WHEN LOVE WALKS INto THE VINTAGE VICKERS THEATRE

Overflow crowds at the Vickers Theatre… Great Screenings of When Love Walks In… Engaging (and touching) Q&A… and free popcorn to top it all off…

The adventure began with Brad and I driving to South Bend, Indiana for a radio interview with Hummer & Deb on B100 fm. We had a great opportunity to plug the film, the Vicker’s screenings, give away some tickets (don’t be a “contest hog” or you’ll end up caller number “8” instead of caller number “10”), and we even got to play Terri Allard’s Dance Again from our award-winning soundtrack.

We spent the afternoon dealing with last minutes details prepping for the shows and continuing our steady diet of Tums, Rolaids, and Malox... It wasn't that bad, but I do tend to get butterflies gnawing at my gut whenever we screen When Love Walks In... especially in a crowd where a number of our friends will be, and since Brad lives just up the road from Three Oaks, we knew that a good number of friends would be in attendance over the two nights.

We arrived at the theatre at around 5:30, got set-up and began to greet those coming early to buy tickets, reserve seats, etc. By showtime we had filled the theatre and relied on overflow seating to help satisfy the crowd.

The butterflies diminished earlier than normal as the crowd was very into the film... laughing and audibly groaning at all the right times. It must've been due to the "high" of receiving free popcorn courtesy of Dr. Neal Smith who helped put on the shows.

At any rate... we concluded the evening with some great Q&A from the crowd. One couple drove 150 miles round trip to come see the film after hearing us on the radio that morning. They loved it and stated that they we're very glad they came.

We also had some touching commentary from a woman whose family is living the story of When Love Walks In. Her nephew's wife of 3 1/2 years died of cancer and left him with two young children. She had just returned from celebrating the nephew's recent engagement to a new love. The screening helped confirm for this family that in spite of the tragedies we all must face, new opportunities do come along and life does continue. It was a beautiful moment to listen to this woman's story through her tears. It was a great reminder of why we make films... for the hope of connecting with people and somehow, someway contributing to the richness of their lives.