Stage Center, Goodbye Old Friend

Demolition begins this week on one of the most iconic buildings in Oklahoma City: Stage Center.

The Internationally acclaimed structure opened in 1970, but city leaders hated it from the beginning.

While welcomed by architects across the globe, Oklahoma City has wanted to get rid of it for more than 40 years.

You might ask why a fan of sci-fi, fantasy and geek culture is writing about this.

Well, I have also been a theatre geek nearly all my life as well.

My father performed in Stage Center in its earliest days.

I performed in Macbeth in 1995 and in the Oklahoma centennial production of Grapes of Wrath in 2007 with Oklahoma Shakespeare in the Park.

I have also seen countless plays there for O.S.P., Carpenter Square and other companies.

I fell in love with the building's unique design  very early on and loved going to visit.

I was hoping someday to be able to take my childrn or their children to the building and talk about how I and my father performed there.

Now I'll just point to some corporate OG&E Building and have them imagine a cool place that used to be there.

So long, Stage Center, we will never see your like again.

Certainly not in Oklahoma City!