Would you like your show with or without dinner?
That’s the choice being offered for “The Journey,” a musical drama production being presented at Concoxions Cornerstone Theatre each weekend in April.
Cast members of ‘The Journey’ include Andrea Lawter, Randy Belk, Bruce Cash, Steven Suits and Bill Cox.The seating area will be in dinner theatre mode April 6, 7, 13, and 14 with 6:30 p.m. shows. For the next two weekends, tables will disappear and be replaced by an additional 230 seats as the facility is reconfigured for shows without dinner on April 20, 21, 27, and 28. Shows on each of these nights will begin at 7:30 p.m., with additional 3:30 p.m. matinees on those Saturdays.
Such flexibility is even more unusual, given that all seating at Cornerstone Theatre for either configuration is tiered. It would have obviously been easier and less costly to simply put all tables and chairs on a flat floor, but that was not the route that Concoxions director Bill Cox wanted to go in designing the theatre layout.
“Prior to opening Cornerstone Theatre, we had a theatre with all tiered seating at Fantasy Harbour in Myrtle Beach,” said Cox. “It was great for the audience and also great for the cast. With the tiered seating, everybody obviously can see the stage much better, and it also creates more of an intimacy and connection between the audience and the cast than when the seating is on a flat or even sloped floor.”
When Cox decided to turn the old stone National Guard armory into a theatre, he couldn’t bring himself to settle for anything less than the tiered seating that “spoiled” him and the rest of the cast in Myrtle Beach. Adding to that challenge was the desire to also be able to do dinner theatre. He liked the tiered seating at places like “Dixie Stampede” and “Medieval Times” dinner theatres, but knew of no tiered facilities that could switch back and forth between regular shows and dinner theatre shows.
“We are not trying to limit ourselves with excuses like ‘We’ve never done it that way before,’ or in this case even ‘We’ve never seen it done that way before,'” Cox explained.
Cox came up with a design for seating risers that were then custom-made by Stage Right in Michigan and transported to Lyman on two semi-trailers. Cornerstone Theatre opened in September 2001 in regular seating mode, providing a capacity of 360 guests with comfortable seats that all had a great view of the stage. The design worked beautifully for regular shows, but would it also work for dinner theatre? That question lingered for more than two years. When the decision was made to do the 2003 Christmas production as dinner theatre, it was time to put the flexible design theory to the test.
Portable tables were purchased and modified to fit the multi-level platforms. The design provides an aisle up each side of the eating area, and an aisle that runs in front of each row of tables, giving cast members easy access to serving each guest a full-course meal. All seating faces the stage with no obstructions – no matter how tall the person sitting in front of you.
“There’s not really much about Cornerstone Theatre that could be considered standard or normal,” said Cox. “I suspect there must be places somewhere that are somewhat similar, but when you take everything into consideration I think it’s definitely safe to say that Cornerstone Theatre is unique in quite a few ways.”
Although the theatre is well-equipped for productions, one thing it doesn’t have is kitchen facilities large enough to feed its dinner theatre crowd. From the beginning, that challenge has been handled by The Beacon in Spartanburg. But that doesn’t mean you can expect a Chili Cheese-A-Plenty. In fact, nothing served at Cornerstone Theatre is served at The Beacon except the tea. The theatre dinner has been tweaked slightly over the years, but basically consists of baked chicken, St. Louis-style barbecue ribs, corn-on-the-cob, twice-baked potato, creamy vegetable soup, cheddar-cheese biscuit, and dessert. Dinner is served to each guest by the show’s cast.
For the past two years, all of the Cornerstone Christmas Dinner Theatre shows, presented from Thanksgiving to Christmas, have sold out. This spring is the first time at the theatre that a show’s run has been split between dinner shows and regular shows.
“The Journey,” written and produced by Cox, is a two-hour, live stage production that features music, drama, dance and humor to tell the story of Traveler, Constant Companion, and a host of other vivid characters on their way to “the one and only, wonderful, far greater than you can imagine, most incredibly awesome, everlasting, ultimate life possible.” The cast of 14 includes 11 performers who are veterans of previous Cornerstone Theatre productions.
For tickets or more information, call (864) 949-SHOW (949-469) or visit www.concoxions.com.