Thursday July 31 Helping others

We have been working on several projects this week. We began the week with a construction project to cut a doorway through a wall in the studio theatre. In some ways the project was easier than we thought. When we started to cut through what we thought was a brick wall we found that it was a concrete block wall. We had purchased large angle irons or lintels to put into the brick wall to support the door frame and the wall opening. However after beginning the project we found that many years ago someone had put a very large metal beam between the concrete blocks and the bricks over a large section of the wall at the height of our proposed door. So we didn't need the lintels we had purchased. To get the metal door and frame in was a three day project. Jim is finishing up today with doing the drywall around the new door frame and adding loose insulation around that frame to complete the project.

Meanwhile across the street in the main theatre volunteers Aaron Spoden, Ann and Phil Counts, and Betty Wise have been putting a fresh coat of paint on all the dressing rooms, restroom, and green room (actors lounge) We painted over the green walls in the green room. We originally thought painting the green room green would help actors understand what it was. Unfortunately the color green that was picked was dark and it always felt dark in the room. The new "green" room is now white and bright. (Every theatre generally has a "green" room or place where the actors wait before coming on stage.)

April has already started teaching classes. She did her first couple of workshops this week with Kindergarten classes. Alexis is getting the last of the season tickets worked out. She is working on the final changes and mostly waiting to hear from those last couple of people who have not renewed their tickets yet. They may have verbally said they wanted to renew but we haven't received their payment yet so we can't process the tickets. What I don't think people understand is that our system is set up in a way that doesn't allow us to process a ticket order until payment in received. Even for fundraiser events where we check out tickets to board members to sell, there has to be a payment entered before the tickets can be printed. It is a safety auditing feature to protect the theatre against fraud and duplicate tickets being printed.

Today I'm working on getting the final report to the Kentucky Arts Council for the fiscal year that just ended June 30. We ended last year with a deficit. Our contributed income did not meet our budgeted goal. As a result we had to use our surplus from the previous year to pay bills to finish last season. This is not an unusual occurrence for most theatres. We are blessed with the fact that MHT does not have any debt. Operating a non-profit volunteer theatre organization is not for the faint of heart. Just ask any board or staff member of any arts organization in town.

We have Wedding of the Year (murder mystery) rehearsal from 5:30 - 7pm and My Way rehearsal from 7pm- 9pm tonight.

On Tuesday, Al McKeown approached me from St. Mary's school and asked if I would help write a special 45 minute production to commemorate the 150th Anniversary of the founding of St. Mary's. The event will happen on the third weekend of Sept. on the same night that we have a My Way performance. I agreed to look over the materials and offer some assistance. Many of MHT's performers are past graduates of St. Mary's. I wrote a script for one of the Oak Grove Cemetery productions several years ago and enjoyed it a great deal. I've written 7 plays that have had performances or workshop performances.

I'm not sure what I've gotten myself into. Patt Lynch at My Way rehearsal that night found out that I was directing two shows at the same time and I told him about the St. Mary project. Patt, said that the theatre needs to buy me a t-shirt that says "Just say no" on it. It is hard for me not to want to help out other groups in need when I have the ability. I just received a voice mail from Jennie Albritton who is the new Paducah Middle School drama teacher. She was calling asking for help with her fall production which performs the week we open High School Musical. I told her I would come by and help her with some of the light and sound equipment at the school. When we performed our Disney Cinderella Kid's drama camp at Clark Elementary school this past June with Jim Keeney's help, he and I leveled their stage drapes, sewed up the holes in the drapes and helped fix the drapery hardware that was broken. A great deal of the drapes we fixed were pieces we weren't even using for our performance. We just saw a need and responded.

In many ways I have always fought the label of Market House Theatre being a community theatre because for so many it has the connotation of being "bad" amateur theatre. But as I think about what we do, we really are a community organization that has always offered a hand to schools, churches and other groups in town to help them when they needed help. Maybe that's why I have such a hard time saying no. We are totally involved in the community outside of what happens on the Market House Stage. So often I hear board members and community people say "I had no idea MHT did so much!".

It took me a long time to work out the phrase that I try to put on every piece of marketing the theatre does. We don't just entertain... We change lives! That is ultimately what MHT is all about.