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30 Rock: Over past 3 decades, Joe Cocker, B.B. King among Kirby highlights

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Santana wins Times Leader readers’ poll for best Kirby rock concert

<p>WILKES-BARRE &#8212; Knowing the market as he does, John Cardoni wants to see the Kirby Center succeed.</p><p>It&#8217;s in his best interest, even though Cardoni serves as general manager of the Scranton Cultural Center.</p><p>&#8220;I think &#8230; all the halls in the region, we respect each other in terms of what we&#8217;re trying to do,&#8221; Cardoni said.</p><p>The Kirby Center is a venue to look up to in the Northeast, according to Cardoni and other theater executives.</p><p>Cardoni said he doesn&#8217;t see the Cultural Center as a competitor to the similarly sized downtown Wilkes-Barre venue nearly 20 miles away. Cardoni has worked at both, serving for 15 years at the Kirby in assistant general manager and technical director positions and for the past 15 as general manager at the Cultural Center.</p><p>&#8220;I was there opening night,&#8221; Cardoni said of the Kirby on Sept. 19, 1986.</p><p>He recalled that instead of going home to Kingston, he rented a room at the former Ramada Hotel across Public Square for the first few nights so he could catch a few hours of sleep to keep up with the breakneck pace of putting on back-to-back-to-back shows, a total of 20 in the Kirby&#8217;s first 14 days.</p><p>He&#8217;s now 15 years removed from the Kirby and has watched it develop into a small theater capable of drawing big-name acts and a wide range of shows, and then filling seats with patrons from beyond the hyphenated city.</p><p>The Kirby Center and the Cultural Center both have about 1,800 seats.</p><p>The industry trade publication <a href="http://www.pollstarpro.com/files/Charts2016/2016MidYearWorldwideTicketSalesTop100TheatreVenues.pdf" target="_blank">Pollstar</a> ranked the Kirby 99th on its mid-year list of the world&#8217;s top 100 theaters, based on ticket sales. The Kirby reported 36,527 tickets sold through June 30 and is on pace to exceed the 53,000 the venue sold all of last year, when it cracked the Pollstar list for the first time, ranking No. 114 spot out of 200 worldwide.</p><p>Cardoni has high praise for Kirby Executive Director Will Beekman and Director of Operations Drew Taylor.</p><p>&#8220;Will and Drew, they have to be incredibly resourceful and creative on certain shows to get them in there. Here I have the luxury of space,&#8221; Cardoni said.</p><p>The Cultural Center, known to many as the Masonic Temple, has hosted Broadway shows for 53 years and can accommodate productions without having to downsize them, as the Kirby does. Besides having an orchestra pit in front of the main stage, there is a nearly 6,000 square-foot ballroom behind it, giving plenty of room for full-scale productions, Cardoni noted.</p><p>&#8220;The Cultural Center was built for theater,&#8221; Cardoni said.</p><p>That&#8217;s the case too for the Hershey Theatre in Hershey. It dates to 1933 and was home to vaudeville shows.</p><p>&#8220;Over the years it has grown and blossomed, said Melissa Stradnick, public relations manager for Hershey Entertainment.</p><p>The 1,904-seat venue placed 82nd on the Pollstar mid-year list with 46,097 tickets sold. Stradnick said the theater holds more than 75 events annually.</p><p>&#8220;We are very fortunate. We have very few dark days,&#8221; Stradnick said, adding that the theater has good relationships with booking agents, artists like to return to the venue, and it&#8217;s located three hours from several big cities.</p><p>The Kirby, on the other hand, started in 1938 as a movie theater that was converted into a performance space.</p><p>The clear sight lines, concert hall acoustics and up-close-and-personal seating fit the bill for performers, something Bob Nocek has learned from experience. The president of Durham, N.C.-based Bob Nocek Presents LLC began his career in the business as program manager at the Kirby in 2000 and moved on to the Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza in 2003, where he held several posts, eventually getting promoted to assistant general manager.</p><p>&#8220;There are a lot of artists out there that appreciate playing a historic theater,&#8221; Nocek said.</p><p>Brian Sipe, general manager of the Mohegan Sun Arena, said he views the Kirby as &#8220;a partner in presenting world-class entertainment to Wilkes-Barre.&#8221;</p><p>The two venues usually don&#8217;t go after the same acts and have begun collaborating on promoting the market, he said.</p><p>&#8220;The Kirby Center has brought in acts like Ringo Starr and Patti LaBelle,&#8221; Sipe said. &#8220;You don&#8217;t get world-class entertainment like that unless you have a (great) reputation in the industry.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Jerry Lynott</p><p>jlynott@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Jerry Lynott at 570-991-6120 or on Twitter @TLJerryLynott</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Kirby Center draws admiration in entertainment industry