(GK: Garrison Keillor; SS: Sue Scott: TR: Tim Russell)
GK: A Prairie Home Companion salutes (DRUM ROLL) the Hill Auditorium here at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, one of our favorite concert halls. Built in 1913, the Hill Auditorium stage has welcomed such luminaries as Enrico Caruso
(TR: TENOR NOTE)
GK: Fritz Kreisler (VIOLIN BUTTON), Rosa Ponselle
(SS: SOPRANO NOTE)
GK: Sergei Rachmaninoff (PIANO CHORDS), Jascha Heifetz (VIOLIN TRUMPING PIANO CHORDS), Paderewski (PIANO TRUMPING VIOLIN), Yehudi Menuhin (VIOLIN), Count Basie (PIANO NOTES), Bob Dylan...
(TR: Hey Mr. Wolverine man, throw the ball to me)
GK: The Chieftains (BORRAN), Bruce Springsteen (ELECT GUITAR), Ray Charles (PIANO), and Al Gore...
(TR SINGS): "Somewhere over the rainbow, bluebirds fly.....")
GK: Starting in May, Hill Auditorium will get a major upgrade, and here's architect Shirley Eugest and designer Gilda Lilly to tell us about it.
SS (JUDITH FLEXNER): Yes, this is a major renovation which will take 18 months and when Hill Auditorium reopens, in 2003, or in 2018, it'll be a state-of-the-art facility, with eighteen-thousand seats.
TR: And each seat will have 18 more inches of legroom.
SS: Plus a built in 18-channel video system ---- plus reclining seats that go from 90 degrees back to 18, and, for patrons over 18, a minibar.
TR: Personal climate control lets you regulate the temperature around your seat, or leave it set to 18 degrees Celsius.
SS: Backstage, 18 luxury dressing rooms with 18-carat gold faucets in the sinks. And onstage a beautiful grand piano. A 1918 Steinway.
GK: And we're looking forward to it, to seeing Van Cliburn (PIANO CHORDS) and Gil Shaham (VIOLIN) and the Chieftains (BORRAN), and Bob Dylan----
TR (DYLAN): Go way from my window, don't call me on the phone, don't ask me any dumb questions, just leave me alone ----
© Garrison Keillor 2001