April 23

Yesterday I worked with Jim to draw out the basic rocks and tree structure we are building for Zink. I have an idea in my head for a tree with roots that extend out from the trunk like a series of steps up. When you finally reach the trunk there is a ledge in the trunk itself for the character of Schlep -the monkey, to sleep in ithe trunk. Jim also went to the lumber yard to buy plywood and 2x4's for the framing. We are thinking of using fiberglass to make the bark of the tree. Jim stopped by the warehouse space to pick up some of the flats we have in storage. We are creating a surreal savannah painting in the background for Zink. I worked in the afternoon on getting some new ads out for the final weekend of Tuesdays with Morrie. Alexis is processing season ticket orders and Zink orders. Marsha is working on processing membership donations and sending out thank you letters. I did a quick poll of the the office staff as I pondered whether to hold 2 big auditions next season for the plays. One big audition in Sept. and another in Jan. The Sept show would audition Doubt, Greetings and Southern Comforts. The Spring audition would be for Having our Say, The Sugar Bean Sisters and The Wizard of Oz. The benefit is that people can get scripts ahead of time and can plan out their calendar to be in a play. The downside is that if something comes up after the auditions for a show in which you are cast then we might have to recast the role. Both have their merits. I am trying to look at all the sides before we set the dates. Zink rehearsed and so did Anything Goes.

I arrived early Wednesday morning and began organizing some of the stacks of papers that have filled my office over the past weeks. Mike and Della Schmidt are a retired couple who clean the theatre on Wednesdays. This morning Jim continued work on the rocks and tree along with doing some additional cleaning I asked him to do. He sprayed down the banners at the front of the main theatre. They were getting more and more covered in bird droppings and they were looking pretty sad. I took the hose and washed off the large glass globes in front of the box office. Alexis had scraped off the writing on our windows that had gotten wet in the rain. She applied new writing after I finished spraying the front of the office building. I met with an electrician from a local contractor to give me an estimate on putting up a light on the Kentucky Avenue end of our building which would help illuminiate our banners. I'm trying to stay within very strict guidelines about the kind of light and the location to keep with our historic building facade.

In the afternoon I did my shift at the Rotary Quilt Show. Every Rotarian is asked to volunteer for at least one 3 hour shift. When I got back it was just in time to get ready for the board meeting tonight. At the meeting we discussed the drop in income we are seeing on a couple of different productions. The economy is really affecting the theatre's bottom line. We planned for the Derby Party which takes place a week from Saturday. Tickes sales are still a little slow for the party and we need to do more advertising to get the word out. The board also talked about our current membership drive. A "phone-a-thon" using all board members was scheduled for next tuesday to call past contributors and members and ask them to renew. Our fundraiser to help work at the Lower town festival was discussed and the reminder was made that next month we present the slate of board members and officers for next year. The nomination committee is still working on names and setting up appointments to talk with people who are being considered for next year. The budget committee set up the next meeting.

Zink and Anything Goes rehearsed tonight. April who has been waiting to hear from one of the summer teachers for pre-school before publishing all of our summer class offerings decided to move forward with announcing some classes and adding others later. We have had in the works to do our annual summer drama camp. Look in the next couple of days for an announcement about details. Tomorrow Tuesdays with Morrie goes back into performance after a 3 day break. A week from Sunday is the technical rehearsal for Zink. That means we open 2 weeks from tomorrow. Yikes! We are behind again. As soon as Tuesdays moves off the stage Anything Goes moves on it.