Cherry Blossom Theatre
In the city of Olivet, on the coast of Merida, there is a theatre known as the Cherry Blossom Theatre.
The owner of the theatre is an older woman who was born in the South of Merida where the hills and the areas surrounding her home town are filled with these trees. Her name is Abaiya Soames. Abaiya met a merchant and married him, eventually ended up at the opposite end of Merida in the city of Olivet, where her husband had a profitable trading business. When he died, Abaiya decided to sell his business and build a theatre, and because she was feeling her age and wanted to remember her childhood, she imported a dozen cherry trees and planted them around her theatre. When she died, she passed the theatre on to her son who was the theatre owner who discovered and hired the famous playwright, Ryze Firedancer.
The building is set on a large piece of property, back from the water. You can certainly see the dock and the ocean from the windows of the top floors of the theatre, but the the docks are some distance away. Planted on all sides of the building, are cherry trees that bloom in the spring. During spring, petals are constantly falling to the pathways and into the windows of the lobby and the upper floors.
In this building, patrons come to enjoy plays, singers and orchestras. The wooden steps leading up into the theatre carry the crowds from the ticketing gate into the building’s elegant interior. When you step beyond the thick wooden doors that open out to let the crowds in, you are immediately impressed by how much bigger the theatre feels. The richer ticketholders sit on the first floor, the first 10 rows hugging the side of the stage.
Another 5 rows behind those, you still get a good view, but you are further back. Above the first floor, there are two balconies that sit further back and higher up. Some say that the magic of the plays is so powerful that you see the same thing in the cheap seats that you see on the first row, but I think they're exaggerating.
The owner of the theatre is an older woman who was born in the South of Merida where the hills and the areas surrounding her home town are filled with these trees. Her name is Abaiya Soames. Abaiya met a merchant and married him, eventually ended up at the opposite end of Merida in the city of Olivet, where her husband had a profitable trading business. When he died, Abaiya decided to sell his business and build a theatre, and because she was feeling her age and wanted to remember her childhood, she imported a dozen cherry trees and planted them around her theatre. When she died, she passed the theatre on to her son who was the theatre owner who discovered and hired the famous playwright, Ryze Firedancer.
The building is set on a large piece of property, back from the water. You can certainly see the dock and the ocean from the windows of the top floors of the theatre, but the the docks are some distance away. Planted on all sides of the building, are cherry trees that bloom in the spring. During spring, petals are constantly falling to the pathways and into the windows of the lobby and the upper floors.
In this building, patrons come to enjoy plays, singers and orchestras. The wooden steps leading up into the theatre carry the crowds from the ticketing gate into the building’s elegant interior. When you step beyond the thick wooden doors that open out to let the crowds in, you are immediately impressed by how much bigger the theatre feels. The richer ticketholders sit on the first floor, the first 10 rows hugging the side of the stage.
Another 5 rows behind those, you still get a good view, but you are further back. Above the first floor, there are two balconies that sit further back and higher up. Some say that the magic of the plays is so powerful that you see the same thing in the cheap seats that you see on the first row, but I think they're exaggerating.
I love the imagery of the theater and its history.