Our production of The Merry Wives of Windsor opens in two weeks. And for the first time in our two year history, we’ll be offering reserved tables. The idea seems simple enough, doesn’t it? You want a table? Fine, we’ll reserve one. But even the simplest of ideas can be a little complicated, so we’ve put together a step-by-step guide to reserving a table for Merry Wives.

Step 1.

Click any of the Virtual Box Office links found on our website. Like this one, for instance. The site can be a bit slow, so let it load.

Step 2.

If you see a page that looks a bit like the image on the left, then congratulations. You’re in.

On that page, you will find several “product” listings for each of our upcoming show dates. For each show, we’re offering tables for six on either the house left side or the house right side. With seven scheduled shows, that means fourteen listed tables.

So … if you were wanting to reserve a table on the house right side on Friday, September 28, you’d find the listing that reads “Table at House Right (Seats 6) on 09/28/2007″ and click either on the listing itself or on the little “More info …” link to the side.

Step 3.

Now you’re on a page that will tell you all about “Table at House Right (Seats 6) on 09/28/2007,” including the starting price. The starting price is for just the table (complete with decorative and tasteful tablecloth) and six chairs. As always, you are free to bring your own food and so on.

If just a table is all you want, check the number of tables you wish to reserve and select the “Add This To My Cart” button over on the right.

We will be accepting table reservations for as long as we have them available, right up to the night of the show.

However, if you’re interested in ordering food to go along with your table, hold off on selecting “Add This To My Cart” and scroll down a bit and check out the drop-down menus below where it says “Please Choose.” For each of your six seats, you are free to pick from various Fickle Pickle meals, all offered at a reasonable price. You can order for just one seat or for all six. The price of each meal will just be added to your reservation total. Once you’ve picked your food, check the number of tables you wish to reserve and select the “Add This To My Cart” button over on the right.

We will be accepting food reservations until the Wednesday prior to each scheduled weekend, thus giving our friends at The Fickle Pickle plenty of advanced notice.

Step 4.

Now you’re looking at your Shopping Cart. At this point, you can either add another reservation to your Cart (“Back To Shopping”) or checkout using the rather attractive Google Checkout button.

Why? Well, to be honest, your privacy and peace of mind are very important to us. By using Google Checkout, we can conduct business with you without ever handling your credit card information. We’ll let Google Checkout do that, instead. (If you’d like to know more about Google Checkout, they offer a very thorough tour.)

And that’s pretty much it. From that point on, the process is much like ordering from Amazon or something similar. In the end, you’ll get a receipt and we’ll get an email telling us to be expecting you and whether or not you wish to have food.

Now, this is a new system for us. If anything odd happens, let us know immediately.