‘Live from the Colonial’ concert series returns to Colonial Theater
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IDAHO FALLS – Fans of live performances have something to look forward to in the coming weeks as the “Live from the Colonial” series returns to the Colonial Theater stage.
Put on by the Idaho Falls Arts Council, “Live from the Colonial” brings in local musical artists from a wide range of genres to perform in front of a limited in-person audience, as well as music lovers across the world via the internet.
The series also serves multiple purposes that benefit the community, the performers and the technical workers who stage the shows.
“It’s a way to get some entertainment for people,” Arts Council spokesperson Joy Sorensen tells EastIdahoNews.com. “It’s always nice to have something in the theater to keep the tech crew busy. The tech crew is always needed when you have a show. Mostly, we just have a beautiful theater and we want to put it to good use as best we can until we can get back to having big shows with lots of people.”
“Live” is an outgrowth of measures taken to preserve the “River Concert Series” in the wake of COVID-19. When government guidelines rendered large gatherings like concerts impossible, the Arts Council began streaming the shows so the performers could still play and audience members could watch the concerts from the safety of their homes.
“‘River Concerts’ got shut down last year mid-season so we then started livestreaming (the shows) from our theater where we’d have the group come in and play and we would stream it on Facebook and YouTube,” says Sorensen. “What we found was that a lot of people would come back later and watch those after the performance. So when fall came around and we thought we’d continue something like that, we came up with ‘Live from the Colonial’ and people can watch any time.”
This round of “Live” shows opened on February 18th with the acoustic guitar stylings of the Holverson Fisher Duo. Future shows include jazz outfit The Dewdroppers, country singer Clint King and the Jazz House Big Band. Sorensen says eastern Idaho is a great place to find musicians playing a wide variety of sounds.
“We try to have a variety,” she says. “We’re lucky in this area that there are a lot of different sounds to pick from so we can kind of shake it up a bit.”
Current guidelines allow for a limited in-person audience for the “Live” performances. The shows are free to the public, but you can reserve a seat for $5 by visiting this link. The in-person attendance is limited to 50 people.
The performances are also streamed to Facebook and YouTube, giving those who can’t be there in person another way to see the shows on their own time.
“With (The Holverson Fisher Duo), we probably had 100 people watching it that night, but they’re up to about 1,500 views right now,” Sorensen says. “So, they get a lot of air time through the streaming. People who come see it live are obviously getting the benefits of a live show, but anyone who can’t come or isn’t comfortable coming, they can go back to Facebook or YouTube and watch it at any point in time and it’s a good hour’s worth of performances.”
“It’s a way for us to reach out to the community right now when we can’t have 600 people in our theater,” she added. “We can reach 1,500 people with streaming.”
“Live from the Colonial” performances happen every other Thursday night at 7 p.m. More information can be found on the Idaho Falls Arts Council website or Facebook page.