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| About the Opera House |
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In Cather's day, performers signed the backstage wall - a tradition that continues today. Cather delivered her high school graduation address from the Opera House stage in 1890. The newly renovated Opera House Auditorium transports visitors back in time to set the mood, scene, and tone of the 1880s, when Cather and her friends eagerly anticipated the arrival of traveling productions such as The Bohemian Girl and The Mikado. As Cather herself put it "Only real people speaking the lines can give us that feeling of living along with them, of participating in their existence." A full schedule of performances once again animates the Opera House Auditorium, and a new generation of visitors to the Opera House can appreciate "real people speaking the lines." "The hall was packed. It seemed as if every one in Moonstone was there, even Mrs. Kohler, in her hood, and old Fritz. The seats were wooden kitchen chairs, numbered, and nailed to long planks which held them together in rows. As the floor was not raised, the chairs were all on the same level. The more interested persons in the audience peered over the heads of the people in front of them to get a good view of the stage." -- The Song of the Lark  |
Built in 1885, the Red Cloud Opera House figured prominently in the life of author Willa Cather, who grew up in Red Cloud.
