Ekundayo Bandele is going to be so mad at me.
The Hattiloo’s founding director took a bit of a spill today while attempting to strike a heroic pose inside his new theater.
Thankfully he was uninjured and he’s got good comic timing so it was kind of awesome.
In a week the Midtown Hattiloo will be complete, opening a new chapter in the history of Memphis theater and Overton Square.
Today carpet went down in the lobby and sprung floors were installed in the black box. Tomorrow the trees arrive and landscaping gets serious. Any momentary loss of composure was, if anything, a case of overly excited expectant father jitters.
Bandele does a neat trick where he mimes giving a tour of the old Hattiloo inside the larger of the new Hattiloo’s two performance spaces, showing how you can fit the whole thing on the stage: bar, box office, balcony, and bathrooms.
And once he gets things under control he looks completely at home in his fantastic new digs. And pretty heroic.
