Back to the Ordway, with a few changes

Photo: The new Ordway Center ticket windows will be used for the first time at Saturday’s concert.

Today’s rehearsals at the Ordway Center were our first there since June. While we were away, the concert hall construction project made significant progress. While the most dramatic changes will occur when the hall opens next March, audience members at Saturday’s concert will see a few new things—most notably, a new box office.

Earlier today, construction workers were finishing new ticket windows, to be used for the first time on Saturday night. The box office remains in the same general location, but has been moved back several feet to ease lobby congestion and provide a better patron experience. Two additional ticket windows, located next to the coat check, will be used when performances are scheduled simultaneously in the Music Theater and Concert Hall.

If you’re in the Opening Night audience, you’ll also note remarkable progress on the building’s exterior. The Ordway’s distinctive glass facade now extends all the way to Fifth Street.

Photo: The Ordway expansion now more closely resembles the exterior of the original Music Theater. Inside, the two venues will share a common lobby.

As construction progressed this summer, so did plans for the community celebration of the new hall’s opening. On Monday, the Arts Partnership announced the schedule for Rock the Ordway, featuring “22 days of opening nights” in March. In addition to our special opening concerts in the new hall, the four partner organizations have assembled an incredible variety of other events such as the Minnesota Opera’s world premiere of The Manchurian Candidate.