The season is over and the clean up has begun. The seats are up, the colonnades empty, the 91st season of St. Louis’ municipal theater has come and gone.

I wandered about looking at the shapes, patterns, and colors of the place, thinking about the shows and the people that are no longer there. I admit I’m not overly fond of crowds. I get nervous when I’m in front of them, feel claustrophobic when I’m in the middle of them and generally avoid them. On those occasions when I’m in a packed place, I look at individuals and talk to the people around me and that helps take the pressure away.

But even for an agoraphobe such as myself, there is a certain melancholy in an empty theatre; a place such as this was made for people, the more the merrier. Nobody paid me any attention during my wanderings. There were people cleaning the concession stands, packing up the stage props and backdrops and rushing back and forth for unknown reasons, but I seemed to be in stealth mode.

The Deer Lake wild area lies next to the Muny, but standing in the middle of the 10 foot tall flowers there it seems far away. There is a grass path through the tallest of them and today the flowers leaned so heavily across it as to make it invisible. I waded gently through, in spite of  it being thick with bees, and emerged unstung on the other side. You should try it some time. Soon.

Photos.