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The writing on the wall

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Past the Shaw Center’s grand first-floor entrance, tucked behind the always-bustling Manship Theatre, is a loading dock. You’ve likely seen a few loading docks in your day, but this one is anything but average. It’s covered with signatures left there by nearly 400 of the theater’s performers.

The Manship is a hub for concerts, comedy acts and recitals, so both locally and nationally renowned performers are in and out on a daily basis. The loading dock’s concrete walls are freckled with signatures and doodles from these performers past.

The tradition began when the Shaw Center was built in 2005. The theater’s staff at the time asked outgoing performers to sign the wall as they were packing up to leave.

“The staff instigated it,” Manship Theatre marketing director John Kaufman says, “but once there were enough signatures up there, the performers started asking to do it themselves.”

Kaufman says the increase in signatures—and the stature of the performers, as Baton Rouge becomes a more popular tour stop—has been interesting to watch over the years.

The first signature to decorate the loading dock was that of “some guy named Billy,” Kaufman says, naming a technician for a long-ago production of Miz Carraway and the Kingfish. Now, the walls offer little to no space between names such as The Avett Brothers, Randy Newman and Thodos Dance Chicago. The latter is a nationally touring contemporary ballet production and the dock’s most recent addition.

225 visited the loading dock to uncover some of the history written on the walls.

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Billy: The technician for a 2005 production of Miz Carraway and the Kingfish, Billy was the first to leave a signature on the loading dock walls.

The Avett Brothers: When this folk-rock duo signed the wall after its 2008 performance, Scott and Seth Avett were still up-and-comers. Now, the North Carolina-based group tours internationally and has produced several hits, including “Kick Drum Heart.”

The von Trapp Children: The von Trapps is an Austrian music group composed of descendants of the Trapp Family Singers, a wildly popular group in the 1920s that was part of the inspiration for The Sound of Music.

Randy Newman: This legendary songwriter and composer is the voice behind Toy Story’s “You’ve Got a Friend in Me.” He signed his name after his first performance at the theater in 2006, and he has performed there several times since.

Chicago City Limits and Second City: These two names represent some of the most successful comedy tours in the U.S. and boast alumni who have gone on to perform on shows such as Saturday Night Live and The Daily Show.