On the day after the groundbreaking at the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts, I returned to the tent set up on Magnolia Street. The road’s yellow center dividing lines ran down the length of the tent. There was no huge crowd this time around. People lounged on the couches enjoying the free entertainment. Heather Alexander one of the owners of the Winter Park Playhouse introduced featured players from her theater. She joined three other women dressed in stylish 60’s mini skirts. They sang a hilarious medley of James Bond theme songs using their voices to mimic the flashy trumpet blasts.
The sparse audience was once again shown a flashy computer animated fly through of the proposed performing arts center. Stiff limbed computer generated zombies wandered the halls and sat stiff and erect in the theater seats. Superimposed shots of the Lion King being performed on Broadway in NYC made it seem like Orlando could become a cultural mecca overnight, and shots of children being taught about the arts made it seem like there could be a creative, vibrant, inspiring school of the arts associated with the project.
A photographer was shooting photos of the acts on stage constantly and occasionally people wandered up to the velvet ropes to shoot video on their iPhones. My wife texted an urgent message so I walked over to her office building a few blocks away.