From the bright lights to the pounding bass to the surge of an excited crowd, nothing can quite match the joyful cacophony of live music. Concerts don’t just give us an opportunity to sing our hearts out and dance our cares away. They also bring total strangers together to share an experience that transcends boundaries. Sadly, the exhilarating and uniting experience of live music is one of many things the Covid-19 pandemic has taken from all of us. It’s been over a year without concerts, and the space a lack of live music has left in people’s lives is deeply felt.
Happily, Prima Theatre is here to help. Aiming to recapture the energy of a classic rock-and-roll concert in a socially distant world, the small Lancaster-based theatre is bringing a new show, Queen/Journey, to Lancaster City this summer. This Covid-safe, outdoor concert experience will combine the universally beloved music of Queen and Journey into one unique concert experience anyone and everyone can enjoy.
“When we were thinking about 2021, we wanted to think of things that could bring people together, and everyone loves Queen and Journey songs,” says Sara Dodson, Prima’s Production & Operations Director. After every challenge presented by the past year, Prima hopes to create some joy and catharsis with a concert of classic hits everyone can sing and dance along to, such as “Don’t Stop Believin’” “Bohemian Rhapsody” and “We Are the Champions”.
To ensure the safety of everyone in the audience, Queen/Journey will employ a number of measures to maintain social distancing. The whole show will take place outdoors in the large Liberty Place lot behind Clipper Stadium, and the audience will be divided into small, socially distanced circles. Each party will sit in their own circle with their own folding chairs, and will be permitted to remove their masks only when within that circle. This arrangement will allow patrons to enjoy the concert with friends and family, while also protecting their health and safety. The location is also handicap accessible, and on-site lavatories will be available.
Of course, this outdoor setting also presents unique challenges for the Prima team, which usually operates out of their own space in the west end of Lancaster City, near Copper Cup Coffee and Franklin & Marshall College. To ensure that the music will carry throughout the outdoor space and reach every individual audience member with equal power, Prima partnered with Kyle Kirkpatrick from MoxieHop Studio.
“Usually, when you’re thinking concerts, everyone’s packed in there, so you don’t have such a large area to cover,” says Kirkpatrick, explaining the audio challenges that come with a socially-distant concert. “You need to make sure that your audio can hit people all the way in the back, and also not destroy the people that are in the front.”
His work on the show will take the music of Prima’s powerhouse performers to the next level, creating a bold, vibrant, rock-and-roll atmosphere. The concert will also feature a huge number of lights and a wide variety of special effects, including lasers, smoke geysers, and a few surprises Prima isn’t ready to reveal just yet.
“It’s like taking what we do inside the Prima space and amplifying it to one thousand,” says Dodson. “It’s going to be that rock concert arena you go to during the summer, but this time it’ll be right here in Lancaster.”
Queen/Journey will be a community event in more ways than one, as Prima is working with a number of community partners to make the show happen: collaborations with M.H. EBY, Shumaker PDT, and Tait Towers, as well as MoxieHop Studios, have all helped make the show a reality.
“Everyone’s been so generous,” says Dodson. “It’s a time in a time when people could have looked out for themselves only, but instead, everyone is just so excited about the thought of coming together as a community and bringing something special to the city and the county.”
Like many theatres across the nation, Prima has spent the past year improvising and adapting to the ever-changing landscape of the pandemic. From streamable online performances to concert parades through the streets of Lancaster, they’ve continued finding ways to bring fresh new experiences to the community. Now, as the summer draws closer and the end of the pandemic may be within our sights, Queen/Journey offers a chance to safely celebrate the gradual return to in-person music, kickstarting the summer with a show exciting enough to draw us out of the darkness of the past year and get everyone dancing.
Queen/Journey will take place June 11, 12, 18, and 19 at 8 pm. The show is directed by Mitch Nugent, with a production team including Ali Murphy (Music Director), Tim Moser (Lighting Designer), Kyle Kirkpatrick (Audio & Creative Systems Design). The production is made possible in part by Prima Partners, including the Gunterberg Charitable Foundation, TONO Group, Faulkner BMW, and Sequinox. Limited tickets are available, with reservations at primatheatre.org.
