This may be the worst kept secret in the world, but hopefully some of you will be surprised.
When The Hideout was founded by Sean Hill in 1999, it consisted not only of the upstairs theater, but the downstairs theater and the coffee house as well.
But over the years, that changed. The coffee house was leased out to a 3rd party early in 2003. Then when we took over the improv business in 2009, we only signed a lease for the upstairs theatre.
But we're thrilled to announce that as of today, the entire space is ours.
BOTH theaters AND the coffee house.
We are beyond excited, and also awed by the work that lies before us.
So what's gonna change?
At first, not too much. We're taking small steps here, and we've got time. We'll obviously be using the downstairs theater for more classes. We'll be upgrading the tech in the downstairs theater as well.
In general, you'll be seeing stuff slowly becoming more integrated and spruced up. You'll notice already that the coffee house has moved to using Square (on an iPad) for the payment system... the same setup we use for ticketing in the box office.
Hours will be extended so that we can hang out in the coffee house after shows and classes. It will begin to feel more like a home for all of us.
For now, the show lineup will remain exactly the same. We'll be making a push to try and get Maestro large enough houses to move it downstairs.
Thanks
There's no way we could have taken this leap without the support and general awesomeness of the Austin Improv community. You people are magical, and together we're gonna do even more amazing things together.
We owe all of this to you. Thank you.
Roy, Kareem, Jessica, Kaci, and Andy
P.S. hang in there. It's been a long process to arrive at this point. We're all excited and overwhelmed. If you have any suggestions or constructive comments, please hang on to them for a week or so, and then send me (Roy) a private email.
