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Overture Welcomes Disabled
The Capital Times :: LIFESTYLE :: 1D
Friday, September 24, 2004
Rena Archwamety Beyer
It's Thursday morning at 11:30.Two men crouch inside a broken elevator to make some adjustments. A few minutes later, the elevator doors close as the men pick up their toolbox and ladder and leave.
"It's fixed. You can use it now," one of the men says.
A second later, the doors open again, and a group of seven adults, two in wheelchairs and one with a cane for a blind person, exit the elevator into the Rotunda lobby.
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"We get a lot of questions about handicapped accessibility," information booth coordinator John Volker says. "I'm glad to let them know we can accommodate people."
*
Jazz lunch: The tables in the Overture lobby are filled with people listening to Latin jazz. The group that just left the elevator sits at a table in the corner and unpacks lunches.
On the stage, Leo Sidran, dressed in a pink pinstriped shirt, blue jeans and flip-flops, plays his guitar and sings about being "incredibly, desperately in love."
He tells the audience, "For those of you wondering if the sound is good in here, the sound is really good. It's just that I'm singing in Spanish."
*
Booking a room: Meanwhile in the Rotunda lobby, a woman approaches the information booth to ask about renting a space in the Overture Center for her wedding. Volker gives her a tour and shows her binders of information on rooms, prices and catering.
The staff at the information booth has been busy all week distributing brochures for upcoming performances by resident companies, answering questions, taking suggestions and hearing an occasional complaint.
"By far the No. 1 question we get is 'Can I get in to see Overture Hall?' " Volker says. "People have seen pictures, but they're anxious to see and feel the space for themselves."
The doors of Overture Hall have been opened from noon to 1 p.m. this week for a sort of "open house" to allow people to tour the orchestra level.
*
Public comments: Volker grabs a stack of loose papers with handwritten notes on what else people have asked or suggested at the information booth.
A sample of these include:
Can we see where we'll be sitting? (Only during open house hours.)
Will there be any quilt exhibitions?
Will the gift shop come back? (Yes, in 2006 when Phase II is completed. Meanwhile, the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art shop is located at Greenway Station.)
The theater's too hot.
The theater's too cold.
Which "Phantom" company is coming here?
As Volker speaks, an elderly man approaches him to ask where to return a wheelchair he borrowed. Behind him, three grade school children who have the day off for a teacher in-service are making "diaper folds" at the origami tables.
"I get a real good feeling that Madisonians have embraced this center as their own special place," Volker says. "This is the fifth performing arts facility I've been involved with, and I think people have an incredible sense of ownership.
"If I lived on the smiles of the people that came through here, I'd have a long, long life."
