DPAC

The Durham Performing Arts Center (DPAC) is all the buzz in Durham right now. The new theatre officially opened last night, and there was an early performance Sunday night with B.B. King. The theatre looks absolutely beautiful. Here's a photo I just took with my cell phone camera from our 8th floor conference room (somewhat crappy quality - you can find better photos online):

I was also lucky enough to attend the Downtown Durham, Inc. annual meeting today which was held in the DPAC. The attendance at this meeting was rather high, and I am guessing that part of that is due to not only for celebration of the successes of downtown recently, but also due to the new location. I am so glad I got to see the theatre!

We will hopefully be making our first trip to watch a show in January when RENT comes through. Our good friend John Watson is back in the role of Benny, and we would love to go see him again. Mike and I were able to catch him last year in Raleigh, but it makes it feel a bit different when we get to see him perform in OUR town.

The DDI meeting itself was nice. There were all sorts of cool updates on how well downtown is doing, and there truly is a lot to celebrate. Between American Tobacco, Golden Belt, the DPAC and all the new businesses that have opened in the past few years, downtown really is coming up. The funny (strange funny, not "haha" funnny) part of the meeting was that instead of the new city manager talking, there was a panel of local professionals. I knew one member of the panel due to previous involvement with downtown projects, and one other member of the panel looked very familiar. That person was Rich Harris, and I swear that Nathaniel used to play softball with him..........