MHTDirector

January 24, 2012

2012-01-20T11:36:00.004-06:00

Escanaba in da Moonlight has really taken off since the first weekend. The cast has been terrific under Ross Daniel's direction and audiences have been really responsive. We have added two encore performances of the show because of audience demand on Jan. 27 & 28 at 7:30 pm.

I must confess a mistake I have made more than once as Executive and Artistic Director of Market House Theatre. I underestimated the sensitivities of our audience. When we first looked at selecting this show it was passed up. Some of the reading committee loved the show (myself included) and others thought the humor was a little too crude. I will confess that I watched the movie version of this show and thought-"this may be too crude for our audience." I pulled the show from consideration after that first year of reading because I was also worried that we would not get enough "hunters" to buy tickets to make the show successful.

To my surprise I discovered that not only did our audiences like the show, but women are often the source of the loudest laughs in the theatre.

As I watch the show from the back (mostly watching the audience reaction), it dawned on me- this was the reverse of Dixie Swim Club audiences where the show was about 5 women and their friendships and the loudest laughs came from male members of the audience. We all at some basic level love to see how the opposite sex acts when it's just the guys or just the girls. We may be any age from 30-100 but inside of us there still lurks that 13 year old kid-looking for acceptance from our peer group and willing to do outrageous things to earn that acceptance. There is an honesty to the show (in addition to some really funny stuff) that I think makes the show work really well.

Another worry we had was finding a talented cast of 5 men to rehearse over the Christmas/New Year's holidays which is usually a real struggle. We were able to cast a great group of guys and a girl to make the show a big success. I hope that everyone that missed out because of the sold out shows on the second week will get a chance to come to the encore performances.

Auditions for Getting Sara Married started last night. We had a terrific turnout of of women and men. I did not know the majority of those auditioning! That was a very welcome surprise. Auditions continue tonight and I believe that director Diane Byrd will be able to put together a great cast.

We have a workshop for Auditions for Hairspray on Feb 1 and then the auditions on Feb. 6 & 7. The workshop will let people know what songs to prepare and we will do a little bit of dance and share some of the scene selections I'll use for the auditions. It really is just a primer for those auditioning who have never done this before.

Play selection committee met last night and chose the slate for next season. It will now go into the rights application stage and then if everything is available we will announce our next years season at a big party on March 16 at the theatre. Look for more information on this in the upcoming newsletter. A big thank you goes out to Denise Bristol who chaired that committee, and to its members who read dozens of plays to narrow down the list to our final choices.

The Murder for Hire Troupe is rehearsing for the next event. We will perform Murder by Magic at the Paducah Country Club on March 3 and then in 3 dinner theatre performances at the Market House March 8-10. It should be lots of fun with dinner catered by Neil's Catering and a wine and beer cash bar again. Tickets are $35 each and we encourage people to get a team together to compete.

The Market House Board of Directors Meeting is tomorrow at 5:30 at the theatre. Williams Williams and Lentz will present the official audit to the theatre of our last completed fiscal year.

MHT completed our annual Kentucky Arts Council Arts Partnership application on January 13 and we hope that with all of the state budgets cut that they will be able to continue to fund the arts at some level. That funding leverages 4 times the tax revenue for the city and state as they dispense. The legislature cut the funding for the Kentucky Arts Council in the last two budgets. The arts council ended up eliminating all of their grants except for the Arts Partnerships for long standing arts groups. Any more cuts could quite possibly jeopardize matching funds from the National Endowment for the Arts and that could be the difference between groups being able to make that return on investment in tax revenue for the state which then reduces state revenues even further. Some cuts would literally be worse than others for state revenue. KAC funding isn't just a quality of life issue. It truly is a tax revenue issue as well.

The theatre is still in process on Phase Two of our Organization and Facilities study. We hope to have some significant progress to announce by the end of this fiscal year in June as to our future plans for renovation and expansion. Everything from scene shop construction space to additional lobby restroom space is being studied. The good news is that we have lots of exciting options and a strong financial foundation to build on. Consultants will visit Paducah over the help us evaluate our options.

December wrap up

2011-12-21T16:38:00.003-06:00

Every time I look at the calendar I can't believe how fast the time is going. The theatre will be open until 5 pm Thursday Dec. 22 and then close and reopen Jan. 3. If you have any last minute gift certificates you need stop by tomorrow to pick those up. I just sent out scripts for the next murder mystery dinner theatre event March 8-10.We will do Murder by Magic. A producer is trying to take over the Market House Theatre and turn it into a year round haunted house. The producer tries to bring back the ghosts of a famous magician and his assistant who tragically died in the theatre with the help of a local psychic. Of course not everything goes as planned and one of the company members are murdered. See if you can solve the mystery and win a prize. Tickets will go on sale Jan. 3.

Escanaba in da moonlight is taking a short break for Christmas and will be back in rehearsal before New Years. That show opens Jan. 12 and it looks to be lots of fun! WARNING- if crude language and bodily function humor are not your cup of tea- this is not the show for you. If watching 5 male hunters go to any length to bag a buck, "wit lots o drinking o de maple sap whisky" and "yur males bonding wit de tall tales of da deer hunting" written by Jeff Daniels then this is da show fur u!

That was my limited attempt of the Upper Peninsula Michigan accent. There are websites devoted to this show about Yoopers and all things U.P.

The board of directors met last night with a pot luck get together to celebrate the holidays and review the first half of our current fiscal year. We've had lots of positive response to the news that MHT ended the second consecutive year in the black. We used almost all of the surplus to pay for maintenance repairs on the buildings in the current fiscal year and the consultants we've been working with on a future plan for MHT. Hopefully by the time we announce our 49th season in March we will have made some decisions about facility improvements and some exciting new programming for our 50th Anniversay in 2014!

Speaking of announcing our 49th season the play selection committee headed up by Denise Bristol is madly reading plays for consideration for next season! We have to have our list finalized and work on securing the rights by the end of January if at all possible.

January has auditions for The Adventures of Nate the Great on the 9&10, Getting Sara Married on the 23&24. Two weeks later on Feb. 6&7 are auditions for Hairspray.

The January newsletter is going through its final proofing and should hit mailboxes soon! We have lots of information about some new acting classes for adults that will start in Jan.

We have received some donations in memory of JC Dudley this past week. JC will be missed a great deal by everyone who knew him. He gave me a tie tack a few years ago that he wore to the theatre for opening nights. It is something I treasure. I've worn it a couple of times in his honor on the Sundays when he would be in the audience. I couldn't help but smile when ever he entered the theatre.

On behalf of the Staff and the Board of Directors Merry Christmas, Happy Hannuka, we hope that everyone has a safe and joyous New Year! See you in 2012!

November 12 2011

2011-11-12T14:52:00.003-06:00

The 39 Steps opened Thursday night. It has been a tough show with lots of technical elements. There are well over 100 light cues and 100 sound cues, smoke machines, flash devices, still and video images and dozens of costume and sets pieces. We have been changing things right up to opening night. A great example was that the night before the final dress we eliminated all the scene change crew from coming onstage requiring the 4 actors to do all the scenery changes in front of the audience. After the final dress rehearsal we hung several of the furniture pieces like chairs, tables and stools from the walls to make the show more theatrical with actors getting their set pieces from all over the stage to create the next scene. The actors found out about this change when they walked in for opening night. After opening night I realized it took too long for the actors to hang their scenery pieces back up on the walls after the scene so we now have the pieces carried offstage where they are stored until intermission when they are put back up onstage.

The cast and crew have done a great job of adapting to these last minute changes. The creative process is extremely stressful when you have that deadline of opening night. Sometimes when you fix one problem you discover that two other problems were created. Tension builds and often I find myself getting more blunt the closer to opening we get- barking at the crew when the lights are late or the scene changes don't happen fast enough. Stopping a scene during the dress rehearsals and by yelling "No, No, No! Do it again!" I really do try not to yell and scream as a director or designer but there are times when I find myself doing just that.

As I read the paper today about the Tilghman HS game big win over their playoff rivals Owensboro. One of the players said "we aren't going to hear about the 56 points we scored, we're going to get yelled at because we let the other team score 17 points against us!"

That is what I feel like at times- focusing on the small things that go wrong and trying to make every joke funny, make every dramatic moment filled with a real human drama and easily go from one moment to the next. With very difficult shows like this my hat is off to the cast and crew who make magic happen with each performance and put up with my ranting and raving to make the show better. When we do it right, it looks effortless. Getting it to look that way is far from easy. Thanks again to a wonderful cast - Fowler, Landon, Roy and Heather. Thanks to a great crew- Assistant Director/Stage manager Denise Bristol, Light board operator Jim Roush, Sound operator Lisa Humphrey, stage crew, Jim Keeney, Betty Wise, and Tomas Lesnowinsk, and dressers Diane Byrd and Kris Shanks . If you don't come to see The 39 Steps you will have missed a great performance.

October 29 2011

2011-10-26T13:32:00.003-05:00

To say that October has been a whirlwind would be a big understatement. We have just completed the run of Charlotte's Web, The Downtown Walking Ghost Tours, and the Masquerade Ball. The annual fund drive is in full swing and The 39 Steps is in rehearsal. In addition Escanaba in da Moonlight had auditions this past Monday and Tuesday and the Murder for Hire troupe is getting the materials together to present Murder at the Company Party on Dec. 3rd for Hilliard Lyons Investment firm and then on Dec. 8 & 9 at the Market House in a dinner theatre setting. As I write this we are about an hour from getting set up to do the final Oak Grove Cemetery and Mausoleum tours. Last night we did 4 tours that were either sold out or very close to sold out. Having written all that I need to break that down a little.

Charlotte's Web had a terrific run. The cast was outstanding and Ella as Wilbur, Martha as Fern, Maria as Charlotte were especially superb in their performances. The run ended with a standing room only crowd on the final Sunday performance and exceeded our budget goals for ticket sales. The cast did 6 school matinees and 6 public performances all told. April once again did a great job directing the production.

The Downtown Walking Ghost tours ran 3 weekends during the same time Charlotte's Web was performing. The opening night there was a mystery bus tour group from Missouri that found themselves with tickets to Charlotte's Web and then filed out of the theatre to find me in full ghost tour guide costume where we boarded their bus and did a downtown and lowertown tour of haunted locations. Cat Tilker gets a special thank you as she led tours along with me all three weekends. Fowler Black and Marsha Cash also get a big thank you for taking tours one weekend each with Cat and I as we did up to 6 tours a night. This weekend with the Oak Grove tours Cat, Fowler, Marsha, Kim Yocum and I will spend about 5 hours in the cemetery telling its history and the stories of its more colorful and sometimes ghostly apparitions. Special thanks to goes to all of the guides for spending time learning the stories and making the event very successful for the theatre. With all the tours together we hope to make about $7,000 in tour ticket income. This income helps to pay for additional items that come up during the year not covered by our regular shows and fundraisers.

Kristin Williams and Melisa Mast poured their heart and soul into MHT's first ever Masquerade Ball. Along with Kathryn Joyner, Cindy Miller, Susan Gafnee Evans, Susan Ybarzabal, and Sarah Bynum this group of very talented individuals created an event that had all of Paducah buzzing! Incredible food from Laura Duff of Pampered Palette and one of the best bands I've heard in a long time -The Nash Vegas All Stars created an evening that attendees will remember for a long time. Special thanks goes to Karson Kelly and his band of stilt walkers who entertained everyone as they entered for the evening. The theatre raised approx. $25,000 after expenses in income from tickets for the event, sponsorships, and the live and silent auctions and costume rentals. We would like to thank all those businesses and individuals that donated items and services to help MHT raise money for our programming. A huge thank you goes to Darlene Mazzone of Paducah Life for her support of the event and to Natalya and Jack Cody of Creatures of Habit for their support and donation of part of the proceeds of the costume rentals. Thanks also to MHT staff Marsha Cash for manning the registration desk with help from Kristy Waddie. Jim Keeney spent the evening taking great photos of the event for us to publish online. The committee is still talking about how to make next year even better. If you have suggestions we would love to hear them. Please send comments and suggestions to info@mhtplay.com. Next years event will be Saturday Oct. 20, 2012! Start planning your costume now!!

Cindy Miller has been hard at work for weeks now preparing and creating MHT's annual fund drive. Over a thousand letters went out recently to past donors and other who support MHT in a variety of ways. A general support letter is currently at the printer in process to go out this next week. MHT is needs to raise $70,000 this year in annual tax deductible contributions that support our youth and adult programming.

The 39 Steps starring Fowler Black, Heather Tomko, Roy Hensel and Landon Baker is in high gear getting ready for Tech next Sunday and opening night on Nov. 10! There are so many scenes and characters in the show the actors have been working for two weeks now on characters and timing. The show is very theatrical with actors using all kinds of individual objects to create the locations called for in the play. One of the props is a rolling door unit that the performers moves across the stage and then walks through it to create a new scene separate from the scene they just ended. If you like fast paced action and comedy this is the perfect show for you.

The auditions for Escanaba in da Moonlight were held last Monday and Tuesday. We are still needing additional men to audition. The first part of this season has called for lots of men to perform and we did not have enough men audition to cast the show. We have several very talented male actors audition for this hysterical deer hunting comedy but can't complete the casting until we find one more male actor ages 20-50 to complete the company. If you are interested please contact Michael Cochran at 270-444-6828 ext. 214 to set up an audition.

The Murder for Hire troupe is in the process of receiving their scripts for the show Murder at the Company Christmas Party. Troupe members Renie Barger, Fowler Black, Marsha Cash, Tom Dolan, Audra Hall, Roy and Travis Hensel, are preparing once again to challenge and audience to witness a murder right in front of their eyes and solve the clues to who-dunnit! The dinner theatre shows on Dec. 8 & 9 will be catered by Neil's Catering. The menu will be Roast Beef, Poppyseed Chicken, 3 vegetables, rolls and tea. Beer and wine bar will also be available for purchase at a cash bar. Tickets are $35 each for the event. A special nod goes to Fowler Black for learning lines for 39 Steps, Ghost Tours and Murder at the Company Christmas Party! Fowler's memory is going to need a rest over the Christmas Holidays!!

The theatre has finally completed most of the maintenance repairs on our historic properties. This year we had unexpected repairs of over $20,000 to our roofs, masonry, and back lot due to water damage from last spring. In addition the main Air conditioning unit in the Market House building had to be repaired at a cost of over $11,000. The City of Paducah is picking up a sizable portion of the at cost as owners of the Market House building. Last week when it got cold out we turned the boiler on backstage and discovered a major leak in the heating cools for the stage unit. That we expect to also be a major expense to repair. These maintenance repairs have really been a burden on this years budget. Events like Charlotte's Web exceeding its budget by $2,000 and making our budget goals for the Masquerade Ball and the annual fund drive become even more critical to keeping the theatre up and running.

As October comes to a close the thousands of people who have volunteered, purchased tickets and supported MHT in fundraising and annual fund drive events continue to show why Market House Theatre is one of Kentucky's leading community theatres.

Happy Halloween!

The show must go on

2011-09-19T10:33:00.002-05:00

It has been up and down this past week. We have overcome lots of obstacles and each time it seems that something else comes up to challenge us. The main theatre air conditioner after 2 days of trying to find out what was causing our continuing problems was finally narrowed down to the main compressor unit had worn out and was constantly overheating and shutting down. We were notified 2 1/2 hours before show time on Thursday Sept 8 before the start of our second weekend of performances. The compressor unit was had to be replaced but the earliest it would arrive from out of town was Monday Sept. 12. Then we would have to get a crane to take the old one off the roof and put the new one on.

The weather mercifully cooled off for that weekend and we were able to do the shows with the overhead ceiling fans running during the performances with very little audience discomfort. The compressor unit didn't show up the following Monday but did arrive the next day and was finally installed and the system was working at 100% about 4 pm on Thursday Sept. 15 just in time for the 3rd weekend of performances of Putnam County Spelling Bee.

On Saturday Sept. 17, thirty minutes prior to opening the auditorium to allow the audience in for seating for the 7:30 show that night the stage lighting system crashed and became totally inoperable. That's the interesting thing about live theatre. You never know what is going to happen. You also have the motto- the show must go on!

I've been working in theatre now for over 35 years (that makes me feel really old!). Each year some new challenge comes along that demands you come up with a solution in a crises situation. I feel like the character on the old TV show McGiver some days when you have to improvise something out of whatever is on hand to get out of a tough situation. There are always several paths you can take when faced with what seems to be a hopeless situation. One of them is to give up. To cancel the show. When ever we have rough weather everyone assumes that is what we will do- cancel the show. It seems to amaze people when we don't do that. We have only canceled in extreme circumstances (the ice storm).

Thing I love about theatre people is that we all have a show must go on attitude. It's not a silly thing that "show biz" people say. It truly is a code of conduct. When you are faced with difficult situations you don't give up. You find a way to not just survive but succeed! Sometimes our best performances come from very difficult circumstances.

So we madly scrambled and were able to rig up 4 floodlights using stage lighting cables from the backstage to put just enough light on stage to keep the entire stage illuminated. We dug out our 30 year old portable lighting dimming system that you plug into a wall outlet and then plugged the lighting cables into that. We were able to at least bring the four floodlights up and down to give some different lighting to the show. Our old system however can only handle 1,000 watts per channel for up to two channels. During the Saturday night show one of the channels kept flipping its breaker so we kept trying to run the lights at only about 75% or 750 watts to keep it going.

We were able to take a show that had over 100 lights and almost 100 light cue changes and redesign it as the performance progressed to do the show with 4 lights and a follow spot and still created about 40 light cues all made up as we went along. Lisa Humphrey, Jim Roush, and Jim Keeney all did a great job of following my verbal instructions to change the lights with each scene. Sunday Jim Keeney and I came in early and re-hung, re-cabled and re-lamped the flood lights so they wouldn't keep blowing the old breakers and we could all rest a little easier that we wouldn't lose all the stage lighting if one breaker went out.

This morning we called the lighting repair company that we use to come out and see if our 20+ year old lighting system can be fixed. I want to say how proud I was of the actors and the crew who not only overcame adversity with so many problems that developed during the run of the show but gave some of their best performances in the toughest situations. Bravo to the cast of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. You did an outstanding job kicking off our 48th Season. Cindy Miller and Joe Plucknett also outdid themselves musically on the show!

We don't get to rest however. Today we will move the Charlotte's Web set on stage so the cast can start rehearsing on it tomorrow and get it ready for it's opening in 3 weeks. Tonight is the first rehearsal of The 39 Steps with a terrific cast and the first meeting of the play selection committee to look for plays for the 49th season.

The show must go on...

September 7 2011

2011-09-07T22:04:00.002-05:00

Tomorrow begins the second weekend of Putnam County Spelling Bee. Audience volunteer spellers have been great this past weekend. Ticket sales for this weekend are picking up and hopefully word of mouth will help us sell the third weekend. Cindy Miller has done an outstanding job with the difficult music in the show and percussionist Joe Plucknett has really added to the musical support in the show. Performers, Fowler Black, Tony Bohannon, Audra Hall, Al Knudsen, Cheri Paxton, Chris Schnarr, Heather Tomko, Kim Yocum, and Chuck Wilkins are doing a terrific job of bringing the middle school angst to their characters. Every audience member that has stopped me after the show has complimented the acting and vocal performances of the cast. Tuesday I was the guest speaker at the Lion's Club meeting. Al Knudsen and Cindy Miller came with me and Al sang "I'm not that smart" from the show while Cindy accompanied him on piano and we gave away a pair of tickets for the show. Today at Rotary Al and Cindy again performed the song and we gave away another pair of tickets.

While the first show of the season has been running smoothly I can't say the same for our Air Conditioning units. Opening night you would have witnessed me standing in front of the theatre, drenched from a water hose that back pressured on me, looking up a long ladder to the two technicians working on the roof. Fortunately we have had air conditioning for every performance but we have been only running the units during the performances due to overheating of the main units on the roof. Today we had the service techs back out to service all 4 of the air conditioners on the main market house building. The main coils both outside and inside the building had become so clogged up the units were quickly overheating. All should be running smoothly by showtime Thursday night with audiences never knowing that we have been hard at work this past week to keep them cool.

While that has been going on we have finished up the roof repairs on the three buildings owned by the theatre. Last month we repaired the brick and mortar of the parapets on top of the three buildings. Hopefully we will get the interior water damage from the spring rains repaired by the end of September and be in good shape for quite a few years.

Tuesday and Wednesday of this week the consultants from Webb Management based in NYC were back in Paducah to talk with city officials and others about MHT's future plans. We are looking forward over the next few months to identify specific facilities recommendations to meet our current and future demand. Facilities issues have really taken up a lot of time and money since last January.

Auditions are next Monday and Tuesday for the next comedy, The 39 Steps. I'm hoping for a good turnout. We have only 4 roles in the show but these roles are very complex. While that show is auditioning and starting rehearsals we will also be in high gear to do the Downtown Walking Ghost Tours and the Oak Grove Cemetery Tour again this year. Stories are being brushed up with a few new ones added.

August 16 2011

2011-08-16T13:24:00.002-05:00

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee has been in rehearsal for almost a month now and it is hard to believe that next Thursday is 2 weeks to opening. Single Tickets went on sale today for the production. We had to wait until we had processed all of the season tickets before we could release the rest for sale. If you haven't visited our facebook page recently and seen some of the photos and rehearsal comments please do. It is a really wonderful cast and they are going to do a great show. Many of the actors are really struggling with keeping a straight face as we rehearse this comic musical about. When we first started, I didn't really think this was the kind of musical you walk out humming the songs, however I have been proved wrong. Some of the music in the show is really funny and infectious like "Pandemonium" and other songs really go right to the heartstrings with "The I Love You" song.

The audience participation in the show is going to be a lot of fun! We have been having MHT board members and family members of the cast acting as our audience volunteers. Each performance we will select volunteers, from those who are interested, to become "middle school" contestants in the spelling bee. They will get a shot at winning the Bee. The show will be one you won't want to miss. However we do have to warn our audiences that the show contains some comedic mature subject matter so we recommend parental discretion. The roles are played by adults who portray all the comedy and angst of middle school students when it comes to competition, friendship, love and their own libidos (hence the parental discretion).

The theatre has just announced our brand new fundraising event scheduled to take place on October 22. The Masquerade Ball. A full out Masquerade costume ball to be held at the Paducah Convention Center Ballroom. We have an incredible food from Pampered Palate, a full cash bar, a knock out band to dance the night away, additional entertainment, and great auction items. This promises to be the event of the season. At a Masquerade Balls ticket holders wear a mask to hide their identity so it will be lots of fun. Tickets went on sale today. We have reserved VIP tables of 8, single general admission tickets, and a few young adult tickets for ages 21-29! Ticket buyers are encouraged to dress up and theme their tables to go with their costumes. Prizes will be awarded for best costume and best table decorations.

Auditions are next Monday and Tuesday for Charlotte's Webb. Lots of people have been coming in and checking out scripts. Footlights classes start Saturday Aug. 27. We are encouraging all footlights parents to pop into the studio theatre the first day of classes and have coffee and donuts on us and find out additional information about auditions, classes and other things the youth and adults can do at MHT.

The MHT board of directors voted at the July meeting to move forward with Phase Two of a consultant study related to MHT and its facilities. We are currently in negotiation with the City of Paducah on a long term lease for the main auditorium. We are also looking at other properties around the theatre for expansion of theatre programming. We have been bursting at the seams for the past couple of years and have some exciting ideas and plans for the future. Our 50th Anniversary is only 2 years away!!

The staff and board have been hard at work getting our sponsors and program advertisers all lined up for the first program of Putnam County.

July 13, 2011

2011-07-13T20:37:00.002-05:00

Auditions for Putnam County Spelling Bee were held on Monday and Tuesday of this week and a terrific cast of performers was posted this morning. Rehearsals begin next Monday for the September show.

Each morning this week rehearsals have been going on for The Environmental Show summer musical drama camp. The kids have approx. 8 rehearsals and present a short musical on Friday July 22. Along with the rehearsals the kids received classes on technical theatre and special effects. Tomorrow they will rehearse for part of the morning and then work on creating set pieces for their show. These shows are always amazing to me in how much can be accomplished in such a short time. In my past experience with professional theatre in Kansas City adult performers would come in and rehearse for 2 weeks for 8-10 hours a day for 2 weeks before opening the full length show. Granted these camp shows are only about 20-25 minutes long but they have lots of choreography and music and are being performed by elementary school kids, some of them in their first show, and not seasoned performers.

Marsha Cash is working hard to get all the season ticket orders completed before the end of the week. She has been trying to contact ticket buyers who had changes in their orders and new season ticket holders over the past couple of weeks. We are almost 3 weeks ahead of where we were last season with processing orders.

This past week with the extreme heat the theatre saw temperatures and air conditioning pushed to the max. At auditions in the main theatre on the hottest days of the week even with the air conditioning on max the temperature didn't drop below 80 degrees. With the storm that came through Tuesday night we finally dropped into normal temperatures.

6-27-2011

2011-06-27T07:41:00.002-05:00

We are in the last week of our fiscal year. We are still having rehearsals and performances right down to the end. Last Friday and Saturday the 101 Dalmatians Kids camp put on a performance of their show. With only 8 rehearsals the cast did a great job of bringing the 30 minute musical to life. Saturday's performance was also a benefit for the Project Hope No Kill Animal Shelter. Audience members brought in large bags of dog food, cat food, and cleaning supplies. In addition they made financial donations of $140 for the shelter. Some of the pets that were up for adoption were brought to the studio theatre and after the show both cast and audience members visited the real animals.

Sunday afternoon the Story Theatre cast of Little Red Riding Hood rehearsed in the main theatre in preparation for 6 performances this week at the McCracken County Library Tuesday and Wednesday with performances each day at 10 am, 1 pm, and 3 pm.

This Friday, July 1, the ballet class will be putting on their performance of Sleeping Beauty in the studio theatre for parents. That performance marks the first one of our next season.

Staff members are already taking some vacation days this week as we try to get recharged for another season. In addition we are doing some major maintenance on some of the buildings the theatre owns. With all the rain we have lots of water damage from this past spring that needs repair. We recently just completed tuck pointing the studio theatre and the administrative office building parapets along with the base of the back wall behind the studio theatre. Water had eroded the bricks over the past few years and was starting to do structural damage. We turn now to repairing the roofs on the three buildings. After those are repaired we can then repair the damage to ceilings and walls inside the buildings. MHT budgets over $15,000 a year to maintain the buildings. While we don't own the main Market House building the theatre is responsible for all the maintenance inside our portion of the building and on all the heating and cooling units. All of the buildings are on the national historic register. They need constant care and repair.

One week from the end or our current fiscal year it is looking very positive that we will end the fiscal year in the black for the second consecutive year, even with a down economy. The theatre continues to grow its programming and increase the number of participants we serve. The board of directors has done a great job of fundraising and the Curtain Call committee led by Valerie Pollard did an outstanding job of raising funds. Additional income from the Walking Ghost Tours and big box office shows with great performances from the casts of Alice in Wonderland and Annie boosted single ticket income above budgeted goals. In addition the theatre staff has worked extremely hard to keep costs low and work with small budgets. Those extra funds will help cover the cost of some of the repairs that I mentioned above.

As we say goodbye to our 47th season we are well into planning and evaluating programming and operations well beyond our 48th season. We completed an organizational assessment in January of 2011 and hope to begin the second phase of a facility assessment this summer. This assessment will look at existing facilities and evaluate support and market demand for possible expansion of those existing facilities.

June 4, 2011

2011-06-04T09:02:00.004-05:00

As we headed into the final push for the season everything that didn't fit within the 7 day, 14 hour a day work schedule got put in the to do stack. Unfortunately one of those things was my blog. I looked back today and realized it had been 3 weeks since my last blog. My apologies to those who read this blog. I'll try to do better in the future.

ANNIE. Wow! We have over 50 talented people working on this production. Chanyng Floyd as Annie has been a real joy to work with. This is her first show as an actress after lots of time in front of audiences as a dancer with the AMPA dance company. Chanyng like so many others has a lot of innate talent with singing and acting that she had never used before. Her mom told me just last night that before the show she didn't know Chanyng could sing. During the rehearsals musical director Doug Arnold has worked with her to develop those natural talents and I think audiences will be very impressed by her musical ability. In addition Chanyng has to play a tough optimistic kid who boldly searches for her parents and yet has vulnerable moments when she finds out the truth about why they left her. It is a credit to Chanyng that she is able to pull off the optimistic tough kid who threatens the older bigger kids with "do you want to sleep with your teeth inside or outside of your mouth" while retaining the vulnerability of an 11 year old alone who desperately wants to have a mom and dad in the song MAYBE.

Amy Perdue who plays Grace (Warbuck's personal secretary) in the show along with Landon Baker who plays Officer Ward and Drake (Warbuck's head butler) also do an outstanding job in what I think are difficult roles. Both have to be prim and proper and also exude a real sense of comedy and emotional connection to Annie that is not easy to pull off. Tom Dolan as Warbucks gives us a terrific portrayal of the loud commanding billionaire tycoon whose heart melts after spending time with Annie. It's easy to play that role as 2 dimensional always yelling, but takes a lot more talent and work to give us the feeling Daddy Warbucks character that Annie turns to as a father. Kelly Ann Rathunde as Miss Hannigan gives us a wacky version of the head of the orphanage and one of the chief villains. Between menacing the kids and being ditzy, Kelly, pulls off the role with lots of fun. Kelly along with Scott Salchli as Rooster and Mary Dorr as Lily provide a nice blend of comedy and their rendition of the song EASY STREET is really fun. Dorr in particular has a wonderful comic laugh that audiences loved.

I can't say enough about Katy Miller and Analiese Jones. They choreographed the big dance numbers HARD KNOCK LIFE, EASY STREET, I THINK I'M GONNA LIKE IT HERE, NYC, YOUR NEVER FULLY DRESSED (orphan's dance), and ANYTHING BUT YOU. Many of the adult actors at first thought they would never be able to dance some of the complex choreography. But after working really hard they pull them off and make them look effortless. There is so much going on with the choreography in layers on the stage that you almost have to see it twice to watch all the wonderful dance moments that happen. Analiese also deserves a huge pat on the back for the way she has shepherded the orphans in their performances. Taking the notes I've given the orphan actors and working with them while they are offstage constantly improving their performance and keeping them focused (which is no small task!)

The chorus of the show is filled with company members who play so many roles. If you look closely in the Hooverville scene and the big dance number NYC you will see almost the entire company disguised and costumed as people on the street of New York. It's fun to see Chuck Wilkins, who plays a homeless guy, rant about former president Herbert Hoover and later on see him as the President FDR in the wheelchair. Roy Hensel, Scott Salchli, Mary Dorr, Diane Byrd and Chip Bohle all play three to four different roles in the show. The chorus of homeless people, pedestrians in New York, and servants and radio performers make this show sparkle and so much fun to watch.

Denise Bristol keeps everybody on task in her role as stage manager calling light sound and technical cues for the show and Jim Keeney keeps the scene changes flowing with 3 stage crew and the help of the actors. Musical Director, Doug Arnold, has done a terrific job of bringing together a talented orchestra and getting a great vocal sound from the performers on stage. Sally Moore of Lodi Kennels tells me that Ashes, the yellow lab, who plays Sandy runs to the door and barks when it is time to go to the show because she is so excited. Sally does an outstanding job with training and is so easy to work with. I can't say enough good things about her abilities and I think she is just as good as any of the dog trainers I've seen on television on Animal plantet.

Finally the ten girls who play the orphans completely knock the audiences socks off! From the youngest Addie Beth Franklin to the oldest Leiren Jackson they have worked so hard and do such a great job in the show. The youngest Addie Beth, who plays Molly, holds her own with all the others in the choreography and singing and steals the show in some scenes.

WC Fields used to say never work with animals or kids because they always steal the show. Fortunately there are lots of talented adults in ANNIE who are able to hold their own against those odds although the kids and the animals really do give them a run for their money. I wouldn't hesitate to work with this talented bunch again.

Monday night while the actors are taking some well deserved time off will be the first rehearsal of the Curtain Call performance cameo cast. They will get to step on stage for the first time and learn where to walk and a little bit of the choreography for their big night on the final Saturday night performance of ANNIE June 18.

This has been a very successful season and the production of ANNIE wraps up the year with a beautiful red bow to top it off. I hope that everyone gets a chance to come see it.

5-2-2011

2011-05-02T07:46:00.003-05:00

Yesterday the theatre wrapped up a very successful run of the Dixie Swim Club. Director Lisa Humphrey and cast members Marsha Cash, Sue Fletcher, Victoria Parrish, Cat Tilker, and Sandra Wilson wowed audiences with great performances and received standing ovations throughout the run. The final weekend played to most sold out audiences. Crew members Kris, Debbie, Keirstyn, and Thomas did a great job of making things flow smoothly. TD Jim Keeney filled in on the stage crew helping with some of the changes as well. The cast had lots of fun "live theatre" moments with the show on the final weekend. Saturday afternoon Marsha Cash's blouse zipper came apart in the middle during a fast change and she did the entire scene trying to keep her blouse from falling off her. Most of the audience wouldn't have really noticed because she did such a great job, but the cast discovered the costume trauma when she walked onstage and sat down on the settee. Cast members did their best to "hang on" to the back of her blouse to help her out whenever they were standing by her.

I got a voicemail message last week from one of the playwrights congratulating us on our run and wishing us lots of success. We've had more and more playwrights reach out and connect to us over the past couple of years. With the internet and facebook playwrights are more connected than ever to theatres doing their plays.

Story Theatre is still out on tour however last Friday's show scheduled for Sikeston MO. was postponed to the end of May since the bridge access in and out of Cairo was closed due to flooding. It would have taken us more than 2 hours to drive there one way. This morning we were scheduled for Unity Elementary but Massac Unit 1 schools are closed due to the flooding. Hopefully it will stop raining and our region can dry out a little in the next couple of days to help all the communities struggling with rising water.

We've had several people call us to ask if the theatre is flooded. So far (knock on wood) the city's floodwall is holding just fine and we hope to escape without any damage. We've had audience members who have been unable to come to the Dixie Swim Club because of blocked roads. Our crew members from Livingston County Debbie and her granddaughter Keirstyn didn't make it in last Thursday when Smithland was shutdown.

Today Jim Keeney and I will transport all the Dixie scenery pieces back to our warehouse and bring platforms and scenery pieces back for Annie which rehearses onstage tonight at 6:30. EAT which is rehearsing in the studio theatre goes into technical rehearsals next Sunday for its opening the following week. We are still putting together the scenery and props for that show.

The dog trainer from Lodi Kennels stopped by Saturday and we talked about her dog Ashes which will play Sandy for the play ANNIE. Unfortunately Ashes is in heat for the next two weeks so she won't be able to start working with the show until after that. I will say in 30 years of directing this is the first time an "actor" couldn't make rehearsals because they were in heat.

On a funny note we had a season ticket holder call who had received her season ticket renewal order for next season. She was very concerned and wasn't sure if she would be able to renew here tickets because of one of the shows announced. She wanted to know if we were going to have the actors in Hairspray wear clothes. She apparently got the musicals Hair and Hairspray confused. After we assured here that yes the actors were going to remain fully clothed in the production she happily renewed her season tickets.

4-18-2 2011

2011-04-18T06:57:00.002-05:00

The Theatre sends it's condolences and prayers to the Keeney family on the passing of Jim's Grandmother. Services were held Saturday in Benton.

Three Little Pigs Story Theatre Tour presented 3 productions last week and Dixie Swim Club had it's Technical Rehearsal yesterday. Just before we started the rehearsal yesterday I told the cast and the crew that we would work to get our costume and set changes down to 30-45 seconds. That is the longest an audience will sit during a scene change without losing energy from the previous scene. The cast and crew started to protest that wasn't going to be possible. As we got to the first scene change at 45 seconds I had the lighting person bring up the lights and we discussed what had happened and how close we were to finishing the changes. We worked through scene change issues making the movements more economical so that the crew person did things in an order that allowed them to not have to go offstage with removed items and then return. They brought items on and placed them and then took the other items off. The cast discovered who could help each other with changes and then we ran it again. By the third time we were ready to go at about 40 seconds. By the time we finish the run of the show I expect to have that time down to 25 seconds. It really is amazing what can be accomplished in 30 seconds when you are focused.

The cast for Dixie Swim did a great job yesterday working with costumes and props. Victoria who pours martinis throughout the first scene of the play ran out half way through the scene and then pretended to pour. She realized that she was going to have to make twice as much as she originally thought. On the other hand Lisa Humphrey who filled one of the martini glasses with milk for the one character who doesn't drink put way to much in and the actors had to be very careful not to spill the mill as they walked and talked. I programmed telephone rings into the sound cues and realize I had too many rings in for the amount of time it takes the actress to get off stage to answer the phone so I removed some of those rings. We had a pregnant padding for one of the actresses. Unfortunately it made her look ridiculous so today we will take some of that padding out. In another scene a dress that was supposed to look ridiculous didn't look that way so we will find another that looks even worse. Today will be spent hanging some additional lights and refocusing others to eliminate some of the dark spots that I noticed yesterday during the tech rehearsal. That's the process for this week. You create something you think will work and then you test it during the rehearsal that night. What doesn't work gets reworked the next day.

The board of directors held a planning meeting at First Presbyterian Church on Saturday afternoon and we worked through several items that needed longer time than our regular board meetings. Lots of progress was made in several areas and we hope to have some exciting announcements coming up in the next few months concerning fundraising events. The board also tackled several tough facility questions and we will move forward on the repairs for some big items we had been struggling with. One of those items is the water drainage behind the studio theatre that has been flooding our back hallway during heavy rains. We hope to have that corrected by the end of June.

On today's schedule are rehearsals for Eat, Dixie Swim Club, and Annie.

3-22-2011

2011-03-22T08:02:00.002-05:00

Phantom of the Market House Theatre had a successful weekend with an almost capacity audience on Friday night and over 2/3 full on Saturday. A great deal of thanks goes to the Cast- Renie Barger, Fowler Black on followspot, Chip Bohle, April Cochran, Tom Dolan, Audra Hall, Roy Hensel, Steve Schwetman, and Host for the weekend Valerie Pollard. We performed the same show the first Saturday in March at Caldwell County HS as a fundraiser for their Junior Class. If you missed out on seeing Phantom of the Market House Theatre you still have one more chance. The LATA group has booked the the Murder For Hire Troupe to perform Phantom on Friday April 1 at the Robert Cherry Civic Center as a fundraiser for Relay for Life. You can contact Audra Hall at audra.hall@lataky.com about tickets.

Another big thanks goes to Don & Renie Barger, Audra Hall, Steve and Kristy Schwetman,Fowler Black, Chip Bohle, Emily Yocum, and Luke Wilkins who stayed after the Saturday night performance of Phantom and helped us move the tables and chairs out and the put the theatre seats back in! Jim Keeney and I are extremely grateful for the help!

Footlights rehearsals moved onstage Monday in preparation for their troupe performances this weekend. The Dixie Swim Club had a run through of Act One last night in the classroom/rehearsal space which I attended. They are eager for their chance to get onstage after the Footlights performances with 4 weeks until they open.

EAT starts staging the first scenes of their show tonight in the Studio Theatre. This morning I'm taping out their set. The April Newsletter is in process and trying to get to the printer with the information about our next season along with Dixie Swim Club and a new session of Footlights that starts April 9.

March came in like a lion and seems to be going out the same way! See you at the theatre.

3-13-2011 Winning and Losing

2011-03-13T14:32:00.000-05:00

I had several people comment in person and post on my personal page about a status of seeing Wizard of Oz last night. This is one of those things that I have to be really careful about when I post something because I don't want to give people the wrong idea. I just got back from attending the regional Odessy of the Mind competition for Middle Schools yesterday and I watched the 6th grade Lone Oak Middle School team (of which Jade is a member) compete for a spot at the state competitions. There were several good friends of hers competing for Paducah Middle School at the same time and the kids were all cheering each other on and hoping that both teams would go on to state. As each team got their scores some were elated and some were depressed. They immediately wanted to compare their scores to the other schools scores. Who was better and who was worse. Who won and who lost.

Our culture is so focused on winning that if you don't place first many people feel like they lost. I've seen personally time and again at American Association of Community theatre competitions with 10 completely different kinds of shows competing that the 9 who didn't win feel like they failed, in casting shows that the 75 people who didn't get cast for 10 parts feel like they failed, even with shows that the Carson Center and the Market House Theatre or WKCTC produce that, that our nature is to want to declare a winner and a loser, one better than the other. This is really frustrating for me because every production, every audition, every creative endeavor is filled with personal challenges that we should be cheering on. There were great moments last night in the Wizard of Oz at the Carson Center, there were great moments in the Market House production of Wizard of Oz. Even 15 years ago at what was then PCC when they did Wizard of Oz there were some great moments. For the kids from Paducah who performed last night in Wizard of Oz at Carson Center, that was a really great moment. To perform in front of over a thousand people for each of 3 performances. That is really great. To take the risk of going out onstage and doing all the dance steps and singing with only a few rehearsals and to have the audience and parents cheer them does something magical for a person. That's what MHT does as its mission every single day. For the professionals in the show last night they have to be willing to go onstage and give it their all and risk doing a bad show in order to create something really magical. There reaches a point in the life of any show where the actors just start going through the motions. They start feeling like they don't have to go out and prove themselves every time they take the stage. The truly great performers are ones who really work at creating something new everytime they are on stage. Having said that I also have to say that just because you step onstage doesn't mean you should get a standing ovation every time. Some performances really create that synergy between performer and audience member and there is an electricity that makes a performance truly incredible. Some performances things just don't work out or the actors aren't really connecting and you are left with just an okay performance. We still applaud the effort for some really great moments, but we don't have to give a standing ovation every time.

I heard a great interview on Fresh Air the other day with the well known actor Alan Arkin, who talked about his time at Second City in Chicago. Each night they would go onstage and collect ideas from the audience and then take 10-15 minutes and create a play based on that audience's suggestions. They knew that each night a significant portion of what they created was going to fail. Sometimes miserably! But other moments might be pure genius. It is the most liberating and personal character building experience there is to put yourself into a a situation where the chance for failure is not only high but in some ways expected. It allows you to create something that is much better than you ever could have done if every thing you had to do was to succeed. Each mistake in the process is a building block that makes the final product better. Alan Arkin doesn't do Broadway shows anymore because it is so difficult to go out night after night and try to do exactly the same performance without making a mistake which is what the producers expect. The Spiderman show on Broadway is in previews. I personally think it is a mistake to charge audiences high ticket prices for shows that are still in process and to have every single performance minutely critiqued when you are trying to be creative. That doesn't seem to be a positive environment to create in. Audiences can be great partners at the right time in the creative process for feedback but if they are involved too early it kills the neccessary process of trial and error to create something better.

I can't tell you how many times we try something on stage that doesn't work. How many sets I've painted and designed that had to be redesigned or repainted after I saw how they worked and often didn't work. But I didn't have an audience watching me make those mistakes. If you want to be truly creative you have to fail in order to get better. The musical performer Sting talked recently about many musical efforts he does that fail in between the successes. He doesn't release every single thing he works on to the public to buy. One of my favorite writers once wrote that if anyone ever saw her first drafts they would believe that she was totally psychotic, without talent and must have stolen all her work from someone else because she could never be capable of creating anything of value. When casting a show we make the best decisions we can and sometimes we make mistakes. The process at Market House of having everyone watch auditions is probably the worst for both the actors and the directors. Many theatres do not allow spectators or other actors into the audition process because it puts a lot of pressure on both the person auditioning and the director. Everyone then becomes the judge of who they think should have got the part or how someone else did compared to someone else. It makes the director hesitant to try different things with different actors during the audition because the audience will think not everyone got to do exactly the same thing. Even though the director might be able to get a better audition out of each person. The audition spectators tend to pick winners and losers. If MHT had a bigger lobby we probably would do private auditions with just small groups at a time to eliminate some of that pressure on the performers and the directors. Private audtions also help that everyone gets to do a scene or dance for the first time without those who go last having the advantage of seeing how everyone else did theirs and correcting for others mistakes.

I guess my point in all this is that the Carson Center, WKCTC, MHT and all of the groups that are producing shows in our area should be proud of their work. When I see a Carson Center show it makes me proud of the many talented people who perform at MHT without taking anything away from the professional performers and when I see an incredible show at MHT it doesn't take anything away from the Carson Center shows. We need to go to plays and celebrate or commiserate with the performers when things go really well or things fail. We need to take pride in what we do and continue to strive to make it better while at the same time accepting failure without assigning winners and losers.

Creating something is incredibly rewarding, if we are willing to work hard at it and learn from our mistakes and make it better each time we perform it. Every show at MHT should be better than the last show because hopefully we have learned from the mistakes we made in the last show. Every performance should be better than the last performance. At MHT we are striving towards getting just a little better with each show and with each season. For the individual performer it means that with each audition you strive to get a little better and keep trying to improve yourself to get that call back or get cast in that show. Don't give up after the first time you don't get cast. Also just because you got cast doesn't mean you don't have to work at it. My favorite moment as a director was when I cast a young man in the lead in the first show he auditioned for. He just happened to be at the right place at the right time and the others who auditioned fit into other parts. In the next show he auditioned he got cast as a non speaking rock. His father later came up to me and thanked me saying it was the best thing that ever happened to his son. In another instance a local adult auditioned and got the lead in his first show which required a certain look and certain kind of accent. He never got another lead while here at MHT because his accent was too strong and he didn't work on changing it and his appearance tended to work against all the roles he wanted. That actor has since gone to L.A. and lost his accent and made some changes to his appearance. He is getting work as an extra with a few lines or small recurring characters on some television series. He is still waiting for his big break over 20 years after that first lead role at MHT, but he is happy acting in the roles in which his looks and voice work well for.

Even though both April and I have been in theatre for over 30 years we still have to go out and prove ourselves every time that curtain goes up. We still are working to create something very special with each performance and risking failure every time. So congratulations to the Carson Center on Wizard of Oz. I'm looking forward to seeing Nunsense at WKCTC in April. Here at MHT we are working hard to create a great performance of Phantom of the Market House Theatre on March 18 & 19, The footlights shows on March 26 & 27, Dixie Swim Club the last two weeks of April, EAT in May and ANNIE in June.

I'm also excited for my daughter and her LOMS Odessy of the Mind team. Even though the team placed 3rd in their competition, they get to go to the state competition and try again to create something special with their orginal Odessy of the Mind presentation. I haven't heard yet, but I hope the kids from Paducah Middle School made it to the state competition too! We can wish success to both of them, just as we do with the Carson Center, MHT, and WKCTC!
.

Five Events in Eight Days

2011-03-08T21:15:00.003-06:00

It is only the 8th of March but it feels like a month has already gone by. We closed The Hundred Dresses on Feb. 28 with school matinees and no sooner did we get the set taken down that day then the theatre filled up that night with over 75 youth auditioning for ANNIE. The following night we had almost 30 teens and adults audition for ANNIE. The show calls for 8 children and over 25 adults. I worked hard to cut the 100 plus auditionees down to 25 children and 25 teens and adults for call backs. It was a very difficult decision on who to cast in many of the roles. I narrowed it down to the 7-8 strongest singers for the kids roles and then selected my choice for Annie from among the top 5 singers. Chanyng Floyd was selected for the role of Annie. This was the first time I've ever met Chanyng and was impressed by her strong dance, singing and acting abilities. I think she'll do a great job. I added three more kids as orphans from the most expressive kids who auditioned. I chose 10 orphans total because that was 5 bunk beds on the stage for the first scene and I felt that was all I could fit for the big Hard Knock Life dance number and keep everyone visible. I wish I could have cast 10 more! For the adults I only had 8 men audition for over a dozen parts. I will be trying to double and triple cast some of those men. I was fortunate that we had lots of talented men who auditioned and I could have cast the lead roles in a couple of different ways. For the women's roles two of the leads also went to first time auditionees- Kelly Ann Rathunde and Amy Perdue will play Miss Hannigan and Grace. Both gave very strong auditions and I feel they will do a great job.

We had an unusually large number of families with two or more auditioning for the show. With the limited stage space for the orphans I had to make some tough choices and not cast some family members while casting others. This was something that I felt really bad about. We have 6 families with two people in the cast. Kelly Ann Rathunde and her daughter Aubrianne, Amy Perdue and her daughter Ally, Scott Salchli and his daughter Belle, Chuck Wilkins and his wife Lisa, Chip Bohle and his wife Denise, and Roy Hensel and his daughter Emily. Each of these family members were cast independent of each other and it was quite a surprise when I discoverd that we had so many families represented. We had a couple of other first time auditionees that really impressed me- Heather Tomko and Adrianne Gleeson. Market House Theatre is blessed with a great deal of talent. We have cast members from Carbondale, Murray, and Benton. MHT is truly a regional theatre.

No sooner did I have call backs and we were taking out the chairs and putting in tables and individual chairs for the Curtain Call fundraiser Friday night. The theatre raised over $13,400 from the live and silent auction without ticket revenue from the event. Several cameo roles were auctioned off in live and silent auctions along with vacation packages and lake get away packages. A huge thank you goes to every who supported the theatre by buying a ticket and bidding on the auction packages. Several restaurants graciously donated the food and a truly hard working committee of volunteers put together auction packages and decorated the theatre for the event. Paducah Bank held a competition for an orphan girl role along with Elaine Spaulding and Mary Hammond. Elaine won a role along with Paducah Bank. Elaine and Mary graciously gave their role to a little girl who auditioned for Annie but didn't get into the final cast. Some of the large roles that were auctioned off for the one night only performance of Annie. Surprise winners were WPSD Vice President of Sales, David Jernigan, who will don a red wig and a dress as Annie to sing Tomorrow, April and Michael Cochran who the crowd all chipped in to buy the role of Miss Hanigan for April and Daddy Warbuck for me. April and I were both honored and extremely flattered by the generosity of the auction bidders in purchasing those parts for us. Don and Renie Barger purchased the role of Sandy the dog. Renie says she has a Dalmatian costume and can't wait to be Sandy for the special performance!

At the Curtain Call event we presented Todd Duff with a plaque honoring his $7,000 fund raising events of Magic shows and the finale performance of Stage to Street. After presenting the plaque to Todd it was time to announce the 48th Season lineup.

In September 2011, MHT will kick off the season with the Tony award winning musical The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. This is a very funny show about kids (played by adults) at a spelling bee. The audience in addition gets to be contestants in the spelling bee as well! October 2011, MHT's Theatre for Youth presents Charlotte's Web about Wilbur, Charlotte and Templeton. November 2011, MHT is thrilled to be one of the first community theatres in our area to produce The 39 Steps. This Hitchcock thriller combines Monty Pythonesque humor with a tingling spy thriller. Four performers play all 150 parts in the play with lots of special effects including plane crashes on stage! January 2012, during a break in hunting season MHT will produce the hysterical hunting comedy Escanaba in da Moonlight. A tale of the Soady family father and his adult sons who are out to overcome the shame of the oldest son never having bagged a buck. This is the hunting story that beats all other hunting stories and a riotous comedy. February 2012, brings MHT's Theatre for Youth The Adventures of Nate the Great. A young boy dons a fedora and takes on all the neighborhood mysteries. In April 2012 the romantic comedy Getting Sara Married takes the stage with a very funny comedy about a young woman who's Aunt kidnaps a young man has him bopped on the head and delivered to her niece's door. The Aunt thinks that he would make the perfect groom for her niece. After several concussions and lots of comedy the Aunt may be right. Wrapping up the season in June 2012 will be the hit musical Hairspray! Can Tracy find true love and integrate the Corny Collins show!

The Curtain Call Event was a big success and before the last audience members left from the event a group of staff and volunteers tore down the tables and chairs and reset the seats for the show that happens on Thursday of this week. But that didn't wrap up the week. On Saturday night a group of 10 in the Murder for Hire troupe left in two vehicles with a sound system and a set and drove to Caldwell County HS in Princeton and presented The Phantom of Princeton. A murder mystery play with a clue hunt that will be presented at the Market House as a dinner theatre on March 18 & 19.

Monday and Tuesday of this week April held auditions for EAT (It's Not About Food). Also on Monday the first rehearsal of Dixie Swim Club was held. Five separate events in 8 days!

Tomorrow McCracken County Gifted and Talented student will do their final rehearsal at the theatre for their performance on Thursday night. March is certainly coming in like a Lion as far as MHT is concerned.

February 23 2011

2011-02-23T08:09:00.002-06:00

This has been an incredibly active month behind the scenes at the theatre. Since The Complete Works of William Shakespeare closed on Jan. 23 we have presented Todd Duff and his performance of from Stage to Street, rented the theatre to Bawn in the Mash, started rehearsals for Phantom of the Market House Theatre Murder Mystery, auditioned Dixie Swim Club, and had lots of meetings about our big Curtain Call Fundraising event for Annie coming up March 4.

The Hundred Dresses will have it's first performance tomorrow morning with two school matinees followed by an evening show that night. Over the next 5 days the Hundred dresses will average 2-3 performances per day. That is the equivalent of an entire 2 week run for our mainstage shows into 1 weekend. There is a mix of newcomers and experienced MHT youth and adult actors in the production.

As with most youth productions we are struggling with all of the scenic changes and technical elements which are prominent in books for young audiences. Dozens of location changes, day dream sequences out of reality, and how to bring a book to life onstage. April has been working day and night in addition to her teaching schedule at the schools to create the music for the production. She uses a variety of sound effects and musical underscoring to set the tone of the play. I am always amazed at her ability to create a sound track for the youth productions and her ability to set just the right mood with just the right piece of music which only comes from hours of painstaking work. It has also been a challenge to create a set that changes locations so many times without slowing down the pace of the show with scene changes. April wanted a basic set that wasn't set in any specific location and to use certain areas of the stage for the school, a home, an abandoned house, the woods, etc... I designed a set with the idea that the walls would be representative like a small town quilt. Artist Theresa Perry has taken some quilt paintings that I found online and transferred those onto the set walls to give the feeling of a rural town in the 1930's. As with every show you take 2 steps forward each day and 1 step back. Things that you create during the day then have to be readjusted and redone after you see them onstage that night with the cast in a rehearsal. The creative process is rarely straight forward and ends up often with lots of trial and error which takes time yet that opening performance clock is counting down quickly.

The Curtain Call Committee chaired by past MHT President Valerie Pollard has been working very hard to come up with great auction items for the fundraiser a week from this Friday. Mary Hammond and Elaine Spaulding are raising money for the theatre to compete for one of the roles of the "oldest" orphan girl in the opening number "Hard Knock Life" in the show. There are so many committee members I can't even begin to name them all. Auction packages of vacation get away's, girl's night out, fishing parties, a day on boat at Kentucky lake, and many more will be auctioned off that night. In addition several cameo roles for the June 18 performance of Annie will be auctioned. There will be lots of great food along with beer and wine at the event and limited tickets are on sale at the box office.

Last night the arts and culture organization of Paducah/McCracken County went to the fiscal court budget workshop to request funding in the economic incentive funds. The commissioners asked lots of questions and got lots of information about all of the jobs and economic impact that the arts groups have in our community. We will hopefully hear more from the Fiscal Court in the next few months as to our possibilities for support. In total the 5 organizations last night will spend $5.5 million during the course of the year. That is paid for from tickets, fundraising events, individual and corporate donations, and support from local, state and federal government funding. The recent bills in the US House of Representatives have offered cuts of 25% to National Endowment for the Arts funding. NEA funding makes up about 15% of what the Kentucky Arts Council grants to local arts organizations. With budget cuts at the federal and state levels expected, arts groups are really struggling with providing services and programming at accessible prices for all in the community. It is the education programming that is the most subsidized by government grant money. Many groups like MHT have kept their student prices extremely low. Our children's ticket prices for youth shows have only gone up 50 cents per child over the past 10 years. Our story theatre shows have only gone up 25 cents per child over the past 10 years. When governments cut grant funding these are the programs that are hit the hardest.

Next Monday and Tuesday are auditions for Annie. I meeting today with Musical Director Doug Arnold and talked last week with Choreographer Katy Miller to prepare for the auditions. We've had lots of interest and expect a big turnout next week. The children audition on Monday night and the adults on Tuesday night.

The February Board of Directors meeting will be tonight at 5:30 in the box office lobby. They will be hearing from the Curtain call committee on last minute items left to do for the fundraiser next week and having an in depth discussion about MHT facilities and our current needs.

Life is never dull at MHT! We hope to see you at The Hundred Dresses and Curtain Call!

Jan. 30 2011

2011-01-30T21:46:00.003-06:00

A lot has happened since my last post and it seems I just posted! Complete Works of William Shakespeare had a wonderful performance run. Steve, Al, and Chuck really outdid themselves and the audiences were very responsive.

The Kentucky Arts Council Grant was submitted on Jan. 15 after about a week of work. I wrote on Facebook that no matter how much prep time I get in I'm still always down to the wire to get it submitted.

In the middle of the run of Complete Works we learned that long time MHT actress and friend Mary Margaret Hoffman passed away. The service was held on the Saturday morning before Complete Works of Shakespeare shows that afternoon and evening. I spoke with Mary Margaret's niece Mary and we arranged to have lots of photos and the painting that is hanging in our lobby at the funeral. Thank you to Betty Wise who went through the photo albums to find pictures of Mary Margaret. I went through the boxes of old publicity photos and found lots of candid shots. The theatre is looking for an appropriate way to honor Mary Margaret and her long connection to MHT. I hope to have something to announce very soon.

Auditions were held for the Dixie Swim Club and 11 talented women auditioned for 5 parts. Because of the smaller turnout for the two nights of auditions I was able to read everyone several times and was able to cast the show without callbacks. Newcomer Sandra Wilson will play Lexie. Veteran Sue Fletcher will play Vernadette, Cat Tilker will play Sheree, Marsha Cash plays Jeri Neal, and Victoria Parrish plays Dinah.

Todd Duff brought his talents to the MHT stage on Sat. Jan. 29 to a sold out audience with all tickets going to benefit MHT Youth and Outreach programming. Todd and Tiffany Gust did a wonderful performance and audiences were very enthusiastic. Todd had a dress rehearsal Friday night the 28 and after the rehearsal we reconfigured the theatre seating to give Todd better access to the audience. We took the seating that was created for The Complete Works and turned the front rows sideways so they faced the middle of the theatre. This put half of the audience withing 4 rows of Todd's performance. Todd and Tiffany did a great job adapting to the new setup. A huge Thank You goes to Todd for all his work raising over $7,000 for the theatre during November, December and January.

This afternoon (Sun. January 30) Bawn in the Mash rehearsed on the MHT stage for a couple of hours to prepare for their performance next Saturday night. They are really excited about their performance and the opening act Pokey LaFarge. In December we rented the theatre to the Doo Wop group for their Christmas show and agreed to rent the theatre to Bawn in the Mash. We have very few dates available for shows like this due to our heavy performance and rehearsal schedule but it seemed to work out well. The musical groups have really commented on how much they enjoy MHT's acoustics for a music.

April is working on several shows all at once in the school system. With all of the snow dates some of her after school rehearsals have been canceled and they are really getting tight on time. In addition The Hundred Dresses is in rehearsal.

We've had a couple of groups contact us about our Murder for Hire Troupe so we are looking at a couple of scripts right now to produce with performances in March.

The Board of Directors met last Wednesday and approved the slate of plays for next season. We will announce our 48th Season at the Curtain Call Auction on March 4. The board also continued to work on the Curtain Call event coming up and reviewing the results of our Webb Management consultant report. President Cindy Miller has formed a couple of "task forces" for certain areas and we will come back with the results on a board retreat on April 16.

We have just under a month until auditions for Annie and our Curtain Call fundraiser. The Curtain Call committee chaired by Valerie Pollard has developed some great themed auction items for the event and everyone is excited.

1-11-11

2011-01-11T22:44:00.000-06:00

It’s two days before opening for the Complete Works of William Shakespeare Abridged and the theatre was full of activity- but not from the Complete Works cast- they had the night off. Director Ross Daniels has the cast tuned up and ready for the opening and decided that what they really needed was a night off. A great deal of the show has the actors improvising with the audience. It is difficult to rehearse these sections without an audience and keep them lively so Ross suggested it and I agreed that a night off wasn’t a bad idea. This will also help the performers be fully rested for the performances this week. Crew members Denise Bristol, Diane Byrd and Kris Shanks have been refining their dresser duties backstage for the past week to make it seemless for the actors to walk offstage and immediately back on in a new costume. Lisa Wilkins and Jim Roush are running lights and sound for the show.

In the Classroom Tuesday night everything was buzzing with almost 70 auditionees trying out for roles in The Hundred Dresses. April said she had a great turnout with lots of really talented new people as well as the veteran youth and adult performers from past shows. Tonight was the second night of auditions for the show. As I write this April is busy pouring over the auditions forms looking at which actors might work well in the roles, looking at schedule conflicts listed the auditionees listed on their auditions sheets and trying to determine a call back list. The Hundred Dresses opens in about 6 weeks!

As many people already know Rhiannon Dodds McIntosh left the theatre after 7 years as a box office assistant over the Christmas break. Rhiannon found a job much closer to home and can now be home in the evenings with her son, daughter and new husband! We wish her the very best. We have had several calls and emails asking if we are going to hire someone to fill the vacant position. At the present time we are doing a thorough review of all the administrative duties and staffing positions. The last time we did a review was just before we hired Alexis as the Box Office Manager almost 5 years ago. After we finish our review we will post any open positions on our website and in this blog and seek applicants to fill the position or positions. We currently hope to have new staff in place and trained by the opening of The Hundred Dresses in February.

This week and last has also been spent working on plays and royalties for next season as well as writing the Kentucky Arts Council Grant for our next fiscal year. The grant is due Jan. 15 and it is always a race to get it submitted by the deadline. Each year I spend two weeks writing about the economic impact on our community, the 50+ jobs that MHT supports in the community, the 300+ performers and technical crew members at MHT, the over 40,000 people who participate in some manner in MHT programming, the money that is raised in local tax revenues for the city of Paducah from MHT programming and audience spending, and the 15-17 plays and productions created each year. The staff collects samples of our programs, advertising, and other things that we include with the grant to prove that we credit the Kentucky Arts Council for their funds and prove the quality of our programming. The same kind of grant writing for Kentucky Arts Council funding is happening at the Symphony, Carson Center, Yeiser, Maiden Alley Cinema, and Quilt Museum. In a continuing tradition of making my life difficult, this year’s ART’s DAY at the Kentucky Capitol building in Frankfort is once again the week we open a show- The Hundred Dresses.

Valerie Pollard and the Curtain Call Committee meet this week to start the intensive work until the first week of March and the auction to raise funds for the theatre by auctioning off roles in a special performance of ANNIE in June. I spent a couple hours today going through the Annie script and pulling out cameo roles that could be auctioned off. Each year it gets harder to top the previous year!

Christmas Eve Eve

2010-12-23T15:10:00.000-06:00

It was 2:30 pm on December 23 and all through the house (Market House that is) not a creature was purring, not even a mouse (we've trapped them all).
The staff hung their stockings on the mantle (prop fireplace in the display window in front of the scene shop) with care in the hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there.
Marsha and Rhiannon were complaining to Michael. We need more time off for Christmas to prepare!
Janice was busy in her second floor shop, trying to find a pair of knickers for Chuck before we stop.
Jim was out bargaining for a ukelele for Ross. Who wants the actors to learn to play music without any props.
April was entertaining, now that school was out. She took Jade and a friend, to an afternoon movie bout.
Marsha was busy with Constant Contact. She's trying to import graphics, which gives her a pain in the back.
Rhiannon is sorting and delivering mail, she's also on the look out for anything with a tail.
Michael is in the office fixing websites and grants. He's drinking his coffee and shouting in rants.
The end of the day is coming quickly said he, I hope that we get all this stuff done by three!
So its off to the kennel! And off to the bank! Go dash to the post office and don't be a crank!
So to all Market House fans, both far and near, Have a Merry Merry Christmas and we'll see you next year!

Mid Year Update

2010-12-16T09:25:00.003-06:00

Yesterday we started experiencing some telephone equipment problems and will be working to correct those. If you call the theatre you may end up having to leave a message and we will return your call. We are having to bypass our telephone system in order to allow incoming calls to reach our box office during business hours without cutting them off. Its amazing what you can work around when you need to. Unfortunately our telephone equipment is almost 10 years old and is still operating on a Windows 95 computer system that we keep in the phone closet. We are investigating upgrading out system. We have certainly got our money's worth out of the system.

April is rushing around with classes in the schools while at the same time holding auditions for some of the school productions that she directs. Clark Elementary school will produce Cinderella Kids as their school play and she is holding auditions at the school this work along with the school music teacher Dale Julian. She recently had auditions at Lone Oak Elementary for a play she is working on there as well. April has so many different classes and plays going on that I can't keep up with her schedule.

Technical Director, Jim Keeney, is continuing to work on the Complete Works set and is also still trying to organize the warehouse. I'm really hoping that he gets some time to clean the scene shop. It's in desperate need of a cleaning after our hectic fall schedule. If anyone has some time to sort screws and do general clean up in the shop it would be greatly appreciated.

Business Manager Marsha Cash and Box Office Assistant Rhiannon McIntosh are still on the hunt for a mouse who has made the office its home. We've set out traps and other devices to try to rid ourselves of it. Today in the box office we heard paper behind one of the desks moving and when we investigated we found that our little friend was nibbling on our season ticket holder charts! While not playing mousetrap the office staff has been looking at colors and working with a printer on new ticket stock. We order about 25,000 blank tickets at a time and as we sell them they are printed with information. About every 18 months we have to order new stock. We've had pink, green, and blue tickets. This year's color choice seems to be moving towards a pale purple.

The MHT Board of Directors met last night for our December meeting. Some of the staff was able to join the board in a more social setting at the Cochran house to share some holiday food and merriment! In addition to the social setting the board did conduct a business meeting and we reviewed two important documents the theatre received during the last month.

The first document was the official audit for the last year we completed back in June which was done by CPA firm Williams, Williams and Lentz. We had a great year last year and the theatre ended the year with a small surplus of funds. We have already invested some of that surplus into the purchase of the Arcade building and contracting Webb Management services out of NYC to do a thorough review of our organization structure and needs. The board intends to use the rest of the surplus to help us build up our reserve funds for those years that we don't do as well. I have already posted the official audit on our website and will add some additional information regarding number of people served and economic impact later today to that posting.

The second document discussed was the Webb management report as well. The report confirmed to us that our #1 priority is to secure the long term usage of the Market House building. Our lease runs out in 2014 and without long term control of our current space the theatre is not willing to commit the $50-$75,000 of renovation expenses on the lobby and restrooms. A committee is being formed to evaluate options and then meet with city representatives. We are waiting for the release of the River Area Master Plan report commissioned by the city. We would like to have this resolved as soon as possible so that we can move on to other organizational and facility needs that are outlined in our consultant report.

Overall the theatre is in a strong financial shape and we are almost half way through our current fiscal year. We are on track to meet our financial goals for the current year. I can't say enough about the MHT Board of Directors and the great job they are doing. President Cindy Miller has devoted countless hours to staying in touch with MHT donors and sponsors and letting them know how much we appreciate their support, helping put together the Offstage Noises Newsletters, and so many other things. Vice President Melisa Mast has been vital to MHT's marketing efforts and fundraising efforts with posters and flyers and postcards. Board members Scott Taylor, Jennifer Hughes, Barbara Allen, Don Barger, Pam Benzing, Chip Bohle, Denise Bristol, Sarah Roman, Sid Hancock, Kijsa Housman, Kathryn Joyner, Heather Overby, and Kristin Williams are passionate about the mission of the theatre and actively involved in all the fundraising events and strategic planning for the theatre. I can't thank them enough for all their work to support the theatre and the staff. In addition the Trustee group has provided invaluable advice over the past year on finances, programming and facilities. MHT has so many people working very hard to make it a success and they don't get thanked nearly enough.

As we get ready for the holidays and look back on the year I also want to thank all of the volunteers who are the heart and soul of this organization. We have a group of dedicated ushers who always step forward every time Marsha sends out an email request for help. We have been blessed so far this year with an incredible pool of actors who have created shows that truly delighted audiences. The small group of dedicated technical crew members have stepped in to help out when we needed them most this year deserve a big thanks as well.

The theatre office will be open through December 23. We will be closed December 24 through Jan. 3. The offices will reopen after the holidays on Jan. 4. Many of the theatre staff head off to various parts of the country over the Christmas break to be with family. A big thank you goes to the MHT staff who puts so much time and passion into their work- Marsha Cash, Rhiannon McIntosh, Janice Peterson, Jim Keeney, and Sandy Harben for all their hard work in 2010! Finally I have to thank April, who amazes me constantly with her talent and abilities in theatre. The theatre would never have achieved as much success as it has if it wasn't for her unending hard work and sacrifice. Every time I think she's peaked she just keeps getting better.

December 5 2010

2010-12-05T21:10:00.004-06:00

The Story Theatre tour ended with a shocking finale at Meridian Elementary school. The Gym floor was made of small hardened rubber tiles that seemed to generate static electricity. Everything that we touched created a static shock. During the show I played the Wolf and put on Grandma's cape and glasses. After Little Red (Julie Price) discovers its the wolf in Grandma's bed, she gets chased around the stage with the wolf trying to get her goodies. I finally got the basket and pretended to eat all of the goodies and then got sleepy and fell asleep on the bed. Kim Yocum who played the Grandmother came out of hiding in the closet and took her glasses off the sleeping wolf's face and put them on. When Kim touched the glasses perched on my nose a large static shock was created between the glasses and my nose. It was everything I could do to keep pretending I was asleep and Kim had to fight bursting into laughter as the Grandma. It is certainly an electrifying moment in the final performance that I will always remember.

Last Thursday night the Lone Oak Middle School presented a murder mystery performance performed by the drama club and directed by April. The kids did a great job and the event sold out. April did a great job of directing as well. The event raised money for the school library.

Last week Jim Keeney cut a section of the front of the stage out and built steps to insert in the center front of the stage for the Complete Works of Shakespeare. There is a section of the show that requires the actors in the audience. We took rows A-G and separated the rows between seats 6 & 7. Seats 1-6 are now on the house right and seats 7-13 are on house left with a center aisle between them. We put in an aisle all the way across the theatre in front of row H for access to the center aisle. Marsha Cash and Rhiannon Mackintosh called those ticket holders who sit in seats 6 & 7 and either confirmed that they were okay with the change for Complete Works or moved them into open seats next to their original seats. The new seats we purchased at the beginning of 2010 allowed us to create this option for the Shakespeare show. I want to stress that this arrangement is just for this production of Complete Works.

The theatre has received the draft of the first part of our consultant report and it stresses the need for MHT to tackle several issues. The most important issue is for the theatre to get a long term commitment from the City of Paducah to occupy the Market House building. The theatre's lease ends in 2014 and we are in discussions with the consultants from the River Area Master Plan and the city to work out long term agreement. A second issue is a restroom renovation in the main theatre. Our preliminary costs are over $50,000 for the renovation. Over the next few months the theatre board will review the consultants reports and look for ways forward.

Tomorrow, Dec. 6 the staff will take the day off and celebrate the holidays with a lunch and then a movie in the afternoon. This is an annual staff tradition at the theatre. The next few weeks up to the Christmas break we will be working on the set fo the Complete Works of Shakespeare and continuing organizing our warehouse space. I'm putting the old theatre seats on sale on a couple of online websites to see if we can sell off the approximately 170 seats that are currently in storage. If you know of anyone who is interested in buying the seats have them contact the theatre.

On December 10 the theatre is rented for a musical group presenting a Doo Wop Christmas show. We have posters on the theatre doors that promote the event for the group.

11-14-2010

2010-11-14T22:22:00.002-06:00

I don’t think I could be any more tired. Bloody Murder opened Thursday night to a great show. Jennifer Poff has done an outstanding job of coming in with only a couple of weeks before opening to take on the role of Lady Somerset. She has the largest amount of lines in the play and has really worked hard and it has paid off. Veteran cast members Kris Shanks, Tom Dolan, Rayla Trigg, Roy Hensel all do a great job. Kris Shanks would laugh being called a veteran considering just 5 months ago she was making her MHT debut. Seth Mittendorf who is making his debut with Bloody Murder has also turned in a great performance. With one weekend of the show now complete the audience response has been very positive and the cast can take a well deserved couple of days off before they start back up next Thursday.

Saturday saw a cold morning alternating between light rain and misting rain. The theatre was fortunate enough to be able to borrow a large truck from Ray Black and Son to try to move a majority of the 3,000 square feet of storage from the Easter Seals building behind Bikeworld to the theatre’s new storage building inside the old Arcade theatre. A small but determined crew turned out to take 4 truckloads of scenery. A huge thank you goes to Diane Bryd, Patt Lynch, and Charles Keeney who joined Jim Keeney and I from 9am-5pm lifting and carrying scenery. Jim’s parents joined in about mid day and stayed until the end. Luke Wilkins worked in the morning and had to leave mid day. The move was exhausting. Patt Lynch took lots of photos and I hope that I can get a copy of them to post on facebook.

Jim, his brother Charles, and I continued the move Sunday morning with the borrowed truck. The three of us did a load in the morning and then while I covered the Sunday matinee of Bloody Murder, Jim and Charles installed more racks at the arcade. As soon as the show was over the three of us went back to the Easter Seals and loaded all of the platforms and step units. As of Sunday night about ½ of the scenery has been transferred from the Easter Seals to the Arcade. Jim and I will continue during the week to take a couple of loads every day as weather and time permits. Our goal is to be out of the Easter Seals completely by Thanksgiving. We have two weeks left and I think we can make it. If anyone has time and the ability to help we can certainly use the help. Contact Jim Keeney or Marsha Cash and let them know when you are available.

MHT Board Members have been coming in to work on the annual fund drive campaign. Hopefully those letters will be out by mid week. I read in the paper today about the Carson Center year end deficit. We should have the MHT audit completed with the next couple of days and will share that with the public. We had a positive year that ended last June 30. By all of our early estimates MHT ended the year with a surplus of funds due to better than expected fundraising by the board of directors, strong box office receipts and a continued effort to reduce expenses.

While MHT ended the year with a surplus we have also invested a great deal of that surplus on consultants to help us with strategic planning for the next 3 years and the purchase of the arcade theatre building to solve our continuing storage problems. We hope that these expenses will help MHT be even more solvent in the future. The theatre staff and board have spent a great deal of time and effort on sustainability and long term financial growth for Market House Theatre.

Monday evening the play selection committee will meet again. We have a couple of great musicals that we are looking at. Several comedies and romantic comedies have been read and we are still looking for new scripts. It was just 12 months ago that we discovered the brand new script Bloody Murder. It is our goal to find great scripts and put them together with dedicated and talented actors and create a season that not only audiences will buy tickets for, but that actors want to audition for as well. Occasionally audience members will email me or tell me suggestions for scripts they have seen at other theatres. I’m always happy to hear from audiences and performers to try to balance a season of plays.

There are a few weeks left to book Todd Duff as a sleight of hand artist for holiday parities. All the proceeds from Todd’s bookings in November and December go to the Market House Theatre. Todd is incredibly talented and a big hit at any party. Don’t miss out!

10-26-2010

2010-10-26T08:02:00.002-05:00

It seems I've just posted and it's already been a week. Alice in Wonderland Jr. finished up its run last weekend with terrific audience response. The cast and crew did an outstanding job with the production and it was received with an overwhelmingly positive response from audiences.

Last Friday the MHT Ghost Tours moved to Oak Grove Cemetery. Friday night's fundraising event was a terrific success. MHT Board President Cindy Miller and committee chair Kathryn Joyner along with committee members Heather Overby, Melisa Mast did a great job. All MHT board members contributed food for the event and helped with hosting at the hospitality tent. Tour guides Kim Yocum, Cat Tilker, Fowler Black and Marsha Cash did an outstanding job of learning the script with very little time and creating historical portrayals of the people interred in Oak Grove Cemetery. Saturday night the response was so positive that we added a tour at 7:20 after the 7:00 and 7:45 tours sold out. The guides were kept very busy just finishing up one tour group as another appeared.

A big thank you goes to the Paducah Parks department for helping MHT make this event possible. The night tours of the Mausoleum were a big hit with those taking the tour. The combination of history and a beautiful fall evening, with a full moon both nights, led to a wonderful event. The Oak Grove Cemetery tours continue this Thursday and Friday evening.

MHT has a board meeting this Wednesday to review the completed first quarter of the year. We have struggled with some income areas due to the economy and exceeded our goals in other areas. This year with the purchase of the Arcade building for storage has added a few additional expenses to get the building ready for use. MHT had to do over $2,000 in brick work to stabilize the building in addition to the purchase price. The electrical costs will also run about a $1,000 to get electric service to the building. The theatre has engaged Webb Management resources from NY to do a thorough review of MHT operations and our current facilities. All these things add up and the theatre board has done a great job of trying to balance the additional costs while staying within the budget and a strong financial position. MHT staff continues to keep a close eye on expenses as well.

Bloody Murder has gone through a couple of cast changes as it makes its way towards opening. One of the actors who was first cast had to drop out due to a family medical situation which required them to travel to be with their loved ones. Sunday the cast of Alice in Wonderland and some wonderful parents of some of the kids came in and we cleared the stage after the final performance. On Monday, Jim Keeney and I set up several flats for the beginning of the set for Bloody Murder and the cast moved to the stage with furniture and most of the walls in place less than 24 hours after the full Alice in Wonderland performance ended.

Debra Harned is finishing up the last of the program for Bloody Murder to submit this week while the newsletter written by Don Barger, Sarah Roman, Cindy Miller and myself goes to press. In addition the theatre is just about to send out our annual fund drive information. October has been a very, very, busy month.

10-19-2010

2010-10-19T07:36:00.002-05:00

It has been a long week since my last post. Alice in Wonderland Jr opened to rave reviews. I think that April has outdone herself again and the show ranks right up there with some of the best productions MHT has ever done. The cast is terrific and Janice Peterson's costumes really shine. Kelly Salchli who was the scenic artist also did a terrific job of creating a fantasy world. When I designed the panels, I asked Kelly to paint topiary with hidden animals in the bushes and wispy images of Alice in the clouds. She did a great job of hiding the images and you have to look close to find them all. See how many you can find if you attend the play next weekend. The cast did six school matinees which were sold out with standing room only. The public performances have been about 95% capacity. The cast is currently off for 4 days and will return for 2 final performances next Saturday and Sunday afternoon. If you haven't seen it don't wait to get tickets because I anticipate tickets will go fast for the final two performances.

The Downtown Walking and Bus Ghost Tours started off the month of October slow and last weekend finished with a bang! We had to add two additional tours on Saturday evening to accommodate the ticket demand. A very special thanks goes out to all the guides, Marsha Cash, Phil Counts, Cat Tilker, and Fowler Black. Last Friday evening while Alice in Wonderland was performing on the stage Cat Tilker had to lead all 3 walking tours that night. The following night Marsha Cash and I did three walking tours each and Fowler did both bus tours. Saturday night we did a total of 7 tours between 6:30 and 9:30. Speaking from experience as one of the guides to do 3 tours in a row takes a little over 3 hours of solid walking and speaking with only enough time to get a drink of water before heading out with the next tour. Great job Cat and Marsha! Fowler had his own unique experience with the bus tours on Friday night. The bus he was in stopped across the street from the old first national bank building on 3rd street near the Silver Bullet bar. Fowler was telling the tale of Popular Foot and suddenly a man dressed in dark clothing with a short cane staggered up to the bus and began to bank on the doors. The people on the tour were all startled and thought it was part of the tour. Fowler got off the bus to talk with the man who had obviously too much to drink and tried to get him to go back into the Silver Bullet. The man was quite obstinate. The amazing thing was that the story of Popular Foot is about a man who has his head cut off by a wagon wheel. The man in dark clothes that banged on the bus doors had a scar that ran from behind his ear almost all the way around his neck! Fowler said he was a little spooked by the coincidence as well! One of the people on the tour bus called the police because they were afraid the man would hurt himself falling in the street. The police showed up and Fowlers bus tour continued on. Needless to say it was a memorable event for everyone on the bus when "Popular Foot" made an appearance!

A huge thank you goes to First Presbyterian church and the several members of the church who volunteered as drivers for the tours. I can't thank the church and those volunteers enough for helping us with our tours.

Story theatre is in the final weeks before it sets out on tour with Little Red Riding Hood. The cast rehearses during the mornings and we are racing to get that set built and painted before it goes on Tour Nov. 1. Yesterday the brick and block work was completed at the old Arcade building. The electrician was there most of the day putting in the new power meter and breaker panel. Jim and I spent about 2 hours yesterday sweeping and removing dust and debris from the floor so that we could start moving furniture and scenery from the Easter Seals building to the Arcade. We can't begin the official move until we have permission from he building inspector after they look at the brick and block work and approve the electrical lighting for the space.

Bloody Murder is in rehearsal each week night. Last night The Complete Works of Shakespeare took advantage of the free stage space in the main theatre to rehearse with a couple of the cast members. Play selection met last night and discussed several plays.

This week we are working hard with the board and the staff to get ready for the Oak Grove tours starting Friday with the fundraising event. The tour guides from the walking tours are helping me with the Oak Grove tours and I owe them a huge thanks and apologies for getting them the script so late. Some of them are just getting their scripts today! They will have about 3 days to cram for the event in order to learn their parts. I'm still writing my part for the tours and will hopefully have it polished and ready to go before Friday as well.

Sunday evening I lead a tour for the First Presbyterian youth group as a way of saying thank you for the loan of the bus. As I finished up the last stories I did find myself sad and proud. Sad that the downtown walking tours had reached the end for this year as we move to Oak Grove and proud of all of the guides and the board members who helped make these tours happen. They all deserve a rousing ovation and my heartfelt thanks for creating something that was truly memorable.

10-10-10

2010-10-11T07:45:00.002-05:00

I've always liked dates that have symmetry.

We have officially entered Tech Week for Alice in Wonderland Jr. That means that a tremendous amount of work has to be completed in a short time. Costumer Janice Peterson has been burning the midnight oil trying to get costumes ready and she still has a ways to go before we open Thursday. Some of the actors had complete costumes, but other were still wearing street clothes because their costumes were still awaiting assembly in the costume shop. The set was about 3/4 completed, lacking mostly just the final painting for Wonderland. Stools that Tech Director Jim Keeney had built remained raw wood and some of the prop pieces that drop from the "sky" were still "do-fers". For instance the bottle that magically appears for Alice to drink from was a green plastic Sprite bottle for rehearsal until the real bottle is created and attached. Jim Keeney is still working on the shades that we are using to create the look of the scenery growning and shrinking as Alice changes size during the show. They have to rise to a height of 10 feet and shrink to as little as 2 feet.

The scenic projections were purchased from Istock photo and Creststock photo. Some of them were Photoshopped to create a more illustrated look to match the painting on the set walls. I must have looked at almost 2,000 photos and illustrations to find the 10 images that will end up being in the show. In addition there is some video for Alice falling down the rabbit hole. I purchased the video and then opened it in video editing software to expand the length of the looped software. After several tries I finally got the 20 second video clip extended to 5 minutes. We projected the video and I immediately realized that I needed to put the video in slow motion. When I went back in and edited the video to create a slow motion effect the video slowed down but became jerky as it seemed to pause just slightly every so often. That lost the fluid movement that the extended video had so we then changed it back to the first video.

Tech week is full taking an idea that you have created which works in theory and then putting it into practice. What usually happens is that part of it works and part of it doesn't so you then begin to redesign and rebuild to work through the problems at each phase of the process until you have a finished product. I loaded the sound into the computer and April edited it into the software that we use for playback. We found there was a loud buzz in the system. After spending time making sure that all of the power sources were run through a power conditioner to eliminate any grounding problems I was no closer to solving the mystery of the buzz. I then began to change out all of the sound cables to see if one of them was laying across a power source or was unshielded. After several cords were changed out I finally found the culprit and eliminated about 90% of the buzz. There is still a few more cables to move and check but that requires ladders to trace the sound cables over 75 feet that winds its way from the back of the theatre to the stage.

All of this can lead to incredible stress on the director of the show. April is trying to pull all the actors together while the technical elements are added and sometimes eliminated for re-working and then re-added. Trying to make decisions as to what is acceptable, and what must change is a constant battle for all directors and designers. An example from yesterday's tech rehearsal were actors who were standing on the edge of the light at the front of the stage. Do you move the actors about a foot or do you refocus the lights a foot further over. If you refocus then the lights may light up an area that you are trying not to light because you want to reduce the acting area so that the entire set isn't lit. I probably have 50 lighting notes about refocusing, or redesigning some lighting cues to eliminate the actors standing at the edge of the scene who are in partially in the dark.

Friday MHT officially closed on the old Arcade theatre building after 2 1/2 months of setbacks. We still have some hurdles to jump getting the building ready for use as a storage space but the deal has at least been completed. This week masons will come in and brick up door openings between the Arcade theatre section and the rest of the Arcade building to create a firewall between the buildings. As soon as that is complete and new electric service is run and attached to the building then we can start moving our current storage space contents into the new building.

Saturday morning after about 2 weeks of smelling random natural gas on the side walk between the offices and the scene shop I called the gas company and they came out and found a small gas leak at a valve under the brick street. Saturday morning the gas company closed off 1/2 of the market house square (right during Market Square Mornings) and dug up part of the street to fix the leak. I was a little concerned about its effects on Market Square Mornings and the Ghost Tours for Saturday night but the street was reopened that afternoon with barricades around the hole in the street and waling and bus tours went on without a hitch. Next Friday and Saturday will conclude the last tours downtown before we move our historic tours to Oak Grove Cemetery on Oct. 22.

On the things to do list for this week are finish up Alice and get it open, story theatre rehearsals for Little Red Riding Hood and get that set design finalized, get a set design finalized so Phil Counts can begin staging for Bloody Murder which is rehearsing each night this week, get the Fall Annual Fund Drive letter printed and processed, get the Arcade ready for storage, read scripts for next season, finish up the research on the Oak Grove Cemetery script and planning for the event, do final details on the Mad Hatter Tea Party in connection with Alice in Wonderland, and hopefully selling lots of tickets to all of the events!

10-4-2010

2010-10-05T11:05:00.001-05:00

We had the first two evenings of Ghost Tours this past weekend. We knew that with fall break starting and the Paducah Symphony playing Saturday we might have small crowds for the Ghost Tours. We did have quite a few who bought tickets at the door so that was great. It was disappointing that we didn’t have anything in the newspaper until Sunday about the ghost tours and the October events. I told someone else it’s hard to believe that October is here. MHT Business Manager Marsha Cash did the first two tours on Friday night and Cat Tilker and Fowler Black shadowed her tours. I took the last tour Friday. Both Marsha and I have been battling allergies and colds. We both sounded like frogs Friday night. Saturday Marsha had no voice and she gladly gave up the guide spot to Cat Tilker. Cat did the 6:30 pm Saturday tour and I took the 7:30 and 8:30 tours. Next weekend we will hopefully have both Cat and Fowler up to speed and I’ll concentrate on guiding the bus tours.

Saturday morning was the third Market Square Morning where the streets were closed off around the Market House building. We had a smaller turnout than the first two weeks. We didn’t close the square last week because of the BBQ festival. It was also Fall break so that may have contributed to the lower numbers. One of vendors commented that there is always someone ready to offer a quick reason that attendance is down when you do something like this. We have 3 more weekends to to go and are looking forward to bigger crowds. We will wrap up Oct. 23.

Last week was crazy in trying to wrap up the sale of the Arcade theatre building. It seemed that just as soon as we cleared one hurdle another presented itself. Most of the hurdles came from trying to find out who had what paperwork or authority in the city government and to get the inspection department to sign off on the project even after we had cleared all the other hurdles. With so many city departments involved it was a miracle that we got through it as quickly as we did. I spent almost 2 full days last week tracking down city departments and information.

This morning the auditors came in for our annual audit. I spent part of the day reprinting minutes of past board meetings and trying to locate other files. As part of our grant processes we have an independent audit firm conduct an annual audit. Sandy our bookkeeper had me tracking down how many mentions WKMS made and for what production last year as part of the trade for sponsorships. There will be interviews with all staff members and the usual review of how all income and expenses are documented and the processes by which money is handled. While this is important for our grants, it is more a matter of MHT have transparency in all our financial dealings so that donors and participants can all have confidence that we are spending money wisely and that our board and staff are all concerned with the integrity of the organization. When someone donates they want to know that the bulk of their donation is going to fund programs they care about and not administrative overhead. I’m pleased to say that MHT does an outstanding job in directing the donated funds and grant funds to where it can do the most good with almost no administrative costs.

We have 6 days until the technical rehearsal for Alice in Wonderland Jr. That means that we are working on getting the set finished and getting the scenery and projections completed. Tech week is always a long labor intensive week that requires a great deal of work to be done in a very short time. As of today we have to paint all the scenery to look like a park setting. The slides have to be designed yet for the different locations and two large trees, a house that moves on and offstage, a house costume for Alice when she grows bigger than the house have yet to be built. Two courtroom dockets, some small bushes and branches and a bench that wraps around a tree. In addition when the rabbit goes down the hole our trap door lift has to be configured for the actors weight. TD Jim Keeney, scenic artist Kelly Salchli, myself, and costumer Janice Peterson have a lot to do. April as director is also out hunting props today for several costume/props pieces.

I’m still working on the script for the Oak Grove Cemetery tours. I hope to have that done before the end of the week so the tour guides and actors can have at least two weeks with it before we perform it. I’ve gotten some great help from several people who have provided me with research materials. Speaking of scripts play selection meets for the second time this evening at 5:30 at the theatre. There is a group of about 10 people who have all volunteered to read scripts. Over the weekend I read 3 more scripts that might be possibilities for next season. Some of them are by playwrights whose work we’ve recently produced at the theatre.

We hope to have our fall annual fund drive kicked off next week so we are putting the finishing touches on that campaign. Many of the theatre’s donors have been involved with us for years and keep supporting us even during tough economic times. I received a wonderful compliment this past Saturday from someone who has been coming to the theatre for over 30 years. She said that the positive impact MHT has had on the youth of this community will be felt for generations to come. We see so many adults who participated as a child and are now coming back to the theatre and bringing their children with them and signing them up for Footlights classes.

I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change Final Weekend

2010-09-15T09:56:00.002-05:00

(***After I wrote this Tuesday, I found out that our website provider has been experiencing some technical problems they hope to have resolved later today and will get us changed over hopefully by the end of the day Wednesday.)

As I write this I'm using a new blogging software and the theatre will hopefully unveil our redesigned website today. I hope that you like our new website format. While it is easier to update and change it has taken me a while to learn the ins and outs of a new software program. As a result I'm behind in my blogs about the show and what's going on at the theatre. We hope that the new home page format will allow smart phone users and computer internet users an easier way to interact with our site.

I Love You You're Perfect Now Change is about to enter its third and final week of performances. It has been a wonderful run so far with lots of great moments. Audience response has been overwhelmingly positive. During the first weekend we had a very special treat for audiences on Friday evening Sept. 3! I had been contacted by Russ Whalen about using the theatre for a short time so that he could propose to his girlfriend. Russ was driving in from Louisville and meeting his girlfriend Emily Kaler in Paducah. I suggested instead that he come to the performance of I LOVE YOU, YOU'RE PERFECT and at intermission "pop" the question. The production of I LOVE YOU, YOU'RE PERFECT, has had more people propose during performances than any other. He agreed and on the night of the performance I went up to do the raffle drawing and then said "We have decided to pick someone at random out of the audience to do or drawing tonight! I then walked back down the aisle to his seat and pointed at Russ and said we had chosen him. He stood up and then turned to Emily and said "before I do that I would like to do something else" He pulled out a diamond ring and asked her to marry him.

The second weekend our audience response was overwhelmingly positive again and we settled in for a great weekend of performances. On Saturday evening during the "car" scene Melanie Koch's chair got a flat (lost a wheel) as she was spinning around in circles and she had to literally drag the chair back to the center to finish the song. She did it with such style that I couldn't tell what had happened. On Sunday Towneley Williams called me to tell me she had lost her voice. I called all of the actors in 30 minutes early and Towneley tried to sing her part. I made a decision to have the other actresses fill in for her in her solo scenes. Melanie did "A Stud and a Babe", Audra did "He Called Me" and because of the difficulty with the staging and the lyrics, Towneley acted the role in "The Marriage Tango" while Victoria Parrish stood offstage and sang while Towneley lip-sinked the song. The entire cast all did a great job of covering and we are all keeping our fingers crossed that Towneley has fully recovered for the final week of the show. It is one thing to be familiar with the show and to step in to do someone's role. It is a whole other level to step in with 30 minutes notice to learn the music and do the movement in front of an audience and do it from memory. Fowler emailed me Monday morning to tell me that his voice was gone and that he was headed to the doctor for some help before we start back up again Thursday night. I've got my fingers crossed we have a healthy cast on Thursday.

I knew that when the Play Selection Committee selected I LOVE YOU, YOU'RE PERFECT, NOW CHANGE that some in our audience would not like the play. It has a little bit stronger language and adult content than many of the plays that we have done in the last several years. I received a call this afternoon from a season ticket holder who did not like the show at all and wanted to express his feelings. I noticed a few people leave at intermission and I assumed that the play was not something they enjoyed. The gentleman who called me this afternoon was very polite and simply wanted to express his feelings. It is never easy to sit quietly and have someone tell you how unhappy they are with something you have done. I do appreciate that this ticket holder cared enough to call me to let me know that not everyone loved the show. Every audience member is important to us and we value their opinions. We are a community theatre and as such we try to make sure that the majority of our programming reflects the community values.

As the Artistic Director of the theatre it is my job to select and review all the plays that the theatre considers producing. I am the person who submitted this play to be considered by the play selection committee. It received rave reviews from other theatres around the country. I wanted to take a moment to share why I thought this was a show that MHT should produce. I LOVE YOU, YOU'RE PERFECT, NOW CHANGE contains a comic view of men and women and the biological and emotional rollercoaster that we ride on as we look for love and companionship in our lives. Two of the songs in the show are extremely poignant in the show. "I Will be Loved Tonight" and "Shouldn't I be Less in Love with You". Speak about the joy and the pain that relaitionships, or the lack of, bring to our lives. "The very first dating video of Rose Ritz" is an incredibly funny and moving story of a woman whose husband abandoned her and whose world collapses, yet she picks herself up and goes back out to find love again. "Funeral's are for Dating" lets us look at what it is like for two older people who have lost the love of their lives, their spouses to death, and they continue on with life because they still have so much to give. Very few plays can bring us to tears from laughter and tears from an honest moment in the story of relationships. The last song- "Keep coming Back" sums it all up. Those were the reasons that I submitted this play for reveiw even though I knew some of our season ticket holders would not like it.

The theatre's purpose is to enrich our lives with stories and entertainment. Our brand " We don't just entertain... We change lives" means more than just a slogan. If we wanted to just entertain we would never do anything that would upset or challenge our audiences. (I'm not sure it's possible to not upset anyone and still do something that has value.) Almost every play that has some "guts" to it will upset someone. Cinderella upset some audience members because they thought it had too much kissing in it. Wizard of Oz upset some audience members because it had magic and witches. Smoke on the Mountain upset some audience members because they said we were doing church plays and not secular plays. Any time we do a drama we upset someone because they feel we should only do comedies that make us forget about the problems of real life. If we do a children's show some adults don't want to see children acting, if we do an adult show some audience members want us to do shows that acceptable for children to watch. In the end the only thing I can do is to accept criticism from others in the spirit that they really do care about the theatre and feel that their thoughts and feelings matter to make MHT a better place.

Each play we put on someone comes up to me and tells me they love this play and it is the best show they've every seen and someone else will walk out at intermission (or before) and tell me how much they hated this play. Like the song at the end of I LOVE YOU YOU'RE PERFECT NOW CHANGE, we as a theatre company keep coming back. Back to deciding to produce another play, back to auditioning another cast, back to creating a play that we know someone will love and someone will hate.

Pefect Now Change

2010-09-02T11:44:00.002-05:00

Tech week is over and tonight we open the show and the official start of our 47th season. It must be something in the air as all of the other arts and business people I talked to in the last week talked about crazy things are right now. Getting the first show open is a marathon task. Debra Harned is the graphic artist for the theatre who lays out our program. We were late this year in getting our ad sales and sponsors which then pushed the program up and past the deadline. We print the cover and all the color pages once for the entire year. That’s 10,000 covers and color pages that have to be correct for the entire year. After we dropped off what we thought was the final proof on Friday August 13, we had two more color ads come in from businesses that we had given up on. I literally ran over to our printer and told them to hold the press and had them reset the color pages. We worked almost round the clock on the weekend of August 21 & 22 getting final ad copy and sponsor listing for the 32 black and white pages that we turned in August 23. I was still talking to sponsor and getting and creating ad copy right up to turning in the proof. The good news is that we received the printed programs yesterday and they look great.

At the same time we were in rehearsals for the show and trying to finish the set and lights. Last Saturday it was a 14 hour work day which was to finish the hang and focus of lights which started on the Thursday before. We began setting light cues at about 3:30 Saturday afternoon and ended about 10:30 that night. Setting light cues involves Stage Manager Denise Bristol walking through the different scenes on stage while I sit in the audience with the light board and set the cues. At 10:30 Denise left with a prop list of items that was needed for the tech rehearsal the next day and I went home to work until about 1 AM locating images on the internet and creating title slides for the large rear screen projections during the show. This continued starting about 6 AM the next morning until 11 AM when I programmed them into the computer backstage to display the images. (The majority of the images I found and programmed I changed almost immediately after the technical rehearsal because they didn’t work the way I thought they would and pulled “focus” from the actors in the scene.) From 11 AM to 1PM I focused on finding sound effects for the show and setting up the 8 wireless microphones and receivers. We are using the microphones primarily for a monitor speaker for Patt Lynch who is playing piano to hear the actors because he is seated several feet behind the actors and can’t hear their singing as he plays the music for them. We had the tech rehearsal on Sunday technical rehearsal last Sunday we have been dealing with microphone and sound issues along with scenery issues. The lighting and follow spot crew got their dates mixed up and Jim forgot to confirm the day before so they didn’t show up for the rehearsal. When the mistake was discovered TD Jim Keeney had to make and emergency call to his wife and daughter to fill in for the missing crew along with his running some of the equipment. The technical rehearsal went well and afterwards the cast was treated to a great meal while I gave notes from the rehearsal. Volunteers Don and Renie Barger, Ralph and Stephanie Young, Dick Holland, Valerie Pollard and others have taken on the task of making food for the cast crew and orchestra as a way of showing their appreciation for the hard work that has been done to get the show open.

Sunday evening I spent working with April to design the set for Alice in Wonderland Jr. which April started staging the next day. April has asked to create a set that can grow and shrink with Alice. I had some basic ideas for how to make that work but working through the actual design takes lots discussion and sketches of different ideas and how the actors might move in the different scenes in a space. There are over 30 actors in the show and they all are onstage in a couple of different scenes. We need lots of different height levels so the audience can see everyone and at the same time the choreography and movement needs a flat floor space to work best. We settled on a raked floor that will will elevate those at the back above those in the front and give us a space without steps that would impede the choreography. A rough sketch of the set was completed with very general ideas of how special effects would work to make things grow and shrink. That was enough to get her started.

Monday the focus returned to Perfect Change and the costumes, sets, lights, sound and staging. I had been unhappy with a section of one of the songs in the Wedding scene and decided it needed more choreography. I spent time in the afternoon working through some different possible movements for the “gospel church choir” to do which made them more involved in the scene instead of just standing and singing. When the cast arrived at 6:30 we spent 20 minutes on learning the choreography that would be performed in the song in the first act. Just as we were about to start we had major sound issues with the piano because I had tried to add a hard masking piece in front of the piano for a visual effect. Patt couldn’t hear what he was playing on the piano. We ended up adding monitors for Patt and the percussionist. We started the rehearsal and in the first act a scene with a bed began with a crash. Three actors have to get in a bed that was built to fold in half between the head board and the footboard so it would get through the side masking to get onstage and the head of the bed is elevated so the audience can see the actors when they sit up. That afternoon Tech Director Jim Keeney had decided to redo the casters on the bed to make it easier to roll on and off. The larger casters changed the center of balance on the bed and when the three actors sat down in the dark scene change the bed collapsed into a V shape causing the headboard and the footboard to come together. Al Knudsen who was behind the head board was thrown backwards as the bottom of the headboard kicked out. Audra, Melanie, and Chris hit their heads hard on the head board and everyone came running on to help. We brought up the lights and made sure that everyone was okay. My first thought was “Oh God we just killed 3 actors in bed!” Fortunately everyone was able to continue bruised and a little shaken. Don't let anyone tell you theatre isn't dangerous! We hauled the broken bed offstage and did the scene with the actors sitting on 3 chairs for the rehearsal that night. The rest of the rehearsal went surprisingly well.

Tuesday Jim Keeney rebuilt the bed and readjusted the center of balance. That afternoon Jim and I both jumped up and down on the bed structure with all our combined weight to test the redesign to prevent any future breaking. When the cast showed up that night we opened up the bed and I jumped up and down on it with all my weight to reassure the cast it was now fixed. Audra Hall called in sick right before we began the rehearsal Tuesday night so the other women in the cast had to quickly fill in for her so that we could do the run through. They did a great job not only filling in but also helping us continue to improve the show to get ready for the final dress rehearsal.

Wednesday evening we did the final dress rehearsal. We pay a royalty to the authors to allow a small test audience of performer’s friends and family to see our “preview” of the show. Audra was healthy and back onstage. She had to learn some of the changes that we made on Tuesday night to refine choreography and stage the curtain call with just a very quick walk through before we started. During the second scene of the first act we suddenly had an unknown voice coming through the sound system. After a frantic search it was discovered that the church across the street from the theatre was using a wireless microphone on the same frequency as ours. This created a mad search to track down which wireless receiver was picking up the signal and changing the frequency channels while the first scene was in process. The actors and musicians kept right on going without missing a beat. It was an alert audience member who realized it was the church across the street and he went out during the first scene and asked them to change their frequency. He told me at intermission that the preacher from across the street said that the night before they were hearing us through their sound system. I can only imagine a church service suddenly hearing people sing "If I were a Stud" or "sexually trained attorneys helping you get the satisfaction you want in bed."

With all of the trials and tribulations that go with opening the show and the season, it all comes together tonight as we kick of the 47th Season. One of the family members who was in the audience for the final dress was laughing so hard she was crying at the dating scenes. In another scene Fowler Black’s solo “Shouldn’t I be less in Love with You?” moved the audience to total silence at the end of the scene when the lights went down instead of the standard applause so that you could hear a pin drop. That’s when you know you the audience is really moved by the performance. I hope lots of people will come and be moved to tears and laughter by this great season opener.

Mid August update & Mini Season Sale

2010-08-19T07:35:00.002-05:00

Wow the summer has flown by. Two weeks from today is the opening of I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change. We have had lots of actors off on vacations or other conflicts so we have been trying to accomplish a lot in just a short time. Debra Harned has been spending hours trying to get our program into shape for the opening production of our 47th season. We got the color pages (8) to the printer last week and then had a couple of changes to it right before we went to press. This week we are trying to get all of the black and white pages (32) to the printer. The cast, crew, and musician listings along with bios and photos have to be written, arranged and proofed. We are still looking for a very talented violinist for the show. The music is written for piano and violin and the violin part is very difficult.

April held auditions for Alice in Wonderland Jr. Monday and Tuesday of this week and had over 125 youth audition. She and Musical Director Cindy Miller spent hours last night after the call back audition trying to cast the show and left without a final cast list. They will work on it again today. April leaves tomorrow morning at 6 am flying out of Paducah for a weekend Educational Directors Conference in Des Moines Iowa. I'm willing to be that the cast list won't be finalized until moments before she leaves.

We are still in the process of trying to secure warehouse space. We have hit some unexpected issues in our efforts to purchase the old arcade theatre building and are trying to work through those with the city and the present owner. I'm hoping that all can be resolved within the next week so we can move forward. That has been taking up a great deal of time this past month. Some people have asked if we were looking at renovating the arcade into a theatre space and the answer is a definite no. The space would require a large investment and would end up being much smaller than our current space in the Market House. We are strictly looking at this for storage space of our current platforms, flats, and furniture for use at the Market House. Speaking of furniture we are currently looking for 8 wooden chairs with wooden seats and no cushion. We need them for I Love You, You're Perfect for the opening number. Actors have to sit, stand, drag, and swing their legs over the back of them. We are going to the Executive Inn sale this morning to see if we might find them. In addition we are searching for 8 white hooded robes for the show as well. We have found chairs and robes online but they come at an expense that is more than we would like to afford.

Our budget this year for sets, costumes, lights, props, and royalties around $60,000 which depends on us penny pinching on every show. The royalties for the 12 productions (mainstage, youth, story theatre, footlights, and drama camps) alone account for over half of that $60,000. Musicals due to extensive sets, costumes, props, and lights take up the bulk of the remaining funds. Some of our smaller productions depend totally on stock scenery and costumes and have production budgets as low as $50. (Masking tape, two gallons of paint, and screws and hardware to assemble the scenery will use up that budgeted amount very quickly.)

A committee from the board is currently working out the details of the Ghost Tours that will begin in October. We will have the downtown walking tours again but are also adding an Oak Grove Cemetery tour with a big kickoff on Oct. 22. There are lots of fun ideas we are considering for the Oak Grove tour that will also allow school groups during the daytime hours.

Don Barger has added his talents to our newsletter writing staff. Cindy Miller, Sarah Roman, and Don Barger now write articles for the Off Stage Noises. We sent the September edition to the printer Tuesday and we hope to have the online version out today.

I Love You, You're Perfect tickets go on sale today. Tickets are $20 for Adults and $17 for Students age 21 & under. As we finish up season ticket sales we are going to offer a special 1 week only MINI SEASON SALE starting today! We have great seats remaining for performances as we start single ticket sales for I Love You, You're Perfect. You can call the box office starting at 9 am this morning to order a mini season ticket. Mini Season Tickets are discounted to $17 per show. You must purchase a minimum of 3 shows and a maximum of 4 shows. Ticket buyers will receive reserved seats for specific performance dates. If you are interested call the box office at 270-444-6828 and tell them you would like the mini season sale and mention code B47 to get your seats.

July wrapup

2010-07-31T09:56:00.002-05:00

As the last day of July unfolds today we wrap up the final performance of the Pied Piper Lunchbox Theatre on the Main Stage. I heard from many people how pleased they were that we had brought back this summer favorite for young children. Over the past 4 days we've had over 300 children in the theatre munching on hamburgers and hot dogs and coloring their rat hats to play along with the show the Pied Piper. While the show got off to a slow start with the change of summer festival dates it has picked up toward the end of the week. We will definitely put it on our calendar again for next summer.

The board of directors met last Wednesday and reviewed ideas for the October Ghost Tour Fundraiser, the purchase of the old Arcade theatre building for warehouse space, and the wrap up of the last years financials. It looks as of the board meeting that the theatre will end they year with with about a $40,000 surplus in operational income. This is great news!

The I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change cast has been learning music all week. They have been extremely patient with my changes and reshuffling of parts while we try to put together the show. Since I cast more than the script called for I have been shifting around parts and songs to try to even things out among all the performers. It looks to be a great show! The cast is constantly breaking into laughter while listening to their fellow cast mates sing some of the songs in the show. We move from the classroom to the stage Monday as we begin to stage the beginning of the show. Musical Director Patt Lynch is working extremely hard at trying to sort through and play the dozens of musical styles in the show. We move from 50's rock and roll to tango to country to 80's pop. The orchestra is composed of Patt on piano, a violinist and percussionist.

Auditions for Disney's musical Alice in Wonderland Jr. will be coming up in a couple of weeks. The Jr. designation means that all performers must be elementary, middle and high school age. No adults over 18 are allowed. The show will be lots of fun and have parts for both new and experienced performers. Perusal scripts are available at the box office for check out with a refundable deposit.

We are in the last week of our drive for program advertisers for the first program. If anyone is interested in a great marketing opportunity contact me at the theatre at 270-444-6828 ext. 114 for more details. It's hard to believe we open the first show of our 47th season in just 4 weeks!

Aaron Spoden has been a technical intern from Moorehead State University all summer and has helped us with Cinderella, the Aladdin Camp, the Grammarosaurus camp, and the Pied Piper. He will be heading back to school soon and we really appreciate his work with us this summer and Moorehead State for his internship opportunity.

We hope to have our redesigned website up and operating within the next couple of weeks. It has been redesigned for to work not only on the web but with smart phones as well.

July 24 2010

2010-07-24T16:18:00.002-05:00

Lots of things have happened this week. Friday at 5 pm we wrapped up the Grammarosaurus camp with a performance of the show. The theatre was packed with parents and friends for the one and only performance of the show. April as always did a great job with the kids for the limited time they have to rehearse. During the camp the kids got to run the light board, crawl in the passage way under the stage to get to the trap door (one of their favorites), learn how we make explosions and smoke onstage, had a makeup demonstration where they all got black eyes (which they all pretended were real to their parents), and learned about projected scenery when they did designs which we digitally projected on our rear screen on the stage for their show. We took about 400 photos on Friday morning at the final dress rehearsal and they went fast. Janice Peterson did a great job with baseball caps creating dinosaur heads for all the kids.

Friday after a couple weeks of looking and negotiations we signed a contract to purchase a new warehouse space. The theatre had narrowed it down to two spaces and the board decided on the purchase of 111 S. 5th Street as our new warehouse space. It seems appropriate that we should acquire the space. For those who don't know why that is appropriate it is the auditorium of the old Arcade Theatre. It has been stripped of all the chairs and theatrical equipment and is a space of just under $5,000 square feet with 30 foot ceilings. We will hopefully close in the middle of August and begin moving scenery from our current warehouse location immediately. The Easter Seals of Western Kentucky has been very generous with MHT in letting us use some of their storage space over the past couple of years in exchange for tickets for their clients. The contacted us back in June and notified us that they would be developing the space we were using. So the next time you drive down Kentucky Ave towards the river look to your left when you are across from the McCracken County Library and you will see the back of the Columbia theatre building and the side of the Arcade Theatre building. We will be putting out the word for help when its time to move.

Marsha and Rhiannon have printed out the last sets of Season Tickets and have put them into envelopes with the instructions for how to exchange and purchase additional discounted tickets. We are waiting for the restaurant discount cards to come back from the printer. In addition it takes volunteers to help us check and double check each ticket order before we send them out. After processing over a thousand season tickets it is easy to make a mistake and asking a couple of fresh eyes to review the orders is always helpful. Marsha and Rhiannon are also processing the Flex Pass tickets and creating the Flex Pass Cards. Marsha is working hard to get everything in the mail before she goes on vacation in August.

On Sunday we will have a Tech rehearsal for Pied Piper Lunchbox Theatre. Performances of Pied Piper are Wednesday through Sunday July 28-31. We are trying to get the word out to parents about this really fun event that is a "dinner theatre" for kids featuring hamburgers, hot dogs, ice cream and the show all for $10. Jim Keeney, Aaron Spoden and I will be hauling all of theatre seating out of the auditorium and setting up 15 round tables with chairs for the show. We put a banner up for Pied Piper on the side of the building on Thursday hoping it might help sell some tickets from the group at the Carson Center for Summer Festival.

The cast of I Love You You're Perfect Now Change rehearsed both Thursday and Friday this past week starting to learn the music to the show. I took some photos during the rehearsal that I will post soon. During the "Wedding Event" song the cast was rocking out trying to learn the complicated rhythms. Fowler Black who was out of town last week on business will have join the cast on Monday for the next rehearsal with some catching up to do.

April will be attending the AACT Education Directors conference in Des Moines Iowa in August. She facilitated the conference a couple of years ago and met lots of great people. This year she is happy to just be attending and is looking forward to seeing the group of educators again at the conference this year.

Mid July update

2010-07-18T18:59:00.002-05:00

Here it is the 18 of July and I'm just doing the first post! I can't believe it's already 1/2 way through the month. Yesterday was the Fred Paxton Fund run for Charity. The theatre raised almost $4,300 in donations and I'm sure we will be close to $4,500 by the time all the late registrations are recorded. With the matching of $4,300 from the foundation that will put the theatre endowment fund at approx. $90,000!

Several MHT volunteers won trophies for their times in the run in their age groups. April and I were very proud of our daughter Jade who won First Place Overall in the Kids run for all of the kids ages.

I found out today that long time theatre friend Sarah Roush died today after a long battle with cancer. Sarah helped revitalize several buildings downtown and was a prolific artist. Her enthusiasm in helping others and her creative spirit will be missed. Our thoughts and our prayers are with her family.

Tomorrow begins the final week of the Grammarsoris Camp. April has been rehearsing with the kids this past week. Each day the kids have learned something new about the theatre. Last Tuesday they got to run the light board, learn how we make flash pots and smoke onstage and they got to crawl under the stage in the little crawl space that is used for the trap door. That was the biggest highlight of the whole thing- so much so that they wanted to do it again on Wednesday so we let them. In addition on Wednesday they learned the difference between front and rear screen projections and saw how their set drawings will be projected on the screen for their show. Friday the kids got a tour of the costume shop, dressing rooms and prop areas while they were taking a break from the rehearsal.

Auditions were held last Monday and Tuesday for I Love You You're Perfect Now Change. The show called for 2 men and 2 women. I had a large group of talented people audition and I cast 4 men and 4 women. Cast members are Fowler Black, Audra Hall, Al Knudsen, Melanie Koch, Victoria Parrish, Scott Salchli, Chris Schnarr, and Townley Williams. Patt Lynch is the musical director. We had a rushed first rehearsal last Friday because 3 of the cast was going out of town the first part of this week. It was fun to watch the actors read the script for the first time because many of them were totally unfamiliar with the show they had just been cast in. They only knew bits and pieces from the auditions.

Cindy Miller, Melisa Mast, Kim Yocum, Kristin Williams, and I are out meeting with businesses to sponsor our upcoming season and selling program ads. We hope to have this wrapped up before the end of the month.

Several board members and staff are looking at warehouse spaces. In the past 26 years the warehouse has had to relocate 5 times. That is an average of every 5 years. We are looking at possible lease spaces and exploring possibly buying a building for storage space. The theatre currently needs about 3,000 square feet with high ceilings. We are waiting on insurance quotes and utility quotes to make the decision whether to buy or lease. We are hoping to start moving scenery out of our current space and into a new space starting August 1. Jim will be looking for lots of help when we do move so if you have some free time in August we would be very appreciative.

Marsha and Rhiannon have been hard at work on season tickets. They have processed all of the renewals and most of the new orders. They will begin printing out the tickets and putting them into envelopes along with restaurant discount cards within the next couple of weeks. Ann Counts has been helping with the renewals for the restaurant discount cards so we are just finishing up gathering the information before sending those cards off to print.

As usual we are behind in getting our Season Information brochure to the printer. Debra Harned has been working on logos for the shows and we have been refining the show descriptions. We have also been trying to work through the other fundraising events that will happen this year. It never fails we start out on track to get the brochure done in a timely manner and soon we are at least a month behind schedule. Last year the season brochure was finished just before we opened the first show of the season. Fortunately we quit using the brochure years ago as the primary season ticket sales form.

I have been working with Innovations brandinghouse on a new website design for the theatre that is smart phone friendly. Hopefully you will get to see it make its premiere in the next few weeks. April and I are currently adding information and we hope that it will allow for a more interactive site. It is designed with a Word Press blogging type of setup which means that more than one person can make changes. I've been the only person over the years who has been able to make changes and that sometimes means the site isn't always as up to date as we would like.

The Pied Piper opens Wednesday July 27 and runs through Saturday July 30 for Lunch box theatre and we hope to have a good turnout. Neil's Catering will be handling the hot dogs and hamburgers for the show.

Last Day of the year

2010-06-29T20:52:00.002-05:00

No its not December 31 but it feels like it sometimes. June 30 is the last day of the fiscal year for the theatre. Cinderella Enchanted closed on the 20 with a cast party that followed the show. There was almost no strike except to empty the orchestra pit and put in a large fulcrum lift and then put the cover back on for Aladdin Kids.

The Picnic which was held on June 21 honored retiring board members and voted in the new board members. The Golden Screw awards were presented to those persons who distinguished themselves during the past season in ways they would like to forget. Fowler Black and Katy Miller won the costume award for the moment when Katy's dress got caught on Fowler's medals and when she stood up it pulled the left side of her dress so she had to quickly adapt and do the entire scene seated next to Fowler while they slowly unhooked themselves. Sydney Hughes won the "What's my line award" for yelling that she had to go home and block up her TV. It was supposed to be the word chimney. Eden Lance won for the grace in motion as she was so energetic trying to get off the stool after trying on the slipper that she ran into a wall and ended up crawling offstage. We moved the Picnic/annual meeting inside the theatre and sat in the air conditioned comfort while it was over 100 with the heat index outside.

On Friday and Saturday June 25 & 26 we presented the show Aladdin Kids. Janice Peterson did a great job of adapting the costumes from the Aladdin Jr show 4 years ago to a much younger cast. As usual April did an outstanding job putting the performances together after only 8 rehearsals.

The next day on Sunday June 27 we hosted the Paducah Symphony String Quartet to the MHT stage for a chamber concert.

Monday and Tuesday were spent trying to get publicity out for the upcoming season while the box office staff worked on processing mail orders for season tickets. The final deadline to renew season tickets was June 20. Marsha and Rhiannon have been calling season ticket holders we haven't heard from to confirm they wanted to release their tickets.

The theatre so far has gotten a good response for the fund run as we work towards a 10,000 maximum match. As of yesterday we had raised over $2,500 which was the minimum to get a match. The final day to make a donation to the fund run to benefit MHT is Monday.

Yesterday I went and looked at potential warehouse space. today I went to another location and looked at warehouse space. We have to find a space that we can begin to move into by July 31. We need about 3,000 square feet. We will need lots of help in August to move the scenery from one warehouse to another. This makes about the 5 time we've move warehouse's in the past15 years. I'm hoping to find a long term lease at a reasonable price or buy a space that we know we can always keep for 5-10 years.

We have still not heard from the Kentucky Arts Council on funding for next fiscal year. With so many state budget cuts it looks grim for us to remain at the same levels we had been funded in the past.

April starts Gramasoris camp on July 12 which is the same date I have auditions for I LOVE YOU YOU'RE PERFECT- NOW CHANGE. I've been talking with the Paducah Parks Department on ways we can partner for the theatre to produce an Oak Grove walking tour this October. We confirmed walking ghost tour dates for October today and gave them to the Convention and visitors center.

The theatre will end the current year with an operating surplus. We have been trying to get all of the things that needed maintenance in before the June 30th last day so they wouldn't get charged to next season. This week we had both theatre vans in for repairs and hopefully we are ready to kick off the 47th Anniversary Season with a bang!

June update

2010-06-17T11:33:00.002-05:00

I feel like I've been running a marathon since June started and I'm getting closer to the finish line as the month is over half completed. With the opening of Cinderella and the great performances it has been trying to play catch up and prepare for the the events happening in the middle and the end of the month. I just returned yesterday from Washington D.C. where I was part of a group of business and civic leaders who met with government and agency leaders to help lobby for Paducah issues. The trip turned into a wonderful opportunity for me to make new friends with local leaders and to deepen relationships with others as we all came together for a common purpose.

I left Paducah Monday morning after getting about 3 hours of sleep on the first flight out. Check in time at the airport was 4:30-4:45 am. The plane was scheduled to leave at 6 am but we ended up sitting on the runway until almost 7 am because of weather delays and a fueling spill when the plane had to take on additional fuel to fly around the weather to get to Chicago. I ran through O'hare airport with Mark Dulley from Ingram Barge, Mayor Paxton and City Commissioner Gerald Watkins to get on board the flight that left at 9 am from Chicago to D.C. We arrived about 11:30 am Eastern Time and checked into the hotel located about a block from the main mall area by the Smithsonian and the Monuments. Mark became my tour guide and we must have walked about 3-5 miles to see the sights. We walked past the White house and the Washington Monument then back towards the capital building and our hotel. Mark was a great tour guide and we shared alot of family and business stories during our walk. I went to dinner with two others from the group and had a wonderful time there as well. On Tuesday we all gathered at Clyde's for lunch and our assignments. Some of the group had already been in meetings with the Homeland Security Department. I was in charge of a group that went to the National Endowment for the Arts for a meeting with key staff and hopefully the chairman of the NEA Rocco Landesman for a few minutes. Just before we arrived the NEA contacted the group and said our meeting had been moved to the Chairman's office. We were escorted their by NEA staff member Pepper Smith who had written the wonderful cover story article about Market House Theatre in the NEA magazine this quarter. We went into a conference room and then met with Pepper, Jaimie Bennet public relations director and Chairman Rocco Landesman for almost 30 minutes. It was a terrific meeting and we got a promise from Chairman Landesman that he would come to visit Paducah within the next fiscal year. We also talked about support for state arts councils and how that funding filters down to community organizations and about local projects in Paducah that were models for the rest of the country. We left feeling terrific about the meeting. We grabbed a cab and then headed to the capital building and met up with the rest of our group for a meeting with Senator McConnel and Representative Whitfield. We grabbed the tour bus back to the hotel and then madly changed into black tie formal attire for the Kentucky Society Dinner honoring Elaine Chao. At the cocktail party I spent time talking to the Chairman of USEC and thanked him for the local sponsorship of Cinderella. I talked with Senator Bunning, and several staff members for Congressmen and Senators at the reception and then we headed down to the dinner. At the dinner I was at a side entrance and turned around to suddenly be face to face with Senator McConnel and his wife Elaine Chao. I had a nice exchange about the theatre with the Senator and Secretary Chao and then we headed into the ballroom.

I had to fly back Wednesday morning to be here for the Dress rehearsal of the Curtain Call auction winners for Cinderella. All I can say after the Dress Rehearsal is that this is a performance you won't want to miss. The "guest stars" all did a great job and there were several times that the cast could not go on for a few moments because they were trying to maintain their character. When City Commissioner Richard Abraham appeared in a gold lame dress and boa and sang Falderall and Fiddly De Dee to Cinderella and danced he brought the house down. John Williams Jr also brought the house down in his Burgundy dress, wig and crown in his duet with Tom Miller of "Boys and Girls like you and Me".

Tonight we go back into performance mode with the regular cast of Cinderella as we move through the final weekend of performances. I'm trying to work through the annual Golden Screw Awards for the Annual Meeting next Monday and Picnic at Keiler Park. I hope to see everyone at the picnic next Monday at 5:30 pm. Bring a dish to pass and the theatre provides BBQ and Fried Chicken and Soft Drinks for the main course.

April Cochran has the Aladdin camp in full swing this week every morning and that performs the weekend after Cinderella closes. There is a lot going on behind the scenes at MHT as we wrap up June and the end of our 46th Season.

Cinderella Opening

2010-06-03T11:14:00.002-05:00

Tonight is the opening of Cinderella Enchanted by Rodgers and Hammerstein. Theatre is a collaborative art form where many people work together to make something that is greater than the individual could do on their own. Director Bonnie Daniels has done a terrific job of bringing this updated classic to life along with very talented leads and a strong chorus. The show has some more modern costumes, props, and lines that may at first puzzle a few audience members comparing it to the Disney version of the show but the classic story comes through loud and strong.

The concept for the show was to give the costumes a little bit of fun modern touch to a few of the characters. Audience will see the Fairy Godmother who arrives in the pumpkin patch in a 1920's style costume to go along with her lines about having done the traditional fairy godmother thing with the wand but now prefers to standout from the crowd. At one moment the prince and his steward does a fist bump and in the following scene the prince is practicing his baseball pitching with a modern ball and glove. These are just a few of the changes that were made conceptually to go along with some of the more modern language in the play. We hope that audiences will enjoy this elements that keeps this story fresh after hundreds of years. Jack and Natalia Cody who own Creatures of Habit have created beautiful costumes based on Bonnies suggestions for the show.

Kelly Salchli has done an outstanding job with the scenic painting. As the scenic and lighting designer I've given Kelly a broad outline of what I wanted painted as wall textures on the scenery and she has taken those ideas and created a beautiful look. Kelly is a much better painter than I am and she has added lots of depth and design to my original ideas. Cast members have popped in during the past week and helped paint. Denise Bohle helped out yesterday and is back again today working on the fireplace and the large pumpkin carriage.

Part of the design was to go very minimal and theatrical with the furniture for the show. I gave Jim Keeney some illustrations of what I wanted built for furniture and he has done a wonderful job of creating the framework and ornamental wood pieces along with the upholstery.

Cindy Miller who is the musical director has worked tirelessly with the cast and musicians to create a very strong musical production. She has worked hard to bring out the voices and to work with a 6 piece orchestra to create a rich sound without over powering the actors. We have area choral microphones but not wireless individual microphones for the cast so balance is critical to being able to hear the performance. Bonnie and Cindy have worked very hard on diction and enunciation for the actors to be heard by the audience.

Two days ago I had a moment that I had been dreading would happen. Tony Vancil with Action Audio has been extremely gracious in loaning his large rear projection screen to the theatre over the past several years when ever we needed it. I knew that one day we would be depending on the screen and he would have it rented some place else. Tony stopped by Tuesday to tell me he needed his screen for next weekend. My heart stopped as we are very dependent on that screen for Cinderella. Tony sells equipment and was able to get me a great price on a new screen and get it here between opening and second week of the run. Sunday we will strike his screen and return it to him and Wednesday our new screen will come in and we will install it for the Thursday night show. That was an unanticipated $1,700 expense that we didn't see coming. We've done over a dozen shows with his screen and this was the first time he needed it during our run.

Today we are still doing lots of painting on the set. I'm still hanging several lights to try to fix "dark spots" that are created in the space between one light area on the stage and an adjacent area.

Tonight's opening should be outstanding and audiences will walk away with the beautiful love songs ringing in their ears and a renewed love for the story of Cinderella. Rodger's and Hammerstein's Cinderella Enchanted will rate up there with their other musicals like Oklahoma, The King and I, South Pacific, and so many others as a love story for all ages. There are over 40 people who have collaborated to make the production tonight come together and each of them have contributed something to make the show much better than we could have ever envisioned when we started. Call and get your tickets today for what will surely be a big hit!

Studio theatre and Lowertown

2010-05-24T08:26:00.003-05:00

This weekend were jumping between events as usual. Friday afternoon Jim Keeney and Aaron Spoden set up the Market House informational tent at the Lowertown Art and Music Festival. That all happened while I was at Lone Oak Elementary performing Pied Pipers final shows. Saturday morning April had her dress rehearsal of the Footlights Elementary Troupe musical in the Studio Theatre. Joey Judd was having a run through of the Footlights Troupe High School Improv show in the Studio Theatre. We checked in on the Lowertown Festival during the day and prepared for The Way Home performance on Saturday night in the Studio Theatre.

Saturday evenings performance of The Way Home was terrific. The studio theatre was about 80% capacity for the benefit performance and a nice reception was held afterwards next door at Two Street Studio. About $1,000 was raised to help local artist Sarah Roush with her medical bills as she battles cancer.

Sunday saw the Lower Town Festival for its final day. The temperature was sizzling in the mid 90's on the blacktop streets but lots of people came by the MHT booth over the weekend and got information on classes and shows. Sunday afternoon Cinderella had a run through and I took some rehearsal Flip Video which I'll post on the face book pages and the MHT website.

Wednesday evening is the MHT board meeting. We are in the last two months of our fiscal year and are working on board nominations for next year and budgeting. This week will have lots of long days as we are in the final push for Cinderella. We bring in the costumes on Thursday evening and have the full tech rehearsal on Sunday.

I was disappointed to read in the Paducah Sun yesterday that the County government has decided not to fund the arts request. It takes time to show that the benefits of arts funding is just as important as recreational sports funding. While soccer and baseball got some limited funding the arts did not. Hopefully next year we can make our case again. The arts in Paducah returns $6 in local tax revenue for every $1 local government invests in the arts. In tough economic times people tend to view the arts as a luxury and not as an economic growth engine. We are making some headway but we obviously still have a long way to go to get that message out.

Printer, Piper, Pieces of Cinderella and Couches

2010-05-14T22:15:00.005-05:00

I met with Cinderella director Bonnie Daniels on Wednesday and we further refined some of the furniture that we are building for Cinderella.

On Thursday morning we finished up the newsletter and got it off to the printer. Cindy Miller and Sarah Bynum combined to write the newsletter and I put in the photos and did the final layout to send it to the printer. Newspaper ad reps came by and tried to get me to commit to various size contracts for the year. Our new budget doesn't begin until July 1 so I can't commit to anything right now without that being finalized. We pay the "benevolent rate" of $19 per column inch. For those that don't know that means we pay over $400 per color ad in local papers. That really starts adding up.

During the day yesterday we met with a prospective board member nominee. President Cindy Miller and I along with members of the nominating committee meet with various candidates to give them an in depth briefing on the condition of the theater and on what is required for board service. So far the committee has met with 2 of the 4 potential nominees. The nominating committee must present the slate at the May 26 meeting to be voted on so it can be presented at the Family Reunion Picnic for approval. The budget committee set up a meeting for next week as we try to hammer out a budget for next season. Like all groups there is never enough money to do all the things that we would like to do.

Cindy Miller, Heather Overby and Pam Benzing have been trying to find simple items that MHT could sell as a fundraiser in conjunction with the performance of Cinderella. They've settled on a couple of fun items that won't cost much to sell.

Thursday night I attended the rehearsal of The Way Home which is the spoken opera by Constance Alexander. The show will perform Saturday May 22 at 7:30 pm and all proceeds will go the Sarah Roush fund at Paducah Bank to help in her battle against cancer. They were missing one of the actors last night so April read in the part. I was there to watch for lighting design and help April with some ideas for the projections. It is an interesting script because you have three women and a chorus of three women. The chorus at times comments on the action and at other times fills in as additional characters. I found the script very moving at moments with humorous moments in several spots. We are trying to get the word out and hopefully we will have a good turnout for the event.

This morning began with a meeting at Etcetera coffee shop with some of the directors of arts groups meeting with the new conductor of the Paducah Symphony Orchestra. Maestro Ponti (hope I spelled that right) is a very enthusiastic gentleman who is looking for lots of different ways for all of the arts to work together. I came in late but was still impressed with his desire for collaboration. As the meeting ended I spent some time with Jim Keeney looking at the couch he was building for Cinderella. We cut down the size a little to help it move easily on and off the stage. JIm asked me to pick out fabric for the upholstery as soon as possible so he could finish up the build.

Then it was off to Murray Kentucky and two performances of the Pied Piper with cast members Julie Price, Miki Abraham, and Sydney Hughes. We stopped off at Culvers which is Julie's absolute favorite to grab some lunch before the shows. Our directions to the school were a little off but we managed to find it without too much trouble. As we unloaded the set one of the wheels which had been falling off of the table on a regular basis decided to split out the wood that it was barely sitting in. We got the set onstage and propped the table up with the wheel so it looked normal. Unfortunately Miki decided to punctuate one of her lines with a bang on the table and the wheel fell off the table causing it to tilt back off its' front wheels. We made it through the first show without any more serious damage and were able to remove all the wheels from the table before the second show. As we started to pack up the rain began to fall and we pulled the van as close as we could to the gym door and loaded the set back in for the drive back to Paducah.

We went through the drive through at Culvers on the way out of Murray and picked up ice cream and coffee for the cast. Then it was back to Paducah.

We are still finishing up the program for Cinderella. That will be the next big printing task to be completed for the show. Marsha Cash is going through he current list of donors trying to put them in order for the donations listing. Wile the cast has assembled their photos and bios we are still collecting photos and bios from the orchestra and the crew. Cindy Miller has been working on a new business brochure listing all of the options for support. That has to get approved by the board before we can go to press with it since we have some changes that are recommended. Jennifer Hughes has assembled a group of people to man the MHT booth at the Lower Town Festival on May 21-23.

Several of the auction winners from the Curtain Call auction have come in this week to be measured for their costume. Next Wednesday the Heath High School coach will put on a dress and perform for the Heath high school student body in a scene from the show that we are taking to Heath High. The Heath students were the winners of our school competition to raise funds to get their coach as a "Lady in Waiting

The pressure is building as we are now less than 3 weeks from opening Cinderella.

Fiscal Court and Cinderella

2010-05-10T22:04:00.002-05:00

I have been working hard this past week culminating today with a meeting at 11:30 am with Basil Drossos and Brian Laczko, Darlene Dryer, May Louise Zumwalt, Landee Bryant, Julie Harris, and Michael Crouse where we worked out a formula for a unified ask of the McCracken County Fiscal Court for funding. This was a difficult task because each group had individually asked the City of Paducah for funding. The McCracken County Court asked us to present it as one unified voice for funding. We looked at the local tax return on the arts and culture organizations investment and found out that it was 17%. We took half of that return, 8.5%, and rounded that down to 7%. Then we asked the County to fund half of that or 3.5% of the organizations total operating expenses. Last year organizations received on the average about 7% of our operating expenses in funding from the city of Paducah. some organizations received a much larger percentage of budget and others a much smaller percentage. Hopefully this formula will work out the inequities in that request format. Basil Drossos did a great job tonight at the fiscal court meeting as a neutral presenter of our proposal. The Fiscal court asked lots of good questions and we discussed how the economy has impacted all of the organizations. Hopefully the fiscal court will be able to find some money for funding our request and hopefully the city will be able to do the same. The funding we might receive will make the difference between operating at a loss and breaking even. This year MHT eliminated a staff position because of a reduced funding from the Kentucky Arts Council and a drop in corporate sponsors. Many of our long time sponsors had to drop to lower levels of support due to the loss of income in their corporate spending. Hopefully 2010 will see a little better economy. We have seen small signs of growth in our ticket sales for this current year.

Cinderella is onstage (finally) We had a murder mystery and the McCracken County Gifted Talented show in the theatre after Wedding Belles closed. The Cinderella company had been rehearsing across the street in the classroom waiting to move onstage.

April had a rehearsal tonight of The Way Home which is a spoken opera written by Constance Alexander. She has a group of terrific actresses line up to do the benefit performance of the show on Saturday May 22 at 7:30 pm. All proceeds will go to help Sarah Roush with her medical costs.

I got in a couple of scripts from various publishing houses. I had great hopes for the 80's Prom show which was styled on the lines of Tony N Tina's Wedding. Unfortunately the majority of the cast is in their 20's play teenagers. It's fun to do a show like that which goes back in time and you get to relive your Prom. We had a large group of actors in their 20's and 30's when we did Tony N Tina's Wedding. Now most of our actors are under 20 and older than 40. We need more performers in their 20's in order to do a show like 80's Prom Night.

Story Theatre's The Pied Piper kicks off again tomorrow with a performance at Morgan Elementary at 9 am tomorrow morning. You can tell it's getting close to the end of the school year.

MHT will participate again this year in the Fred Paxton Fund Run for Charities. Our goal is to raise $10,000 and get matched that amount. If we can do that we should be close to $100,000 in our endowment. We are also working to kick off a planned giving society. This would be a society that features the names of those in our community which have named Market House Theatre in their will. Look for more details about the fund run and the society in the next newsletter coming out soon.

Week wrap up

2010-04-30T12:49:00.001-05:00

We took down the set for Wedding Belles last Sunday after the final performance and had a wonderful cast party at Sue and Frank Fletcher's home. Monday Jim Keeney spent the day moving the continuing the strike and moving the Wedding Belles scenery back to the warehouse and clearing the stage. On Tuesday Jim and I removed the chairs from the auditorium. Wednesday Jim got the rental tables from the Carson Center and put those up. He and I measured on Thursday to space them evenly in the theatre. Wednesday evening was the board of directors meeting where the theatre reviewed our financials as of the end of March and looked ahead with a list of names to meet with for nominating for board of director positions next year. We are doing very well for the year so far after taking steps to cut our expenses at the beginning of the season. For the 3 quarters we have completed so far this fiscal year we spent over $50,000 less than last year at this time. On the income side we have taken in $37,000 more than last year. We ended last year with a budget deficit and this year we are looking good so far to end with a small surplus. The board of directors has been working hard on fundraising and annual fund drive while the staff has worked hard to cut costs. The performers and crews for the shows this year have been terrific and all the shows have met or exceeded budget so far this year and we have only 2 months left in the fiscal year. Our biggest show of the year is the final show Cinderella Enchanted. With a production budget of over $25,000 it always is our biggest expense show of the year. We are seeing a steady stream of donations to the theatre with our season ticket forms and we are within $10,000 of meeting our annual goal for contributions. We still have about $53,000 left to raise in income this year to meet budget but we are feeling very positive about our prospects. We also moved the date for our annual Curtain Call auction next year to March 4. We have moved the date a couple of times already and the announcement of Wizard of Oz at the Carson Center next year on March 11 forced us to move the date to the 4th.

The Youth Season will produce two plays next year. The Disney Musical Alice in Wonderland October 14-17, 22-24, and the powerful play based on a book 100 Dresses to be performed February 24-28. The theatre is also planning to produce the play EAT which was written by Linda Daughtery, the playwright who wrote The Secret Life of Girls. EAT is about teenage girls and boys with eating disorders and tools for coping with these pressures.

Thursday the Murder for Hire Troupe went back into rehearsal for an event this Saturday for the Paducah Remediation Services group. They are doing a benefit performance of our murder mystery to raise funds for The American Cancer Society.Two weeks ago the murder for hire troupe had a great time performing for Community Christian Academy and their spring formal.

The studio theatre tonight is rented for a group to do a performance. All week Cinderella has also been in rehearsal. Story Theatre's Pied Piper performed today at Unity School outside of Brookport IL for grades K-8.

This past Tuesday we had a meeting of arts organizations in Paducah and held a follow up meeting this morning. Several of the arts groups are going together to make a presentation to the McCracken County Fiscal Court on May 10. We all shared our schedules and issues. We do this quarterly and it is a time for all of us to work together as a group.

This afternoon we are working on brochures, newsletters, and fundraising campaign mailings. There is never a dull moment at MHT.

Mid Quilt Week 2010

2010-04-21T10:48:00.003-05:00

We kicked off the week by redoing our box office lobby. Crounse Corportation contacted several non-profits that they were moving out of their old headquarters and were donating the office furniture to non-profits. I got a call from Darlene at the Paducah Symphony to tell me about it. I went over with Jim Keeney on Monday and we found a desk to replace my office desk. Two of the drawers in my desk had literally fallen apart a year ago and I have been looking for an economical replacement. The price was right! While we were there they asked if we needed any cubicle dividers. We didn't, but my mind suddenly began to think about the fact that I have wanted to partition our box office lobby into a ticket area and work/meeting area for years. I began to look at those dividers in ways that they hadn't originally been intended to do. We selected 5 panels and brought them back to the theatre. They are now installed in our lobby.

Tuesday Story Theatre went to Joppa Maple Grove in the morning and New Simpson Hill in the afternoon. We returned in time for me to finish up my presentation to the Paducah City Commission on funding for next year. We were among a group of several non profits all seeking funding.

Today we have Mary Kathrin Dorr shadowing the Tech Director and Grace Allen shadowing the Education Director. Jim clearing and cleaning the backstage and shop areas. April is teaching and prepping for her puppetry workshops with the Girl Scouts this weekend. Marsha is working on Season Tickets and Rhiannon is working on Wedding Belles tickets. I'm trying to finish the set design for Cinderella, design the Cinderella Billboard and do my shift working for the Rotary Quilt show. Lots going on!

Thursday Wedding Belles goes back into performances and Story Theatre heads out to Sikeston for two back to back performances. Lots of meetings are also taking place this week as the board gets ready for the April meeting on Wed. 28. We have budgets, nominations, fundraisers, and lots more to get squared away for next season.

Wedding Belles Pied Piper Death of Dr Pepper

2010-04-14T21:29:00.002-05:00

It has been a wild week since last Saturday. We had the technical rehearsal for Wedding Belles on Sunday afternoon. Kathy Keeney has been working every day this week on putting plants and flowers on the set for the show. She has done a great job of making a garden look overgrown and yet with a few touches having it clean up nicely for the final scene of the show. Tonight was the preview performance of the show with about 10 family and friends of the cast and crew watching the final dress rehearsal to give the actors the sense of how an audience reacts before opening night tomorrow. Diane Byrd, Marsha Cash, Sue Fletcher, Audra Hall, and Kris Shanks are all doing a great job with the show.

This is one of those prop shows that the actors are constantly having to make sure they accomplish certain tasks at certain times. Audra has to put on 3 dresses in a short time so they can comment on each dress just as other actions occur in the script. Table clothes and dishes, vases of flowers, quilts, cakes, ice cream and all sorts of things are going on. Not to mention the wigs, hats, gloves, purses, and packages they all have to carry during the show.

Pied Piper has their final dress rehearsal tomorrow morning and then performs Friday morning at Farley elementary here in Paducah. The cast rehearsed in costumes for the first time today along with most of the sound. Tomorrow we add wireless microphones and then its on the road for the next 4-5 weeks. Miki Abraham, Sydney Hughes, Julie Price, and I are in the cast singing and dancing in a 35 minute musical audience participation show.

The Death of Dr. Pepper has their final dress rehearsal Thursday at 4. We ran the show twice today and used the guns for the first time. It is always a little scary the first time the actors have to shoot someone so we work with the blanks and the gun safety issues. Renie and Don Barger, April Cochran, Roy Hensel, Julie Price and Steve Schwetman are in this particular show that is going to be performed for the Community Christian Academy Prom on Friday night. Julie is doing double duty acting in Pied Piper and Dr. Pepper. She is so much fun to watch in both shows! The whole cast for Dr. Pepper has worked hard to memorize lines and action for the show with very few rehearsals due to spring break. The funniest moment for me was watching Renie, Julie and April who all have three very different accents in the play keep switching their accents. April has the same problems I do in that if she is next to someone with an accent she picks it up. During one point in tonight's rehearsal she was Italian, Swedish, German, and Russian. Add that to Renie's Southern and Julie's kind of Brooklyn/Valley Girl/ who knows what accent and you have a laugh riot.

The big news this week was also that MHT was featured in the National Endowment for the Arts Quarterly Magazine as the cover story. This was a real tribute to hard work of the MHT staff and volunteers behind the scenes to keep MHT running and to produce the many shows that we do each year. I've posted a copy of it on our face book page.

Please make plans to attend Wedding Belles which opens tomorrow!

Wonka Wedding Cinderella

2010-03-30T15:24:00.004-05:00

Friday of last week I went over and setup the sound system for Clark Elementary school and Willy Wonka. April is directing the school production. They rented sound equipment from Rowton Audio and from the Market House Theatre. Wonka had its final dress rehearsal Monday afternoon and did its benefit performance on Monday March 29 in the evening. April and I are working for MHT doing this show but we also are working to make it a good show because our daughter, Jade, is in the cast along with lots of other Market House Theatre Youth performers. They had a school performance Tuesday afternoon and had their final performance Tuesday night at 6 pm.

Tuesday morning April did 3 performances at Ballard County Elementary School. The students there performed The Great Westward Movement. A play about the people who settled across the mid-west and into California, Oregon and Washington. April had two kids out sick for the first show, one of the performers began throwing up between the second and third show and was sent home and a few kids who said they didn't feel good before the 3rd show. She calmed down the kids who were thinking they might be getting sick and then scrambled to get other kids to cover the parts for the 3 missing kids. The kids did a great job (even those who thought they might be getting sick) and she finished up in time to head back to Clark for their performance.

The cast of Wedding Belles have been rehearsing during the evenings this week not only getting off book but dealing with all the props. Kris, who has never done a show with MHT before was trying desperately to memorize the entire script thinking she had to know her lines and everyone elses. When I told her that was not the case at all she was very relieved. I think there is probably a common misconception about learning lines. Generally you memorize your lines and the cue line right before your line. Kris was trying so hard to think of her next line before she had to say them. My answer to her is that the key is to listen to the person who is speaking to you. The best actors can't think of their lines at all before they speak them. They are a natural response to the cue lines. In fact if you are trying to think about your line before you have to say it that's bad. Often during rehearsal and I will stop the action and correct a problem and then go back and try to run a section again. I have to find a natural starting point which give them a context or the actors have no idea what their lines are.

People always comment about how much memorization is needed to do a play. The secret is to listen to the other actors and just respond to what they say. A good playwright has already given you the tools to make that easy.

Thursday Bonnie Daniels met with Creatures of Habit to go over costume ideas and colors. We talked through changes and how different costumes needed to function with dance movement and with color and texture choices related to the characters. Before meeting with Creatures of Habit she and I spent time going over conceptual and spatial ideas for the different scenes and how we might do the transformation from pumpkin to carriage and ball gown. We all took the ideas from our meeting and then will go back and work some more on the concept. This is a process that will lead to a final design. Often we start work on parts of the show long before we have finalized all the details. Theatre is a collaborative process. I can only laugh when people assume that I have an idea fixed in stone from the outset and it never changes. Working together we end up with a much better product than we could individually have created.

March Madness

2010-03-20T22:45:00.002-05:00

While MHT doesn't have a basketball team in the NCAA final four, March has certainly been an exciting and exhilarating month.

We opened There's a Boy in the Girl's Bathroom on March 11 and with school matinees and public performances it closed on March 16. The show had great attendance in both school matinees and public performances. The cast did a great job and April's direction was terrific. While we had several technical challenges in producing the show, it went off without a glitch. The show had over 20 scene changes with set pieces moving on, rotating around, and flying flowing seamlessly from one moment to the next in the show.

Three days later the theatre had been totally turned around with all the seats taken out and replaced with tables and chairs and the Curtain Call fundraiser was held Friday evening March 19. The theatre raised thousands of dollars Friday night to help support our adult and youth programming.

Immediately following the fundraiser last night the board and many volunteers turned the theatre around again and took out all that we had created for the fundraiser and returned it to performance ready for the Footlights final dress rehearsal that started at 8 am this morning. This afternoon we sold out the Footlights troupe shows.

Tomorrow we have the Elementary and Middle School Footlights Troupe shows and then we turn tear down the set and build Wedding Belles which opens in just a couple weeks. Tuesday the MHT Trustee donor group will meet to discuss the results of the Board of Directors Strategic Planning retreat that was held just 4 weeks ago. Wednesday the March Board of Directors meeting will continue that dialogue and finalize dates for next season.

March came in like a lion and is going out in the same fashion. We currently have Wedding Belles, Cinderella, The Murder Mystery Troupe, and Story Theatre all rehearsing. Wedding Belles, Murder Mystery Troupe and Story Theatre all have performances in April.

We have final four excitement every month!

Bathroom Tech

2010-03-07T18:28:00.002-06:00

The technical rehearsal for Boy in the Girl's Bathroom ended just before 6 pm today. The cast had a delicious meal of lasagna, salad, bread and cookies provided by board members Cindy Miller, Heather Dorr, and Sid Hancock after the tech rehearsal. The last three days have each been 16 hour work days for both April and I, and Jim has put in a full weekend as well getting ready for the rehearsal. Zach Story, a Lone Oak Middle Student who is April's assistant for the show asked technical director Jim Keeney yesterday while we were setting light cues "So you guys work here all day getting ready for the rehearsals?" To which Jim replied in a very nice way-"Did you think all this happened by magic?" Last night we took apart and reconfigured the sound equipment to add in the wireless microphones for the actors who animate the stuffed animals in the show.

We have almost 80 light cues, 35 screen changes, 40 sound cues. and about a dozen piece of scenery that move on and off the stage. Before the rehearsal today I asked Jim to rework the bed and how it moved on and off the stage. It wasn't working as fast as we needed to make the changes. Anything that takes longer than 30 seconds is unacceptable when you have over two dozen scene changes. Many of the changes after today's rehearsal are now completed in 10-15 seconds. He spent a couple of hours redesigning what had been working in rehearsal but now needed to work much faster. We must have rehearsed how to get the classroom desks off and getting the bedroom on about a dozen times today until we were sure it could be done quickly every single time in just a few seconds.

April is working with Wyatt and Chance who playing the young boys on becoming more expressive with their voices, faces, gestures, and body. Wyatt has several scenes with stuffed animals that talk and move around. Trying to get his face and body to react as if the animals are real would be a challenge for anyone. Both of the boys in the show get beaten up by one of the girls. I've had to teach one of the girls how to throw a punch and put someone in a headlock. The boys have to learn to react as if they have been punched. All of the kids in real life wouldn't dream of getting in a fist fight with someone else.

It's also a learning process for the adults and younger kids that acting isn't just saying your lines. Your face has to react to what other people are saying. Your arms and body are expressive using gestures. We react both physically and vocally to others. April must have worked one scene several times at least to get 4 boys to walk onstage as if they were looking for a fight but not really wanting to get in one. Trying to work on two levels at the same time is something first time actors no matter whether adults or children always seem to have a difficult time with. Bradleys father in the play loses his temper and yet he doesn't walk into a scene angry. We have to see what sets him off. We have to see him struggle with not getting angry. We have to see him frustrated by his son who always has some excuse and blames someone else for his faults. The wonderful part is watching the boy slowly change over the course of the play.

For me one scene in the play always makes me angry no matter how many times I see it. It is a scene when the parents of one of the children demand that the principal fire the school counselor so that they can put more computers in the classroom. It doesn't matter how much good the counselor is doing for their child or others.

The parents demand the counselor tell them what their child wanted to talk about. When the counselor refuses the parents get very upset stating that a child doesn't get to have secrets. That children's feelings and confidences they share with others don't deserve the same respect as an adults. The sad/funny thing is that the child only wanted to talk to the counselor about inviting a boy she likes to her birthday party. The counselor told the young girl that she needed to get permission from her parents first before she could talk to her.

In the same scene a very funny moment occurs when the same parents make up a very strange example of a child who might run around biting others on their backside. What would the counselor do if the child bit her? This funny, yet sad scene is all too real in modern education it seems.

There's a Boy in the Girl's Bathroom has lots of levels that will appeal to both children and adults. Even in the technical rehearsal, focused on lights and scenery and sound there were some wonderful moments that made me laugh and think as I watched the play.

5 minutes to post

2010-03-04T16:52:00.002-06:00

It is 5 minutes before I have to go over to Boy in the Girls Bathroom rehearsal. Then run straight out of that to Wedding Belles Rehearsal. We have stage the first act of Wedding Belles in 4 days. I'm exhausted from running from one stage to the next. Working on an NEA grant for the city, meeting with the RAMP River Area Master Plan- consultant, ordering scripts for April for next season to look at, securing the rights for the summer drama camp, trying to read murder mystery scripts so we can do a show in 5 weeks for that, getting ad copy for Wedding Belles program, putting in bios and information for wedding belles photos, getting logos and contracts for next mainstage season and adjusting some dates for other events for next year.

This weekend will only get worse with tech on Sunday and a great deal of lights, sound, and scenery to finish. Oh and I took photos today to send to a writer at the NEA who is doing an article on the Market House Theatre for the NEA quarterly magazine. One of their interviewers is trying to locate studio space so they can do an interview for a podcast. I need another 2 of me just to stay even. Oops rehearsal time!

February wrap up

2010-02-27T07:52:00.002-06:00

The week began and ended with planning and meetings. The strategic planning retreat which was last Saturday led to a week of getting information and working on details as well as preparing for shows.

Boy in the Girl's Bathroom rehearsals are proceeding along slowly. The young cast is working hard to move through the process of being off-book. For those who don't know that is the process of taking the scripts out of the actors hands and their having to do the scenes memorized. The adults are doing well but a few of the younger actors are struggling a little. This weekend will be time spent by all of the actors going over and over their lines so that when we start the final week of rehearsals before opening they are solid with their lines.

April and I continue to work on refining the design for the set. I've moved through several design ideas going from large puzzle pieces to lined paper on the walls. We have settled for a style similar to the drawings in the book Diary of a Wimpy Kid. There are a couple of key images in the show that we will try to incorporate into the drawings on the walls of the set. In addition since we want the comedy and to really show through we will be using a variety of bright colors for the wall backgrounds.

Tuesday the Cinderella Cast met for the first time to get their schedules and their scripts and music. The theatre paid for AccompanEase which is a computer software that all cast members can use to rehearse their music. AccompanEase works with Rodgers and Hammerstein and has many of their titles on it. Cast members download the software onto their computers and then they can play back all the songs from the show and hear only their parts or only the orchestra or any variation. Songs can be slowed down, speeded up, or even changed keys. Bonnie Daniels the director of the show can use the software to choreograph and rehearse the dance numbers. The sound for the AccompanEase is simple midi generated music not suitable for performances. This is simply a rehearsal tool.

Wednesday was the board of directors meeting where we finalized several items that we had been studying. One of those was ticket prices for next year. We raised ticket prices for Season Ticket holders by $1 per show. Regular season tickets went from $80 for the entire season to $85. Senior season tickets went from $70 for the entire season to $75. We expanded what used to be the child ages 12 and under ticket to a student ticket ages 21 and under. The student ticket will cost the same as the Senior Season ticket at $75.

In addition the board voted to change single ticket prices. The new prices will reflect a two tier structure. We dropped the single ticket prices for the Saturday matinee from $19 to $15 for all ticket buyers. All other performances will now have a $18 single ticket price. Students ages 21 and under will be able to buy tickets at $15 for all non musical performances along with groups of 10 or more ticket buyers. Musical tickets will be $20 for all performances except the Saturday matinee which will be $16 for all seats. Students and groups will be able to buy $16 tickets to the musicals. The theatre has struggle with consistently rising expenses for lumber,fabric, and production materials to build the sets, costumes and props. The board felt strongly that we remain an incredible value compared to other performing arts ticket prices in Paducah. Plans were also finalized for the Curtain Call auction on March 19. Invitations were addressed and were to hit the mail this weekend.

Thursday the Wedding Belles cast had its first rehearsal. We had a great time reading through the script and all of the actresses are spending the weekend looking up the pronunciation for over 20 different kinds of flowers mentioned in the script. We start staging Wedding Belles in the classroom rehearsal space Monday night after I get through with the Boy in the Girl's Bathroom rehearsal on the Mainstage.

Friday saw meetings with a financial group from the Strategic planning session. We went over information from the American Association of Community theatres and the Theatre Communications Group comparing all aspects of MHT's financial operations with other theatres across the country. We compared budgets, marketing expenses, ticket sales both prices and number of seats sold as well as number of productions and performances, fundraiser expenses and contributed income as a percentage of total income from various sources, salaries, number of employees, utility and maintenance costs and a lot more. The group spent two hours pouring over about 60 pages of comparison information. These comparisons and work by this group will begin the budget process for the theatre for 2010/2011 season which begins in 4 months!

Friday afternoon was spent in meetings with arts and city representatives to brainstorm and decide on a grant application for a project from the National Mayors Initiative Forum and the National Endowment for the Arts. A consensus was reached on an idea for a grant proposal and it is now up to a couple of people from the arts and the city to put together a proposal for city commission review Tuesday and a 3 page proposal to be sent to the NEA by March 15.

March is starting off with the theatre working as hard as ever. We are having a very good year hitting all of our income and expense goals so far. We hope that trend continues through the last four months.

Week of auditions and planning

2010-02-21T22:16:00.002-06:00

This past week was spent on grants, auditions and planning. Saturday from 9:30 to 3:30 Constance Alexander led the Market House Board and some of our Trustee group in a day long look at the major issues facing the theatre. The theatre board came up with the top three questions that we then tried to come up with strategies that addressed these issues. The questions dealt with business models for future growth and sustainability, future facility needs, and future staff and volunteer resources.

There is a board meeting on Wednesday and we will continue to address many of the issues raised at the meeting. As the theatre works through the issues we will make sure that everyone at the theatre is kept up to date with what is being accomplished behind the scenes.

Cinderella and Wedding Belles Auditioned last week. It was a real relief for me that so many people auditioned for both shows. I was nervous when I asked Bonnie Daniels to direct Cinderella. I wondered if we would get the talent to come out for a director most people didn't know and a show that many men think is just for women. We have a very strong cast. Bonnie agonized over several roles because she had so much talent to chose from.

I also had lots of new and veteran actresses audition for Wedding Belles. Both shows will have a read through on Tuesday night.

The arts groups in Paducah and the City are currently generating ideas for a grant possibility that just became available. The deadline is March 15th for the proposal so many of us are scrambling to get together to discuss options. Last Friday I participated in a teleconference on this grant. Paducah is very fortunate to have lots of hard working arts and civic leaders who want to see the arts thrive. Emails are flying fast and furious as we come down to the wire to apply.

There's a Boy in the Girl's Bathroom posters came in to be put up. The billboard went up on Park Avenue last week and April moves her rehearsals from the classroom to the main stage this week. Jim has been trying to get the scenery built for the show but I've been out of the office so much this past week I'm afraid he hasn't been able to do much. April is anxious to get her design finalized for the show. Bonnie wants us to get together to talk about her design for Cinderella and I have barely begun thinking about a design for Wedding Belles. It's hard to believe that we have only 4 months left in the season. I don't know why it always surprises me. It seems as if the season has just started and suddenly we are down to the last two shows.

April is still trying to work out the Story Theatre touring cast and schedule. That is proving difficult to get everyone's schedules coordinated. Murder for Hire will start rehearsals soon for the April and May shows scheduled.

God, Frankfort, and Glass Slippers

2010-02-12T13:53:00.003-06:00

It has been a wild week indeed. First my apologies to Joey Judd for leaving his name out of the supporting cast in my last blog entry. That will teach me to post something without proofing it thoroughly.

God's Favorite continues to do great box office with a great word of mouth. There are shows tonight, Saturday afternoon, Saturday evening, and Sunday afternoon. Tickets are still available for the Sat. and Sun. matinees.

On Wednesday I left at 4 am and drove to Frankfort for Arts Day. Symphony Director Darlene Dryer rode with me and we arrived in Frankfort by 8:15 (9:15 eastern time) for our first appointment of the day 30 minutes later. We visited with most of the Western Kentucky legislators and had time to talk about the arts and their importance. I was really pleased to have hard facts and figures about the economic impact of the arts in the greater Paducah area. Generally when people talk about the value of the arts it is in the quality of life and the educational benefits. In this really difficult budget time period it was important to talk about how many jobs were created by the arts programming in our area. Over 819 jobs are created in our area because of the arts. To give a better sense that makes the number of full time jobs supported by the arts industry in the Greater Paducah area about the same size as James Marine, Wal-Mart, and Harrah's Casino. In addition the arts in the Greater Paducah area provide over $2.6 million dollars in state revenue and approx. $1 million in local government revenue. Those returns come from an investment of approx. $150,000 for the total community. That is a huge return on investment.

Everyone is going to have to share in the pain of this economic recession. It is important for elected leaders at all levels of government to look at the return on investment in these tight times and make informed decisions. Too many times the arts are looked at as a feel good nice thing to do and not a jobs and economic impact engine. We made a strong case for the small arts funding that has already been cut several times to not be cut any further. May Louise Zumwalt with the Quilt Museum and Darlene with the Symphony and I all went to a reception in the evening where we had a chance to talk with the Governor's wife who raised in LaCenter KY. She talked about her fond memories of Paducah growing up. The three of us from Paducah came the farthest of anyone in the state to make our case for support. We are all waiting to see what happens in Frankfort concerning future support. We are fortunate in Western Kentucky to have some very capable people representing us.

Today at lunch the Strategic planning committee met with Kristin Williams to go over the results of our recent Internet survey. There were some surprises and some things that we all had a gut feeling about but the survey verified it. We will take these results to the board strategic planning meeting on Feb. 20. I will post the results after that meeting.

Last Sunday during the performance we noticed a smell of something burning in the theatre offices. We traced it to a computer that was warm and shut it down. On Tuesday we turned the computer on to back up everything on it and it began to smoke. The power supply was apparently worn out. We replaced the computer yesterday and all the data is intact. Four of our computers in regular use are over almost 10 years old. We still have one we use occasionally that is about 12 years old. We have certainly got our money's worth out of them. We had hoped to change out most of the old computers one at a time over the course of the next couple of years. We are looking at accelerating that a little.

Auditions for Cinderella and Wedding Belles are next Monday and Tuesday. I'm really hoping that we get a good turnout of men and women. There are great roles for both in Cinderella. Wedding Belles has seen lots of perusal scripts checked out for women in their 40's and up. Auditions start at 7 pm at the theatre.

God's Favorite Opening

2010-02-06T16:06:00.002-06:00

With two performances already completed of the God's Favorite the response has been very positive. The plays main themes and comedy resonates with audiences and the performers are doing a terrific job with their parts. Diane Byrd's direction keeps the comedy and the humor well paced.

April has been rehearsing the footlights plays and was happy to see that almost all of the youth who are in footlights were there today. This is a performance trimester which means that all of the kids need to be there every Saturday in order to get the play rehearsed and ready for performance on March 20. Last weeks snow didn't help with many of the local kids missing while the out of town kids made it in. Not only are we teaching performance skills and teamwork but at times it feels like we are teaching commitment as well. When a person agrees to be in a play they join a group of people who all depend on the members of the group to be there. When a person is missing from rehearsal then that part of the whole is missing. Each performer in a show from the person who is onstage with the most lines to the person who enters for only one line are critical to creating the play. That person with only a couple of lines can make or break the whole production.

God's Favorite has two leading performers who do an outstanding job with the show. But those wouldn't be as good without the supporting characters who setup the scenes and create the context for the plot. Lisa Humphrey, Landon Baker, Allyson Tracy, Dvonne Miller, and Steve Schwetman all do a great job. In addition Valerie Pollard who is the stage manager and calls all of the lights and sound cues, Debbie on sound and Kiersten(don't know if I spelled her name correctly) on lights, also make the play come to life. Leave the lights up just a few seconds too long at the end of a scene or cut off a sound cue a few seconds too early and the punch lines and comedy don't work.

With the Super Bowl this weekend we think of sports teams and they work they have to do to win the game. With the cast and crew of God's Favorite this is something they have to do with every single performance. The six weeks of hard work and rehearsal are paying off with the audience response.

The new chairs received lots of compliments Thursday and Friday night. We are still tweaking the spacing between rows and the offsets to maximize audience comfort and sight lines. We should have it just about right by Sunday afternoon. The difference of a single inch here or there make a big difference.

God's Favorite Tech rehearsal

2010-02-01T06:26:00.003-06:00

Yesterday was the technical rehearsal for God's Favorite. The crew came in for the first time and the lighting and sound were added along with costumes. A funny moment came when Al Knudsen playing Sydney Lipton rushes onstage after a bolt of lightning has come so close that it sets Sydney's rain coat on fire. Al came rushing onstage and Tom Dolan grabbed the seltzer bottle and sprayed the back of Al with it. They had never rehearsed this with the real seltzer bottle before and when Tom sprayed Al suddenly whirled around looking at Tom with a "What did you just do to me!" Tom and Al started laughing but quickly got things back under control.

The beginning of the show is a difficult tech moment and it took us several tries to get it right. The shows starts with the stage in darkness and the sound of a clock striking midnight. As soon as the last chime is heard the french doors onstage are opened setting off an alarm. Actors run on stage turn on the lights and run to a panel to shut off the alarm. Immediately after the alarm stops the telephone rings. While this may seem simple it is quite complex to work through for first time crew members at a tech. At one point got stuck in a loop and struck 14 times, then when the doors opened instead of the alarm going off the phone rang. It is also hard to see when the actors hand reaches the light switch in the dark for the lights to come up so we had to practice that as well. Actor Landon Baker who is supposed to answer the phone kept picking it up at different points in the ring and it is hard to stop it mid ring so the phone would sometimes keep ringing after he picked it up or stop ringing just before he picked it up. Eventually all was worked through and we moved on. Most often the hardest part of a show is actually starting the show with the several people who all have to work together.

The new chairs are in place. Today I pick up the row and seat numbers to apply to the chairs. The plaques for the arms are being made and we will pick those up hopefully Wednesday. They shipped the wrong arms for the chairs so we will be replacing over 150 arms with new ones that have the cut out for the seat plaques. This is in addition to finishing the set for the show. Al Knudsen has done a great job of painting the set. He came in and did a nice glaze on the upper wall section and a marble effect on the lower section. We are still working on how to easily install and remove the upper section for Act Two when the set has to look as if it has burned down in a fire.

Opening night is Thursday and we are in good shape. The show if very funny and the cast and Diane Byrd the director have done a great job. Ilist Paducah has done a nice feature on the show with some publicity photos and a video clip I took a week ago of rehearsal. We are promoting the group of 10 or more discount with $2 of each ticket sale from the group going to support Paducah Cooperative Ministry Food Bank.

Board meeting this Wednesday

2010-01-25T22:58:00.003-06:00

The MHT board will meet in a regular meeting this Wednesday. At the meeting the theatre will choose our 47th Season which will open in Sept. 2010. A recent article in American Theatre magazine listed the 11 most produced plays of the year. The list includes Proof, Doubt, Art, Wit, Crowns, and the Glass Menagerie all of which MHT has produced. MHT entered Proof in the state and regional competition and brought home several awards.

This weekend I spent several hours cleaning the carpets in the main auditorium in preparation for the new chairs. I finished up this afternoon cleaning the aisles and the lobby. Tomorrow we will start loading chairs into the theatre to start making rows. Recognition Plus is working on the plaques for the arms of the chairs and the row and seat number tags as well.

I've included two photos with the blog to show the old chairs stacked up at the theatre warehouse space and the auditorium empty of chairs except for the last three rows.

Volunteer Al Knudsen (who is also acting in the play God's Favorite) has painted the set for God's Favorite. He is doing a nice glaze paint technique and the set is coming along extremely well thanks to his hard work along with Director Diane Byrd and other cast members who have helped.

There was an arts group meeting today at the River Heritage Museum and we all shared dates and information on upcoming events and possible dates for next season along with fundraiser dates. It really is important for all of us to work together to make Paducah a thriving arts community. The next couple of months are jam packed with plays, symphonies, shows at the Carson Center, the Teen Spirit show at the Yeiser, lots of films at Maiden Alley Cinema, and events happening around the city. Paducah was also ranked third in Southern Living Magazine as one the top small cities in Kentucky.

Closer

2010-01-21T13:09:00.002-06:00

We are close to accomplishing a couple of goals! First our survey that has been emailed to everyone that MHT has an email address for. We would like to get at least 750 responses. We are currently at 635! If you haven't done so please take our brief 10 question survey online. You can find the link to the survey at our website www.mhtplay.com Help us finish this project up so we can use the results for our strategic planning retreat Feb. 20. We have just a couple of days left to fill out the survey.

The second goal is our chair campaign. As of yesterday we had raised enough funds to do all but the last row. We still need to raise about $4,000 to cover the purchase and shipping to finish the project. You can still honor someone or yourself with a plaque on the arm of a new chair for a $250 donation. We are also selling the old seats which have been removed from the theatre. The "vintage" chairs are $100 for an aisle seat, $75 for an interior seat. If you buy more than two interior chairs we drop the price of additional chairs down to $50. Lots of people have snapped up the old chairs as a piece of history from the theatre. Call the box office for information.

Rehearsals are in the last couple of weeks for God's Favorite which opens Feb. 4. The set is in the final build stages and volunteers are needed to help paint and help hang the masking drapes. Betty Wise has been in several days this past week helping paint.

Rehearsals also are underway for Boy in the Girls Bathroom. The set was taped out up in the classroom yesterday and April starts staging the show tonight.

The play selection committee is reading the final play for consideration and should have a season proposal completed by next week. That proposal then goes to the board of directors for approval. After that the rights are secured for the production (which generally requires us to put money down as a deposit on the shows), we then develop logos and descriptions and then look at budgeting. So far the season is shaping up for lots of roles for all ages. Our formula is a large cast and a small cast musical, two comedies and a comic drama. Other shows for the youth season and studio season are still being reviewed. We will announce our new season at the Curtain Call fundraising event on March 19.

Changes in planning

2010-01-17T22:59:00.003-06:00

It was a difficult week. With the news of the death of Mary Jane McGuire we were all in a kind of shock. It was also the week for the Kentucky Arts Council grant to be submitted no later than Friday at 5 pm. During the week we found out that the date of our Curtain Call auction event was also the date that Lourdes Hospital had selected for the American Cancer Society fundraiser Dancing with the Stars. We try not to compete with other fundraising events if at all possible. When we selected our date last July there was nothing scheduled on March 27. However things happen. The committee chaired by Valerie Pollard got together and decided to move our date, even though we already had advertising out, in order to not conflict with the Dancing With the Stars event which also has some Market House Theatre supporters involved in. So after a lot of schedule shoving, phone calls to make sure that no one knew of any other conflicts and April being gracious enough to sacrifice her final dress rehearsal for the Footlights troupes in the theatre space, we moved the date up to March 19. The Footlights troupe shows will be the next day on the 20th. We held the Feb. MHT newsletter from going to press until we could make that change.

Jim Keeney, Mike Brewer, Jeff Spicer, and Steve Schwetman all pitched in and moved the majority of the old seats to the warehouse last Thursday. We still have a few at the theatre but the auditorium is almost totally empty now. We will try to shampoo the carpets and get the new seats ready for their debut. The company shipped us the wrong arms on the chairs without the space for a plaque but they are now shipping the correct ones and we should have them all installed before Feb. 4 when God's Favorite opens.

It always seems like there is plenty of time to finish up the details to avoid the last minute rush on the grant and yet it always seems we are down to the wire. I submitted the grant online by 3 pm in the afternoon. But because of problems getting my supporting materials to load onto a disc I walked into the post office at 4:55 pm to get the grant package postmarked by the 5 pm deadline.

Saturday the funeral service for Mary Jane McGuire was held and many of the Market House Theatre performers and friends were there to honor Mary Jane. I was asked to be a Pall Bearer to represent the Rotary Club of Paducah and was honored to do that and represent MHT as well. I've thought a lot about the many shows and events I worked on with Mary Jane. I will miss her. She was a dear friend.

Saturday morning I met with Cindy and Bonnie and Ross Daniels to discuss the auditions for Cinderella Enchanted. That show should be lots of fun and we had a good meeting about the classic love story that has lots of modern overtones and humor in it as well. Saturday night I worked on a model of the set for April for Boy in the Girls bathroom set. It will be a challenging show to produce with the many scenes and locations that are needed. Many of the scripts today are written like movie scripts where characters walk from one location to the next with no break in the dialogue. Audiences don't like to sit through lots of scene changes anymore so we have to incorporate the scenery transitions into the action of the play.

Monday evening is play selection committee and hopefully we will narrow done the choices to our final slate of plays. We have several good plays to pick from. The challenge is to build a season out of them.

Sadness

2010-01-12T13:39:00.002-06:00

It is with a great deal of sadness that I share the news that long time musical director Mary Jane McGuire has passed away. I don't know all of the details but from what I know Mary Jane apparently passed away in her sleep. It is still too early to know about funeral details but when I find them out I will post them on the theatre's website and send out information by email. Our thoughts and prayers go out to Mary Jane's family. We will all miss her.

First Week of 2010

2010-01-08T23:21:00.002-06:00

The first week back after the holiday break is playing catch up. I have to give a special thanks for going above and beyond their job description to Marsha Cash and Rhiannon Dodds. Marsha is a former nurse and on Thursday evening just after closing Marsha and Rhiannon helped me by removing the nerve block that I had implanted for my shoulder surgery. Both of them tried to get raises out of me as they threatened to rip off with glee all the surgical tape from my shoulders if I didn't give in. Unfortunately I told them I have a high pain threshold so they were out of luck. My shoulder is recovering quickly and we all had a good laugh and my thanks for their help.

April is set for Footlights to begin Saturday morning. She has also been working preparing for the auditions for There's a Boy in the Girls Bathroom. Even with the snow days this week it has been hectic for April as she has begun work on plays for Lone Oak, Clark, Concorde and Ballard Elementary schools in addition to the MHT play and Footlights.

Marsha besides playing nurse has been trying to catch up on tax receipts and thank you letters for all of the donations that we have received at the end of the year. Rhiannon has also been hard at work with ticket sales and school matinee follow-up for Boy in the Girl's Bathroom.

Aaron Spoden who is home from college for a couple of days came in to help Jim Keeney and they put up the basic walls and platforms on stage today for God's Favorite to move onstage Monday.

I spent the morning out at WKCTC meeting with Constance Frank who teaches the Introduction to Theatre Classes. She is taking a 6 week medical leave for some surgery and the college has asked me to fill in for her until she returns. I taught Introduction to Theatre and Technical Theatre production at WKCTC a few years ago and really enjoyed the experience. So starting Monday I will put back on my teaching hat and help out.

Cindy Miller was in today and she wrote and laid out the February newsletter which we hope will go to the printer as early as next Monday. Cindy, Bonnie Daniels who is directing Cinderella and I will meet next Saturday to talk about music and scenery. Cindy and the rest of the Strategic planning committee looked over the final draft of the online survey today and we should be ready to send out emails with links for people to participate next week.

Debra Harned who volunteers to do our program layout is also working on the program for God's Favorite which goes to press 3 weeks before the show opens. While we just began 2010 there is lots going on that relates to 2011.

January 6

2010-01-06T16:35:00.003-06:00

Although MHT was closed for the Holidays there has still been activity going on behind the scenes. It has been a rough week for me getting back into the swing of things. I had shoulder surgery on Monday and although the recovery looks good and should progress quickly I will be glad when things smooth back out a bit. The grant for the Kentucky Arts Council is due a week from Friday and that will be the focus for the rest of this week and most of next for me.

Jim Keeney along with a volunteer is trying to move the Best Christmas Scenery to the Warehouse along with the old audience chairs to make room for the new chairs and the God's Favorite set. I obviously haven't been much help with that moving project. A new volunteer Thomas has been a big help. We could still use some help to move the chairs and the flats and platforms.

Marsha and I counted today and we have over 172 of the old chairs left for sale. There are about 5 aisle seats left. I will post the complete number of chairs and parts on the website this week. If anyone is interested in buying the old chairs contact me for a price on multiple chair purchases. If I don't get any response before the end of the month I'll put them on eBay. Get your orders in now!

Betty Wise came in today and took down all of the Christmas and Holiday decorations. She did an outstanding job of decorating the theatre lobby and the box office and our sincere thanks go out to her for her hard work.

The strategic planning committee has been working with Kristin Williams on our survey that is about to start online this month. We are doing this survey before we hold a strategic planning meeting in February. Hopefully this survey along with some of the results from the survey we did for Smoke on the Mountain Homecoming will be helpful as we develop a strategic plan outline for the theatre's future. Constance Alexander from Murray will be our facilitator for the strategic planning meeting.

The play selection committee met on Monday evening and has narrowed the list for next season down to about 10-15 plays to choose from. Diane Byrd and the cast of God's Favorite are back in full rehearsal mode and will transition from the classroom to the stage next Monday. April will hold auditions next Monday and Tuesday for There's a Boy in the Girls Bathroom. Footlights starts this Saturday regardless of weather (she never cancels because of kids coming from so many different locations.)

Holidays

2009-12-31T00:28:00.004-06:00

The theatre closed for the holidays at 5 pm on Wednesday Dec. 23 and will reopen on Tuesday Jan. 5. The Monday before we closed Jim Keeney and I unbolted all of the old chairs and created the single aisle chairs for pick up. We had a couple of doubles, one triple and one 4 chair "row" that we moved to the corner building so those who wanted to pick them up in time for Christmas could do so. I got back into town today and went down to the theatre to see what mail had come in over the holidays. I was pleased to see that the newsletter made it out to mailboxes. This helps us get the word out about footlights classes starting and auditions for Boy in the Girls Bathroom. Jim and I have a lot of work to get done before the end of January with installing the new seats. Doing a thorough check of the lighting system. We hope to take down all of the lighting instruments and clean the lenses and check the lamp bases. Some of the lights are close to 50 years old and they are showing their age.

While on break I read 6 scripts. All of them are being considered for next season. We have romantic comedies, farces, murder mysteries, thrillers and a couple of great musicals to choose from. The play selection committee will present their slate of plays to the board of directors in January for a vote. The rights will be applied for and the season announced to public in early March. I am looking at several possibilities for some additional productions in the studio theatre. We took a break this season and did not schedule any adult studio productions so we could look at some alternative funding ideas. I'm hoping that we can have studio productions announced in March along with the main stage season.

Also while we were on vacation I purchased some equipment that I found on sale for April to use in her classes. She has had a real problem hauling all of her sound equipment around. I found a great small system with a big output of sound that she can play with a remote using her iPhone as the mp3 player. She is looking forward to using it for the many shows she is working on when school starts up again.

chairs and more

2009-12-15T20:15:00.002-06:00

I received an email yesterday from Wenger Corp in Minnesota telling me that our chairs had just left the factory. We were supposed to get a call 24 hours prior to delivery. Delivery was estimated for anytime from 4-7 days. You can imagine my surprise this morning when the driver called and said he was Amerisource and would be arriving at the theatre in approx. 30 minutes.

I quickly grabbed Jim and we made space for the semi truck to back in Maiden Alley off of Kentucky and then back into our lot and up to the back doors. As the pallets were unloaded Jim and I lifted and carried all of the crates of chairs into the studio theatre. We proceeded to unpack some of the more damaged cardboard boxes to inspect for damage. A few of the chairs were bent from shipping but I've already contacted the factory rep and they are shipping new chairs as soon as I find the total number which are damaged. In a second surprise many of the arms on the chairs didn't have a place for an embedded donor plaque. The factory is shipping the new arms to us. Wenger is a good company and really seems to follow through on their sales and service.

Jim and I will tag the old chairs which have been sold and will begin the slow process of dis assembly next Monday. We may have a few of the old chairs ready for pickup just in time for Christmas. The new chairs will be installed after new years day.

We got some good news today on the stage drape front. Last fall the Paducah City Fire Marshall came and did his annual inspection of our facility. In the wake of the Immanuel Baptist Church fire all theatres and schools in the city were double checked for fireproofing certificates on the stage drapes. Our drapes were a donation from WKCTC and the flame proofing certificate has expired. We were looking at an expensive process of having to redo the flame proofing to get the new certificate. This process can stain and ruin the finish on the fabrics. We found a company that will do a flame test on all of our stage drapes. If the drapes pass the test they will certify them for an additional period of time. The drapes have all been treated with borax as a initial flame retardant. We are sending samples of our drapes for testing and keeping our fingers crossed that they all pass.

Tomorrow night is the December board meeting which will be held at my house. The board will each bring a dish and we will do a pot luck. Immediately following the meeting will be the final rehearsal of the Murder Mystery troupe show Reunion at Hippie High. We are the entertainment for the Lone Oak elementary teachers Christmas Party. We did a show last year for the Lone Oak High School teachers party.

Best Christmas Pageant Ever goes back in performance next Saturday and Sunday. The cast party will be held at the theatre immediately following the last show and the set strike. The theatre will be open next week on Tuesday and Wednesday for any final Gift Certificates and last minute Mini Season ticket passes. The the staff will go away to be with family and friends and return to work on Monday January 4.

Christmas Tech

2009-12-06T20:54:00.002-06:00

We had a long day yesterday setting light cues and reworking some of the ideas I had on color for the set. April came home last night and worked on developing the sound cues until after midnight. This morning I went in early and continued refining the lighting and sound cues. I've been fighting two requests that April has asked for. She wants to have a light that has a soft edge on it and at the same time doesn't allow light to spill past a very narrow beam. the second request is that the sound system has a hiss in it whenever I turn the volume up above a certain point. I worked hard today to get rid of the hiss but then didn't have enough volume to play the sound effects loud enough. Tomorrow I'm going back to the drawing board to try some other ideas.

Today about 1:30 I was inside the theatre and heard someone walking by the auditorium doors knocking on the doors. I thought it was the Herdman kids in the play since they were supposed to be walking outside from the back stage to the front of the theatre to make their entrance. I stuck my head out the door and spotted three kids walking away from the door dressed in the Herdman costume of hooded sweatshirt and jeans with baseball caps on backwards. I yelled at them to stop knocking on the theatre doors. When the kids turned around none of them were the actors. They were kids who just happened to be walking by causing mischief dressed exactly like the Herdman kids in the show. I stepped back in the theatre and started laughing. I told April and she laughed.

MHT board members Sid Hancock, Jennifer Hughes and her daughter Sydney, and Heather Overby all brought in Hot dogs, pizza, brownies, and soft drinks to show their appreciation to the cast and crew after the tech rehearsal while April gave notes.

We have had one electrical circuit in the theatre that decided to blow out right before the tech rehearsal today which left part of the stage in the dark. I didn't have time to get out the ladders and tear into the circuit to repair it. The dimmers had flipped themselve to protect the system. So we just left the dimmers flipped and tried to work around the problem for the rehearsal.

The theatre's lighting equipment is over 40 years old and is showing its age lately. The light board has developed a new little quirk in that some of the little LED's that show you the progress change from one cue to another are now erratic and 1/2 the time don't work at all. We have a couple of slide faders that are also becoming finicky. Lights ghost on after you turn the system off until the dimmers shut down. We have all sorts of safety checks to make sure everything is safe. Many of the theatre lighting instruments are constantly being repaired to keep them in operation. We've developed a stack in the scene shop of lighting instruments that need to have their insides reworked and retrofitted.

On a bright note The Best Christmas Pageant achieved its budgeted income goal for the run last Thursday. All of the the theatre's shows this year have met or exceeded their box office income. Of course the economy was so bad last year that we were very conservative in our estimates.

December Hustle

2009-12-01T08:43:00.002-06:00

I watched the first part of Best Christmas Pageant ever last night in rehearsal and tried out a new flip video camera I got to help post some rehearsal shots on the theatre's website and facebook page. I'm still getting the hang of it. Last night was a trial attempt and now that I know what it looks like I will start posting some video items. We worked through some curtain issues last night. Jim spent a day hanging and preparing a traveler track and main drape which we eliminated last night in an effort to make the transitions flow more smoothly. We had hung the drape in an effort to solve a different problem. Designing in some ways is like directing. You try one solution to solve a problem and it creates a second problem that is worse than the first. My biggest challenge right now is to dress the interior set for Best Christmas Pageant using materials that can be flat on the wall since the walls fold in on each other during the church scene. I'm hoping for some inspiration from the swirling ideas I've got. The difficulty lies in making a decision as to which path to follow.

On today's schedule to complete the furniture for Best Christmas and to decide on a wall treatment for the house scene. Yesterday we assembled the rear screen projection frame and I worked on lights. Today will be another day of working on lights and set and then taping out the set for God's Favorite. Diane Byrd and the cast for that show started staging the show last night based on the set Diane and I developed.

Marsha is under the weather today and so is Rhiannon. I'm hoping that one of them will be able to work the box office today while I continue working on the tech for Best Christmas. If they can't them I'm on box office duty for the afternoon.

Madison Conference 2009

2009-11-24T07:04:00.002-06:00

I can't remember how many times I've come to this every other year conference in Madison. Each time I've been recharged by sharing and discussing issues that affect not only each of the theatres that we work for but also some of the challenges that we each face on a personal level. I've eaten wonderful Italian food, terrific Afghan food and tipped back a few micro brews after sessions with fellow directors from Hawaii, Texas, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Kentucky,Kansas, and Florida. I've listened to the struggles of theatres who are struggling to sell ads for $10 in their program up to theatres that have lost over $3 million dollars in their endowment fund.

Many of the issues are the same no matter the size. How do you attract performers, how do you energize boards, how do you sell tickets and how can you raise contribution levels.

In a great session yesterday after noon we had a presentation from Andrew Taylor who talked about social networking, facebook, twitter, flickr, geotagging and geocoding, and how to try not to just keep up but to move ahead to where arts are going. His presentation on place based networking is fascinating. Some theatres are now setting aside "Twitter Seats" for those people to tweet and text during performances. In several places arts organizations have empowered teens to produce shows using almost exclusively teens in all areas of production.

Last night we had a presentation from John Prignano of Music Theatre International who gave away lots of prizes for knowing show trivia but more importantly talked to us about copyright infringement, and new show availability. The new technology that MTI is constantly coming up with is helping community theatres and professional theatres across the country. We got dates for when shows like Legally Blonde, Hairspray, and Spring Awakening will be available for licensing. It was amazing to me how many community theatres in conservative areas had successes with shows that I would consider risky that are available right now- Rent, Full Monty, etc. I found out that Midland Texas and Diamond Head Hawaii can get shows like Les Miserables and others that we may not get for years because they have no tours that will impact them. (You must be at least 100 miles from the closest touring house.) Directors Tim from Midland and Deena from Diamond Head got lots of good natured ribbing from fellow directors about their locations.

I heard some great fundraising events that groups have done like a Diva Night where audience members watch local female performers in solo numbers and then vote on their favorite performer.

We talked about how many times to ask for contributions during the year. We talked about average ticket prices and discounts. We talked about censorship and how to remain true to the playwright while being aware of community sensitivities. We talked about staffing and how to evaluate and to deal with issues of transition.

This morning we have a 3 hour session before we all leave. Many will be heading out through out this mornings sessions to catch flights at the airport. I'm coming back with about a dozen pages of notes and handouts from dozens of theatres to look at implementing new ideas at MHT. While I'm not looking forward to the 8 hour drive back today, I know that my head will be spinning with new thoughts and ideas from this conference.

Boards Budgets and Best Christmas

2009-11-19T09:00:00.002-06:00

Last night was the November Board of Directors meeting. We moved it up a week because of Thanksgiving. The meeting started half an hour later than usual because of another meeting which was right before it. We received the audit last night for the last completed fiscal year. The theatre ended the last fiscal year with a deficit. The good news out of that deficit is that the majority of that deficit is from depreciation of the equipment and facilities. We have struggled for a couple of years to find ways to fund the depreciation so that when equipment wears out we have the money to replace it. When income funds are tight, as they are right now with the recession, funding things like depreciation is more difficult.

Today Rhiannon and possibly Marsha Cash will be attending the Visitors Bureau program Give Em a Pickle about Customer Service. I'm scheduled to be at the River Heritage Museum for the a meeting about a big River Celebration.

Best Christmas Pageant set is getting base coated today and Jim is putting up a large rear screen projection for part of the back drop. I'm still looking for furniture and props for the show. We are still looking for crew for the show as well.

The story theatre troupe is performing in Brookport IL this morning with the City Mouse Country Mouse. They have spent everyday this week so far performing in Southern Illinois.

Yesterday I spent time in the main theatre arranging blue chairs to see how many we could fit in for a school matinee. With the new seats coming in our capacity will drop because of the wider seats. I may be replacing some of the new seats for a school matinee with blue chairs in order to keep our number of available seats up. It's like a giant puzzle with the empty space that you keep pushing around the little tiles to get them in order.

I'm spending the day trying to tie up a couple of loose ends before heading off to Wisconsin tomorrow for the national directors conference.

Schools, Scouts and Surveys

2009-11-13T07:27:00.003-06:00

This has been a week of rushing around to help April with school projects. Wednesday I went to Clark School to help them with a pep rally for the academic team. They needed a smoke machine so I helped provide one. As it was sitting there sputtering and not really operating at full capacity I noticed a leak under the smoke machine where the smoke fluid was leaking out the bottom of the unit. The smoke machine is over 25 years old. Like so much of the equipment at the theatre we keep machinery functioning for many years beyond its projected life span by doing repairs and maintenance.

Yesterday Jim Keeney helped April load in masking drapes to McNabb Elementary for their Gifted Talented production of the THE BOY WHO CRIED WOLF. April was very pleased with the performance that the kids did for the rest of the school. At the end of the school day the masking panels were shifted to Clark Elementary for their Gifted Talented production today of the play THE US CONSTITUTION Revivor: Philadelphia. The play is a take off on Survivor and is a musical production which teaches the basics of the Constitution. I have to copy programs for the performances before I go to the school. I will photograph one of the three performances today trying to get some good shots to send to Bad Wolf Press who are the writers for the show to put on their website.

At noon today a MHT board committee is meeting with a consultant to discuss doing a thorough survey of MHT facilities and programs. This information will be used in our Strategic planning retreat to be held next February.

April has Footlights tomorrow morning and then in the afternoon will do a Girl Scout workshop tomorrow afternoon. She spent last night from about 11 pm to midnight painting Styrofoam balls with Gesso in order for the girl scouts to make puppets on Saturday.

Callbacks and shifting rehearsals

2009-11-11T08:04:00.002-06:00

Today we will post the callback list for God's Favorite. Director Diane Byrd had about 14 people audition for the play and she is working through all of the various factors such as acting ability, ages relative to other characters (who can play mother/father, son/daughter,) schedule conflicts, etc... Diane is sending me the call back list for posting this morning.

The rehearsal for Best Christmas Pageant is moving to the stage today after rehearsing in the classroom for the past couple of weeks. It is always a tough day when you move from a flat floor space that has been taped out to the actual stage. Suddenly everyone has to relearn their entrance and exit points. In addition I will be taking publicity photos at the end of the rehearsal today. TD Jim Keeney and I will be trying to set up some of the basic wall structures today to give a sense of the final space for the show. I'm still working on some of the style choices for the set for the show. In general I always design a basic ground plan and then evolve some of the style choices of the show with the director as the rehearsal progresses. I'm looking for ways to make the set a little more theatrical than a realistic interpretation.

The strategic planning committee has a meeting today at 5:30 pm with a possible facilitator to do our long range planning meeting in February. There are many important issues facing the theatre in the next 4 years and we will conduct an in depth planning retreat in February to chart the course that will take the theatre into the future. With the chair campaign almost finished we are now turning attention to the next set of challenging issues. One of those issues are the women's restrooms and the acoustics of the theatre.

Final Performance of Tom Dick and Harry

2009-11-08T07:47:00.002-06:00

I'm sitting here trying to make photo discs and working on a cast and crew photo to give to each cast and crew member of the show in preparation for the final performance this afternoon. Audience response has been terrific. The play has met its budgeted ticket income goal and has been playing to full houses most of the run. I had a gentleman come up and ask me last night if all the wild action on the stage was in the script or if we made it up. Playwrights Ray and Michael Cooney deserve the credit for the dialogue and the ideas for the physical action. It is up to the director and the actors to interpret the words on the written page into something that comes to life onstage. That interpretation can be the difference between a great performance or an "ok" production. I have seen productions of plays where the actors were competent and the material was good but something was missing. Far too many amateur theatre productions are associated with that missing element. The cast of Tom Dick and Harry have many veteran actors and some new performers appearing in their second or third play. They have all come together to form an ensemble that all works together as one. That is something that is difficult to achieve but when it works the audience response is wonderful.

With live theatre you never know what will happen and watching the show as a director is like watching a tight rope performer. As a director I'm always slightly holding my breath with each difficult moment in the show. There is a sense of confidence that develops with some casts that no matter what happens the actors can stay on that tightrope. Last night Landon (Harry) kicked the head of the body parts across the stage for Al (Tom) to pick up then toss back in the bag. They've done this dozen's of times. The only problem was that Landon's aim was off and he kicked the head off the front of the stage into the audience. Without missing a beat Al walked down the steps in front of the stage, rescued the head and tossed it into the bag that Landon was holding without missing a beat. That little moment will surely earn Landon a Golden Screw Award nomination at the annual theatre picnic. The ability of everyone onstage to continue as if nothing had gone wrong was the mark of true professionals.

It has been a pleasure working with this cast and crew as we close out the final performance today. After the performance the cast and crew will tear down the set and then celebrate with a party on the theatre stage. I always get the questions from cast members if I have a favorite show. That is so hard to say. I've worked on lots of wonderful productions with so many wonderful people. Tom Dick and Harry will certainly be added to that long list.

For the staff of the theatre we are already into the rehearsals for The Best Christmas Pageant ever. Auditions for God's Favorite are tomorrow and Tuesday in the main theatre. The performers in Tom Dick and Harry will be able to feel that glow of their success for a long time. For the director, designers, and staff you get about 24 hours before you step back on the tight rope with the next cast and crew and try to do it all over again with a new production. Opening night for Best Christmas Pageant is about 30 days from now.

Searching applications

2009-11-07T13:08:00.003-06:00

I have been struggling to get MHT information into certain places. My Iphone has a couple of applications like Where that will give you listings and directions to places close to you. While places like the Carson Center and Maiden Alley Cinema are listed on these apps MHT doesn't come up. What I've found is that a couple of sites are used to populate the information on these applications. If I can get some of the people who know MHT to write a review about the theatre that would help. You can go to Yelp.com and to the Yellowpages.com to write reveiws about local businesses in Paducah. Since it would be inappropriate for me to write a reveiew of the theatre I'm asking others to go on these sites and give MHT a review good, bad or indifferent. That way we will at least show up on some of the applications that people are using to find MHT.

photos and theatres

2009-11-06T22:21:00.003-06:00

Today April and I ran up to Shawnee Community College to see the school matinee of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. A former MHT performer who grew up doing shows at MHT is now the Educational Center Coordinator and got us a couple of tickets. It was great to see him and some of the other people who occassionaly do shows at MHT. Willy Wonka is a musical and is a tremendously difficult technical show. April and I were interested to see the Shawnee theatre after hearing about it for several years and to see the production. April is doing a version of the show for Clark school. The Shawnee production must have had a 100 people in the cast. To coordinate that large a cast is a massive undertaking. We enjoyed the Oompa Loompa costumes (there must have been 50 Oompa Loompas) and the Wonka factory set was very bright and colorful. There were some sound problems in the performance we saw and we couldn't always hear. I saw in an Educational Center handout that Murray State University is bringing a Greek Play to Shawnee during this school year. I would be interested to see how that goes. I've always wanted to direct a Greek Tragedy.

Tonight was a performance of Tom Dick and Harry that was almost sold out with only 4 or 5 seats total left. I took photos tonight and probably have well over 200 photos of the show. Tomorrow is a 2 show day with a matinee in the afternoon and an evening show. I'll provide the food between shows tomorrow since the actors will only have about an hour between the end of one show and the actor call before the second show.

Marsha is now slowly coming back to the office after being gone for the first half of the week with an illness. She has been put on some new medication and it is making her very groggy. I've had several people ask me about buying chairs but Marsha has all the paperwork on those who have already purchased their chairs so she is slowly checking to see what is left that is avaiable.

April has Footlight tomorrow and then Daisy classes after the footlights classes until after 2:30. That means April will be teaching from 7:45 am. to about 4 pm.
That is a long day for her.

Ghosts and TDH

2009-11-05T13:55:00.002-06:00

Phil Counts and I guided two more ghost tours this morning. Farley Elementary and Hendron Lone Oak Elementary has two classes working on history projects and thought this might be fun to give a different aspect to their projects. Hearing about witch burnings and grisly murders certainly will give a different view of Paducah's history. We tentatively have a couple more scheduled for next week. Guiding a tour is a lot of fun because you are in essence doing a one person show. The several guides we have all have different styles and personalities they use. I just like it because I get an excuse to walk around with a Victorian top hat and cape on. The kids eyes get really huge when you tell them a story that took place right on the spot they are standing. They tend to jump back as if the spot is still alive somehow.

The Rivers Edge Film festival kicks off tonight and for the first time it won't be at MHT. Back when the organizers changed the date to this weekend we had already scheduled and publicized Tom Dick and Harry. Maybe next year they will find an alternate date and we can work together again. I'm in the process of looking at shows and dates for September 2010-June 2011 right now. Sometimes I can't remember which year I'm really working on.

Audience response to Tom Dick and Harry has been very positive. We haven't sold out but the phone has been ringing consistently and Internet ticket sales are going well. We are still receiving orders every day for plaques for the new seats. The annual fund drive mailing went in the mail yesterday.

The theatre officially canceled our Holiday Home Tour yesterday. We were having a difficult time getting 3 houses confirmed. As soon as we got the third home confirmed one of the first two would have to drop out We will try again next year and see if we can get it locked in earlier! Those people who even considered letting us showcase their homes as a fundraiser have our heartfelt thanks.

I'm in the process of re-reading the script General Order Number 11 by Nancy Gail-Clayton. It tells the story of General Grant order all the Jews to be evicted from Paducah during the civil war. It is strong drama and one that we are considering for future production. I met Nancy at a theatre conference. She's had the work produced in Louisville and has always been interested in a Paducah production. Lately with the ghost stories and several other projects it seems like I'm looking at a lot of historical plays and ideas.

November 1, 1983

2009-11-01T21:33:00.003-06:00

We left Kansas City on October 30, 1983 after packing up my belongings and April's belongings in Kansas City. We finished packing the U-Haul truck about 3pm in the afternoon. I had added a tow bar to the back of the truck and towed my gold American Motors Sport-About Hatchback vehicle (which was also loaded down). April followed in her loaded down Red Buick Regal. I remember we finally pulled out of Kansas City which had been our home and headed to Paducah. I had looked at a house about 3 weeks earlier that was across from Paducah Middle School. That house had fallen through and one of the board members at the time had secured a house for us on Clark Street with a 1 year lease. We took the house on the recommendation of a board member. All I had was an address in Paducah as to where April and I were going to live. April was going to stay for a week and then she was driving to Wisconsin to prepare for our Wedding which was set for Nov. 19, 1983. We drove as far as Mount Vernon that first day and then got a room at the Holidome there. We arrived in Paducah on Halloween and located the house. It was small but cozy. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

I remember coming to the interview only a month earlier. The theatre was doing the technical rehearsal for the play The Rainmaker on the day I came for an interview. I remember following the directions into Paducah and pulling up outside of the theatre. I can still distinctly remember thinking- "where did they put a theatre in this tiny space?" When I walked in all of the actors were present. They were setting light cues and all of the actors had to stand in place while the lights were set. This process took several hours (something I changed immediately upon being hired). The floor was painted white so that it would reflect the lights up onto the actors. The floor was also made of particle board so that every time someone dropped something on it the floor dented. All of the canvas walls were painted with a powdered pigment paint that rubbed off on all the costumes if you brushed against it. In fact the side of the building still had some remnants of color on it from the last strike where the strike crew "washed" off the color from the flats so they could be used again. I met with the board of directors that night at Virginia Glover's home. I spent the night at Executive Director Paul Meier's home. His young son Cameron had given up his bedroom for me to sleep in while I stayed overnight and I remember sleeping on Smurf sheets. I had never set foot inside a community theatre before in my life and never worked for one either. Apparently the board was impressed with my portfolio of set, costume and lighting designs along with my technical director portfolio. I had directed and acted in plays and was a theatre generalist. I talked money with the board and then drove back to Kansas City. I received a call the next week offering me a job. I also had offers from two other professional theatres but there was something about Paducah that appealed to me. I accepted the job of Technical Director for $14,000 a year with no benefits (I also had to pay all my own taxes at that time). The theatre was celebrating its 20th anniversary. When the board asked me why I was interested in Paducah I told them that April and I were looking for a place to start a family and a place where we could become part of a community.

As April and I unpacked our belongings I went to work and began the set and costumes for my first production at MHT which was Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs which opened the first week of December 1983. Looking back now at the playlist from the very first one produced in 1963, Snow White was the 95th production that MHT had produced in its history. I designed and built the sets, designed and hung the lights, and designed and sewed all the costumes for the actors. (My biggest costuming at MHT was the first production of the Miracle Worker where I sewed over 20 dresses by myself. Some of those dresses are still in costume storage and occasionally used.) That first year the theatre produced 5 shows total. I directed my first show at MHT that April with the production of To Kill a Mockingbird.

In 1985 Paul Meier left the theatre and MHT hired April as its Executive Director. April held that position until 1995 when she left for a couple of years to work as the Youth Minister at Grace Episcopal Church. I took over as the Executive Director in July of 1995.

Tom Dick and Harry marks MHT's 510th production and my 100th show to direct at MHT. MHT has grown a great deal over the time I've been fortunate enough to be involved with it. The main thing that has remained is a group of talented people who continue to impress me with the dedication and donation of their time and money to produce professional quality theatre. The board of directors has always been supportive and caring. The staff and volunteers I work with each day are truly dedicated to making great theatre.

This month I will attend the National Community Theatre Directors Conference in Madison Wisconsin. It is a conference that never fails to recharge my batteries. Almost 100 Managing Directors from across the country will sit in a room for 3 days and share all of their successes and failures. We will also adjourn to a local bar after hours and over our favorite spirits share our personal stories complete with pictures of children and grandchildren with long time friends.

So this November 1, we have a hit show (Tom Dick and Harry) on stage at MHT, a youth show (Best Christmas Pageant Ever) in in rehearsal, a Story Theatre musical (The City Mouse and the Country Mouse)touring production that has its first school performance on Tuesday, and the River City Ghost Tours for school groups that continue on Thursday. The work hasn't slowed down a bit in 26 years. But the things that made me feel something special about MHT and Paducah when April and I first arrived on Halloween 1983 are still present today.

NY Times Article about learning lines

2009-10-29T08:39:00.000-05:00

Whispers Offstage? Could Be Actor’s Next Line
By PATRICK HEALY
Published: October 28, 2009
Ticket holders at this week’s first previews of Matthew Broderick’s new Off Broadway play have been privy to a second drama: watching the veteran theater actor try to learn his lines, with help from a prompter sitting in the front row.

Veteran stage actors, including Angela Lansbury, have used prompts as fallbacks.
In 2002, Vanessa Redgrave asked if she could have a prompter in the front row for “Long Day’s Journey Into Night.”

Matt Mulhern said he was recently fired from a Hartford Stage theater production because he peeked at bits of dialogue.
The play, Kenneth Lonergan’s “Starry Messenger,” has been undergoing rewrites amid preview performances, and Mr. Broderick has struggled so much that he called out for lines multiple times on Monday and Tuesday nights. His offstage helper is expected to be on hand at least until this weekend.

The problems have led the show’s producer, the New Group, to delay opening night for a week; at the same time some audience members have complained about paying to see a star who has not memorized his part. Mr. Broderick was not available to comment, but Scott Elliott, artistic director of the New Group, said there was no shame in using a prompter. “It happens now and then,” he said, “but people simply don’t know about it.”

The stage and screen legend Angela Lansbury, for instance, said in an interview this week that she used an earpiece to stay on cue during her Tony Award-winning turn in “Blithe Spirit” on Broadway last season.

“It’s not something you ever want to do, but if we’re going to play important roles at our age, where our names are above the title on the marquee, we’re going to ask for some support if we need it,” said Ms. Lansbury, 84, who is set to star this winter in the Broadway revival of “A Little Night Music.”

But now the use of prompts has become a matter of inquiry for the Actors’ Equity union, which is investigating a recent dismissal by the Hartford Stage theater of an actor who peeked at bits of dialogue that he had taped inside his character’s hat for a difficult scene.

While opera companies have long had hidden prompters at the rim of the stage, many theater actors shudder at the idea of needing help with lines during performances. For them, mastery of a script is a benchmark of professionalism. Still, acting fallbacks have a long but largely unnoticed history in the theater. During the national tour of “Legends” in the 1980s, Mary Martin, who was in her 70s at the time, used an earpiece that also picked up taxi signals, according to published accounts.

In the Hartford Stage incident, the fired actor, Matt Mulhern, 49, was appearing in Horton Foote’s “Orphans’ Home Cycle,” a series of three plays over nine hours. Mr. Mulhern said he never received any warning from Hartford Stage that his job might be in jeopardy; “Orphans” is a co-production with Signature Theater Company in New York, where it is transferring next month.

In an interview, Mr. Mulhern described the prompt in his hat as a “crutch” that he relied on because of script changes during rehearsals. He said he had been “emotionally devastated” by his Sept. 22 dismissal, the first of his 27-year career. He also acknowledged he had “ruffled feathers” among colleagues for a variety of other reasons after rehearsals began in July.

Michael Wilson, the artistic director of Hartford Stage and director of “The Orphans’ Home Cycle,” declined to comment, saying the theater did not discuss employment issues. Maria Somma, a spokeswoman for Actors’ Equity, also declined to comment.

Hartford Stage has yet to give Equity a formal reason for firing Mr. Mulhern, according to the actor. Ms. Somma again would not comment on the matter.

“Actors being fired for this reason vary by the situation,” Harry Weintraub, general counsel of the League of Resident Theaters, which includes Hartford Stage, said in an interview. When asked if the production created hardships for actors because it spanned nine hours and included script changes, Mr. Weintraub said, “I wasn’t aware that Mr. Mulhern had nine hours of lines to learn.”

Actors’ Equity contracts do not forbid actors to use prompts, though directors sometimes fire actors who have trouble learning their lines. Robert Falls, the artistic director of the Goodman Theater in Chicago, said he had done so in the past. But he has also made adjustments, he said.

In 2002, for instance, Vanessa Redgrave was having “a stressful time learning the lines” for the role of Mary Tyrone in the Goodman’s production of “Long Day’s Journey Into Night,” Mr. Falls said. When previews began, she asked the producers and Mr. Falls if she could have a prompter in the front row with a script. Ms. Redgrave never called for a line, he said. She went on to win the Tony Award for best actress when the production transferred to Broadway in 2003.

“The prompter was more of a security blanket for Vanessa than anything else,” Mr. Falls said. A representative for Ms. Redgrave said she had no comment.

In the Broadway production of “The Gin Game” (1977-78), the characters played by Jessica Tandy and Hume Cronyn spent stretches of time playing gin rummy. The actors at first used randomly dealt cards with numbers that, naturally, did not match the dialogue. While the two spent extra hours drilling lines for the gin rummy sequences, they were both nearing 70 and had memory lapses.

“The initial solution for this was to pare down each scene, then write notes on the top of the card table” for the actors to refer to, said Nina Seely Sommer, the production supervisor for the show. “This was difficult, because the stage was raked so that the audience could see the top of the table, so these notes had to look like player graffiti.” Eventually the faces of the playing cards were sanded off, so the actors would not get confused.

Although prompters once played a part in theater, audiences are no longer accustomed to them. And with Broadway producers now charging $125 for orchestra seats, ticket buyers expect at a minimum that actors will know their parts. New wireless technology has made it easier for actors to mask, say, flesh-colored earpieces. Ms. Lansbury recalled that when she and Marian Seldes were on Broadway in Terrence McNally’s “Deuce” in 2007, a tiny speaker was behind their chairs in early performances to pipe lines to them if needed.

Ms. Lansbury emphasized, though, that neither the “Blithe Spirit” nor “Deuce” prompts diminished the productions — or audiences’ apparent pleasure.

“In the early days of theater, there was a ‘prompt corner’ with a person ready to throw the line to any actor,” Ms. Lansbury recalled. “In the electronic age, some 80-year-old performers wear earpieces. And all of us lose ourselves in a play at moments. Laurence Olivier did at the height of his career. This is part of theater.”

This season “A Steady Rain” is one of the most dialogue-driven plays on Broadway, with the actors Hugh Jackman and Daniel Craig — who have extensive experience in the theater, not just movies — shouldering all 90 minutes of dialogue. A spokesman for the show said this week that neither man used prompts. Still, Mr. Jackman said in an interview in August that the amount of memorization was a tall order and that he and Mr. Craig even tossed a ball back and forth while running their lines.

“I hope we won’t have to use cue cards,” Mr. Jackman joked, then added, “It’s a slog to learn the whole script, but there’s no other way to do it.”

Bad Words

2009-10-24T07:48:00.006-05:00

Before I get into my topic for this blog I want to promote the added Walking Ghost Tour dates. Thursday Oct. 29 and Friday Oct. 30 we have added a 6:00 and 6:30 pm ghost tour. Tickets are available online or by calling the box office.

Now on to my topic-
Thursday I received a phone message to call a woman who wanted to talk to the director of Tom Dick and Harry. Immediately I worried about why this woman wanted to talk with me. She had called the box office earlier in the week and asked if there was any "foul" language in Tom Dick and Harry. I told the box office to tell the woman that if the play were to be rated like a movie it would have language that easily fit into the G rating. We are not allowed to rate our plays based on the movie rating system because that is copyrighted by the Motion Picture Association and they don't allow "others" to use their rating system. The television ratings system are the same way and most people get confused by the TV ratings system. So trying not to use the movie ratings yet give this person some information, and keep my integrity, I used the words "if" the play were rated like a movie it would be rated G.

I wasn't going to get off the hook that easy apparently. The woman wanted to know specific words. This is like trying to have a conversation with someone about what constitutes foul language in code without actually saying the words. Other than the infamous "f" word what else constitutes foul language? Is it the "A" word, the "B" word, the "D" word, the "G" word, the "H" word, the "S" word, etc. etc... This conversation is like being in an absurdest comedy.

The woman called again and asked to speak to me. I was out of the office and returned her call. Generally I'm pleased that people call and ask about subject matter and appropriateness for children etc. This helps our ticket buyers make an informed decision. But deciding on foul language is a slippery slope.

So I began the conversation. My thoughts are in parenthesis.

Woman: I want to know if there is any foul language in the play.

Me: (okay just dive in and figure out what she is talking about) Well a couple of times during the play someone might say the word hell. Like "what the hell are you doing!"

Woman: Oh that's the worst thing that someone can say.

Me: (I can think of a lot worse words-okay now I have a better idea of where you are coming from) They also use the expression "Oh God!" sometimes.

Woman: Those are the two worst words you can use.

Me (When did asking God for help become a foul language word? I always thought that taking the Lord's name in vain meant that you tried to make money by connecting yourself to God. Nope don't say that to this woman!) I can't think of any other words that I would define as foul. (Some how I think she probably will find something else that I haven't thought of.)

Woman: Can you take them out of the play? I really want to come see this play but I can't come if those words are in it.

Me: Well that's a really difficult request.

Woman: Everything has so much foul language these days that I can't even watch TV.

Me: Well you see we sign a contract that says we won't change the language in a play without the playwrights permission. In Tom Dick and Harry the playwright has given us permission in the script to change the locations to help make the play easier to understand but hasn't given us permission to change the basic dialogue.

Woman: Well other places change stuff all the time. They take out words and music and add songs and do what ever they want to a play.

Me: I can't speak to what other places do. I can only tell you that we abide by the letter of the law. These plays are copyrighted and you are not allowed to change them. If you change them you run the risk of the publishing company finding out and then you run the risk of being fined or not being able to publish any of their authors in the future.

Woman: Well (she names a theatre in Western Kentucky) does it all the time.

Me: I'm sorry but we don't do that. When we choose a play, the play selection committee looks at the language in a play and tries to decide if it is within the standards of the majority of our community. They select plays knowing that we can't change the language. If they feel it is too much language then we don't choose to produce the play. We just finished doing Smoke on the Mountain Homecoming which was enjoyed by a wide range of ages and audiences.

Woman: You won't change those words?

Me: No, I'm sorry.

Woman: Then we won't be coming to see your play.

Me: I hope that you will consider coming to one of our other plays this season. I appreciate your calling and your concerns.

We ended the phone conversation.

We are in the process of play selection for next season right now. There are several wonderful plays that I'm sure audiences will love. Some of them do contain the words that this woman wanted me to remove. It is not just language. I've gotten letters from audience members upset that we have actors who pretend to drink alcohol onstage, we were once asked to stop a performance in Graves County because the husband of the owner of the company that hired our murder mystery troupe stopped the show and told the crowd he was standing up for Christian Morality when a character took a flask out of his pocket and pretended to drink from it (he had water in the flask). I really try not to pass judgement on other people's ideas of morality. But as the Artistic Director I work with the play selection committee to present plays that are positive and life affirming.

While someone may not always approve of every word or action in the plays we produce. I can promise that we will always respect another person's opinion and try to give an honest answer when we cannot honor their requests. MHT shows are enjoyed by over 30,000 people each year. I receive maybe 10 or so complaints during the past year. In our just completed surveys taken during Smoke on the Mountain Homecoming the audiences, who have come four or more times during the past two years, have overwhelming said keep up the good work!

One of the plays we tried to review for possible future production was a comedy by the writers of The Compleat Works of William Shakespeare Abridged. It is a show called "The Bible Abridged". I'm not sure we could do this play because it would get a "PG-13" rating (if we rated our shows like movies which we don't because we aren't supposed to). The Bible has lots of foul language, sex, violence and drinking in it. I can just imagine my phone already ringing .....

New Seats Press Release

2009-10-20T14:04:00.001-05:00

Market House Theatre has raised over $55,000 towards the purchase of new seats. “We’ve placed the order for the new seats and will receive them around mid December,” according to MHT Executive Director Michael Cochran. “This will replace all but the last three rows of our current seats. The original seats were manufactured in the early 1900’s out of cast iron. We began the campaign four years ago and with prices rising every year we felt we needed to purchase the majority of the seats now and not wait another year” Cochran said. “Since we first began this project costs have increased by over $16,000.”

Funding has come from a variety of sources. The theatre held a new seat campaign for donors to have their name engraved on a plaque on the new seats in addition to taking orders from those people who want to own a piece of history by purchasing the old seats. The theatre seat campaign raised over $22,000 in donations. A grant was secured from the Honorable Order of Kentucky Colonels Good Works program for over $18,000. “The final piece was using the earnings from our endowment,” said Cochran. The Market House Theatre’s Endowment is held at the Community Foundation of Western Kentucky. Each year individuals have donated to MHT’s Endowment and the theatre received matching funds from the Fred Paxton Fund Run for Charities. Those individual contributions and matching funds raised over $14,000 in earnings revenue without touching the principal. “This is exactly what the Community Foundation and the Fred Paxton Fund Run has been encouraging us to do- grow our endowment so that the earnings can help with projects like this or when funds get tight. This project was a perfect fit,” said Cochran.

While the theatre still needs to raise $10,000 to purchasing the remaining seats, Cochran said that he feels confident that those funds can be raised within the next two seasons. “We have several projects that the theatre is working on before we reach our 50th Anniversary of the founding of the theatre in 2014. Lots of exciting changes are on the horizon for Market House Theatre.” MHT audiences will get their first chance to sit in the new seats next January.

the lead up to hell week

2009-10-19T11:16:00.004-05:00

We are beginning hell week with lots of positive energy!

We have seen a terrific response to the Ghost Tour fundraiser. Several of the tours so far have been sold out and the theatre has raised over $5,000 with one final Saturday left. There are still tickets left for the final Saturday tour. We have added a 7:10 pm tour to the October 24 tour times. What we have found is that the early tours 6:00, 6:45, and 7:30 tend to sell out through advanced online sales or people calling the box office during the week. The later tours 8:15 and 9:00pm have been selling more tickets at the door with a smaller advanced sale. So if you are thinking of coming next Saturday I would definitely recommend buying your tickets ahead of time. We will close the online sales for at 2 pm on Saturday. The box office will open at 5:45 for walk up sales for the evening. Remember that walk up sales are cash or check only. The box office for the walk up sales is located in the MHT Studio Theatre. Popcorn and apple cider are provided free to all tour ticket holders to enjoy while they wait for their tour to be called. We recommend arriving 20-30 minutes before your tour time. All tours depart on time.

Our tour guides so far have included; Jody Smith for the trolley tours; Jim Roush, Marsha Cash, and myself (Michael Cochran) for the Oct. 10 tours; Marsha Cash, Chris Black, and Phil Counts for the Oct. 17 tours; and Chris Black, Kim Yocum, and Jim Roush for the Oct. 24 tour.

Over the course of the tours we have had so many compliments and people telling us additional details about other ghost stories and buildings in the downtown area. We definitely have plenty of material for additional tours next year. We are looking at several options for the future and will definitely be making the walking tours a part of MHT future programming.

Tonight are the auditions for Best Christmas Pageant Ever. Because of a dance class in classroom until 5 pm the audition tonight will start in the main theatre building. The auditions will probably be completed by 6:30pm when the rehearsal for Tom Dick and Harry is supposed to start tonight. If they are still going on the auditions will shift across the street to the classroom until they are completed no later than 7 pm. Tomorrows auditions will all be held in the classroom. Tom Dick and Harry rehearsal starts at 5:30 pm tomorrow.

I received a notice from the Wenger Corporation that our new chairs are scheduled to arrive December 14. We will replace all but the last three rows of the theatre. We still are trying to raise $10,000 to complete those last three rows. It's not too late to donate funds and have a plaque on a seat named in someones honor that will be there for years to come.

The murder for hire troupe will go out Saturday to Caldwell County High School for their fundraiser and our performance of Reunion at Hippie High written by Mysteries by Moushey. We had our first rehearsal off book Sunday afternoon and the cast is working hard on their characters and lines.

This Sunday is the technical rehearsal for Tom Dick and Harry. Cast members are bringing in their clothing so we can choose costumes. For some we are digging into our own costume storage and for others we will be renting costumes from Creatures of Habit. The show is set present day so that helps us with the costuming costs by having actors wear much of their own clothing. Thursday night was the first time Jim Roush had to climb into the couch and Al Knudsen sit on top of it while Jim was in there. It was very funny to watch Al riding up and down in the air as Jim pushed the seat up and down as called for in the script.

The story theatre cast of City Mouse Country Mouse had a rehearsal this morning after a week off for fall break. They have their first performance a week from today and they were off book (no scripts in hand) today. Many of our performers are involved in the Ghost Tours, Murder for Hire, and Story Theatre. We all laugh about having to memorize multiple scripts all at the same time.

Al and Chuck Wilkins only have one script to memorize but they are really having a tough time with lines because they repeat the same actions several times in Tom Dick and Harry with only slight variations. Chuck will stop and look from one door to the other and say "I know I exit! I just can't figure out if I exit out the front door this time or exit out the upstairs door?" Al must say the words Shut up over 30 times in the play when Dick and Harry start talking about a crazy ideas. It has become almost an automatic response for Al to now say "Shut up" to anyone onstage when he doesn't know what else to say. The final week of rehearsals and then tech rehearsals and dress rehearsals are called hell week because of the overwhelming amount of work that must be completed before opening night. We are now entering hell week for 3 shows all at the same time- Reunion at Hippy High, Tom Dick and Harry, and City Mouse Country Mouse.

Preparations

2009-10-15T16:31:00.003-05:00

The Trolley Ghost Tour held on Oct. 3 and the walking ghost tour that was held last Saturday Oct. 10 were a huge success. We sold out both events. This weekends continuation of the walking tour on Sat. Oct. 17 is also selling so well that we added two more tour times. A 7:10 tour and an 8:40 pm tour. We have this weekend and next weekend. I can already tell that this will be an ongoing event of the theatres. We had lots of stories left over that we didn't use. There are still some tickets left for the Sat. 17th tour and the Sat. 24th tour. We will take group reservations for additional bookings by request. We are not doing the walking tours on Oct. 31. We have a performance of Tom Dick and Harry that night.

Next Monday and Tuesday are the auditions for The Best Christmas Pageant Ever at 5 pm in the classroom above the studio theatre. April will direct. She needs lots of adults and kids to fill the roles. It's a great chance for the whole family to do a show. Rehearsals are generally from 5-7 pm. The show opens Dec. 10.

Tonight was to be the start of and Adult Improv class taught by Joey Judd. Joey is a terrific teacher and is great at improv games. We did not have enough people sign up for the class at this time so we will cancel the class for the fall and try again next January. I have a free workshop this Saturday at 9 am on Script Analysis. The workshop is open to anyone interested in acting and there are lots of openings available for people to still sign up.

We are putting the finishing touches on the Annual Fund Drive Campaign. The campaign letters should go out in the mail before the end of this month. A core group of board members have been working on this project and we hope that some of the changes we have made will make a big difference in how people understand donating to the theatre.

Tonight for Tom Dick and Harry is a run through of Act Two. Maria Miller who jumped in as Katerina has been gone since last Sunday on Fall Break. The other actors will be happy to see her back. This week so far has been spent on working on Act One off book. We open two weeks from today and things are tight but on schedule. The set got all of the doors yesterday for the first time and we worked on timing with the doors. The play has such rapid action that the doors are critical in their function. We tried out 3 different wheelbarrows over the past week to find just the right one that will carry Jim Roush on and Shawn James off. We have also rebuilt the couch and tonight will do our trial run of having Jim Roush fall into it and then having Al shut the top and sit on it. We raised it up about 2 inches so Jim could get into it with ease.

Kelly Salchli came in yesterday and today and painted the scenery for the City Mouse County Mouse Tour of Story Theatre which goes out November 2. She has painted the wall of the country mouse with seed packets as decoration and the city mouse home has framed postage stamps as her wall decorations.

I'm off to check on the new posters for Tom Dick and Harry at IVS before tonight's rehearsal. The billboard went to Lamar today for The Best Christmas Pageant Ever show. We always seem to have at least 3 shows in process at all times and often working on marketing for even more.

Kicking off the second quarter

2009-10-08T07:28:00.003-05:00

October kicks of the the second quarter of our fiscal year and it has started at full speed. This week has been non stop. From wrapping up Secret Life of Girls and the Trolley Tours last weekend we have been on the run all week. Rehearsals are going on for the City Mouse and the Country Mouse Story Theatre Tour which goes out November 2, Reunion at Hippie High which is the Murder for Hire troupe putting on a performance for Caldwell County High School Junior Class fundraiser on Oct. 24, the walking Ghost Tours which are this weekend, and Tom Dick and Harry which opens 3 weeks from today.

Last night at rehearsal for Tom Dick and Harry we unfortunately had to replace one of the actresses. She is going through some difficult family issues and it was in her best interest and that of the the family for her to drop out. What is most important in everything we do is the health and well being the people involved.

After rehearsal last night I contacted Maria Miller who just finished the Secret Life of Girls to step into the role. I dropped off a script at her home about 9:30 last night and she will be at rehearsal tonight for a review of Act Two and then tomorrow night for a run through of the entire show. Maria is then off with her family for 4 days on Fall Break. The character she will play only speaks Albanian. So Maria will be studying her lines will lying on a beach and when she gets back she will have just 2 weeks to prepare for opening. I'm confident in her abilities to do a great job. Last night we finished blocking the show. That means that all of the performers now know where to stand, sit, and what part of the stage to move to on their lines. Blocking a farce comedy is like a giant crossword puzzle. Each person has to be at certain spots in order to see or not see what is happening in the scene. In addition characters have to enter and exit room at exactly the right time in order to keep the comedy at a heightened level. Some people love farces because the action and the pace are so fast that it leaves you almost breathless. Farces are about action and that means lots of movement. My armchair definition of a farce is a room with 6 doors. Tom Dick and Harry has 5 doors and a window and all are used for entrances and exits. Jim and I went to the warehouse yesterday and brought back several door frames and wall units to start building the set. We should have the basic structure up by this weekend and then there is a lot of finish work to do. We also brought back the bench seats for the theatre van to take the Murder Mystery Cast to Caldwell County on the 24th. Those have to get removed again to put in the set for the Story theatre show to go out 1 week later. A lot of the time at the theatre is spent moving equipment from one building to another and then moving it back. An example is the lighting for Secret Life of Girls. A large part of the lighting instruments are used in the main theatre. We have to un-cable the lights and take them down and re-hang and focus them for the studio show and then un-cable, take them down and re-hang and focus them back on the mainstage for the next show over there.

April just completed the performances of the Gifted and Talented show she directed at Lone Oak Elementary. Technical Director Jim Keeney made her a portable masking unit for her to be able to hide the kids behind at the sides of the performance space. The gifted talented shows often perform in the library in a space where there are no "wings" or side areas masked off from the audience. We've used large 4x8 foot flat walls in the past, but they were difficult for April to transport and manage by herself. The new masking set up more like the fabric panel dividers that you would find at a convention or expo center to separate exhibits. We used some of old drapes that were donated by the community college when they purchased new drapes a few seasons ago.

The Curtain Call fundraiser committee met last night to continue its planning for next the auction event next March. Melisa Mast, Valerie Pollard, and Renie Barger are heading up the committee. Melisa has been working on the business campaign and has some great ideas. We also did brainstorming last night on some of the auction packages including a couple of adult Prince and Princess parties. The auction is really shaping up to be lots of fun and those that attend will also be able to bid on roles in CINDERELLA for a one night only performance. The wicked stepsisters and a couple of other fun roles like the mice who help Cinderella and some of the princesses that the prince has to dance with at the ball will be up for auction. These are all great cameo roles.

Cindy Miller has been hard at work on the Annual Fund Drive campaign that will kick off the week after Fall Break. We are moving the annual campaign into the first part of our fiscal year in order to do a better job of managing the funds from this campaign. This is going to be a long month.

So far all of the the shows and events this season have made their budgeted goals. The first quarter has been very successful for the theatre and the second quarter is looking good as well.

Success comes in many forms

2009-10-04T16:56:00.005-05:00

This has been a wild weekend. With 8 performances of the Secret Life of Girls and the kick off of the Ghost Tours with a party and Trolley tours everyone is ready for a quiet Sunday evening.

Last night we had 90 people who took the trolley and heard the legends and lore of Paducah's Downtown and Lowertown ghosts. First I want to thank Lew Jetton and the Paducah Transit authority for working with us to offer the trolley tours for the kick off. In addition we want to thank Big Top Popcorn for helping us with Popcorn for the tour attendees. Board President Cindy Miller made a great deal of food and brought in flowers and decorations. Board members Barbara Allen, Heather Dorr, Jennifer Hughes, Melisa Mast, and volunteer Kim Yocum also helped provide food and flowers for the event. A thanks also goes to the spouses of the board members and volunteers who also helped set up and take down and clean up after the event. Maria Miller helped set up the event before going across the street to perform in the Secret Life of Girls. Mary Kathryn Dorr, Katey Miller and Landon Baker also helped during the evening to replenish food and make popcorn. Marsha Cash volunteered her time as well to help with the ticketing and trolley boarding.

We had about 1/2 of our tour guests waiting for the theatre doors to open promptly at 6 pm. We had arranged for the trolley to show up at 6 pm so we could do a sound check with the trolley microphone and talk with the driver about the stops along the way. Our first tour was scheduled for 6:30 pm. When Our trolley hadn't shown up by 6:10 pm I called and was told the trolley driver was still out on her daily route and would be back to the garage soon. In addition our trolley was still charging for the evening. I began to panic slightly, worrying that we wouldn't have time to fix any problems with sound or route before loading. I also knew we had several 6:30 tour guests who had tickets to the symphony at 7:30 pm. At 6:20 I called again and was told the driver should be leaving any moment. At 6:40 I called again and they were surprised the trolley hadn't arrived yet. The trolley showed up at 6:45 and we hustled the guests aboard to start the first tour. As the first tour was boarding we found that there was no microphone that could be used on the trolley. Our tour guide would have to try to project his voice to 30 people over the sounds of the trolley. Many tour guides stand in the middle of the trolley to give tours. This was going to be difficult to allow everyone to hear. Phil Counts has been the coordinator of the tour guides for both the kick off and the walking tours. Phil's job last night was to help guide the bus as it went on the route. Jody Smith was going to be our only story teller for the evening. A big thanks is owed to both Phil and Jody for the efforts last night.

There is a story that went on behind the scenes last night. Jody Smith, has performed in several plays at MHT and WKCTC. Jody has a wonderful vocal delivery and sense of humor. He is someone who loves to perform. Those of us who know Jody, know that he has been dealing with an illness and treatment that makes him physically very weak. Jody can no longer stand or walk for extended periods of time because of the medication he takes for his illness. Jody refuses to be negative about this or to give up. When Phil Counts and I discussed guides for the tour Jody's name came up and we both thought that Jody would do a terrific job as the trolley guide but also this would be something meaningful for Jody as his stage opportunities have become more limited. Those who boarded the trolley for the tour had no idea how much effort Jody made just to be there. In addition he was going to have to project his voice, without a microphone, to people sitting behind him while trying to also tell stories that required him to get loud and soft at certain points in the stories. Jody did 3 tours without a break. As we helped him off the trolley he was totally exhausted but in high spirits. The tour on Saturday night raised almost $3,000 for the theatre but also allowed Jody the opportunity to perform for an audience (including his parents) which is something that he loves doing. It meant a great deal to Phil and I that Jody was able to guide last night. Thank you Jody and Phil for adapting to the difficult situation with almost no notice and for a job well done.

In the future, if we do another trolley tour, we will know to provide our own sound system for the trolley and to ask for the trolley at least an hour before our first tour start time to build in any problems with its arrival... well, maybe and hour and a half ahead of our first tour time:)

Every director has moments when they are helpless to do anything but watch and hope that everything works out. As the door closed on the trolley and they headed off for the first tour I felt this. That's thing about live theatre. You never know what is going to happen. No matter how much you plan. You work as a team and count on team members to come through when things don't go as planned. I knew that we had rehearsed the stories 3 times that day and built in ways to cut and stretch the stories if we needed. I had faith in Jody's ability as a performer.

On Friday evening during the performance of the Secret Life of Girls, April had one of those moments. In the middle of the show Chandler Emmons- Smith was onstage and typing when blood suddenly started dripping from her nose. Chandler did an outstanding job of continuing her performance without missing a beat. At the end of her scene she exited the stage. Two scenes later cast member Nicki Caturano was supposed to be onstage but wasn't. Nicki came on for the last scene. After the show we found out what happened. Chandler developed a nose bleed out of the blue. Nicki being very alert got ready for her scene early and then went to help Chandler with tissues and costumes. Chandler stuffed tissue up her nose to try to stop the bleeding trying to disguise it and then ran back onstage for her next scene. Unfortunately Nicki changed her costume a little too early and forgot she had to go back onstage in her other costume. Nicki was stuck offstage until the scene she had dressed for started. Afterwards we all laughed about it. I don't know that most of the audience even realized what was going on.

The Secret Life of Girls has a talk back session at the end of each performance to help teenage girls deal with the effects of social bullying. We will have performed to over 500 girls when this run is completed. A person associated with the Four Rivers Behavioral Health last night told April that no matter how many lectures or pamphlets they give to girls to help them cope with the effects of bullying, nothing is as powerful or as helpful as what the theatre is doing with this show to get that message through.

This weekend reminded me of what MHT is all about, We don't just entertain.... we change lives! With the trolley tour, Jody Smith's limitations weren't what defined him. What defined him was his talent for performance. Chandler's bloody nose came in front of a large group of people as she was performing, but she managed to deal with it in stride and do a great performance in spite of it. Nicki Caturano jumped in to help out a fellow performer sacrificing her own scene to do it and everyone onstage covered for her. Young girls learned how to be defenders when they are faced with social bullying. Theatre teaches you to deal with challenges and not let your circumstances define who you are.

Over 30 people performed, made food and helped the events this weekend, all as volunteers. They did things that made the community proud them.

Success comes in many forms. This weekend we had lots of it.

First Weekend of October

2009-10-02T18:50:00.002-05:00

I'm writing this about 45 minutes before The Secret Life of Girls performance on Friday evening. Since the show opened Thursday morning the cast has already done 5 performances. Tonight will be another big crowd with a school group from Christian County. Many of the schools who couldn't get into the school matinees took advantage of our school matinee group price for the evening shows. Our goal was to try to get as many girls into the performances as possible. The after show discussions have been great. We have the performance tonight and then Saturday evening, Sunday afternoon and 3 shows on Monday.

The staff celebrated Jim Keeney's birthday today. Jim turned 44 last Wednesday but we couldn't get everyone together until today for the cake and card. April didn't make it because she was at a performance of the gifted and talented show that she directed at Lone Oak Elementary school.

Board members came in and decorated the stage this afternoon for the ghost tours. Jody Smith, who has been a little under the weather, Phil Counts, and I will do a dry run of the Trolley tour tomorrow morning. We will make any last minute adjustments at that time in preparation for the party and tours Saturday night.

The Strategic Planning Committee had a meeting today at noon to work on the structure of the theatre's planning dates. We discusses several of the planning sessions that have taken place in the past and looked for a way forward towards the planning methods that will be used this year. The theatre is trying to make a comprehensive plan for the future as we move toward our 50th anniversary in 4 years.

Footlights classes are tomorrow morning starting at 8 am for the early elementary students.

House is now open for the Secret Life of Girls show tonight and I'm needed as a crew member for the performance. Gotta run!

New Seats, New Shows, New Ghosts

2009-09-27T23:21:00.002-05:00

Tomorrow I will order new seats. The theatre will spend over $54,000 on the project but will fall just shy of our goal of $63,000 to complete replace all the old seats. We will still have 3 rows at the back of the theatre that will be left with the old seats. I'm hoping that those who have said they wanted to contribute for new seats will do so within the next few weeks. We are about $9,000 short of finishing our goal. If we can receive enough donations in the next couple of weeks we can finish up this campaign in this year! Chair prices go up this October.

Today was the technical rehearsal for Secret Life of Girls. The cast and crew was treated to a Taco Dinner after the rehearsal courtesy of board members Sid Hancock, Heather Dorr, and Jennifer Hughes. Tomorrow evening is the first play selection meeting at 5:30 pm in the corner building. Chair Denise Bristol will run the meeting and talk about the guidelines for the selection process. If you are interested just show up at 5:30 at the box office building.

The Murder for Hire troupe will rehearse tomorrow for the show Reunion at Hippie High. We have only had a read through two weeks ago and tomorrow we start staging the show. Because of this rehearsal the cast for both Secret Life of Girls and Tom Dick and Harry have the night off. At some point this week we will do a dry run through of our trolley ghost tour which starts with the big party kickoff next Saturday. If you see me driving a van with Jody Smith and Phil Counts inside you will know what we are up to. Some people have seen me standing on street corners downtown talking to with Marsha Cash or Kim Yocum and I'm waving my arms and looking very strange. I haven't lost my mind. We are doing dry runs of the ghost walking tours this week as well.

Make plans to come see the Secret Life of Girls and the Ghost Tours. I think audiences will enjoy them both a great deal.

Post Smoke

2009-09-22T08:17:00.003-05:00

Congratulations to Sarah Bynum and Alex Roman on their wedding last Saturday evening at Grace Episcopal Church. Everyone at MHT wishes you many years of happiness!

Smoke on the Mountain Homecoming ended its run last Sunday with a weekend of sold out performances and a run of standing ovations. The cast received a standing ovation every performance. Most of the performers know that I'm a firm believer in short curtain calls. Just about any show can get a standing ovation if the curtain call lasts long enough. A true measure is when the audience is standing before the last person walks onstage for a curtain call. For many of the performances of Smoke the audience started standing when the first performers walked on stage to take a bow and in some cases even before the lights came up for the curtain call. Congratulations to the cast on an outstanding performance. Cindy Miller did an outstanding job with the music for the production.

It was nice to have Emily Yocum and Maria Miller fill in as Weldon and Eldon. For the final performance I had them come out at intermission and draw the winning raffle number. Emily was 4 years old when she first appeared on the MHT stage in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Maria was 9 years old when she first stepped on the MHT stage in The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. Both of them have grown up doing plays and are now High School students and extremely talented performers. It was also nice to have Lisa Humphrey Wynn and Debbie Burnett back with us for the final two weeks of performances after a multi-year hiatus.

We are still totaling up the numbers but preliminary estimates show that Smoke did significantly better than projected single ticket sales. This is a great way to kick off the season. We had such high demand that Business Manager, Marsha Cash, who was working the box office by herself during the day sometimes had 3 callers on hold and people lined up a the ticket window. We have decided to bring Box Office Assistant, Rhiannon Dodds, in for more hours to help cover the box office during peak times. We really missed having one more full time person in the box office that we had last year with Alexis Davis. Alexis has kept in touch and tells us things are going well for her in her new job at SIU. We are trying to streamline our online ticketing so that audiences can more easily purchase tickets through the website instead of having to call the box office during peak box office times.

Business Manager, Marsha Cash, and I are working on ways to get class registrations and other events also on the website for easier access. You can buy tickets for the Secret Life of Girls and the River City Ghost Walking Tours online right now and have the tickets waiting for you when you arrive for the event. Someday (not yet!) we may even be able to do exchanges online for our season ticket holders, but that is a much more difficult process.

Wednesday we get the official word on our grant from the Kentucky Colonels about our seating campaign. We have a board meeting Wednesday evening to make plans for the purchase. The board is getting ready for the big party on Sat. October 3 for Gala Trolley Ghost Tour kickoff. The second draft of the tour script has been sent to the guides and we are in the process of walking, riding, and working through the final details. Our guides our Jody Smith, Marsha Cash, Kim Yocum, Phil Counts, Chris Black, and myself. We've had some school groups also book daytime ghost tours.

Our annual fund drive will kick off the week after fall break. Cindy Miller has been in several days now working with the database so we can contact past and present members to tell them about all the great things going on at the theatre.

Although we just closed a show Sunday, 24 hours after we finished striking the set we met onstage for the first rehearsal for Tom Dick and Harry. Last night was the first read through of the script. There were times the cast was laughing so hard that they couldn't speak. The show is a farce comedy with lots of mistaken identity and fast moving physical comedy. We start staging the first scene tonight. The cast for Tom Dick and Harry is Al Knudsen, Chuck Wilkins, Landon Baker, Sabrina Beck, Victoria Demarco, Diane Byrd, Jim Roush, Phil Counts, and Shawn James with Denise Bristol as the Assistant Director.

Next Sunday is the technical rehearsal for Secret Life of Girls. Although we produced the show last May it is still just as much work to get the technical elements ready as doing it for the first time. Lights have to be hung and focused and projectors re-hung and programmed. In addition we are doing several school matinees for the show so the cast and crew will have over 10 performances into 5 days.

We are in rehearsal for Reunion at Hippie High to be presented by the Murder for Hire troupe as a fundraiser for the Caldwell County High School Junior Class. Valerie Pollard, Renie Barger, Audra Hall, April Cochran, Marsha Cash, Fowler Black, Steve Schwetman, Chip Bohle are in the cast for that show.

Story Theatre will begin rehearsals within the next few weeks to prepare for its fall tour! That's four cast members out touring for a month. That is 5 productions along with Footlights classes and our new classes of Theatre Games for Adults offered by Joey Judd and workshops on auditioning, script analysis, and technical theatre, that I'm offering all in October. I'm tired just writing this! But the exciting thing is that we have so many people who want to participate! The energy and enthusiasm about the theatre is very high.

Casting

2009-09-16T21:52:00.002-05:00

The cast list for Tom Dick and Harry was posted this morning. We have several veteran actors in the production along with a couple of newcomers to MHT. Monday's auditions had the majority of auditionees. Tuesday added the final person to the cast. Instead of call backs I felt fairly confident that I could cast the show this morning. We start rehearsals on Monday Sept. 21 the day after we close the final weekend of Smoke on the Mountain Homecoming. With today's sales we have exceeded our budgeted single ticket sales goal for the show. It feels good to start the season off with a big success.

I got a call from a friend to tell me that Mayfield singer Kevin Skinner had just won America's Got Talent. I remember back this last spring when Cathy Creceilus from the WPSDLocal 6 called me and asked me to be one of the judges for the local competition. Kevin was one of over 20 performers who showed up for the competition. I remember watching him perform and being moved by this simple man who sang and played music that he wrote. I used the phrase the "real deal" when it was my turn to critique his performance. I'm happy that Kevin was able to take the opportunity that was given to him and to go all the way and win the competition. WPSDLocal 6 and Cathy Crecelius deserve a pat on the back for helping make Kevin's dream a reality.

It is somehow appropriate for me that Kevin won as I announced the cast list for the show today. I can't help but think about the many people who I have watched audition for shows over the many years. Some of them like Kevin have a natural talent that comes from the heart. You know it when you see them. Many of them have graced the MHT stage. Some of them have gone on to careers in New York or Los Angeles or other major cities. Some of them who were just as talented as Kevin went into careers in medicine or teaching or a variety of other occupations. It is the combination of talent, luck, hard work, and being the "real deal" that makes someone a success. The real deal part is probably the hardest and is often the thing that people lose, the more successful they become.

So to Kevin I say congratulations. You've done an amazing thing that many people dream about doing. To those who feel that desire to stand up in front of a crowd of people and know what it is like to perform, to make an audience laugh or cry or to be onstage at the end of a show and receive a standing ovation for a job well done - come on down. That's what Market House Theatre is all about. Giving you the opportunity to experience a little of your dreams. Smoke on the Mountain Homecoming cast has one of the other finalists from WPSDLocal 6's America's got Talent competition. Miki Abraham also went to Chicago for callbacks with Kevin. She and 7 other very talented people from Mayfield, Paducah and Metropolis will sing and make you laugh and cry this very weekend on the MHT stage. Come celebrate the local talent that is present in our community as we celebrate Kevin's national success.

Getting the word out

2009-09-13T23:03:00.002-05:00

We just completed the second weekend of Smoke on the Mountain Homecoming. I've talked with several people who all heard how great the show is and told me they heard we were sold out. We are not sold out. We still have tickets left for all of the remaining shows next weekend. Last night I finished up the first draft of the walking ghost tour script and sent it off to the guides. I'm still working on the trolley script which visits several places not on the walking tour of downtown Paducah.

Tonight and tomorrow will be spent preparing for the auditions at 7 pm on Monday and Tuesday Sept. 13 & 14 in the main theatre for Tom Dick & Harry. I'll spend tomorrow selecting audition scenes for the play and contacting people to remind them about auditions. I hope to have the show cast by next Friday and start rehearsal the Monday following the close of Smoke on the Mountain Homecoming.

The auditors from Williams Williams and Lentz will be arriving at the theatre bright and early tomorrow for their annual audit. They go through all of our financial records and produce and audit that we use for applying for grants and several other projects.

We heard from the Kentucky Colonels this past week that they will be presenting grant awards at the end of the month. Two years ago they used the MHT studio theatre for the community awards ceremony and will do so again this year. We are all eagerly awaiting the grant award amount so we can order our new theatre seats.

The theatre will be moving our annual fund drive from January to October so we are busy trying to prepare for that to kick off the week following Fall Break.

MHT will offer adult classes and workshops this fall. Instructor, Joey Judd, will offer a theatre games class starting October 15 and running through November 19 on Thursday evenings from 5:30-7:00 pm. Class fees are $35.

Michael Cochran will offer a series of free one hour workshops for adults on Saturday mornings at 9 am. The first workshop, on Sat. Oct 10, will be how to audition and common mistakes actors make. The second workshop on Sat. Oct. 17 will be script analysis for the actor. The third workshop on Sat. Oct. 31 will be on set and lighting design. These workshops are meant as an introduction to the subject matter. Beginning students ages 16 and up are welcomed to register for the free workshops. Students should register in advance for Improv classes and the free workshops.

Smoke Opens

2009-09-06T12:41:00.002-05:00

After weeks or preparation the season is underway as Smoke on the Mountain opened Thursday night to an enthusiastic audience response. The cast and crew have worked together to create a wonderful show that has received a standing ovation for every performance since opening. Maria Miller and Emily Yocum have filled in as the stage crew and are adding a fun element to the show as the offstage voices of 3 year olds Weldon and Eldon Culpepper. They create such mayhem at the side that it is not hard to believe two 3 years with their screaming and tantrums are really there. The matinee today at 2:30 will cap off the hectic week getting the show open and then give the performers 3 days off before they return for two more weekends of "Homecoming".

Footlights classes began Saturday morning. Joey Judd helped April with the High School class and taught the students some new improv skills in character building. Joey is working with April and I to offer a series of adult classes this fall.

A surprise visit from WPSD Local6 for the high school class had April calling me wondering why I hadn't told her they were coming. I didn't know anything about it. We are always thrilled for the community to get a better look at the education programming happening at the theatre.

The Ghost Tour guides will have a meeting Tuesday and the Murder for Hire troupe has a meeting Wednesday to prepare for the October events. MHT will provide a murder mystery performance for the Caldwell County Junior class as their fundraiser for the school.

Auditions for Tom Dick and Harry are coming up next Monday and Tuesday. The October newsletter is in the final stages before going to press. April begins rehearsal for Secret Life of Girl this next week as well.

Tech Weekend

2009-08-30T22:11:00.004-05:00

It all began with a text message Friday morning. Lisa Humphrey-Wynn Assistant Director/Stage Manager for Smoke on the Mountain Homecoming texted me to say she was at her doctors office. She had been experiencing pain and her doctor was checking out her hip where she had had replacement hip surgery. There was a possibility she might have to be hospitalized. The second text arrived one hour later. Lisa was being hospitalized and was going in for surgery on her hip which had developed an extreme infection. She would be hospitalized for 4-5 days and out of the picture for the show. We still had the lighting and the stage crew people so I felt like we were still okay. We all kept Lisa in our thoughts and prayers and we set up the light board backstage so it could be run from there to coordinate with the stage crew. April and I left Sat. morning along with some friends and drove to St. Louis to see the Broadway touring production Mary Poppins at the Fox Theatre.

We had 15th row center seats and the show had some really fun moments but I felt that it was somewhat difficult to hear. I lost part of the dialogue in some of the scenes which made it hard to follow. In addition the lighting designer used lots of mood lighting and used follow spots to light the main characters which tended to make the overall light levels somewhat dark which led to my eyes getting tired. I must confess I fell asleep during part of the first act. The story line and songs for part of the show were also a little less than memorable for me. The second act was delightful and lots of fun effects including watching Bert the chimney sweep dancing in number where he walked up the wall and upside down across the proscenium 20 feet in the air and then back down the other side. We all left the theatre smiling but wishing the sound had been better.

On the drive home I got a voicemail which I didn't listen to until I got home about 9 pm. It was from Debbie the lighting person to tell me that her daughter who was supposed to be on the stage crew had been diagnosed with Swine Flu H1N1 and she and her daughter were out for at least a week. They never even got to see a single rehearsal of the show. With the technical rehearsal on Sunday I was now totally without a crew. I had agreed for Jim to go to Arkansas this weekend to help his wife with her fathers estate.

I moved the light board back out to the front of the house and April agreed to come in to help run lights and do the live sound effects to get through the technical rehearsal. We rehearsed early because one of the actors had an evening engagement and everything went pretty well for a first tech with costumes, lights, and sound.

Tomorrow Jim will be back and musical director Cindy Miller has offered her daughter Maria's help to do the running crew for the show. Jim will jump to lights and stage manager and we will be back on track. I've never had an incident before were I've lost the entire crew the day before the technical rehearsal. With no understudies for the show I always worry about a major character getting sick. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that everyone else will remain healthy. We wish a speedy recover to all of the crew members who are out sick. We may have been blown sideways a little this weekend but we will ready for Thursday nights opening!

Late August Rush

2009-08-19T07:51:00.002-05:00

A whirlwind of activity in the printing area has been going on all weekend and during the first part of this week. The annual report was sent to the printer yesterday. This 4 page color document is a report on all aspects of MHT programming last season along with financial reports. All MHT Member/Contributors will receive a copy in the mail. A PDF of the report will be posted on the MHT website.

The September newsletter also went to the printer on Monday. We will be returning to a more robust schedule of newsletters this year. Last year we tried to move the newsletters to a quarterly printing in order to save funds. What we learned was that some of our information was out 1-2 months before the event and was soon forgotten. The MHT board has decided that we need to communicate more often with people interested in the theatre and has budgeted a doubling of newsletters for this season. The newsletter will also try to feature more of the people who are involved as volunteers at the theatre. Look for a newsletter to be posted today.

Volunteer Debra Harned, April Cochran and I have been hard at work to get the new program completed and sent the printer. We are also putting the final touches on our season brochure. All these things are timed to be ready for opening night of Smoke on the Mountain Homecoming which opens Sept. 3.

The box office is now selling tickets to Smoke and The Secret Life of Girls. In addition schools are calling in and making school matinee reservations for Secret Life of Girls, Best Christmas Pageant Ever, and There's a Boy in the Girl's Bathroom. All of those school performances are filling up quickly and some are already sold out. Because of the limited space in the studio theatre for Secret Life we have added a school discount price to the regular performance of Secret Life of Girls. Any school group of at least 30 can get a school matinee rate of $5 per ticket for a regular performance of the show. Interested schools can contact the box office for more information.

Jim is still doing the construction work on the back of our auditorium to make access easier for wheelchairs and walkers. We have removed the steps and made access a level entrance to the rear of the auditorium.

The theatre is getting ready to announce an exciting fundraiser for the fall and we are in the final planning stages for this event. We should be ready to announce this later this week!

School has started back and April is full swing teaching in the city and county school systems.

I feel your pain

2009-08-14T07:34:00.003-05:00

Yesterday tickets went on sale for Smoke on the Mountain Homecoming and the Secret Life of Girls. We are just 3 weeks out from the opening of the first show of the 46th season. At rehearsal last night we spent the majority of time working on a couple of the characters monologues. We worked and reworked these moments where the characters testify about their faith. I think that it was rewarding for those actors who got to work on their parts. Unfortunately the others had a lot of sitting around while that happened. Last night I had Fowler, who plays Pastor Oglethorpe, empathize so much with those in his congregation that he had to act as if it were him that was suffering from bursitis, arthritis, locked bowels, and kidney stones. The other actors were rolling on the floor as Fowler contorted his body to "feel" their pain.

Meanwhile across the street open auditions were being held for Cardinal River Productions 48 hour film festival entry. Although they don't know what genre of script they will be creating those who showed up were taped doing a variety of improvisational exercises that covered several genres. This weekend should be an exciting one for film in Paducah with the 13 teams. One of the teams, other than the Cardinal River group, is headed up and composed solely of MHT performers and volunteers. It will be fun to see the projects that come out from this weekend. I encourage everyone to go and view the completed 4-7 minute films next week at the Maiden Alley Cinema and support the efforts of all of the MHT and community people who are involved in this competition.

If you see some terrific posters around town for Smoke on the Mountain Homecoming they are the work of the creative team over at IVS supervised by Todd Duff. IVS has done an outstanding job on the posters and we are working with them to create a coordinated and unified look to all of our show marketing. We have our website hosted by IVS and they do an outstanding job in everything they undertake.

layers

2009-08-03T11:52:00.002-05:00

We are in the process of rehabbing the steps into the auditorium and making them safer. It is interesting when you uncover construction from 30 years ago. You suddenly discover that walls don't go all the way to the floor and the shortcuts that were taken to cover up the way carpet was installed over things that you now have to rebuild everything. When all is completed it should provide a smoother and safer entry into the theatre for not a lot of money. We have been putting this off until we changed over for the new seats.

I spoke with the Kentucky Colonels office the other day and they told me it was now going to be September before we hear anything about our seating grant. That will put our order with 10-12 weeks of manufacture, shipping and installation back into December or January for the new seats. We have moved forward with removing the 14th seat on every other row so that we adjust to the new seating chart with the first show. The new chairs will be 2 1/2" wider in the seat than the old chairs. That will be a major difference for some of our season ticket holders who were seated in the old 16" wide seats. We continue to look to see if there are other ways to improve the show experience for the audience. I am trying to come up with more ways that everyone who is connected to the theatre can give us ideas on how to improve all aspects of the theatre. We will do a survey with our first show for audience members and I will try and put an online survey for those who can't participate during the Smoke on the Mountain run.

This week we finished up with the first phase of season tickets as all the tickets were printed. We now move to phase two were the restaurant discount cards get added to each order. The ticket letters containing exchange and other important information that go with the tickets and a final check of tickets before they go out in the mail. This is a race to get the season tickets out and then put the single tickets on sale for Smoke on the Mountain Homecoming.

We are base coat painting the upstage walls for Smoke on the Mountain Homecoming so Kelly Salchli can come in and do the final scenic painting on them. Tonight we finish staging Act One of the Smoke and tomorrow is a review of Act One. Over the past week we have moved from just singing to the piano for the music to each of the actors playing instruments and singing the music. That is a big change for the performers. With the addition of the movement in the staging the hope is to no lose any of the vocal work that has been accomplished. Staging a show is like making layers on a cake. Each layer is built on top of the previous and adds more complexity. The goal is not to lose the base that you've built on as you add all the layers.

Japanese Story Telling

2009-07-25T17:07:00.001-05:00

This morning we loaded in April's stand and small stage at the Museum of the American Quilters. April was representing the the Market House Theatre as part of Kids Day in the Arts. She began promptly at 9 am and began to tell stories. Jade and I were the first to hear some of her new stories. The stage is a small wooden box with sides that open out to create a miniature frame for the artwork to appear inside. Almost like a tiny stage or television box with ornate cut wooden sides. The form of story telling April presents is called Kamishibai. It is based on the Japanese story tellers who used to bring their bicycle to an area and then clap together wooden blocks to alert the kids in the neighborhood. All of the children would run to the story teller when they heard the noise. The story teller was in reality a candy maker. The back of his bicycle had a box with delicious candies the children could buy. If a child bought candy they got a front row seat for the story. If they did not they could still stay to hear the story but had to stand in the back. With a flair for story telling and colorful story boards illustrated with artwork about the story it was easy to see how this would delight children and adults of all ages.

April told stories with lots of audience participation until about 2 pm today when her voice finally gave out from exertion. Kids Day in the Arts had puppet making, flag coloring and lots of craft activities provided by the Museum, a hands on display of musical instruments kids could try out from the Paducah Symphony, and a puppet show by Loretta Folsom. Lots of activities and inflatables were on the lawn outside the museum. All of it was free to the public and lots of kids seemed to be having a great time! It was across from the Farmers Market as well so we got to stroll over to get some just picked vegetables and a hot dog from Louie Kirchhoff's hot dog cart. The only thing that was a little disappointing was the hot air balloon was unable to setup because of the strong winds. Over all the day was a great way for kids to experience the arts as something they could participate in.

streets, costumes, and seats

2009-07-22T16:03:00.002-05:00

April began the morning with the first rehearsal of her drama camp on the main stage. She had a boom box and her computer hooked up to playback the sound from the show that will be presented Friday evening at 5 pm. The show is by Bad Wolf Press called Character Matters Too. The premise of the show is the fairy tale council has a meeting and they address concerns raised by some of the fairy tale creatures. There are songs about gratitude, and it pays to be polite. In the polite song the witch who eats children is taught not to eat those children who come to her house because it pays to be polite. The show has some very funny writing that also gets the point across that the "character" of a person is important.

As April was getting ready I was finding out about the street closings from a group at the Market Square Coffee shop. I left the coffee shop and contacted the Parks department which has the official word and map of what streets are closed and when they are closed. This is crucial for our 5 pm show this Friday that parents can drop young children off at the stage door of the theatre without a major street being blocked. After the rumors were put to rest and the real information was received we then went to work on getting ready for the show. However April discovered that the stage air conditioning unit wasn't working. We installed a safety shut off last year to keep the drain pans from overflowing onto the ceilings above the dressing rooms. The safety worked perfectly when the drain was clogged and the pan was full of water. Jim spent about an hour cleaning out the drain and flushing the pipes to get the system back up and working.

Meanwhile Janice Peterson is hard at work with the help of couple of other volunteers to make the costumes for Character Matters Too. I saw some of the costumes modeled by my daughter and they look terrific.

Marsha and Rhiannon have been working on assigning seats for Season Ticket holders. We are down to the last couple of performances. Several people have been extremely generous and moved their seats to help us prepare for the new seats we plan to install in the fall. We only have two performances now where we need people to change their seats in order to accommodate everyone in the new wider seats. Marsha has been calling people and many people have been extremely nice in helping us get this done. They started printing the tickets this afternoon and we will have restaurant discount cards printed this next week hopefully.

Rehearsal for Smoke on the Mountain is off for tonight and resumes tomorrow. I'm still trying to contact sponsors and program advertisers to get our next season off to a great start. If you know of someone who is interested in sponsoring a play have them email me at the theatre. Non Musicals are $1,750 and Musicals are $3,000. You get approximately 30 tickets to the play you sponsor and get promotional credit on all advertising for the show.

If you are downtown on Saturday for the Kids Day in the Arts at the Quilters Museum check out Aprils Japanese storytelling. She has some great stories for kids and they are told in a an ancient form of story telling that is lots of fun. April told me about one of the new stories that she has which is about a man who takes a wife with an unusual talent. The talent is so unusual the man wants to immediately take her back to her family because he is so embarrassed. I can't wait to hear her tell that story! If you want to know what the talent is you will have to come and hear her. She tells stories on the half hour all day Saturday!

updates

2009-07-16T06:50:00.002-05:00

We updated our ticketing software system yesterday. It had been over a year since our last update. We have experienced difficulty in the past with updates doing strange things to our data. For instance the last time we updated it took everyone who was marked with a yes to receive our newsletter and changed them to a no. There are almost 6,000 people who receive a newsletter from the theatre! Yesterday seemed to go smoothly and we are excited with some of the new features that are now available to us. But experience has taught us to be very careful as we proceed with the new update. Alexis used to beg not to have to upgrade. I think it is like the new upgrades for Operating systems. Windows 98 used to crash all the time. They fixed it with Windows XP and then when we moved to Vista we had all sorts of problems. I'm gun shy on upgrading operating systems and this is similar to what we did with the ticketing system. We spend almost $3,000 a year on service and support for our ticketing system. The equipment and the system itself cost us $18,000 initially. I remember the days of pre-printed tickets and hand written charts. I still have to look back at those charts occasionally when I'm trying to gauge the old number of tickets sold for a show back in the early 90's. We have gone through 5 different ticketing systems since our first jump into computer ticketing. Getting reports and information out of the systems is so much easier but the draw back is that when our system is not working we are unable to sell anything.

April's about to finish up the first week of her two week camp Character Matters. Sylvia Steiner and Emily Hensel are both conducting classes in the afternoons. We are still in the process of doing maintenance and digging out. Each morning I walk into my office I think today I will dig this out and then I end up covered over with a project or problem and at the end of the day I walk out thinking I'll try to dig out tomorrow.

Cindy Miller has been rehearsing with the cast of Smoke on the Mountain Homecoming. I haven't been to any of the rehearsals yet as they are just working on the music. Next week I'll take a couple of the rehearsals while Cindy is out on vacation and see if I can teach a couple of the performers how to play my guitar and mandolin. It has been so many years since I played regularly that I'm very rusty but I still know the basics of how to play and chord structures and can usually help teach someone to play enough to get by. Fortunately about half of the cast already plays musical instruments so we are only trying to augment the sound with additional musical instruments. The last two shows we did of Smoke on the Mountain cast members learned how to play the string bass. Fortunately many of the songs were in a key that allowed the bass to play mostly open strings without having to worry about fretting the notes.

Debra Harned and I are going back and forth on the logo designs for the brochure for next season and work on the first program has already begun. A newsletter is in the very early stages and an annual report is in process to send to all of the members of the theatre. I hope to have the brochure ready to go to the printer by the end of this month.

The fund run is Saturday at Noble Park. If you participate don't forget to include MHT in your list of donors in your registration form!

Working out the details

2009-07-13T16:17:00.002-05:00

The board finished up the retreat Sunday afternoon after planning several fundraising events for the upcoming year and discussing ways to increase volunteers and performers. One of the key areas the theatre needs to do a better job in is the recruitment and training of technical volunteers. Those technical positions for a play are often a little scary for newcomers who worry about having to have lots of knowledge in order to run lights and sound. The opposite is true. Our lighting system has been computerized for almost 20 years now. Our digital sound system is also very easy to run. If you can click a mouse button on a computer or push a button you can run light or sound. We use middle school and high school students as well as adults to fill tech crew positions. Many families make it a point to work tech together. Jim Roush and son Ted often run lights and follow spot for a play. Kim, Todd, and Daniel Yocum recently all worked on the Wizard of Oz crew. For people wanting to get involved this is the perfect way to meet lots of new people and do something fun and creative. Crew members make a commitment to be there from Tech Sunday (4 days before the show opens) through the dress rehearsals (Mon.-Wed. before the show opens) and then work all of the performances. For main stage shows that can run 2-3 weekends. For youth shows it can be as little as 1 weekend.

If you are interested in learning more about being on the tech crew for a show contact me or the box office.

Marsha Cash is busy working on filling season ticket orders. We are trying to find some creative ways to transition to our new seats next fall.

Classes for Character Matters Drama camp started this morning with April auditioning the kids, Janice measuring them for costumes and everyone playing theatre games. April does a daily newsletter of what happened during the day and what is on the schedule for the next day.

Jim is doing maintenance on the lighting and the masking drapes.

I'm working on sponsorship packets and grants. We have a terrific group of new board members set to make our 46th season a smashing success! If you are bored and looking for something to do this summer come down and lend a hand. We have lots of general maintenance projects that we are working on.

Planning and Assessing

2009-07-11T17:40:00.002-05:00

Friday evening the board of directors held the first of two sessions this weekend in a planning retreat. A range of issues were discussed including evaluating the mission of the theatre and its continued relevance to the community. How to assess the success in concrete and measurable terms. We spent some time taking a broad look at our current financial position and operations in comparison to other theatres with similar size budgets.

Most of the evening was spent talking about ways to improve our annual fund drive, sponsorships and program advertising campaigns. Lots of great ideas were generated. You will see some of these ideas realized in the next few months. One of those ideas is an annual report of the state of the theatre that will be sent to all current members.

Our fiscal year just ended on June 30. We are currently in the processes of submitting the final report to the Kentucky Arts Council which is a requirement for the grant that we received last season. We just received notification of our new grant award for 2009/2010 and it increased above last year. The Kentucky Arts Council has awarded MHT over $20,000 in grant funding for general operational support. Along with the City of Paducah's recent support statement for the current fiscal year we are proving to the city and the state how valuable MHT is not only as a source of quality of life programming in the community but also that we are an economic asset that provides $3.2 million worth of economic activity in our community and provides over 50 jobs as a result our programming. In tough economic times it still is a good investment and return when our local and state government supports MHT.

Another investment is the Kentucky Governors School for the Arts students who finish up their classes today with a final performance featuring some of their work they created over the past couple of weeks. We are thrilled to see so many students who have participated at MHT involved in the Governors School programs. Cindy and the Miller family are watching their daughter Katy do her presentation today in Musical Theatre. Then they are off to Louisville Music Theatre to see Robert Sharkey performing in Singing in the Rain tonight and tomorrow.

Questions

2009-06-29T22:36:00.002-05:00

As I prepare to go on vacation I'm also preparing for the upcoming MHT Board retreat. I met with incoming President Cindy Miller today and talked over many of the ideas that we have for the agenda. There are so many things to address and to think about that sometimes its hard to know where to start. I'm sure that I'll spend a few evenings while on vacation thinking about the retreat as well.

One of the questions that I discovered while looking at planning guides was to look at our successes and try to understand why it was a success. With the overwhelming response to Wizard of Oz recently I asked that question. What was it about our production that made the show so successful that 2 weeks after the show people are still buzzing about it. What makes a successful show at MHT? Is is the script? Is it the talent of the performers? Is it the choreography? Is it all of the costumes, sets, lighting, sound, special effects? Is it all of the above? How do you try to build those successful things into the fabric of everything that MHT does?

We have some big challenges facing us this year and in the next couple of years leading up to our 50th Anniversary season. How we measure success will give us ideas of where we want to be in 5 years. What is that we do that is unique in our community? What is it that we do better than anyone else? Who are our constituents? These are tough questions that are asked each year as we begin a new season. We must decide which areas of the theatre to invest in and which areas we need to move in new directions. What is the vision and values of the Market House Theatre?

With the answer to those important questions everything else falls into place.

Year end wrap up

2009-06-25T07:37:00.002-05:00

We are in the last days of the current fiscal year. Last night was the last board meeting of the year led by President Renie Barger. Renie thanked Randy Davis and Mary Jean Grief for their 3 years of service as they retire from the board. She welcomed the new board members Denise Bristol and Pam Benzing who attended the meeting as guests. Other new board members Sid Hancock, Heather Overby and Melisa Mast who could not attend the meeting will begin their board terms in July. A board retreat is planned for Friday July 10 and Sunday July 12.

Fundraising Chair and Past President Valerie Pollard was also thanked by Renie for her 6 years of board service as she retires from the board. Valerie did the wrap up for the Curtain Call Auction of parts for the Wizard of Oz. After expenses the theatre raised over $14,000 from this event and everyone felt it was a great success. Valerie has agreed to continue to help on the fundraising committee as a non board member for next years event.

President elect, Cindy Miller, talked briefly about ideas for a couple of fundraising events for next season and ideas for the board retreat. Cindy officially takes over as President July 1. The board agreed to operate on a temporary budget for the new year until a final budget is approved in July.

As we end the year we are doing better than we expected financially thanks in big part to the success of the High School Musical and the Wizard of Oz box office. We will still end the year with a deficit but it will be much smaller than we had originally estimated back in January. The January predictions of a $30,000-$50,000 deficit were a real possibility. With the ice storm devastation to ticket sales of Southern Comforts and the loss of a major grant from the city, along with lower contributions because of the stock market we began to aggressively cut expenses back in January. Those cuts have kept us on a solid financial footing and I'm pleased to say that with the cuts and box office from the Wizard of Oz it looks like our deficit will be approx. $10,000. That $10,000 will be borrowed from the theatre's next fiscal year. The board will seek ways to make up that $10,000 in the next budget.

Staff members April, Jim, and Janice are in high gear for the Disney Kids Sleeping Beauty Musical Camp performance Friday and Saturday. Costumes are being made, props created by the kids in the camp and sets and lighting are being worked on. After the board meeting last night I set the preliminary light cues for the show. Today we will scan the artwork created by the kids in the camp as the scenic projections for the show. The sound system has to be set up for playback of the music for the kids to sing and dance to.

April does a daily newsletter for the kids in the camp to remind them of what they have accomplished each day and to help them remember what is important to work on before the next day. The camp is only two weeks long and the campers learn choreography, learn music, and develop characters for the show Sleeping Beauty. Jim Keeney has put in lots of work on a magical orb for the evil queen and a large dragon effect for the climax of the play when the queen turns herself into a dragon.

April has now called me 3 times about her rehearsal this morning so its time for me to head out the door.

The morning after

2009-06-22T08:23:00.003-05:00

The cast ended the show on a high note yesterday and after the set strike Guest Glinda Chris Black who came to help with the tearing down of the set complimented the cast on their graciousness in allowing others to do their roles for one night and how they all were so generous and welcoming to those who made a guest appearance Saturday night. I posted some photos on the Market House Theatre face book page.

Today will be spent working on the awards and the wrap up for the picnic tonight at 5:30 at Keiler park. The BBQ and Fried Chicken have been ordered. The soft drinks purchased. All we need now is clear skies and maybe a little relief from the heat.

April and Jim are hard at work on the dragon and the other magical props for the Sleeping Beauty Drama Camp which performs this Friday and Saturday. Over 3o kids will present the Disney Kids Sleeping Beauty production on the Market House Theatre stage. We will re-use some of the Wizard of Oz set with a few changes to make it easier to get Sleeping Beauty up.

The final board meeting of the fiscal year is Wednesday evening and financials and other materials are also going out today for that meeting.

Lots and Lots to do today!

Saturday preparations

2009-06-20T08:35:00.002-05:00

The show last night was great again. Standing ovations have been constant throughout the run. After the show last night the cast gathered at Jim and Ted Roush's apartment for lots of food. Jim cooked Indian food for those who wanted to try something different. (I tasted it and it was great!) For the others there was hot dogs and spaghetti. Mary Jane Bowles and Doug Arnold made a wizard of Oz dessert out of rice crispy treats and m & m's. Oh those creative arts people! I left shortly before midnight reminding the cast of their early call today for the matinee.

This morning I'm meeting with Cindy Miller to audition a couple of more performers for Smoke on the Mountain Homecoming. We should announce the call backs or cast list within the next day or so.

Today will be spent dealing with food and show issues. I have to confirm the food for the cast party tomorrow after the final performance. Confirm the food for the picnic on Monday. Work on the golden screw awards for the picnic. Get the studio theatre setup to feed the cast between shows today and then cleaned up for the church which rents the second stage space on Sunday mornings. Do a final check and work through brief staging changes for the fundraising event tonight with the winners of the Wizard of Oz auction. I'm also preparing the photo discs for the cast. We sell photo discs of the shows for $10 and all the proceeds go to volunteer appreciation to buy things like the food for the picnic, water for the backstage, food for between shows, etc... There are over 900 photos on the photo cd. Bill Fox graciously donated his time to come in and take the photos with his high speed equipment. Unfortunately because of copyright restrictions no video of the performance is allowed.

Each performance I constantly scan the audience to make sure that no one is taking photos or video taping the performance. Last night I was watching and suddenly noticed the little digital screen of a camera in the audience taking photos or video. These days you can't tell which. I slowly worked my way down the aisle until I could identify the person and then moved quickly to the woman and told her she had to stop immediately. I try to always make an announcement before the show. It is also in the program. I know the woman heard the announcement but I guess she didn't think it applied to her. We have to worry that clips would show up on youtube and then we could be liable for copyright violation and damages. Every actor, technician as well as the theatre can be named in a damage suit. That's why we get a little crazy about people not videotaping.

As much as this show keeps me on pins and needles hoping that everything continues to go well, I will miss the show when it is over. It has been a rewarding experience for me to work on this production. The cast and crew have done an outstanding job. Audience response has been overwhelming. This will be one of those shows that I personally will remember for many years and I believe our community will remember as well.

Getting ready for final weekend

2009-06-18T16:43:00.002-05:00

We are just a couple of hours away from the final weekend of the Wizard of Oz. The show has broken the all time box office record for the theatre selling well over 3,000 tickets for the run. There are a few seats left for the final weekend but waiting lists have already been started for the sold out performances.

Last night was the full dress rehearsal for the Saturday night fundraising performance of Wizard of Oz. The cast could not retain their composure when Chris Black was revealed in his pink gown, crown and wand as Glinda the Good witch. Emily Yocum several times had to look at the floor or turn her head as Chris rendered his own unique version of the witch of the north. Tickets for the Saturday night show are going fast. We had one small moment of worry last night when Dorothy threw the water on Auction winner Mary Keef, the wicked witch, to melt her. Denise Bohle forgot to tell Mary to close her mouth and the wicked witch was almost drowned with a face full of water. After taking a moment to catch her breath again, Mary stepped back into the role and melted like a pro! David Mast donned his Munchkin Mayor costume and led the Munchkins in singing and dancing in celebration of Ding Dong the Witch is Dead! David was later heard to say something about next time he bid on a part he wanted to know the number of lines that were involved before he bid on it. David Jernigan put on the Lion costume and sang and danced his way along with the help of the scarecrow, tinman and Dorothy and did a terrific job for only a couple of rehearsals.

I'm hard at work trying to get ready for the Golden Screw awards next monday at the picnic. If anyone would like to nominate someone they can email me at m.cochran@mhtplay.com and I would be happy to accept the nomination. I'm ordering food tomorrow for the event and hope that we have a big turnout. Please contact the box office if you are going to attend. The only thing we ask is you bring a dish to pass.

We are still holding auditions for Smoke on the Mountain. A couple of people who contacted the theatre about auditions were out of town during the regular auditions so we are seeing those people this weekend. I hope we have a cast by next Tuesday.

April is about to wrap up the first week of the Sleeping Beauty Camp and they have been staging the show and working on sets and props.

Wizard Record

2009-06-15T08:39:00.001-05:00

My last post was just before Wizard of Oz opened and I started writing this sitting in the stage manager cage backstage on Sunday just before the matinee to try to update what’s going on. I finished up this post this morning.

The show has received a tremendous response. As of my writing this, it only needs to sell another 130 tickets to break the Beauty and the Beast record to become the biggest selling show in MHT Main stage History. I used to try to do it by box office gross but with ticket price changes over the years, number of seats sold has become the number to beat.

The audience response has been tremendous. So many people have complimented the performances of everyone in the show, especially Emily Yocum as Dorothy, Fowler Black as the Scarecrow, Chris Schnarr as the Tin Man, Chuck Wilkins as the Cowardly Lion, and Denise Bohle as the Witch. Katy Miller’s choreography has been a real crowd pleaser with overwhelming praise for the crows, apple trees, poppies, snowflakes, and jitterbug dance numbers. The special effects and the technical production have also received dozens of compliments for the crew who is running all of the complicated scene changes and effects so smoothly.

We have had 10 great performances. We have also had a few of those moments that is the thrill of live theatre because you never know what will happen. One performance Dorothy’s dress got caught on the painted fire in Professor Marvel’s scene and pulled it over on its side. The professor quickly reached his hand into the “fire” and set it back upright. On Saturday night during the witch’s exterior our rear digital projector had a lamp problem and decided to go into standby mode for a short time. I raced backstage to catch Daniel Yokum who is running the rear screen projections before he could try to restart the projector. Without a hand in front of the screen when it restarts it will go into a test pattern which looks like those old TV test patterns with the color bars and would not have been good during the witches scene. I ended up going up to the projector, putting my hand in front to restart and then slowly raising my hand to let the image reappear on the screen. I don’t know if the audience was even aware of the screen because fortunately it happened when we have lots of scenery in front of the screen at that moment. Unfortunately that meant that I had to crawl on my hands and knees under the projection image to escape from the restart or be trapped for the rest of the performance. There are so many technical things to go wrong in this show it is only because of a constant vigilance by the staff the tech crew and performers that we keep everything intact.

We have a rehearsal Tuesday night for the auction winners to learn their parts and a full dress rehearsal on Wednesday to give the Auction winners a chance to put on their costumes and do the show before their debut for the special Saturday night fundraising event. It should be lots of fun on Saturday as several people get a chance to feel what its like to step on stage for one night only in the show. Tickets for that event are only available by phoning the box office.

36 hours to opening

2009-06-03T07:24:00.002-05:00

Last nights rehearsal was a definite step forward. The hard work of the previous 24 hours made solved many of the sound issues we were having. The scene changes flowed smoothly with the exception of a couple of hiccups. Flash pots and special effects all functioned and the cast kicked up the performance quality to show level. We still have a tremendous amount of work on the set lights and costumes to complete before the opening tomorrow night. The work of dozens of volunteers and cast members have made the show look terrific! Denise Bohle has done an outstanding job painting munchkin bushes, the wizards hot air balloon basket and several other props. Nick Jaeger made a large hourglass for the witches castle. Charles Keeney has spent countless hours designing and building remote controlled smoke generators, flash pots, and LED lights that can be controlled from backstage without any wires visible wires. Leah Bohle, Maria Miller, Madison Whelan, Sydney Hughes, Buddy Jackson, Chris Schnarr, Emily Yocum, Miki Abraham all came in during the past couple of days to help paint and build. Kim Yocum has put in countless hours helping paint and build things like the witches broom, and the sign for the side of Professor Marvels wagon, Daniel Yocum and Landon Baker have helped make the digital images move smoothly. Landon created the cyclone with flying objects. Kristy Hansen has painted all of the borders around the proscenium and the back screen. Luke Wilkins has been in almost daily for 2 weeks helping build and paint so many things I can't count. Aaron Spoden who returned from his freshman year of college a couple of weeks ago has showed up every day and put in countless hours cutting out set pieces. Doug Arnold has worked very hard as a volunteer musical director to help the cast with the singing. Manulito Mansfield and Mary Jane Bowles are filling in on running sound for the show. Jim and Ted Roush have done a great job on running the lights and working on the stage crew. I know that I'm forgetting someone. All the hard work is paying off and the show should be a great success. For those of you trying to call the box office please be patient. The phones are ringing off the hook and people are waiting in line at the box office during the day to get tickets to the show. Don't forget that you can skip the phone wait and buy tickets online from our website. 36 Hours to opening!