring,
so all the little local dancers

get a chance to,
you know, make their debut

on the Strand Stage,
which is very special for them.

We do weddings, we do business meetings,
we've done Christmas parties.

We've So it's nice.

Absolutely.

That's why I say if you can dream it,
we'll make it happen for you.

It's a it's a rentable venue. Absolutely.

And so what are what are what's
kind of the price parameter on that?

How do you decide or
how much how beautiful you want it to be?

So we
make money in several different ways.

If you rent the theater,
there's a flat rental fee

and then, you know,
your costs are determined by the writer

of the show you're bringing in
or how fancy your wedding is.

You know, how many, how many, how much
security you need, how much you know.

So we make money off concessions.

We make money off every ticket sold
we make, you know,

how do you determine like that?

He call it the seasonal plays,
but how do you figure out the bill

for the season?

Well, I have a budget
that is set every year by me and my board,

and then I start getting phone calls
from my agents to tell me.

And they know how big we are.

They know what we can handle
because we have some size constraints.

We are a typical vaudeville theater,
which means we don't have much backstage

back stage room.
Now I'm stumbling over words.

It's all it's contagious.

It's physical.

And eventually
I go to what we call APAP in New York.

The American Performing Arts presenter's
conference is in New York in January.

Every year, and it allows me to see
a much broader swath

of what's available as touring shows where
what's commonly known as a road house.

Okay.

Meaning they come to us,
we don't build the shows.

Well, yeah, no,
that's what I kind of wanted to get at.

I didn't know how it works.

I'm assuming there was something like that
where you could go in and go

pick and choose what you wanted
or what we do.

And then we start negotiating for a price

and we have to go through their rider
and see how much is going

to cost us on the back end,
because there's an artist's fee plus

whatever, how many stagehands we need,
how much security

we need, how much catering there is. You.

Is that all local when you do
all those stagehands and all that? Yes.

No, they're all local.

Yes. So we have a $3.5
million economic impact.

Nice.

On our area, which I don't think
a lot of people realize.

Yeah, we really that's from.

That's from what they're paying to to rent
the facility to bring their show here.

And that's also from ticket sales. What?

All ticket sales, hotel
rooms, people coming in from out of town,

people that come in and eat
before they go to a strange show.

So all of those things are worked into.

That number comes from the tourism bureau.

Okay.

Well, I told you before, not from Atlanta.

And I go to the
Fox, who have been many times

down on Peachtree Street.

And it's it's a

to me, it's almost the Strand
and the fox are identical other than size.

Sure. I mean, they just have.

But they're catering to a much bigger
metropolitan area than we are to.

But just the feel of the venue
and the way it looks

and, you know, the era that it was created
in and all that.

They're both really neat.

I'm not sure what year it was, Bill,
but I'm sure it's very

I have no idea comparable time,
but it is very much so.

I mean, do you feel like

the other than the sizes, they're just
they could be the same theater.

Well, back to the Strand.
Well, I'm making.

I know. Excellent. It's interesting.
That's right there.

It's very favorable towards the Strand.

So it is is a gorgeous building.

It looks suitable on its own.
Right on that.

This might be a good term,

but it is beautiful.

And lately
it seems like it's been more beautiful.

What what are some restorations
or things you've been doing lately?

And speaking of, there's one really big
one that I want you to talk about.

There is, and I can start there.

So we have been sort of chipping away.

I can start back a little bit.

So when I took over as executive director,
we had a pretty good chunk of debt,

which was terrifying.

And and we we worked our way through that
because who owns the Strand?

Are we do we're not
the city is not owned by the city.

So the city is not taking care of this.

We get a little bit of money from the city
every year.

They split a chunk to the majors,
we call it, which is the symphony,

the opera, the Strand and so forth.

But other than
that, we're sitting out on that corner

by ourselves
trying to make money by bringing in art,

you know, taking care of the building,
grant money,

various things like that, sponsor money.

But so we've been chipping away
a little bit, a little bit, basically

since we announced in January of 2020
that we were out of debt.

Now, congratulations.

Think that through what happened
in March of 2020, you're right.

The pandemic.

So we were shutdown for 19 months.

Oh, wow.

Just like everybody else almost, right?

Just about only
we were not allowed to do anything. Yeah.

So we furloughed all of the staff except
for me and one part time person. Wow.

So I scrubbed toilets and vacuumed floors
and did all the things I'd learned

how to do the books.

And that was, you know, disturbing,
to say the least.

We didn't have to have him do your books.

I would have been really disturbed.
We could do it quick.

But right now we're sitting fine.

We're sitting okay.

And we getting back to the point of this

is that. Yes.

So the big thing that we have
just finished

are the restrooms on the gallery level,
which is the third level of the theater.

Come on. Those squares.

I know you hate it when I say that,
but come on.

That's huge.

If you were going to stumble over,
if you've ever

if you've ever been to a play
at the Strand,

it's it's a race for intermission.

It is.

And we did not only did we add

a ladies
in a gentleman's room on the third level,

but we overhauled the lovely 1970s
era restrooms that were already there.

I had somebody that went at one of
our last shows and came up, he said.

I just went downstairs to the bathroom.

It's so Boujee When did that happen?

And the Boujee bathroom.

Okay, so that's a word I'll be use.

Oh, that's a fancy way.

Say a boogie.

He meant boozy,
I think, but that is not okay.

Those gallery houses the third floor.

Sarcasm is I mispronounced
that did and should go ahead.

Those gallery level restrooms
have been closed since the mid 1970s.

We just they gutted them

when they were restoring in the seventies
and early eighties

and they ran out of money.

They had to reopen by 1984
by the end of the calendar year,

or they got a whole new level
of restrooms.

I'm sorry to stick with this for you,
but that's

that is what makes bad news one night.

And then it was like, do not go in there.

Well, they didn't go in there
for the next 40 years.

Well,
the problem is I never go buy a drink

because it's so hard
to get it in the bathroom.

But now I would imagine more concession
stands are going to go through the roof.

So and, you know, toilet
talk going on here.

Well, to add to the funny stories at
The Strand is we were talking

about a little bit earlier

the first night that

we had, you know,
those restrooms available.

I went upstairs to the third floor
just to kind of, you know,

what did they do?

Right?

And I walked right past the men's room
and we didn't have the handles

on the doors yet,
so we had to leave the doors propped open.

You could just see right in there
to the urinal.

I went, Oh, no, shut the door.

Very buggy there.

That night.

I knew you looked familiar.

Yeah, I knew I kept on walking.

Trust me, the boss.

Well, let's talk about some funny stories.

So it's a live.

The real always.
I thought we weren't doing well.

I mean, but I'm a bit of a
thespian from my past, believe it or not.

A bit of a lesbian,

Jennifer Tone.

But I know what I'm not.

I was just noticing
your mispronunciation of the.

So I love theater.

I always loved being in theater,
but there's always something

whenever it's live theater,
that doesn't go exactly according to plan.

I mean, you've had big shows

from all over the country,
especially come in big actors.

And what are some things
that have happened

that the audience doesn't necessarily know
about during the show?

Well, we had

several years ago
we did Seven Brides for Seven Brothers

and sold it out like really early,
which is

I thought it was super weird
because it's such an older musical.

It's a beautiful one,

but I was kind of surprised
that it sold out as quickly as it did.

So completely Full House.

It was Friday the 13th and everything's
going wrong backstage.

But the funniest part
was when a horseshoe,

which I think was just like Velcroed
to the wall, but it fell off.

And one of the actors didn't miss a beat,

picked it up and just tossed it backstage.

But it hit another
actor right in the garage.

Why is that funny?

It's always funny every time it happens.

It's funny
because if you don't laugh or cry.

Yeah, I guess did they missed the next.

Q Was it like, where's no, they just don't
go on the okay, well, they knew

it was funny or the staff, the guy
backstage on the ground we've had the

it's it's so odd
so we've had Christian comedians come in

with really, really full houses and

people vomiting everywhere.

Wow. Yeah, it's crazy, really.

Like, I saw people in the aisles.

The patrons.

Yeah, I think they arrive hammered and
then just I don't know, but it's very odd.

So they had to pre-game because they
didn't want the pastors to get the string.

That's right.

We have fistfights.

We have, you know, some fistfights.

Well, it just depends on
what kind of a show we have as to

what kind of an audience we have
and how much they've had to drink.

Yeah,
And you sell alcohol at the Strand, right?

We do, yes.

Is it get rowdier as the night goes
on, Depending on the show.

We have great bartenders
and they know they will come and tell me

we need to shut the bars down.
And that's their call.

That's what they're supposed to do. Good.

And they will say good
if the patrons are too boogie

is what

would be like
if you could have any show in the world?

What would be your dream show?

I think my knee jerk
reaction is Lion King,

but it's too big for our
our little theater. Mm.

One that will fit that
I think would be great

for the community and would bring in
lots of money would be Book of Mormon.

I would like to see that growing.
My wife and daughter. I've seen that.

They said it's fantastic.
It is. It's amazing.

I had a son that lived in Salt Lake,
so I just screamed

in horrified laughter
all the way through it.

It's amazing.

So but there are a lot of shows out there
that are still doing two weeks

only at a time,
and we're kind of a one night. Okay.

And that's kind of a limiting factor.

Yeah, we're kind of in one night.
So there's a new show out.

There are two on Broadway called Shucks.
Have you heard of this?

I have a ticket in January.

My wife and daughter very excited.

Over the weekend,
they said it was hilarious.

So she's from Iowa.

And I went,
Is it about Iowa? And I'm from Missouri.

So there you go.

Well, see,
I saw and it was said in Cobb County.

Cobb County.

And we live in Cobb County.
I'm from Georgia.

Okay. We live in Cobb. Can you go?

Well, I

really nerdy, but
have you ever seen The Drowsy Chaperon?

I have, yes.

I love that show. I've never heard of it.

Yeah, it's it's you.

It's very, very old one.

It is Old Vic.

I saw it.

I saw it on Broadway.

You're a patron of this show.

It's because I got the half price seats.

You know, you go down and
you can get away, but it was excellent.

Yeah,
And there's just so many great shows.

What are. What are some things?

Well, I can't really be specific
about this season coming up,

but when is the season start and finish?

Is it the same every year?

Yes, we in like an academic year.

So we tend to announce in anywhere
from May to July sometime

in their announce of what
our new season is and start September ish

and run through May.

But we own the theater
so we can put in things any time.

So we do, you know, however many shows
I can get for what I'm budgeted.

And then in between we do we rent.

So so when I do weddings,
I had a wedding work inside the store

and they got down on the stage
rather they can if they want to.

Yeah, they can rent the stage and,
you know, have the whole place.

We've had some beautiful Christmas
weddings on that stage. Yes.

Or you can,
we can do them on the mezzanine

which is also lovely
for a smaller wedding.

Okay.

And then the other reception down there
too, there's come down the stage

and then come right up on the stage

and you can put the band
and the orchestra pit. Absolutely.

Nice. Madison.

Oh, right up on the stage in the corner.

You know, just

so if you think about going downtown,

you know, a lot of people know
this, a beautiful building,

but haven't necessarily gone for
for a variety of reasons.

But what's it like going downtown?

Because it are

people are just afraid
of the one way street or

how am I going to get around down there?

So people are funny about
what are some things

people are concerned about,
then we can allay those fears.

Well, we're on the west edge,
so we're on the, you know,

the edge of Shreveport Common,

which is a very safe part of downtown.

We're far away from the noise
and the lights and the bars

that are down by the riverfront. Right.

And we have full security.

We have Shreveport Police Department
down at every single show.

Any time we have the public
in the building, we have

the police down there, too.

There's very bright down there.

And I mean very, really
well looked after hours,

the parking is free in on the street
until all the meters are turned off.

You can park anywhere.

You can find a spot
after 5:00 and weekends.

Sure.

And then there are some lots
that might charge.

It depends.

You know, if they put their people
down there or not.

Depends on who owns them.

Yeah, but it's, it's, you know,
you might have to walk a block or two, but

it's not far.

There's a lot of people we have security
at the doors, we have t shirt security.

We do check bags.

When you come in
the door, it's a physical check.

We don't have the magnetometers

all go, hey,
you're not try to pronounce that.

Paul Magnus, They

so and we ask people to bring

a small handbag or purse, you know,
not to bring a large bag in the theater.

Just and that's where everybody's safety,

mine included, because I'm down there
for every single show.

Are you really sure? Well, sure.

We have a service.
We have a small staff. Okay.

And that the people that you'll meet in
the office

are the same people
you're going to see at the show.

Now we grow exponentially,

you know, when we have a show,
because we've got bartenders and security

and more front of House staff and
stagehands running around and so forth.

But there are basically seven of us.

That's a lot of work for seven people.

It's a lot.

But it's it's like
kind of like a roller coaster, you know?

We're busy, busy, busy, busy, busy.

And that we're contemplating our navels.

Busy, busy, busy.

So you hate to for the busy times.

I would love to add more people,

but that just means during the quiet times
there's more people being very quiet.

Yeah. Yeah. So. And we manage

so is just like I mean

obviously you said you've been there
quite a while but you

there's something that's like a love
you have for the theater

and that's
what get you involved in doing this.

Or is it a business thing or it is.

Well, I grew up here, so I grew up here
going to movies at The Strand.

Certainly when I raised babies,

when I kind of got through raising
my babies,

I got hired by the Shreveport Symphony,
which was actually on the fourth

floor of the Strand.

So I worked up there for 12 years

and then I worked briefly for Shreveport

Opera, for the Rebel
and for Shreveport Metropolitan Ballet.

And then I got hired by The Strand.

Well, so, yes, it is a love I have been
in the performing arts for 30 years,

doing
various jobs at various different levels.

I basically

hit hit them all on the way up
and then they just finally said,

Boom, you're executive director.

I said, Do what?

Yeah.

So who was his area?

We just as boogie.

I think that's the country way to say it.

But I didn't know that Boogie She

Jeff very boogie knows this

and he's from Atlanta
if you haven't heard ten times

like only twice so

well this is exciting.

So this year, how many plays do
y'all have coming up in the 2024 season?

Is that typical of every other season?

It's actually a little bit
bigger this year

and it just happened to fall
that way for Strand presented.

We have 11 shows for the season and ten
is kind of our sweet spot somewhere.

Eight, nine, ten

and then we have a lot of rentals

the last year and this year we have a lot.

So we're, we're very,
very busy down there, thrilled.

This is what we should be doing. Yeah.

So when the show,
what's the normal runtime for a show?

Is it like a week or a week
where one night.

Oh, just one. One night generally. Okay.

You see this big bus has come through
and they unload and says, Show's over.

You get to hopefully get a quick picture
with the actor and then they're

and the actors are like
pulling their crops back on the trucks.

They're gone. Some of them, yeah.

We are in the industry,
commonly known as a two truck theater,

so we comfortably fit a two truck show.

52 foot trucks.

We know this because when

we did Blue Man Group several years ago,
we heard their crew saying,

Oh my God, we just stuffed a six
truck show into a truck theater.

And that's what I was wondering.

Like I said, Lion King is too big.

Can they can they scale it down?

Can you just have like one game of it?

They might at some point,
but they don't have to right now

because they're still happily doing two
weeks, two weeks at a time in big cities.

So traveling, doing one nights is hard on
everyone.

It's hard on us.

It's hard on the traveling crew because
they're you know, they're up at 6 a.m.

and back in the truck
by midnight or two or three or whatever.

And off to the next venue
where they do it all over again.

That is a lot of hours.

You know, the next day
we may not have a show we get to sleep in.

Right.

But that traveling crew doesn't
get to do that.

So it's they do it. It's what they do.

It's hard that they're setting up tomorrow
night in exactly somewhere.

How do people can
people get involved with this?

How do they support the theater
or is there

the most amazing and fun way to support
the theater is to buy a ticket.

Just come on down town.

But we two friends of the Strand,
which is our annual fund

that helps keep us alive.

If you have a business,
you can be a sponsor.

Come in, sponsor
our show, Sponsor the season,

and we write grants.

You know, we try and get
those are the performing arts

a hard sell and to report or people
we really want to get involved.

It's kind of a mix.

The people that love it, love it,
and if they don't, they don't

you know, they're not
they're just not going to come.

And that's so we're here
for those that do love it.

Another way you can volunteer
if you want to is we have an all volunteer

Usher corps, all of the people you see
in the little red jackets.

Those are all volunteers.

They're amazing.

And we could not make that happen
without them.

And they get to see the play for free
if there is a seat for them to sit in.

Yes. And if they're not,
you know, super busy

sometimes where there are

other things going on
like we might be having,

you know, while the show is going

on, there still might be a reception
going on or something.

And, you know, we have to have
a few of them deal with that.

So it depends from show to show, it's
very different.

What's the capacity for the theater?

We sell 15, 60, 15, 60.

Okay.

So we're we're pretty big for a town
this size.

Yeah. Yeah.

And we're
Shreveport is so rich in performing arts

because we've got our own symphony,
we've got our own opera company.

We have so much community theater

that is remarkable for completely.

We've got ballet companies,
you know, we've got

it's not strictly ballet does Nutcracker
every year.

People go every single year. Yeah.

Is there a secret box or a meeting room
or the secret bar for the

for the really big uh, we do
we have what we call the controllers,

the hire or the boogie people?

The boogie friends at the Strand
at a certain

friends at the Strand at a certain level.

Get a parking pass
and a chandelier room card.

And the chandelier room for strand
presented

choses open an hour before curtain.

During intermission.

There is a super secret set of restrooms
up there

that no one else uses.

You don't need them anymore.

Now we have we have a bar up there
and we have chocolates and fruit

and things and God forbid, don't change

what you put on the tables for them.

Oh, they want they do every time.

They want a certain kind of chocolates.

Don't change them.

So what's the

what's the minimum contribution
to get to 1500.

1515 hundred.

And it's great for me
because at that point I get to

I hate to say it
this way, but corner are people,

you know, they're in a small, small
group of people and I can thank find them

and thank them when you got 1560 people,
I'm never going to find them.

Yeah.

So when they're up there,
you know, having a cocktail

before the show, I can stop
and say thank you.

And by the way, there's no intermission
on this show, just so you know.

So take a drink with you
when you go in the house and

you might want to use
the brand new facilities before.

Yeah, one last boujee question
and then I don't know

where our clock's at Bell
whereby we got about a minute or so.

Have you ever had any big stars
that are like, okay, and no brown

Eminem's in my room. No.

Besides
just the people of the really Bryan Adams.

Bryan Adams throw him right under.

He was we had a sold out show in August.

It was 104.

He wanted us to turn off the air
conditioning.

Well, why? That's what I said. Yeah, why?

I went to his his manager
and I said, Well, you know what?

If he doesn't come back,
that's not going to hurt my feelings.

But the 1600 people that are in there,
I need them to come back.

Yeah, and it's 104 outside.

I can't turn off the air conditioning.

Well, that even makes sense to me
was it didn't make sense to any of us.

Oh, he's Canadian.

Oh, I don't know what that has to do
with anything like that.

Mean he brought his own chef
and they cooked in the green room.

So it was all our Canadian mud rugs.

Love the cold,
and it was a fantastic show.

All right. We're down to it here. Now.

If people want to check out your
your playbill or your website.

Okay. What's the website?

The Strand Theater dot com Atari.

And if you're buying tickets, please

make sure you're buying them
through our website because everybody's

having problems with people
that sell tickets to all the shows.

And that's not where
you need to be at all.

Or you call us,
we actually answer the phone.

Nice. There's seven of you right there.

That's your phone number 3182261481.

Okay. And the website, one more time.

The Strand Theater dot com t h t

r e because we're fancy and boozy.

You got very good bathrooms.

Everybody's fancy.

All right, that's going to do it.
Thank you so much for being here.

Thank you for having me.
Enjoy the conversation.

It was a lot of fun,

but more about the strand than we ever do,
including the bathrooms.

The baths are very busy.

Thanks for joining us for toilet talk.

Appreciate it. And

have a good time, everybody.