THE LACONIA DAILY SUN, Thursday, June 24, 2021 — Page 9

In business, first impressions are important. When your business is offering a one-of-a-kind entertain-ment experience, first impressions are everything.

Saturday night 170 people came together to cel-ebrate the opening night of the Lakeport Opera House. For so many reasons, the unveiling of this remarkable new entertainment venue made an indelible first impression.

The Lakeport Opera House experience ...

The Opera House harkins back to the 1940s era Copacabana with a modern flare.

The redesigned theater area was renovated using the existing bones of the original building.

“There are a variety of live music venues in the area for people to choose from, so we wanted to create a unique entertainment experience,” Opera House Director Tim James Everett said as he showed us around the theater before the doors opened. “We wanted to create a more cosmopolitan vibe for the space.”

Cocktail tables line the perimeter of the theater. There are end tables adjacent to most of the seats

for patrons to set their drinks while they enjoy the show. The overstuffed designer chairs in the front row ensure the best seats in the house are also the most comfortable.

Upstairs, the Mezzanine area also features seat-ing in overstuffed designer chairs, tall cocktail tables and two VIP areas cordoned off with velvet ropes.

The space is intimate with the theatre configured for seating 170 guests. Iguarantee there isn’t a bad seat in the house, I tried to find one, and couldn’t do it.

The Show …New England sports legend, Heisman Trophy

winner, and retired NFL quarterback Doug Flutie (Yes, I watched his “Miracle in Miami,” Hail Mary pass on YouTube before the show) and his Flutie Brothers Band rocked the sold-out opening night audience.

I love to crank the volume up to “11” so I can feel the music as much as hear it.

The band moved significant air through the Opera House state-of-the-art sound system, and the crystal clear tone and theater acoustics gen-

You only have one chance to make a first impression …

By Chris Williams

The mezzanine is home to the exclusive VIP section. (Photo Credit: Chris Williams)

The Flutie Brothers Band brought the boogie to the Opera House. (Photo Credit: Chris Williams)

see IMPRESSION page 11

LACONIA – Magician and mentalist Adam Wilber is looking to reshape his career, and he figures the newly renovated Lakeport Opera House is the perfect place to see if he can pull it off. He will be performing there on June 25.

Wilber is a New Hampshire native and resident of New Durham, but he normally doesn’t get to spend much time at home. He developed a successful career in magic, as an inventor of tricks for a magic company, and as a performer and keynote speaker for corporate events. For Wilber, magic isn’t the end goal, but rather a tool – something he can use to open the minds of his audience members, to create an opportunity for inspiration.

“For me, magic is a conduit to lower peoples’ guard. If you get them in that state of astonishment, it gets them in a child’s state of mind,” Wilber said.

When the pandemic hit, all of his bookings disap-peared as if in a puff of smoke. That disruption allowed Wilber to have a taste of a more stationary life.

“I have two kids, working in the corporate space, you’re on the road a lot,” he said. With his suddenly empty schedule, he started scheming, plotting a future for himself that would keep him closer to home. The first part of that was the creation of his own magic company, developing tricks that he could sell to other magicians. The second is finding places where he could perform for the public – something he almost never did before – and go directly home afterward.

A magician's next trick – career metamorphosis

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By adam drapChoTHE LACONIA DAILY SUN

Page 10 — THE LACONIA DAILY SUN, Thursday, June 24, 2021

279 DW Hwy. • Meredith • 603-279-7920Like us on Facebook so you can see other beautiful things made

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SHOP in the Gallery oron line at www.meredith.nhcrafts.org

MEREDITH — After a quiet eight months, the Winnipesaukee Playhouse’s campus sprung back to action at the beginning of June as the theatre company welcomed the technical team and actors back to kick off the 2021 season. While the original 2020 season was condensed into a small, three-show run last fall, the 2021 season has been expanded to encompass three plays and four musicals from June through October. The theme, “Small and Beautiful,” represents that each show will be on a smaller scale, but the expanded season will allow for shows that take place both indoors and on the theatre’s new out-door stage, through summer and early fall.

Producing Artistic Director Neil Pankhurst said, “we knew that reduced patron capacity meant shows would need to be leaner. In doing that, it allowed us to choose some really unique, exciting titles that we may not have attempted in earlier seasons where the costs involved relied on filling the entire house.” One play that Pankhurst wanted to produce for years, “Harold Pinter’s Betrayal,” fit that bill and will start the season on June 16. Pankhurst and the three actors in this drama, Krystal Pope, AJ Ditty, and Will Wilder, already had their first read-through. For some, it was their first production since the begin-ning of the pandemic.

“Betrayal” will be performed on the outdoor amphi-theatre, which got an expansion and facelift for the 2020 season and will be further expanded to accom-modate more patrons for 2021 and beyond. Pankhurst said, “the challenges we faced in 2020 really helped us become more inventive, especially in regard to the outdoor amphitheatre. It had never been used as a primary performance space prior to 2020 and, in realizing the necessity of transitioning to outdoor theatre, we found this gem of a performance space

which audiences really enjoyed and we now plan to use going forward.”

“Betrayal” will be followed by the Tony Award-win-ning mystery “Sleuth” which will be performed indoors, June 30-July 17. The next show, a musical “Dani Girl,” will be on the outdoor stage. Simulta-neously hilarious and heartbreaking, it’s the story of a nine-year-old girl with cancer and the wonderful adventures she takes in her imagination. It will be performed July 14-31.

New Hampshire Theatre Award-winning actress Ashley Meeken, last seen on the Playhouse stage in 2019 as Velma Kelly in “Chicago,” will next per-form a relatively unknown Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, “Tell Me on a Sunday,” on the indoor stage, July 28-Aug. 14. This will be followed by the pre-miere of a show the Playhouse commissioned for the 2020 season to celebrate the ratification of the 19th amendment. Then called “Votes for Women,” it has been retitled “Hooligans and Convicts!” and will have its world premiere Aug. 18-Sept. 4.

The final outdoor show of the season will also be a premiere, written by Pankhurst to accompany favor-ite songs from the Great American Songbook by com-posers such as George Gershwin and Irving Berlin. “It Had to be You” will contain lots of singing and dancing, and will perform Sept. 1-18.

The professional season will wrap up Sept. 22-Oct. 9, with the comedy “Glorious, The True Story of Flor-ence Foster Jenkins: The Worst Singer in the World,” featuring Broadway veteran and New Hampshire Theatre Award-winning actress Carolyn Kirsch.

The Playhouse is focused on safety and has COVID-19 protocols on their website, which may change throughout the season. For tickets, call 603-279-0333.

Winni Playhouse begins 18th season of live theatre

The Lakeport Opera House would be ideal, he said.

A moment of astonishmentWilber grew up in Hanover and was a child when he

performed his first magic trick. He had a friend who tricked him with a simple disappearing scarf trick, and he was so impressed by it that he had to learn it himself. Once he figured it out, his father was his first audience.

“I saw how badly it fooled him, and it blew my mind,” Wilber said. He was hooked. He learned more tricks through high school, finding it a useful way to flirt with girls and amuse his friends. ”I was like the class clown, but with magic,” he said.

He didn’t consider it a career possibility, though, at least not at first. He went to college to become a teacher. The more he came to understand that profession, the more apparent it was to him that he wasn’t cut out for it. And around the same time that that fact was sinking in, he got his first paying magic gig.

“I’m not Harry Potter, I’m not a magical being,” Wilber confessed. He’s a performer, one who entertains. At least, entertainment is what people expect when they come to see a magic show. Wilber aims to provide that, as well as a little bit more.

“The good magician knows that the tricks mean noth-ing. It’s what you do with those tricks,” he said.

His show, generally speaking, has three parts. The first is comedic, light-hearted magic, designed to bring the audience together through a few good laughs. Next comes what he calls “close-up magic,” or sleight of hand. Third is mentalism, in which he seems to be able to read the minds of audience members.

Through his performances, Wilber said his goal is to allow people to forget about their daily stresses for a moment and open themselves to a few motivating or

inspirational thoughts.“I think, inherently, if you’re fooled, and you’re an

adult, there’s this moment of astonishment where all of the laws of physics are broken,” Wilber said. “It’s a shared experience in wonder, we can appre-ciate the beauty of life and get back to our troubles and worries after.”

He said his performance won’t include any offensive or off-color material, however, those younger than 12 might not connect with the show’s themes.

Right time and placeIt was just a couple of weeks after Wilber deter-

mined to make a change in his performance strat-egy that the booking agent for the Lakeport Opera House reached out to him. He visited the finished product to see if it would be a fit, and he came away with words similar to how audience members describe his show.

“That place is unbelievable. What they’ve done with that place is mind-blowing,” Wilber said. He has performed in many renovated historic theaters, which often show clear evidence of budget-cutting. In Lakeport, he said, “they’ve spared no expense, so hats off to them.”

For many years, the only way to see Wilber’s show was to be lucky enough to be part of a private, corpo-rate event that he appeared at. The show on Friday will be his first public appearance in recent memory.

“As it is now, this is the only show I have public. Hopefully this is the beginning of many,” he said.

Adam Wilber, magician and mentalist, will be performing at the Lakeport Opera House on Friday, June 25. It will be his first public show in recent memory. (Courtesy photo)

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