the home stretch

To read an interview with Fowler Black on my way go the ilistpaducah.com and click on ilist playlist on the left side of the page.

Monday and Tuesdays rehearsals have all gone to 10 pm after starting at 6:30. By about 9:30 it becomes a law of diminishing returns. The performers are starting to drag after working in a very focused manner for over 3 hours straight and any complicated melodies start to unravel around the edges a little. But we make significant progress each night. Monday was a run through of the entire show with the band. Tuesday we worked on music sections from 6:30- 8:30 and then took a 5 minute break before running the first act. Tonight we will touch up a couple of spots in the first act and then continue on working and polishing act two.

An example of one of the spots we worked last night was a moment where Victoria and Fowler are singing the song I believe. They finish the song and without missing a beat they start into Let's get away from it all. The problem was that Patt's music ends with the a complicated section at the end of the page to finish I Believe. Then he has to turn the page and play a new key and chord change without missing a single beat that is moving fast at the end of I believe. There is no time for Patt to turn the page and play the chords he needs at the same time. Patt is in the process of memorizing the music so that he can continue playing until he gets a rest in the music to turn the page. Fortunately Eddie the bass player doesn't have a page turn there and can keep the tempo going for Victoria to continue while Patt fits in the page turn.

The performers are having to really learn how to syncopate their parts to fit with the jazz music in the show. Sinatra had a way of surprising you with his phrasing that often starts on the half beat either before or after the down beat. That gives it a great jazz sound but can be-devil singers if they aren't constantly thinking about it.

Tech rehearsal is this Sunday at 1:30 pm. That will be the first time with lights and costumes. I've ordered a "rain" curtain for the show. That won't arrive until Tuesday so we will have two days with that before opening. A rain curtain is a curtain made of strips of shiny metallic film that overlap. Often you will see performers walk through the curtain and appear. I'm also planning on a projection screen for behind the band so we can put up images of some of the things talked about in the show.

This morning the carpets are being cleaned in preparation for the new season. Jim Keeney went through and tightened all the seats and arm rests in the theatre.

Last night the board of directors meeting approved raffling off a flat screen television during the run of my way to raise money for the new seat campaign. We are hopeful that we will be able to install the new seats in time for the opening of the 46th season. Right now we are applying for grants to match $20,000 of our current funding to finish the project. Grants however generally take about 6 months to a year in order to process and receive funds.

Our ticketing system has been giving both Marsha and Alexis fits. We upgraded the system a couple of weeks ago and suddenly all our reports changed due to technical glitch that was caused by the upgrade. It appears to have finally been resolved. Marsha kept telling the company to check certain database areas and the company kept telling her it couldn't possibly be that. Finally they checked the areas she told them to check and there was the problem.

For as wonderful as the computerized ticketing and database software that we have can be, they are also a constant source of frustration for Marsha and Alexis making their jobs more difficult than necessary sometimes. MHT purchased the software three years ago at a cost of about $18,000. We pay over $2,000 a year for service and support. Both Alexis and Marsha are constantly saying to me "How much are we paying these people for support!" The sad thing is that from what I hear from other theatres, we are working with one of the best systems in the industry. Nobody seems to get enough technical support these days and a constant turnover of people in the support department.

It's times like these I feel very fortunate that we have experienced staff with a long history with MHT like Marsha and Alexis.

Murder and Late Nights

Friday night we rehearsed the Wedding from Hell at the Civic Center. It was a little rough but the actors, Renie Barger, Mike Brewer, Marsha Cash, April Cochran, Phil Counts, Tom Dolan, Audra Hall, Roy Hensel, Steve Schwetman, and Valerie Pollard all had worked on their lines and their characters in preparation (and fear) of the performance. There is nothing so motivating for an actor than the fear of standing up in front of a group of people and not knowing your lines! I know really talented older performers who refuse to walk on stage because that fear can become overwhelming. There was no such worry Saturday night. All the performers knew their lines. We did have one sad moment in which Marsha Cash was to deliver a 1/2 page dramatic monologue in her best "soap opera-over the top" impersonation of her idea of the murder scene. However right before her monologue the actors accidentally jumped to the lines a page later completely skipping her "big scene". At the end we all tried to figure out what happened and the cast begged Marsha to do her scene for us even if no one else saw it. That is the excitement of live theatre. You never know what will happen. Some of the photos from the event are posted in a slide show at the side of the page. We had almost 200 people in attendance for the event.

I spent Sunday afternoon and evening working on dramatizing some historical information into a script for St. Mary's 150th celebration. They asked for my help and I promised only to give a look at the material and see if I could help them out. While I was doing this I was on the phone to the Madame H. We talked through several issues and then agreed to meet again at the drop point for a late night rendezvous. I showed up at the appointed time and then received a call on my cell phone that Madame H was running a couple minutes late. I went into the Shell station and bought a bag of peanuts and sat on the tailgate of my truck and waited. Not too long after the dark green mini van pulled up and the exchange was made. I took some photos of my adventure and those are posted at the side. I will turn in the disc today to Paducah Printing. We are still waiting for 2 advertisers to turn in their copy. If they don't turn it in today we will put their name and address of the their business in the program and wait until Greetings to put in the new ad copy.

High School musical is cast. I took a photo of April and Cindy onstage working through the casting. Over 130 performers auditioned and lots of very talented people did not get a roles. The first rehearsal is tonight. My Way is also in rehearsal tonight.

Most of today will be spent returning rented sound equipment. Returning keys to the civic center and unloading all the equipment that went to the Murder Mystery event. A round of applause needs to go to Cindy Miller and her committee who prepared the food for the Murder event. Sarah Bynum arranged for the alcohol and bar tenders.

The August board of directors meeting is tomorrow at 5:30pm.

running

Today has been spent running from the first meeting.
9:00 posted cast list for High School musical
9:30 picked up key at Civic Center
10:00 Met with Al McKeowan about St. Marys celebration project
11:00 Called all the advertisers that we still don't have copy from
Noon- did lunch with April
1:00 went to rowtons and picked up extra microphones and transmitters
2:00 took all the sound equipment from the theatre and rowtons to the civic center
2:30 April tells me that the cast list is hard to read in the format I used. Not many people have emailed to accept their roles. I go back in and reformat the cast list on the website.
3:00 rearranged all the tables to try to get everyone closer at the civic center for the event
3:30 off to pick up special costume pieces at Creatures of Habit, load up the beer and wine to take to civic center
all afternoon talking with Debra Harned about the final proof on the ad as advertisers send in their late copy.
4:00 will get last minute items for final murder mystery rehearsal
5:30 start rehearsal
9:00 anticipate rehearsal is done.
10:00 close up from rehearsal after finishing up details.
10:30 pm- It's time for a cold beer!

tomorrow starts at 8 am with footlights and working on My Way and goes until 10:30 or 11pm.

Correction

I was asked by the director of High School Musical to be more specific in my blog. The auditions last night lasted from 5-8 pm. The Director and Musical Director then stayed an additional hour to reveiw all the forms and discusss those who auditioned.

Late night hand off

Last night at 10:15 I paced the parking lot of the BP station on Hinkleville Rd. I felt like some illicit deal was about to happen. The clerk at the station kept stepping outside to check on me since I was parked next to his vehicle. As I sat at the back of April's minivan waiting for the moment of the hand off I couldn't help but laugh at what this looked like. Then the moment came. The green minivan pulled off the highway zoomed up to me. The window was in the downward motion as the car pulled to a stop. A hand emerged from the vehicle. The hand off was complete. The car drove off and I got into my vehicle and drove off into the dark. The disc was secure. Was it top secret papers relating to national security? No it was the color pages for the My Way program. Debra Harned was on her way to work as a cashier at Harrah's. The only way I could get the disc to turn in to the printer today was this late night hand off.

We are still working on the black and white pages. That may entail another late night hand off.

I've posted photos of the auditions for High School musical. The theatre's main stage was full of young performers trying to get a role in the popular show. Meanwhile the Murder from Hell rehearsal was in process in the studio theatre. I handed my camera to Mike Brewer who plays the wedding photographer in the play. The slide show is Mikes handiwork as he played his characters.

April's auditions lasted until 9 pm last night (4hours). My Way rehearsal was moved to the classroom because of the auditions. I spent 1/2 of the My Way rehearsal working with my daughter Jade on her homework while I handed off my directors book to Denise Bristol with my blocking notes for her to give the cast. Since both April and I had rehearsal something had to give to help Jade with her homework. That has been the most difficult thing for us as parents to deal with at the theatre. Usually one of us can schedule it so that we can work with her. But on audition nights and rehearsal nights we are just like any other family with competing needs. So Jade and I sat in the dressing room working on social studies about Lewis and Clark's adventures while the cast sang I only have eyes for you and My Way last night.

Tonight will be another repeat of last night. Possibly even including the hand off by the side of the road.

Running around

Today started early and continued to run all day. My daughter Jade and I dropped April off at the Paducah Airport this morning at 5:30 am for her flight to Memphis and then on to Kansas City. April is attending the American Association of Community Theatre Education Directors Conference. Two years ago April was the facilitator for this conference. This years she wasn't able to commit to the attending until 3 weeks before the conference. The conference starts today at 3 pm so it was off to the airport. (Like so many other things I try to support as many local businesses as possible and yet stay within the non profit budget we have. Every dollar we spend locally is very important to the economic impact the arts have here. I also hope that MHT's support of local business then promotes support for local theatre.) After dropping Jade off at school today I was then off to the races trying to get Temporary Alcohol licenses for our fundraising events with My Way. The theatre has to apply for a temporary license anytime alcohol is included in an event that has a ticket price. (Whether we give it away for free at the event or charge for it, it is considered part of the ticket price.) Since we decided to do the first two Friday nights of My Way we had to purchase two temporary licenses. That involves getting the forms from the online state website. Filling them out with the names of Directors and Officers. Describing the fundraising event that will receive funds from the event. Then going to the bank to get a certified check. Then taking the check and the notarized forms to the City Clerks office and then they turn those into the state. If we use a city facility like the Civic Center or even our own main stage theatre building then we need city approval for the license since they own the buildings. After finding out today that I needed two licenses and not one since the events were separated by 7 days I visited both the bank and city hall a couple of times today.

Then I ran over to Paducah Printing to look at the different formats for our quarterly newsletters. We have received a couple of different prices depending on the number of pages in our newsletter. This will be the first year for quarterly paper newsletters and not monthly or bi-monthly paper newsletters. After checking on that it was back to the program ad hunt while encouraging Jim Keeney to get the technical crew for the show worked out. Jim went to Creatures of Habit and found the perfect 1940's microphone for the show My Way. I spent the afternoon trading phone calls and emails tracking down ad copy.

All the shows in rehearsal are off tonight which gives not only the performers a 3 evening weekend with family but the staff as well. I feel it's important for everyone to catch up with some family time each week instead of spending every night at the theatre rehearsing. Although the rehearsals are off tonight the theatre is still in use with the Rivers Edge Film Festival.

Loose ends

Yesterday press releases were sent out and ads created. Today it's time to do a final proof of our 45th season brochure and continue to track down ad copy for the first program of the new season. Yesterday what was planned for our color pages changed when one of the advertisers decided to hold off on their ad because they were making changes in a store location. That has sent us scrambling to see if anyone else can fill that spot in the program. In order to keep our printing costs down we print all of the color pages for the entire year along with the cover at one time with this first printing. That means we can't add or delete somebody after it is printed.

At the same time I'm desperately trying to tie up the loose ends with the economic impact study to get the first part completed. That means contacting every arts and culture organization and individual artist in Paducah, McCracken Co, and the surrounding counties. We are about 90% there but it's that last couple of addresses that are eluding me at the moment.

The Paducah Film Society comes in to set up for the Rivers Edge Film festival this morning. Their first show is tonight in the main theatre. We have to shift the keyboard across to the classroom to have rehearsal for My Way tonight. I'm posting photos of the arrival of the baby grand piano. Cast members pitched in so that we could get it up on stage. It is rented for the rehearsals and show run. Tuesday we finalized the musicians for the show. We are still on the hunt for a stand up bass for the bass player to play. Joe Plunknett is playing the drums for the show. We don't have a crew for the show yet. It is always a race to find lights, sound, and follow spot people for the plays. Some plays we can train new people to work the equipment. On other shows you want someone with a little bit of experience. I'll be pressuring Jim Keeney to get that crew together so I can get them listed in the program. I have to make a correction in my blog from the other day. I was reminded I forgot to tell David Jernigan about photos when he asked me that very morning what we were doing at rehearsal that night. David had been out of rehearsal with an excused absence the rehearsal when I reminded everyone about photos. Sorry David. That was my fault.

Speaking of musicals we received the music and scripts for High School Musical yesterday. Auditions are Monday and Tuesday of next week. Unfortunately we have changed our mind about the orchestration we needed after we ordered the material so I have to get that changed out.

Tables are selling for the Wedding from Hell event next week. Alexis told me that a bachelorette party was booking a table for the event! It's time to jump on the hunt for those loose ends.

Overwhelmed

It's Tuesday and the week is off to the races. I've spent most of yesterday and today working on My Way publicity and marketing. You can see the new video from the publicity photos taken last night on the mhtplay.com website home page. David forgot we were taking photos. Natalia at Creatures didn't receive the jackets back in time for us to use for the photos. Of course Cheri and Victoria both remembered and brought their dresses. While we waited for Cheri (we always tell Cheri we are starting 15 minutes before the real time so she will only be a few minutes late- (even Cheri will tell me to tell her an earlier time!) We hunted through costume storage and found pants, shirts, jackets and ties for the guys. If you look really close you'll see that Davids coat has a different collar than Fowler's in the publicity shots. I then spent the morning looking for backgrounds to go behind the photos. I spend about an hour with my limited Photoshop skills and carve the people out of the neutral background they were standing in front of when I took the photo and place them in front of a more energetic background. We haven't even started the set for the show yet and it opens in 3 weeks. The rest of the morning was spent getting names and email addresses for artists and arts organizations for the economic impact study along with tracking down ad copy from different advertisers for the first program.

I'm about to run home now to get out my dance books to look for some steps that I can use in a dance number tonight. David and Fowler need a solo dance and they both dance with Victoria. A Latin dance and a tap dance will be part of the number. I've got a ball room dance book I sometimes use to help me with the ideas I have about the dances.

Today at 5:30 is Murder Mystery rehearsal. We have 2 more rehearsals after today before the performance. I think I scared the cast when I said they needed to be off book (memorized) for tomorrow. Those 2 words off book will scare most cast members. There is lots of homework that is always involved in doing plays. The My Way cast reviewed what we staged last week and had the hardest time remembering choreography and their song lyrics. I'm usually in the audience yelling cross right or take off your hat now as they work through the songs. It's like the traffic cop trying to keep them moving as they learn.

Denise Bristol is the stage manager and will stand in for people who are missing and then give them their blocking if they miss the rehearsals so they won't get behind. As we evolve the staging I often have to turn to Denise and say "What did I have them do here? I've gotten two different things written in my script and I can't always decipher my own notes! Tonight the baby grand piano gets delivered. It won't get tuned for a week until it acclamates to the building. We will stick with the electronic keyboard until the piano is tuned. Today Patt found a bass player who can do the show. We were beginning to get a little worried. The percusssionist from the Paducah Symphony will also be in the show.

Tomorrow is April's birthday and I have two rehearsals. One of which I scheduled her to be in. We will celebrate for a few moments and then its back to work. She tells me I'm a taskmaster when it comes to work.

One of the other community theatre's is looking at a husband and wife team. They were asking if anyone had any policies in place. I could only offer this piece of advice after working with my wife for over 30 years. It is really hard to leave work behind when you work with your spouse. Like anything else in theatre you have to have a passion for doing the work. That passion can bring you closer together, but it can also cause friction at other times when you don't agree. April and I have really tried to keep the theatre out of our marriage and our marriage out of the theatre. That's my best advice for anyone considering working with their spouse. I don't know how I got off on that tangent but it's time for me to put on my dancing shoes!

Murder My Way

Last night we had a rehearsal for Murder from Hell. Tom Dolan and Marsha Cash had conflicts and couldn't attend. We worked through the staging of the first section. Roy, who had missed his blocking at the rehearsal last week due to the wedding of his son Travis, was able to walk through what he had missed. It is always difficult to put 7-8 people in a very limited space and not end up with them all standing in a straight line. Straight lines are the most boring visually. I stood in for Tom last night and Valerie stood in for Marsha. It is difficult to be in the scene and give feedback of what is going on at the same time. It didn't help that my back has been out for a couple of days so standing wasn't easy!

We finished murder rehearsal about 6:30 and I walked across the street to the My Way rehearsal. After 2 weeks of music rehearsal we began staging the show. We got through the first couple of numbers. The show is set in a nightclub atmosphere. Each of the performers will be miked but there will also be an old style microphone on a stand for them to sing into. We are working on resolving when we using the mic on the stand versus their wireless microphones. David Jernigan keeps trying to convince me to cut the dance breaks where he is supposed to solo dance. I just laugh and tell him not to worry that he will get it. We spent about 10 minutes last night working through Fowler and Victoria and David and Cheri doing simple mirror turns in and out. No matter how much you work on music the first time you add movement and have to put down the scripts and sheet music it is still tough. Cheri and Victoria have found great dresses. David and Fowler will be wearing white tux coats with black pants. We are taking publicity photos Monday. Single tickets go on sale today for My Way. We have finished up our season ticket renewal campaign and moved into the regular single seat sales. Alexis has been hard at work getting ready for this. Jim is currently working on re-doing the cable in the studio theatre. Some of it is old and the insulation is starting to crack a little so we are replacing it. The back dressing rooms and restrooms have been painted and the restroom has been reworked. Marsha is on vacation this week. Janice Peterson is gettting ready for High School Musical.

I've got two billboards and 6 ads to build along with articles and marketing materials for The Wedding from Hell which performs Aug. 23 and My Way which runs Sept. 4-21. The new season is well underway. Kacey Reynolds who grew up doing shows at MHT gets married this Saturday. The theatre will be rented out to a "belly dancing" troupe for a show on Saturday night. Next weekend the theatre is being used by the Maiden Alley for the Rivers Edge Film festival.

state arts advocacy

I had a conference call meeting this morning as part of the round table of the Arts KY group. Goals and priorities were narrowed for action that is needed for arts awareness in the state. One of the main items that came up was the Senate Bill 1 that was introduced in the last session which would take out the testing requirements for the arts in Kentucky Schools. Because of No Child Left behind the only thing that is federally mandated is testing in reading math and science. Many schools have eliminated activities like gym, recess, and many of the arts and humanities classes in order to teach to the No Child Left behind standards. Because KY schools have a state testing that includes the Arts and Humanities our children get a more rounded education.

The question is how do we educate the average person about the value of arts in schools and in our community. There is a bill to mandate a certain amount of time each day for physical fitness. This bill is partly in response to the cut backs because of No Child Left behind testing and preparation. We know that kids who don't exercise generally have weight problems and health issues. We can see and understand the benefits of physical exercise. But what about the arts?

April had a great response when I told her about the discussion. She sees the need to not separate the arts from reading, math, science and physical education but to use the arts to help achieve the goals. In her drama classes the kids are very active physically. In after school programs and plays the kids learn history and science rules from participating in fun plays about the American revolution or plays like Geology rocks! April has a play about grammar rules that help kids learn the difference between verbs, adverbs, etc... The arts are of value in so many ways. We just need to do a better job of explaining that to our community.

I struggle all the time trying to figure out the best way to tell about the value of local community people performing in plays at the Market House or in the school systems. Self esteem, self confidence, and community pride are much harder to measure on a test. But the results can last a lifetime.

Many community theatres, including MHT, have stories about kids who were flunking out of school but got involved in a play and improved their reading and language skills because of work with a script. Parents come up to me all the time and talk about the confidence that MHT has given their child. Judges and social workers talk about the teamwork that goes on in putting together a play that has saved kids who were involved in gang activity. It literally saved their lives.

It is up to all of us who value what MHT means in the community to figure out ways to explain what it is that we do. We don't just entertain... We change lives!

Friday August 1 Lots of information

I finished up the final report the Kentucky Arts Council for our grant last season. Our fiscal year ended officially June 30 but the arts council gives us until July 30 to get our numbers in.
One of the areas that we need to report in is the number of artists who benefited from the KY ARTS grant. We don't count people more than once in our grant. With that in mind we had over 400 performers, musicians and technical artists last season.

April, Debra Harned, and I have been working hard on getting the season brochure completed. It always seems like there is a mountain of information to try to process and always something else to be added. The cover is always the hardest. We've spent almost 5 hours on this today already and still are tweaking it before we take it to press. We are making sure that all the playwrights and composers and writers are correct. The dates and times and ticket prices. We then proof the text for errors. As soon as it is printed we generally find at least one typo that everyone overlooked no matter how many eyes look at it. As soon as we complete the brochure we start on the My Way program.

We still have 3 shows we are trying to find sponsors for. Generally the most well known shows are sponsored first and then the newer shows are a little more difficult to find someone for. I spent part of last night working on packets for potential sponsors along with the benefits they recieve from sponsoring a show.