How to actually get things done PART IX

So how do you run a close up magic theater? There are tons of little things. Like cleaning the rooms, the toilet, the outside. Keeping the window nice and clean, making sure to have enough drinks, toilet paper and tickets. Keeping the stock of take away flyers up to date and so on. Tons of things.... so where to start. First let's talk about Location.

I live in Kiel. A city in the very North of Germany. The theater however is in Lübeck, a city 80 kilometers more to the south. That is about 50 miles for those few readers who live in a country with no superior metric system. So whenever there is a "theater day" we drive down there and back. And the reason is simple. Kiel is ugly as Hell. Nope, Hell is actually much, much beautiful. Kiel has been a nice city in the past, but then WWII came and went and left a bomb crater. So they build all sorts of buildings after 1945. With no thinking about looks and design. The result is a mess.

Lübeck however was spared a bombing (for the most part) so it still looks old and cool. Walking along those narrow streets gives you a feeling of nostalgia and belonging. It's weird. The city's roots date back to 748. Yep that old. So there is history and somehow a magic vibe is in the air. Also lots of tourists and the fact that the old city center is on an island.

It is in close proximity to Hamburg and two federal subdivisions, enlarging the pool of possible guests. So we knew very early on that the city we wanted was Lübeck. We also knew we wanted a place in the old city center on the island. Best would be a prestigious street. And yeah we got that. Even if it means we have to drive more than 300 kilometers per week.

It took us over two years to get the location. Some where not on the main streets, some way too expensive, some way too small and some other... we would have had way too much to renovate.

The place we got used to be a gallery, before that a tailor, before that a shoemaker, before that a spinning works and everything before that is lost in history. The building itself is relatively young. About 300 years old. It has been rebuild 150 years ago. But the cellar is still in the original condition. The cellar is connected to some tunneling network, that has been used to smuggle stuff. Pretty cool. But those tunnels are now used for waste water disposal.

There is way more to tell about the place, but let's talk about the next big issue. The price of the tickets and all of the other stuff.

More in Part X