Batavia Daily News for Monday: The Stage opens at old cinema in Warsaw

Posted by Philip Anselmo on November 17, 2008 - 12:32pm
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The former Warsaw Cinema officially re-opened Saturday as The Stage, Warsaw's new center for the performing arts, according to the Daily News. There was sadly no mention in the otherwise great article about upcoming performances or even if there was a performance during the open house Saturday. We're told that the group Western New York Performance Center Inc. bought the place earlier this year

with the aim of creating a space for music, stage productions, educational programming, and independent film.

That sounds great. I'm all for more culture, in whatever form we can get it, and this place sounds like it will be a great addition to the area. Has anyone yet been down? It's a little outside Genesee County, but I may have to go check it out, get some video footage.

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Posted by Lincoln DeCoursey on November 17, 2008 - 5:14pm
It was reported earlier that the owner's plan for its grand opening anticipated a live performance by a western swing band.

It would be interesting to hear if this occurred and if so then which group performed and also what type of reaction it received from the community.

I'm curious because I enjoy this type of music but unfortunately was not able to follow or attend the opening.

Western swing is a musical dialect combining elements of country and western music together with instrumentation and rhythm from swing, a popular jazz style. An excellent example is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zD42nCMIHsI

Congratulations to the Performance Center!
Posted by Howard Owens on November 17, 2008 - 6:33pm
Now here's some of the real stuff:







Bob Wills and western swing was the basis of the Bakersfield Sound of Buck Owens and Merle Haggard, and later Dwight Yoakam.
Posted by Lorie Longhany on November 17, 2008 - 7:07pm
I just received a phone call from one of the organizers. She asked me to come down and check out the space in the lobby for displaying artwork and invited me to hang my work in the future. From our conversation she will be reaching out to artists across the region for promotion of the visual arts to compliment The Stage.

A couple of friends of mine went to the opening on Saturday night, but I don't know what the performance was.

This is great for our rural art community.