‘Cherish the Ladies’ at the State Theatre
December 8, 2009
Roisin Dillon and Mirella Murray of Cherish the Ladies
If you haven’t been back to the State College area in a while, one thing that might surprise you is how much it has blossomed into a great area for the performing arts. We’ve had performance venues on campus—like Eisenhower and Schwab Auditorium—for a long time, but the 15,000-seat Bryce Jordan Center brought a whole new dimension when it opened in 1995. The BJC has brought shows ranging from Bruce Springsteen to Jay-Z to Tim McGraw to the Rockettes to monster truck rallies.
Some local step-dancers had a chance to perform with Cherish the Ladies.
Filling a niche at the other end of the spectrum is the State Theatre on College Avenue, which seats not quite 600 and offers a much more intimate setting for concerts and films. It’s been been a fixture in State College since it opened in 1938, but for most of its life it was a movie theatre. Then it closed in 2001, underwent a major renovation, and reopened three years ago this month as a nonprofit community arts center. (Nashville’s Mike Reid ’69 helped support the project and was the performer on opening night.)
The leader of Cherish the Ladies: flute and whistle player Joanie Madden
One of the first shows at the State Theatre back in December 2006 was a Christmas concert by the Irish traditional group Cherish the Ladies, and last night, that group came back for another show. I’m a big fan of Irish music and especially of Cherish the Ladies, so I was there for their 2006 concert and again last night—and last night I was given permission to do some photography.
How much photography the news media can do at a concert depends on the performers—some don’t permit it at all; others allow you to shoot for the first three songs and that’s it. Cherish the Ladies, bless ’em, had no such restrictions—I was able to click away all night long. Click on any of the photos here to see them bigger, or check out my Flickr site to view about 15 shots from last night’s show (or see them in slide-show format here).
Tina Hay, editor
Entry Filed under: State College, University Park campus. Tags: Bryce Jordan Center, Cherish the Ladies, concert photography, Mike Reid, State Theatre.
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