#tim dolan

Wednesday, December 9th, 2015

I had the extreme pleasure to attend Broadway Up Close’ Act I walking tour this past December and I absolutely adored it. Broadway Up Close provides a wonderful overview of the history of Broadway for everyone, from theatre buffs who think they know it all, to new fans of the de-facto capital of the theatre industry, and even to those who have never seen a musical on stage, and I highly recommend it to everyone.

What it is: a walking tour which starts with the early history of Broadway and moves forward in time to a Broadway that becomes more recognizable to today’s audiences. The Act I tour, created over five years ago by founder Tim Dolan, lets audiences hear about the titans and legends who helped found the New York City theatre scene, who helped moved the Broadway theatre district from its early beginnings in Herald Square in the 19thcentury to its current location north of 42nd Street. The tour starts at the southern end of the Broadway theatre district in front of the Nederlander Theater on 41st street, crisscrosses uptown through lower Times Square, and end in front of the Belasco on 45th. Highlights of the tour include the rise of 42nd Street and the old theaters still located on that famous street but which are not necessarily in use as Broadway stage theaters any more, Roof Top Gardens as a precursor to Roof Top Bars, one of the few actual ghost stories in a Broadway theater, in addition to the personal stories told by your guide.

What you get: A wildly entertaining, personal, funny, meaningful tour of the beginnings of what has become the peak of the theatre industry in the United States. I went on a chill and gray weird autumnal day in the middle of December. Two ladies from Boston and three from Long Island joined me on the day I attended, a pleasantly small but friendly crew. We wandered our way up and across town with tour guide and founder Tim, on a tour that felt more like a pleasant midday stroll with friends rather than an educational walking tour. Each guide is knowledgeable and personable and gives just the right amount of personal history. Guides are also required to be working members of the theatre industry in NYC, so not only do you receive information about theatre history, but you receive stories about the theatre world of today and are treated to a guide that can answer any question you can put to them. Along with their own knowledge of the theatre biz, each guide also brings along with them an iPad fully stocked with hundreds of historical pictures of the places you see, helping you to visualize just how these places looked 100 years ago or more. To cap it all off, you take a group picture as a memento to after travels through the hustle and bustle of Times Square to remember your tour by, a perfect finale to a perfect time spent.

What to keep your ears and eyes out for: the theater that is not quite a theater on 42nd street, Olive Thomas and her ghost, and David Belasco’s casting pew.

The Future: Part VIII

Future of Policing Essays: American Policing in 2022

Part VIII

During the next few weeks I will be publishing excerpts from twenty or more of these essays with the hope of generating some discussion on what these police leaders and academics have to say about the future of our men and women in blue.

Enjoy and please comment!

To read the full report, CLICK HERE.

“I am concerned that the art of…