Tuesday, February 20, 2024
PSO's Manfred Honeck goes backstage at Heinz Hall
nextpittsburgh.com: I followed Dylan to the locker room where performers get ready for the concerts. I hadn’t imagined that – like one of Pittsburgh’s sports teams – the orchestra has a locker room. Dylan’s locker door is covered in scuba diving stickers affixed there by the violinist who occupied the locker before. While we chatted at Dylan’s locker, a cellist practiced nearby. That part’s probably not happening in the Penguins’ locker room.
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When I think of a performance venue the first thing I generally think of is the technology that is involved in a theater, whether it be unique automation systems, lighting infrastructure, or networking. After I am done nerding out about the technology I will generally move on to examining the architecture. There can be really beautiful things in a theater, which help immerse an audience into another world as they watch a show. The performer experience is something that I would not generally think about. While it is not something that inherently interests me I do appreciate the importance of a performer being fully prepared to best play their part. This can include green rooms, dressing rooms, and the routes that performers need to take to get from their dressing and green rooms to the stage. It is important that actors can make their backstage areas their own so that they can be comfortable when they get on stage.
This article made me very nostalgic for when I played in an orchestra. There is an incredibly specific ambiance and culture that orchestras and live orchestral music performances have both in rehearsal and in performance that is something like I have never experienced anywhere else. That feeling, of getting ready for a concert while a violinist warms up or a couple of wind players mess around with a duet (backstage of course, not on stage) is an incredibly warm one for me, and something that I often settle with when I’m missing the community that music allowed me to participate in. The level of intense collaboration is the reason why I enjoyed it so much (and a large part of why I enjoy theater), and helped foster a level of community where I found some of my closest friends even to today when I don’t play as much. I really enjoy these backstage peeks at performance life for that reason.
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