THURSDAY, APRIL 1, 2021 • THE BULLETIN
GO! MAGAZINE • PAGE 7
CENTRAL OREGON ARTS SCENE
bendbulletin.com/gosee
Tower preparing for live events
BY DAVID JASPER • The Bulletin
Y
ou won’t have to wait until May to see what April showers are bringing: This month, the Tower Theatre plans to get back to what it does best, offering live
entertainment in the historic, 480-seat theater located on Wall Street in downtown Bend. When Deschutes County entered the Moderate Risk category
according to the state’s COVID-19 guidelines three weeks ago, Tower Theatre Foundation executive director Ray Solley and the staff of the nonprofit
theater began making preparations to reopen to the public. That starts with a Cocktail Cabaret event from Limelight Entertainment April 9 and 10.
“That allows us to go to 100
to share messages such as “Keep
people in the theater again,
calm and wash your hands.”
which is the same param-
After the second shut-
eters that we had back
down began in Novem-
in November, when we
ber, the historic down-
were told to close a sec-
town Bend theater
ond time,” Solley said,
pivoted yet again, of-
adding that the same
fering streaming enter-
kinds of protocols will
tainment to its patrons
be in place, including
directly, with perfor-
seating that allows groups
mances by acts such
of people to maintain 6 feet
as We Banjo 3 and The
between parties, along with
Junebugs.
other safety measures.
The plan for now is to offer a
During the first closure,
mix of live and streamed
the Tower made efforts to
Submitted photo
entertainment, Solley said.
keep up with the zeitgeist
Limelight Entertainment’s “And the For example, The Junebugs
— and keep a little money Award Goes to …” Cocktail Cabaret will again perform via
coming in — with such ef-
event kicks off the resumption of stream on April 15, and
forts as Friday Night Pop-
live ticketed events April 9 and 10 there’s a goal in the works
corn, during which con-
of presenting the group live
at the Tower Theatre in Bend.
cession items were sold to
at the Tower in June.
accompany the public shift
Rather than rush to
from concerts and other live entertainment
open the doors as soon as the county’s risk
to streaming entertainment at home. It also
was downgraded to moderate, “We said,
stayed in the public eye using its marquee
OK, we need to retrain people. We want
If You Go
1. Kosher’s Passover Fest, streaming thru April 4
https://www.towertheatre.org/tickets-and-events/mostly-kosher_0
2. Blind Boys of Alabama Easter Special (livestream) April 2
https://www.towertheatre.org/tickets-and-events/the-blind-boys-of-alabama-livestream-concert
3. Brews & Brackets Private Party April 5
Raffle winner picked April 2
https://www.towertheatre.org/tickets-and-events/brews-and-brackets
4. Cocktail Cabaret: “And the Winner is…” April 9 and 10
https://www.towertheatre.org/tickets-and-events/cocktail-cabaret-and-the-award-goes-to
5. The Junebugs (livestream) April 15
https://www.towertheatre.org/tickets-and-events/the-junebugs-live-to-your-home_1
to make sure everything is safe and clean,
and we’re in the middle of some upgrades
and enhancements and we wanted to get
those done or at least out of the way,” Solley
said. “I looked at the schedule and said, wait
a second, the first live thing we could do
would be the Cocktail Cabaret.”
There’s an earlier event, a raffle event in
which a private party can win the chance
to watch the college basketball finale at the
Tower on April 8: “It’s open to the public to
buy the raffle ticket; it’s not open to the pub-
lic to show up unless they win,” Solley said.
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