March 30

It has been a day to kick back a little and recover from the long week that just ended. To say that the Follies was a success was an understatement. The figures last night look like the Charity League raised over $45,000 for the Easter Seals Center. The performance was terrific. The audience all left the theatre smiling and very complimentary. What was very important for me was that the cast had a great time. At the cast party following the performance everyone was still pumped with adrenaline from the show. I hope that some of the charity league women will come audition at the Market House. There was a lot of talent on stage for the Follies and it was a an real honor to be trusted by the Charity League to be asked to direct the show. Follies Chair Leann Stilley and I talked about our first conversation over 2 years ago when the League asked me to find a show and direct it. I presented 3 shows for consideration and Have a Nice Day was one of those. It's hard to believe that it is now over. A huge thank you goes to everyone who was involved with the show and especially to Valerie Pollard, Lori Devine and Mary Jane McGuire for their hard work and help.

Tomorrow at 9 am we go back to Tilghman to strike all of the equipment and scenery. Auditions for Anything Goes are at 7 pm Monday night in the main theatre. Saturday morning we confirmed that the turntable was a go for Tuesdays with Morrie. I taped out the set design for Zink and that is in rehearsals every day at 5 pm. Story Theatre production of 3 kittens goes on tour to area schools 2 weeks from tomorrow as well. It will be another race to complete everything that we have going on.

Tonight I'm sketching out different scenic arrangements for Tuesdays with Morrie. Alexis has emailed many of the current season ticket holders to announce the start of our 45th Season ticket campaign. Within the month of April I will settle on directors for the main stage shows and some of the studio shows for next year. It is also a busy time for the board of directors. Budget meetings have to happen and nominations for a new board for next year as well. As we enter the last quarter of our fiscal year the theatre has exceeded our box office income goals for the year. However donations to the theatre are down from last season. It may be the economy that is having this effect. We have already seen some of our sponsors pulling back just a little from the previous years. Ticket sales become more important with each passing year. Currently the theatre operates with about 65% of our income coming from ticket sales, rentals, program ads and other earned sources. 35% of our income comes from membership, special donations and grants. April will be an increased concentration on fundraising as well.

March 28

It is now 10:40 pm Friday night. We finished the final dress rehearsal of the follies show at 10 pm. In some ways it feels like forever ago that we had our first rehearsal at Arcadia Methodist Church. In other ways it all went so fast. Tomorrow we perform the show for the only performance. As I started to talk about how we would warm up for the show Saturday night I started to talk about my standard warm up routine and realized that it is not my standard routine. There is no additional performances which means we only get one shot to make everything right.

People have often asked me why Market House Theatre doesn't do our big musicals at Tilghman or the Carson Center. We could fit our whole audience into 2 sold out performances. The problem with that is that after rehearsing for 6 weeks. Hundreds of hours. You want a chance to enjoy the fruits of your work. To perform a show at least 8-12 times. With each audience the show gets better and more polished. I don't like these one shot only shows.

There are several people in the charity league I think have a great deal of natural talent and would be great on the Market House Theatre stage. I have seen these performers move from sheer terror to a sense of fun and joy. That makes it worthwhile. I can honestly say I will miss working with this group. But I can also say I'm really looking forward to having some time back in the evening to spend with family. I'm sure everyone in the show is probably feeling the same way.

March 27

Lunch time again. In the normal week leading up to a show opening there are highs and lows. Tuesday night was a high. Act One of the Follies was really coming together. Things were clicking and looking and sounding great. Wednesday night was a low. We worked on Act Two and it is always the numbers that get the short end of the rehearsal stick because it is generally at the end of the night when you run out of time and promise to work more on it next time around. In addition our sound system which had been running great somehow was completely different. Some of the band was drowned out by the singers in their sound monitor. Other band members couldn't hear the singers at all. Some instruments were too loud and others too soft. The singers couldn't hear themselves over the band. That took us almost 45 minutes to work through and it still wasn't totally fixed. Thursday we are bringing a sound professional back in to check the sound board.

With all that there were still some really good moments and the cast improved with the rehearsal time last night. Each night is a constant step forward in improvement. But last night was also the time that I had to take a very hard look at the amount of time left in rehearsal and what we were trying to accomplish.

When I choreograph a number I always have an idea in my head of what it will look like. It may not be exact but I have this kind of intuition of what we are trying to accomplish. There is always a moment in every show when you say. This isn't going to work the way I planned it. Sometimes it is a single joke in a show that you think is very funny but just never seems to time out right. Sometimes it is a dance movement from point a to point b and the performers are having a very difficult time mastering the movement...

I remember a director in college who was directing a show I was in and she had a little model of the set in front of her with all of the characters in little stick figures in their places. We worked a scene for about a week and finally she threw up her hands and said it works on my model but it doesn't work onstage.

I learned from that lesson that human beings aren't puppets that you can mold and shape to make fit a certain model. You have to be willing to let go of "your model" and adapt your plans to make it work for the people in the show. Sometimes an actor has to play a character different than you always imagined as a director. It is a colloboration.

Last night I had to let go of some of my choreography in order to help the people onstage move from point a to point b. In a different number we tried something musically but the show kept losing energy. So I had to say lets change the way we have approached this music to help the show be better. My job is to help everyone on stage look natural and to help bring out the talents of each person in the show.

I am very proud of all the performers in the Follies. I'm certain we are on our way to a great show Saturday. It just takes work to get there. Tonight we will run the show starting with Act Two and then run Act One. Wish us luck.

Oops almost forgot. Jim Keeney is working under the stage at the Market House today as we try to make our motorized turntable work. I built the turn table 23 years ago. We used it for several shows in late 80's early 90's and then it haven't used it since. We are trying to use it for Tuesdays with morrie. Our biggest issue is the sound of the balloon tire that rubs against a metal plate that turns the unit. The turntable is 16 feet wide. I've been helping Jim a little as he crawls back and forth under the stage in places that are only 12 inches tall from floor to platform. This is the time you wish for a flexible young person who can crawl to all the different parts of the stage. Instead you have a 50 year and a 40 year old trying to fit their less flexible bodies in tight spaces.

March 26

I've only got a couple of minutes but wanted to update what's going on. Follies has been in full force this past week. We loaded into Tilghman Auditorium on Monday with the platforms and flats. That took us most of the day. Rowton loaded in the sound system with 14 channels of microphones and 4 channels of musicians to mix into the great sound that the show needs. On Monday evening we had our first tech rehearsal in the new space with the sound and the costumes. We didn't even attempt lighting for the Monday night. On Tuesday I spent the morning and afternoon climbing in the ceiling rafters at Tilghman trying to focus and repair the lights that Tilghman Auditorium uses for the shows. It is always a real trial to make the lighting system at tilghman work. They have most of the parts needed but with no one to supervise the theatre there they are quickly misplaced, or in need of repair. I brought the computerized light board from the market house theatre to run the lights anticipating their light board would be down. Tuesday night we ran Act One twice with lights, follow spot, slides, and sound. The show really is coming together well. The almost 50 performers are starting to really shine and make their parts come alive in the 1600 seat auditorium. Today I spent the morning with a child at the doctors office and then hosted 4 singers from the follies who performed for the Rotary club to help with publicity. I'm off to Tilghman to finish setting lights for Act Two so they will be ready for tonight. There is a board of directors meeting at 5:30 pm today.

April had her first rehearsal with Zink on Tuesday night. Unfortunately adult men did not audition, so I was cast by April as the father of the little girl in Zink. I've had several roles at MHT because of that fact. April informed me that she needed her set design by Thursday so she could begin to stage Zink. Phil Counts has been patiently waiting for me to finish he set design for Tuesday's with Morrie.

Auditions are next Monday and Wednesday for the big musical Anything Goes which will perform in June.

Everyone at the theatre is stressed at the moment. Hopefully by next Tuesday we will be back on track just in time for Spring break and a much needed vacation before we go back into getting Tuesdays with Morrie open.

March 18

Wow, what a difference a week makes. Last Tuesday I posted a blog from home with a sick child. I apparently caught the bug and was flat on my back for the next couple of days. Then my back went out from the coughing and sneezing. Thursday and Friday Follies rehearsals went ahead without me under the supervision of stage manager Valerie Pollard and Assistant Director Lori Devine. I emerged from my house Friday to go to the doctor and Saturday ran lights for the footlights elementary troupe performances. The kids did a great job. Sunday was two show day for elementary footlights at 2pm and middle school footlights at 4 pm. April does an outstanding job with the kids and helped them bring their talents to the stage. The middle school show "15 reasons not to be in a play" is a great parody about how being in a play will ruin your life- from the young actress falling in love with the cute guy and attending the cast party and seeing a jello dessert which brings back bad memories and causes the actress to throw up on the boy she is trying to impress to the matriarchal great aunt who is always demanding perfect posture. The audience laughed and applauded as we were all well entertained by the both troupes.

Follies rehearsals resumed for me last night and tonight. We are working through the "rough" spots in the shows. (Places that I haven't quite finished in some cases and places that tend to train wreck consistently in others) I'm using a new program Google sketch up to work on some quick sketches for the sets for Tuesday's with Morrie, Follies and Zink. So far I like the program. In about 2 hours I can develop a basic 3d drawing of set ideas. The follies is finishing the last minute details. I picked up the painted wall sections yesterday from the Follies props committee. I got a chance to look at the "trucks" that are being built as costume pieces for our Convoy number. We arranged for the sound system through Rowton sound and they are always great to work with. Jim Keeney is out buying lumber and materials to make the scenery today based on the drawings I gave him yesterday. I'm searching for really good images of the late 60's and early 70's to turn into large set pieces to hang in a collage about the stage area. I also am looking for backgrounds for the digital images that will be behind the performers. I'm still searching my back copies of a couple of magazines to find a platform brace developed by a new company to see if we can order those in time for the follies.

Tuesdays with Morrie set will be a combination of simple pieces of scenery that need to move on and offstage without any visible stage hands. That is always tricky. The show is a series of episodes that all flow together without any scene changes. Director Phil Counts and I will meet to work through the conceptual ideas about the show before we settle on a set design.

Zink auditions were last night and tonight. That show will have lots of technical challenges not only because it is in the studio theatre where there is no "offstage" space to preset scenery for changes. Turn out was a little lighter than expected last night. Many of our high school kids are not auditioning because the show runs during prom.

Today I wear my Scenic design and engineering hat, my graphic design hat as I build some new ads with the desktop publishing software, my directors hat for rehearsal tonight and this afternoon as I look at costumes for follies, my managing directors hat as I write a couple of grant applications, my arts advocacy hat as I continue to track down answers to some questions about the community wide Arts economic impact study and finally my press and PR hat as I write some press releases. Oh I'm also meeting a former board member who in now on the board of a different community theatre who wants to pick my brain to help that theatre group.

March 11

I'm working from home today just like many other parents with a sick child. This morning I made photo cd's of the 200 plus pictures that we took during the run of Harriet the Spy. Cast and Crew members can purchase a photo cd for $10 and the proceeds go to help pay for pizza and food for other volunteer functions such as the Cast Party for Harriet the Spy which was held at our house Sunday afternoon.

After each production a cast party is held to celebrate the accomplishment. With the youth productions an old fashioned out door game of kickball, red-rover, or capture the flag often develops with the high school students just as involved as the elementary students. Theatre has the ability to allow people to play again. It's fun to watch the high school and middle school kids who are normally too "cool" to play games really let go and get into the spirit. Cast members often end up shoeless and covered in mud by the time the cast party is over. Others stay inside munching on cheetos and talking about the "Golden Screw" moments from the show.

Each June the theatre holds its annual meeting to elect the board of directors and gives out "Golden Screw" awards. These awards are for moments that most performers and crew would like to forget. Such a moment occurred during the final performance which was a school matinee on Monday of this week. Harriet reached to grab a pie plate full of whipped cream to put into the face of Maria Miller who plays Cook. Unfortunately she missed the first time and the pie plate slipped out of her hands and fell to the floor. Julie who played Harriet grabbed the pie plate off the floor and with even more force than usual shoved it into Maria's face. Poor Maria had to stand there waiting not just once to be hit in the face by a pie but twice. That is a golden screw moment. In the same performance, on the technical side, one of the platforms moved too quickly and the drape which was supposed to have been raised to allow a bed to come onstage got caught and the actress playing Agatha had to literally pull the masking drape off of her as the bed she was lying in was moved onstage in the dark. When the lights came up everything looked normal. However the drape pulled the lift ropes out of the pulley and during the next scene MHT Technical Director Jim Keeeny worked madly just inches away from where the scene was playing onstage to reattach the pully and the rope lift points. Harriets glasses one scene earlier had slipped off the back of the rolling platform leaving her to go on her "spy" route without her disguise. The glasses were retrieved and were loaded into the wardrobe for the next time in the show when Harriet needed them. Fortunately no one in the audience noticed.

We pride ourselves on using professional standards and producing professional quality shows. It is always a personal struggle for me when people hear the words Community Theatre. They always think of "bad" quality. I have seen several professional companies who have lost it when things go wrong. Acting that is lifeless and direction that is uninspiring. When you attend a play at the theatre it should always grab your attention. A good production has lots of energy and leaves you wanting to know what happens next. I can't remember who said it but someone famous once said that the biggest crime in the theatre is to be boring. The excitement of live theatre is something special. Unlike a movie which will be the same no matter how many showings in theatre anything can happen. Every performance is different. Like a circus performer an actor balances on a wire and tries to present a story without falling off. The mark of a professional is never letting the audience know that something went wrong. The Harriet the Spy cast was very professional indeed on the final performance.

On a related note when it comes to curtain calls, MHT directors tell the actors to go out with a smile. You always want to show an audience how much fun you had performing for them no matter how difficult the role. My second rule of curtain calls is if an audience hasn't stood up by the time the full company is onstage then keep smiling, wave and exit. A standing ovation isn't deserved for every performance of every show. The performers have to earn it, and when they do... they know it and so does the audience. Any performance can get a standing ovation if the actors stay onstage long enough. Eventually the audience will stand up to go home.

Tonight is the preview party to announce our 45th anniversary season. It will be lots of fun and I hope everyone attends. It is free to the public.

See you at the theatre!

March 8

Trying to grab a few minutes before the matinee performance of Harriet the Spy. Thursday we opened the show with two morning matinees and an evening show. Friday had two matinees and an evening show. As we prepare for the 3 day of shows the company has already performed 6 shows. We have one show today and one show tomorrow. Monday morning is the final school matinee and then the set is torn down and we move on to the next production which takes the stage. Being philosophical for a moment- (as is my usual want) plays are such a moment in time. You spend 5 weeks of your life getting ready for it and then the actual show run passes so quickly. But the stories and the memories of doing the play live on forever in the hearts of the people who put it on. It's like getting ready for the championship game in sports. You practice and you work and then you perform. You hope that you will win (or in theatre that it will be a success.)

Watching the kids faces after the show waiting backstage as the parents and family and friends come back stage and congratulate them is very fulfilling. The kids work so hard to put the show on and then wait for the communities reaction. When people come in the door and audience members they don't even know tell them how great they were or the younger kids in the audience ask for autographs of all the actors ( especially the actors who are 8-12 years old) you would think they will never come back down to earth. That moment is priceless.

Well enough philosophy. Time to do a performance. I believe everyone at some time should experience what it is like to do a show. Either on the crew or on the stage. I promise you will never forget it.

House opens in 9 minutes. Time go!

March 4

Salad for lunch at the desk and a quick update on what's going on. Harriet is in dress rehearsals. Tech was Sunday and it was a struggle to work through all of the moving platforms, lighting and sound cues. The actors are doing a great job. They also have to be the technical crew changing the sets and that means they can't just walk offstage and relax. They then have to change the sets. April has added about 50 sound cues to the show. The lights have about 70 cues and the there are several follow spot and slide cues. Put those all together and you have some moments which have dozens of different technical elements all happening at the same time. This requires a stage manager who follows the script and gives warnings, standbys and go cues for each person on the technical crew. Retired Pathologist Jim Roush is in the back stage manager booth with a lap top computer using PowerPoint to change out the images on the back screen. He also has two power switches to cue the platforms. Platform A and Platform B. When he turns the switch on a light comes on offstage next the appropriate platform. That means standby. When he turns the switch off it means move the platform either on or off. When the platform is off it is stripped of set pieces and others are put on it. Sometimes both platforms are moving at the same time. In 3 different moments in the show we move and change platforms 5 times in the span of 3 minutes. The stage manager cues Jim when to change slides and when to put the platforms in standby and go mode. Jim's son Ted is on the follow spot. This is his first show on follow spot and he is doing a great job. The stage manager cues Ted. Tess Shelby is running the light board. It is all computerized so she has to push the right buttons on cue. The stage manager cues Tess. Finally there is the sound. April the director is running the sound because of the voice overs and the underscoring of music. She spent hours online looking for different music that we could use for the show. We buy rights to use the music with a blanket license from ASCAP and BMI. (you can't just use recorded music without rights or you get into trouble)

As the Scenic Designer and Lighting Designer I'm constantly trying to work with Jim Keeney, technical director, to create and refine the scenic changes. We took a wardrobe and turned it around backwords and created a chest of drawers out of it because it took too long to carry it on and off the moving platforms in a short time. I'm still creating the painting scheme and the slides for the show. I have some thumbnail sketches I made but as I put a color on the wall I'm thinking what goes with this and how am I going to do that next wall?

April was originally going to stage manage the show but with the sound cues so complicated she can no longer do that. So.... I'm now stage managing the show. Unfortunately that has created a real time crunch in my prepartion time to choreograph songs for the follies so I'm really burning the midnight oil. We open Harriet Thursday morning for a school matinee.

Next week we have the preview party on Tuesday to announce our next season to the community. We have the footlights peformances on Saturday March 15. Follies goes into dress rehearsals March 24. I keep wondering what normal life would be like....

My salad is done and so is my break.