We enter the final weekend of Doubt, next weekend is the tech rehearsal for Greetings, the Designer Home Tour is the following week, and the after show Greetings party and final weekend of performances is the week after. ......Go!
Last night the theatre held its monthly board meeting. We usually meet the 4th Wednesday of the month but because of Thanksgiving we moved this month and next month up a week. The board of directors discussed several fundraisers that are about to happen and some still in the planning stages. Randy Davis has been hard at work getting the houses lined up for the Holiday Designer Home Tour. That happens Dec. 7 from 2-5 pm. The Gault home with designer Laura Kaufmann and In Bloom, the McGinty home with designer Betty Hall of the Green Door, and the Graves home with designer John P. Gust. Board members signed up to volunteer at the different houses during the event to act as guides and ticket sellers. Sarah Bynum echoed the sentiment of everyone wanting to know if she could clone herself to work at all the houses to see all the beautiful decorations. Several board members will all pitch in to decorate and host the Greetings after show party on Dec. 12 & 13. We will serve wassel with rum for those who want and without for those who don't along with lots of sweet holiday goodies to eat. We talked about the planning for the big Wizard of Oz auction on Feb. 13.
Like all organizations the theatre is looking at ways to trim our expenses at this difficult economic time. That is hard to do since we start with a trimmed budget but you have to get creative. We removed telephone lines from the classroom, scene shop and main building since April, Jim and the box office are using cell phones when operating out of those buildings. I've been on an energy hunt replacing most of the light bulbs with incandescent lights. We are changing over thermostats to programmable ones to help keep building heating and cooling more efficient. Everything from how much paper we use to making sure computers are turned off at night instead of leaving them on are all being implemented.
We cancelled the performance of Doubt for Thursday night. Ticket sales for that evening were not enough to cover the cost of the performance. The ticket holders on that night were all able to move to a different performance this weekend where ticket sales are much stronger. This was another cost based decision. The cast will use tonight as a brush up rehearsal instead of a performance. Unfortunately because of keeping costs as low as possible we had no money to purchase advertising for Doubt and have relied solely on press releases and word of mouth. The show is wonderful and you won't want to miss it if you have any chance of coming on this final weekend.
Greetings is moving into its last couple of weeks. It is interesting working with two shows that both have religious ideas at the same time. Both shows are very different but have a couple of things in common. Doubt lets us look at situations where there are multiple truths and nothing is black and white as much as we would like that simplicity. Greetings brings into view a family dynamic that looks at a miracle from different perspectives. Is it truly a miracle? Is it just a bizarre occurrence? Is it imagination? For the faithful it is a sign from God. For the doubting it is a bizarre coincidence. It is up to the audience to make the final decision.
The process of getting to that decision is where the play takes place. Just like the world around us we have to interpret what we see with the limited knowledge that we have. I am in the fourth and final year of a course from Sewanee Theological Seminary. It is a course for lay people to study and deepen their faith. One of the philosophers this year has been Kierkegaard. He made a statement that if God held the ultimate truth in one hand and the search for truth in the other that he would choose the search for truth. Because having the ultimate truth is too difficult for us and only God can comprehend it. Greetings and Doubt both search for the truth, but neither play wraps up everything like a TV sitcom by the final commercial break. We are left to use our minds and our own understanding of faith to move on. The joy of Greetings is that the playwright has looked at this from a humorous point of view. You laugh and have to think about it at the same time!
I have been handwriting Thanksgiving cards every night this week to the donors and sponsors of the theatre. This is very labor intensive but I find that it is really something I enjoy doing. Some of the names have been supporting the theatre since I first began working here. Other names are ones who not only donate to the theatre but are in the audience for every show. Still others are individuals and families who volunteer, attend shows and donate. It feels like writing to lifelong friends. This theatre is blessed by so many wonderful people who give of themselves and believe in sharing the talents of local people with the community. I feel at a loss for words to express my deep gratitude and appreciation of how special all these people are. It truly is a Thanks-giving for me personally and the theatre to have so many people who have made our community a better place and whose presence has blessed me personally.
I feel like I should say Amen to end this!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment