On Stage with The Lincoln Theatre

The Lincoln Theatre: Where Magic Meets Meticulous Planning

• Bob Watkins • Episode 14

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What Is A Day In The Life Of The Lincoln Theatre Like In The Preparation For A Performance? 

What really happens before the applause begins at a historic theatre? In this revealing conversation with The Lincoln Theatre's Executive Director Bob Watkins, we pull back the curtain on the intricate dance that brings each performance to life in Marion, Virginia's iconic Mayan revival venue.

Bob shares the fascinating rhythm of show day preparations—from the moment performers arrive for their tour to the final load-out when the audience has gone home. The complexity varies wildly between shows: a simple acoustic set might require just a few guitars, while elaborate productions demand hours of heavy lifting, technical setup, and precise staging. Through it all, sound checks transform raw equipment into finely-tuned instruments of entertainment, creating what Bob calls that magical moment when "it just sounds amazing."

But theatre magic doesn't happen without challenges. Bob recounts handling water leaking onto the stage just days after Hurricane Helene hit, navigating technical emergencies minutes before showtime, and fulfilling those famous performer riders (yes, including a Van Halen tribute band requesting the original group's infamous contract demands). What makes it all work is the Lincoln's unique blend of dedicated staff and passionate volunteers—ushers, stage hands, and support team members who ensure this nearly 100-year-old cultural landmark continues to shine.

To learn more about The Lincoln Theatre visit:
https://www.TheLincoln.org/
The Lincoln Theatre
117 E. Main Street
Marion, Virginia 24354
276-783-6092

Speaker 1:

Welcome to On Stage with the Lincoln Theatre, where history and entertainment steal the show Dive into the rich legacy of this iconic Mayan revival theatre, from its 1929 debut to its starring role in Marion, Virginia's entertainment scene. Guiding us through this journey is the man in the spotlight, our executive director, Bob Watkins.

Speaker 2:

Behind every magical performance at the Lincoln Theater is a day filled with energy, coordination and passion. From technical setup to last-minute rehearsals, the team ensures everything runs seamlessly. Welcome back everyone. Skip Monty, co-host slash producer, back in the studio with executive director Bob Watkins. Bob, how's it going? It's going great. Skip, how are you doing? I'm doing just fine, doing just fine, but I'm wondering what is a day in the life of the Lincoln Theater like in the preparation for a show?

Speaker 3:

Well, funny enough, every show is a little bit different. So every show requires a few different things for preparation. But leading up to the show there's a significant amount of behind-the-scenes work that a majority of the patrons don't ever notice. They just get to come in here and enjoy the show. There's a whole list of things that we have to do to prepare for it. So each performance comes with a specific rider that they request. So we have to go ahead and cater to the behind the scenes stuff up in the green room with different hospitality things that they're doing.

Speaker 3:

But basically what we do a day of is we'll go ahead and receive the performers and have them come in tour the theater, show them where all the exits are, where their areas are, stage setup, then the grunt work comes to, where we go ahead and load in all of the equipment. And it varies from show to show, because some shows we have acoustic shows that we just got to bring in a couple guitars and you know we're good to go, and then other shows we have a significant amount of stuff, stage props and platforms and lights and everything like that. So that can range from show to show, with how sore my back is at the end of it lifting and everything. But yeah, we'll go ahead and load in the performers. Then our sound engineer will come in and get everything set up on stage, set all the mics and get everything going there. And then the fun part comes when we start doing the sound check. And there's been several performances that I sat through the soundcheck and I have enjoyed just the whole breakdown of sound to hear where it starts and then where it ends to be ready for the show. And then when the show hits, it's just, it just sounds amazing.

Speaker 3:

So but yeah, we'll go ahead and then do all the soundcheck. Once that's done, we have a little bit of lull before all the people come into the box office wanting to get the tickets. So then Ashley and Kate in our box office will be hard at work with handing out the will call tickets or purchasing tickets at the box office. Then we usually open up doors about 45 minutes prior to the show. Our ushers will come in and start seating everybody. Then it's lights, camera action and we take off and enjoy the next two hours of a ride. Then we have our nice fun cleanup there at the end.

Speaker 2:

Oh yeah, you guys help the talent load and unload usually.

Speaker 3:

Usually that's in our agreements and contracts with them to where we have to provide X number of stage hands based on what equipment they're going to be bringing in. So I'll go ahead and secure some assistance with that. Loadout tends to be a little bit easier because you're not having to put everything in a specific area and make it look nice for the show. We just go ahead and tear down, put in the boxes and cases and roll out and loadout's not as difficult as load in, but it is equally time consuming, for sure.

Speaker 2:

Packing down is usually easier. I used to play in a band and unloading is usually easier than reloading. I guess packing a truck.

Speaker 3:

I can see your anxiety kind of changes because the show's done, you know the performance is over and now you're like, okay, I'm relaxed and I'm ready to just go ahead and close the night, Right.

Speaker 2:

Well, what are some of the biggest challenges that, in your experience? That has arisen on performance day.

Speaker 3:

It depends on the day for sure, but during Hurricane Helene I think it was two days after that we had a performance come in. It was Beatles Beatles tribute performance and we had some issues with water that was coming in through areas of the roof that got blown over and causing some water to leak, and unfortunately it was directly on top of stage. So we were in the process of trying to get that all taken care of. So I've come to realize that any given performance I can come in here and have a curve ball thrown at me. So I've got to get used to that. But trying to think, you know, leading up to it, the preparation is really beneficial so it helps take away a lot of that stuff.

Speaker 3:

But you know, certain things that can arise are staff members are under the weather, unable to come in, so you're shorthanded, especially on big shows bringing people in with that. We've had some technical issues with the audio-visual stuff for our projection that we've had to work through in a pinch, so real quickly correcting that. But you know, fortunately I've been blessed to have a significant amount of staff that are a good support team Our sound engineer that we generally use, kevin Leonard. He's phenomenal, he's able to go ahead and adjust on a dime and get everything prepped and ready for the show Usually always makes a fantastic show too Electrical stuff. We've had some areas where people were trying to tie into cam locks and we've had some fuses that'll blow that. We've got to have a little bit of work with on that. It's one of those things that you never really know what you're going to face until you face it here. That's the fun part and the stressful part of the position, I guess.

Speaker 2:

I've watched a lot of horror films about movie theaters that are haunted and you know the classic guy get killed when a big light drops down to the stage and hits him in the head and kills him. And who sabotaged that? You ever had a light fall like that or anything during a performance?

Speaker 3:

No, but thanks for jinxing us there, Skip, You're never having that yet, but we've not had any issues with that. We do try to, like I said, the lead up to the performances. We do a nice walkthrough on a regular basis here to make sure all the equipment is set and still in good working order and stuff like that.

Speaker 3:

But yeah we haven't had any issues like that, but we do have some individuals that have mentioned that the theater here is haunted, but I guess that's to be expected from a almost a hundred year old building.

Speaker 2:

Well, on a little more serious note, you mentioned that we, depending on the talent and what they require to load in, load out and green M&Ms, whatever you mentioned you always have to make sure you have brown M&Ms. When you said you have people lined up to be able to handle whatever the need is, do volunteers play a role in helping with that?

Speaker 3:

Oh yeah, A majority of our assistance here comes from volunteer work. So our ushers are all volunteer patrons as well, but they'll volunteer to usher people in. But we have a house manager that manages all the issues with patrons bar managers, sound engineers, slide engineer and box office managers so those are paid employees and then the supporting cast with some stage help and as well as the ushers are volunteer services there. So it's an all hands on deck here, because we are a small organization, but fortunately we do have a fantastic team and we run really smooth together. So it makes for show nights to be fun and exciting and less stressful and concerning. So, yeah, we, we get it all taken care of and it's ends up being a fun night for everybody.

Speaker 2:

Awesome, awesome. Well, bob, I appreciate your time today. There's a lot more we could talk about with this. Maybe we could touch on this again in another episode, because it's fascinating to me the behind the scenes stuff, oh yeah, those writers and hospitality requests and everything, like you said, the Brown M&Ms.

Speaker 3:

We did have a Van Halen tribute come in and they did request the same writer that Van Halen had. So you all sit there and read those. Some just kind of scratch your head in amazement, but you still have to accommodate it because you want a good show.

Speaker 2:

All right, very good, we'll talk again about this in another episode. Sounds good. All right, bob, thanks so much. Sounds good. All right, bob, thanks so much. All right, take care, skip. You too. Have a great rest of the day.

Speaker 1:

Thanks for tuning in to On Stage with the Lincoln Theater. Want more of Mary and Virginia's entertainment scene? Visit us online at thelincolnorg yes, that's thelincolnorg or drop by our theater at 117 East Main Street. Let's keep the arts alive and kicking together.