I’ve been told there’s a ghost – a female figure in a flowing dress that sweeps through our breezeway – but truth be told, I’ve never seen anything ghostly during my time at the Palladium.
But I’ve also been careful not to open the portal in the Side Door Cabaret, because I’ve been warned NEVER, EVER to touch that hidden, fire-resistant door.
What portal, you ask? The portal to Hell, of course.
At least that’s what I learned from Matt Cowley’s short play “Another Day In Paradise” which opens tonight at Stageworks Theatre in Tampa and runs through the weekend. It’s presented along with eight other short, locally written plays in Tampaworks 14.
Matt, who lives in St. Pete, knows the Side Door from his work doing sound effects for the Radio Theater Project when they did a holiday fundraiser at our place. I guess that’s when he noticed The Portal.
In “Another Day In Paradise” Max’s wife is waiting in hell and he discovers the portal to get there is not a regular feature on the Palladium tour. Here’s an excerpt from the play:
Jordan points to what has just appeared: a door glowing red.
Max: The Portal.
JORDON: It’s across the room from the bar, most people don’t notice.
MAX: Open it, please.
JORDON: Oh, I can’t. Sorry.
MAX: Why not?
MAX: We can deal with the fire. Open it.
Jordon won’t open it for lots of good reasons and tells Max one of them:
JORDON: The intersection of the divine and the secular is always messy.
If you want to know more about the Palladium’s portal to fire-and-brimstone-land, check out Tampaworks 14 at Stageworks this weekend. Thanks to Matt Cowley for adding another chapter to the Palladium legend.
2 comments
It’s a shame you don’t have a donate button! I’d certainly
donate to this superb blog! I guess for now i’ll settle for bookmarking and adding your RSS feed to my Google account.
I look forward to new updates and will talk about this blog with my Facebook group.
Chat soon!
Hello Kathaleen,
Thanks for your kind words about our blog! You are correct in that there is no opportunity to donate to the blog, however, the blog is part of the Palladium Theater’s website which does indeed have links and a page on our website (Support) where donations can be made — click on this: http://www.mypalladium.org/donate/. Our blog, PalladiumPaul’s blog, is written by the Palladium’s Executive Director Paul Wilborn. Any donations to the Palladium go directly to support all the great programming that enables Mr. Wilborn to bring the wonderful artists to both our mainstage concert hall as well as our cabaret nightclub The Side Door, write the blog that provides an insiders view to our upcoming artists — AND helps keep our prices low so that everyone can enjoy some of Tampa Bay’s best entertainment around. Please consider supporting the Palladium in this way — but at the very least, please support us first and foremost by coming or continuing to come to enjoy our shows.