Holidays

The theatre closed for the holidays at 5 pm on Wednesday Dec. 23 and will reopen on Tuesday Jan. 5. The Monday before we closed Jim Keeney and I unbolted all of the old chairs and created the single aisle chairs for pick up. We had a couple of doubles, one triple and one 4 chair "row" that we moved to the corner building so those who wanted to pick them up in time for Christmas could do so. I got back into town today and went down to the theatre to see what mail had come in over the holidays. I was pleased to see that the newsletter made it out to mailboxes. This helps us get the word out about footlights classes starting and auditions for Boy in the Girls Bathroom. Jim and I have a lot of work to get done before the end of January with installing the new seats. Doing a thorough check of the lighting system. We hope to take down all of the lighting instruments and clean the lenses and check the lamp bases. Some of the lights are close to 50 years old and they are showing their age.

While on break I read 6 scripts. All of them are being considered for next season. We have romantic comedies, farces, murder mysteries, thrillers and a couple of great musicals to choose from. The play selection committee will present their slate of plays to the board of directors in January for a vote. The rights will be applied for and the season announced to public in early March. I am looking at several possibilities for some additional productions in the studio theatre. We took a break this season and did not schedule any adult studio productions so we could look at some alternative funding ideas. I'm hoping that we can have studio productions announced in March along with the main stage season.

Also while we were on vacation I purchased some equipment that I found on sale for April to use in her classes. She has had a real problem hauling all of her sound equipment around. I found a great small system with a big output of sound that she can play with a remote using her iPhone as the mp3 player. She is looking forward to using it for the many shows she is working on when school starts up again.

chairs and more

I received an email yesterday from Wenger Corp in Minnesota telling me that our chairs had just left the factory. We were supposed to get a call 24 hours prior to delivery. Delivery was estimated for anytime from 4-7 days. You can imagine my surprise this morning when the driver called and said he was Amerisource and would be arriving at the theatre in approx. 30 minutes.

I quickly grabbed Jim and we made space for the semi truck to back in Maiden Alley off of Kentucky and then back into our lot and up to the back doors. As the pallets were unloaded Jim and I lifted and carried all of the crates of chairs into the studio theatre. We proceeded to unpack some of the more damaged cardboard boxes to inspect for damage. A few of the chairs were bent from shipping but I've already contacted the factory rep and they are shipping new chairs as soon as I find the total number which are damaged. In a second surprise many of the arms on the chairs didn't have a place for an embedded donor plaque. The factory is shipping the new arms to us. Wenger is a good company and really seems to follow through on their sales and service.

Jim and I will tag the old chairs which have been sold and will begin the slow process of dis assembly next Monday. We may have a few of the old chairs ready for pickup just in time for Christmas. The new chairs will be installed after new years day.

We got some good news today on the stage drape front. Last fall the Paducah City Fire Marshall came and did his annual inspection of our facility. In the wake of the Immanuel Baptist Church fire all theatres and schools in the city were double checked for fireproofing certificates on the stage drapes. Our drapes were a donation from WKCTC and the flame proofing certificate has expired. We were looking at an expensive process of having to redo the flame proofing to get the new certificate. This process can stain and ruin the finish on the fabrics. We found a company that will do a flame test on all of our stage drapes. If the drapes pass the test they will certify them for an additional period of time. The drapes have all been treated with borax as a initial flame retardant. We are sending samples of our drapes for testing and keeping our fingers crossed that they all pass.

Tomorrow night is the December board meeting which will be held at my house. The board will each bring a dish and we will do a pot luck. Immediately following the meeting will be the final rehearsal of the Murder Mystery troupe show Reunion at Hippie High. We are the entertainment for the Lone Oak elementary teachers Christmas Party. We did a show last year for the Lone Oak High School teachers party.

Best Christmas Pageant Ever goes back in performance next Saturday and Sunday. The cast party will be held at the theatre immediately following the last show and the set strike. The theatre will be open next week on Tuesday and Wednesday for any final Gift Certificates and last minute Mini Season ticket passes. The the staff will go away to be with family and friends and return to work on Monday January 4.

Christmas Tech

We had a long day yesterday setting light cues and reworking some of the ideas I had on color for the set. April came home last night and worked on developing the sound cues until after midnight. This morning I went in early and continued refining the lighting and sound cues. I've been fighting two requests that April has asked for. She wants to have a light that has a soft edge on it and at the same time doesn't allow light to spill past a very narrow beam. the second request is that the sound system has a hiss in it whenever I turn the volume up above a certain point. I worked hard today to get rid of the hiss but then didn't have enough volume to play the sound effects loud enough. Tomorrow I'm going back to the drawing board to try some other ideas.

Today about 1:30 I was inside the theatre and heard someone walking by the auditorium doors knocking on the doors. I thought it was the Herdman kids in the play since they were supposed to be walking outside from the back stage to the front of the theatre to make their entrance. I stuck my head out the door and spotted three kids walking away from the door dressed in the Herdman costume of hooded sweatshirt and jeans with baseball caps on backwards. I yelled at them to stop knocking on the theatre doors. When the kids turned around none of them were the actors. They were kids who just happened to be walking by causing mischief dressed exactly like the Herdman kids in the show. I stepped back in the theatre and started laughing. I told April and she laughed.

MHT board members Sid Hancock, Jennifer Hughes and her daughter Sydney, and Heather Overby all brought in Hot dogs, pizza, brownies, and soft drinks to show their appreciation to the cast and crew after the tech rehearsal while April gave notes.

We have had one electrical circuit in the theatre that decided to blow out right before the tech rehearsal today which left part of the stage in the dark. I didn't have time to get out the ladders and tear into the circuit to repair it. The dimmers had flipped themselve to protect the system. So we just left the dimmers flipped and tried to work around the problem for the rehearsal.

The theatre's lighting equipment is over 40 years old and is showing its age lately. The light board has developed a new little quirk in that some of the little LED's that show you the progress change from one cue to another are now erratic and 1/2 the time don't work at all. We have a couple of slide faders that are also becoming finicky. Lights ghost on after you turn the system off until the dimmers shut down. We have all sorts of safety checks to make sure everything is safe. Many of the theatre lighting instruments are constantly being repaired to keep them in operation. We've developed a stack in the scene shop of lighting instruments that need to have their insides reworked and retrofitted.

On a bright note The Best Christmas Pageant achieved its budgeted income goal for the run last Thursday. All of the the theatre's shows this year have met or exceeded their box office income. Of course the economy was so bad last year that we were very conservative in our estimates.

December Hustle

I watched the first part of Best Christmas Pageant ever last night in rehearsal and tried out a new flip video camera I got to help post some rehearsal shots on the theatre's website and facebook page. I'm still getting the hang of it. Last night was a trial attempt and now that I know what it looks like I will start posting some video items. We worked through some curtain issues last night. Jim spent a day hanging and preparing a traveler track and main drape which we eliminated last night in an effort to make the transitions flow more smoothly. We had hung the drape in an effort to solve a different problem. Designing in some ways is like directing. You try one solution to solve a problem and it creates a second problem that is worse than the first. My biggest challenge right now is to dress the interior set for Best Christmas Pageant using materials that can be flat on the wall since the walls fold in on each other during the church scene. I'm hoping for some inspiration from the swirling ideas I've got. The difficulty lies in making a decision as to which path to follow.

On today's schedule to complete the furniture for Best Christmas and to decide on a wall treatment for the house scene. Yesterday we assembled the rear screen projection frame and I worked on lights. Today will be another day of working on lights and set and then taping out the set for God's Favorite. Diane Byrd and the cast for that show started staging the show last night based on the set Diane and I developed.

Marsha is under the weather today and so is Rhiannon. I'm hoping that one of them will be able to work the box office today while I continue working on the tech for Best Christmas. If they can't them I'm on box office duty for the afternoon.

Madison Conference 2009

I can't remember how many times I've come to this every other year conference in Madison. Each time I've been recharged by sharing and discussing issues that affect not only each of the theatres that we work for but also some of the challenges that we each face on a personal level. I've eaten wonderful Italian food, terrific Afghan food and tipped back a few micro brews after sessions with fellow directors from Hawaii, Texas, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Kentucky,Kansas, and Florida. I've listened to the struggles of theatres who are struggling to sell ads for $10 in their program up to theatres that have lost over $3 million dollars in their endowment fund.

Many of the issues are the same no matter the size. How do you attract performers, how do you energize boards, how do you sell tickets and how can you raise contribution levels.

In a great session yesterday after noon we had a presentation from Andrew Taylor who talked about social networking, facebook, twitter, flickr, geotagging and geocoding, and how to try not to just keep up but to move ahead to where arts are going. His presentation on place based networking is fascinating. Some theatres are now setting aside "Twitter Seats" for those people to tweet and text during performances. In several places arts organizations have empowered teens to produce shows using almost exclusively teens in all areas of production.

Last night we had a presentation from John Prignano of Music Theatre International who gave away lots of prizes for knowing show trivia but more importantly talked to us about copyright infringement, and new show availability. The new technology that MTI is constantly coming up with is helping community theatres and professional theatres across the country. We got dates for when shows like Legally Blonde, Hairspray, and Spring Awakening will be available for licensing. It was amazing to me how many community theatres in conservative areas had successes with shows that I would consider risky that are available right now- Rent, Full Monty, etc. I found out that Midland Texas and Diamond Head Hawaii can get shows like Les Miserables and others that we may not get for years because they have no tours that will impact them. (You must be at least 100 miles from the closest touring house.) Directors Tim from Midland and Deena from Diamond Head got lots of good natured ribbing from fellow directors about their locations.

I heard some great fundraising events that groups have done like a Diva Night where audience members watch local female performers in solo numbers and then vote on their favorite performer.

We talked about how many times to ask for contributions during the year. We talked about average ticket prices and discounts. We talked about censorship and how to remain true to the playwright while being aware of community sensitivities. We talked about staffing and how to evaluate and to deal with issues of transition.

This morning we have a 3 hour session before we all leave. Many will be heading out through out this mornings sessions to catch flights at the airport. I'm coming back with about a dozen pages of notes and handouts from dozens of theatres to look at implementing new ideas at MHT. While I'm not looking forward to the 8 hour drive back today, I know that my head will be spinning with new thoughts and ideas from this conference.

Boards Budgets and Best Christmas

Last night was the November Board of Directors meeting. We moved it up a week because of Thanksgiving. The meeting started half an hour later than usual because of another meeting which was right before it. We received the audit last night for the last completed fiscal year. The theatre ended the last fiscal year with a deficit. The good news out of that deficit is that the majority of that deficit is from depreciation of the equipment and facilities. We have struggled for a couple of years to find ways to fund the depreciation so that when equipment wears out we have the money to replace it. When income funds are tight, as they are right now with the recession, funding things like depreciation is more difficult.

Today Rhiannon and possibly Marsha Cash will be attending the Visitors Bureau program Give Em a Pickle about Customer Service. I'm scheduled to be at the River Heritage Museum for the a meeting about a big River Celebration.

Best Christmas Pageant set is getting base coated today and Jim is putting up a large rear screen projection for part of the back drop. I'm still looking for furniture and props for the show. We are still looking for crew for the show as well.

The story theatre troupe is performing in Brookport IL this morning with the City Mouse Country Mouse. They have spent everyday this week so far performing in Southern Illinois.

Yesterday I spent time in the main theatre arranging blue chairs to see how many we could fit in for a school matinee. With the new seats coming in our capacity will drop because of the wider seats. I may be replacing some of the new seats for a school matinee with blue chairs in order to keep our number of available seats up. It's like a giant puzzle with the empty space that you keep pushing around the little tiles to get them in order.

I'm spending the day trying to tie up a couple of loose ends before heading off to Wisconsin tomorrow for the national directors conference.

Schools, Scouts and Surveys

This has been a week of rushing around to help April with school projects. Wednesday I went to Clark School to help them with a pep rally for the academic team. They needed a smoke machine so I helped provide one. As it was sitting there sputtering and not really operating at full capacity I noticed a leak under the smoke machine where the smoke fluid was leaking out the bottom of the unit. The smoke machine is over 25 years old. Like so much of the equipment at the theatre we keep machinery functioning for many years beyond its projected life span by doing repairs and maintenance.

Yesterday Jim Keeney helped April load in masking drapes to McNabb Elementary for their Gifted Talented production of the THE BOY WHO CRIED WOLF. April was very pleased with the performance that the kids did for the rest of the school. At the end of the school day the masking panels were shifted to Clark Elementary for their Gifted Talented production today of the play THE US CONSTITUTION Revivor: Philadelphia. The play is a take off on Survivor and is a musical production which teaches the basics of the Constitution. I have to copy programs for the performances before I go to the school. I will photograph one of the three performances today trying to get some good shots to send to Bad Wolf Press who are the writers for the show to put on their website.

At noon today a MHT board committee is meeting with a consultant to discuss doing a thorough survey of MHT facilities and programs. This information will be used in our Strategic planning retreat to be held next February.

April has Footlights tomorrow morning and then in the afternoon will do a Girl Scout workshop tomorrow afternoon. She spent last night from about 11 pm to midnight painting Styrofoam balls with Gesso in order for the girl scouts to make puppets on Saturday.

Callbacks and shifting rehearsals

Today we will post the callback list for God's Favorite. Director Diane Byrd had about 14 people audition for the play and she is working through all of the various factors such as acting ability, ages relative to other characters (who can play mother/father, son/daughter,) schedule conflicts, etc... Diane is sending me the call back list for posting this morning.

The rehearsal for Best Christmas Pageant is moving to the stage today after rehearsing in the classroom for the past couple of weeks. It is always a tough day when you move from a flat floor space that has been taped out to the actual stage. Suddenly everyone has to relearn their entrance and exit points. In addition I will be taking publicity photos at the end of the rehearsal today. TD Jim Keeney and I will be trying to set up some of the basic wall structures today to give a sense of the final space for the show. I'm still working on some of the style choices for the set for the show. In general I always design a basic ground plan and then evolve some of the style choices of the show with the director as the rehearsal progresses. I'm looking for ways to make the set a little more theatrical than a realistic interpretation.

The strategic planning committee has a meeting today at 5:30 pm with a possible facilitator to do our long range planning meeting in February. There are many important issues facing the theatre in the next 4 years and we will conduct an in depth planning retreat in February to chart the course that will take the theatre into the future. With the chair campaign almost finished we are now turning attention to the next set of challenging issues. One of those issues are the women's restrooms and the acoustics of the theatre.

Final Performance of Tom Dick and Harry

I'm sitting here trying to make photo discs and working on a cast and crew photo to give to each cast and crew member of the show in preparation for the final performance this afternoon. Audience response has been terrific. The play has met its budgeted ticket income goal and has been playing to full houses most of the run. I had a gentleman come up and ask me last night if all the wild action on the stage was in the script or if we made it up. Playwrights Ray and Michael Cooney deserve the credit for the dialogue and the ideas for the physical action. It is up to the director and the actors to interpret the words on the written page into something that comes to life onstage. That interpretation can be the difference between a great performance or an "ok" production. I have seen productions of plays where the actors were competent and the material was good but something was missing. Far too many amateur theatre productions are associated with that missing element. The cast of Tom Dick and Harry have many veteran actors and some new performers appearing in their second or third play. They have all come together to form an ensemble that all works together as one. That is something that is difficult to achieve but when it works the audience response is wonderful.

With live theatre you never know what will happen and watching the show as a director is like watching a tight rope performer. As a director I'm always slightly holding my breath with each difficult moment in the show. There is a sense of confidence that develops with some casts that no matter what happens the actors can stay on that tightrope. Last night Landon (Harry) kicked the head of the body parts across the stage for Al (Tom) to pick up then toss back in the bag. They've done this dozen's of times. The only problem was that Landon's aim was off and he kicked the head off the front of the stage into the audience. Without missing a beat Al walked down the steps in front of the stage, rescued the head and tossed it into the bag that Landon was holding without missing a beat. That little moment will surely earn Landon a Golden Screw Award nomination at the annual theatre picnic. The ability of everyone onstage to continue as if nothing had gone wrong was the mark of true professionals.

It has been a pleasure working with this cast and crew as we close out the final performance today. After the performance the cast and crew will tear down the set and then celebrate with a party on the theatre stage. I always get the questions from cast members if I have a favorite show. That is so hard to say. I've worked on lots of wonderful productions with so many wonderful people. Tom Dick and Harry will certainly be added to that long list.

For the staff of the theatre we are already into the rehearsals for The Best Christmas Pageant ever. Auditions for God's Favorite are tomorrow and Tuesday in the main theatre. The performers in Tom Dick and Harry will be able to feel that glow of their success for a long time. For the director, designers, and staff you get about 24 hours before you step back on the tight rope with the next cast and crew and try to do it all over again with a new production. Opening night for Best Christmas Pageant is about 30 days from now.

Searching applications

I have been struggling to get MHT information into certain places. My Iphone has a couple of applications like Where that will give you listings and directions to places close to you. While places like the Carson Center and Maiden Alley Cinema are listed on these apps MHT doesn't come up. What I've found is that a couple of sites are used to populate the information on these applications. If I can get some of the people who know MHT to write a review about the theatre that would help. You can go to Yelp.com and to the Yellowpages.com to write reveiws about local businesses in Paducah. Since it would be inappropriate for me to write a reveiew of the theatre I'm asking others to go on these sites and give MHT a review good, bad or indifferent. That way we will at least show up on some of the applications that people are using to find MHT.

photos and theatres

Today April and I ran up to Shawnee Community College to see the school matinee of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. A former MHT performer who grew up doing shows at MHT is now the Educational Center Coordinator and got us a couple of tickets. It was great to see him and some of the other people who occassionaly do shows at MHT. Willy Wonka is a musical and is a tremendously difficult technical show. April and I were interested to see the Shawnee theatre after hearing about it for several years and to see the production. April is doing a version of the show for Clark school. The Shawnee production must have had a 100 people in the cast. To coordinate that large a cast is a massive undertaking. We enjoyed the Oompa Loompa costumes (there must have been 50 Oompa Loompas) and the Wonka factory set was very bright and colorful. There were some sound problems in the performance we saw and we couldn't always hear. I saw in an Educational Center handout that Murray State University is bringing a Greek Play to Shawnee during this school year. I would be interested to see how that goes. I've always wanted to direct a Greek Tragedy.

Tonight was a performance of Tom Dick and Harry that was almost sold out with only 4 or 5 seats total left. I took photos tonight and probably have well over 200 photos of the show. Tomorrow is a 2 show day with a matinee in the afternoon and an evening show. I'll provide the food between shows tomorrow since the actors will only have about an hour between the end of one show and the actor call before the second show.

Marsha is now slowly coming back to the office after being gone for the first half of the week with an illness. She has been put on some new medication and it is making her very groggy. I've had several people ask me about buying chairs but Marsha has all the paperwork on those who have already purchased their chairs so she is slowly checking to see what is left that is avaiable.

April has Footlight tomorrow and then Daisy classes after the footlights classes until after 2:30. That means April will be teaching from 7:45 am. to about 4 pm.
That is a long day for her.

Ghosts and TDH

Phil Counts and I guided two more ghost tours this morning. Farley Elementary and Hendron Lone Oak Elementary has two classes working on history projects and thought this might be fun to give a different aspect to their projects. Hearing about witch burnings and grisly murders certainly will give a different view of Paducah's history. We tentatively have a couple more scheduled for next week. Guiding a tour is a lot of fun because you are in essence doing a one person show. The several guides we have all have different styles and personalities they use. I just like it because I get an excuse to walk around with a Victorian top hat and cape on. The kids eyes get really huge when you tell them a story that took place right on the spot they are standing. They tend to jump back as if the spot is still alive somehow.

The Rivers Edge Film festival kicks off tonight and for the first time it won't be at MHT. Back when the organizers changed the date to this weekend we had already scheduled and publicized Tom Dick and Harry. Maybe next year they will find an alternate date and we can work together again. I'm in the process of looking at shows and dates for September 2010-June 2011 right now. Sometimes I can't remember which year I'm really working on.

Audience response to Tom Dick and Harry has been very positive. We haven't sold out but the phone has been ringing consistently and Internet ticket sales are going well. We are still receiving orders every day for plaques for the new seats. The annual fund drive mailing went in the mail yesterday.

The theatre officially canceled our Holiday Home Tour yesterday. We were having a difficult time getting 3 houses confirmed. As soon as we got the third home confirmed one of the first two would have to drop out We will try again next year and see if we can get it locked in earlier! Those people who even considered letting us showcase their homes as a fundraiser have our heartfelt thanks.

I'm in the process of re-reading the script General Order Number 11 by Nancy Gail-Clayton. It tells the story of General Grant order all the Jews to be evicted from Paducah during the civil war. It is strong drama and one that we are considering for future production. I met Nancy at a theatre conference. She's had the work produced in Louisville and has always been interested in a Paducah production. Lately with the ghost stories and several other projects it seems like I'm looking at a lot of historical plays and ideas.

November 1, 1983

We left Kansas City on October 30, 1983 after packing up my belongings and April's belongings in Kansas City. We finished packing the U-Haul truck about 3pm in the afternoon. I had added a tow bar to the back of the truck and towed my gold American Motors Sport-About Hatchback vehicle (which was also loaded down). April followed in her loaded down Red Buick Regal. I remember we finally pulled out of Kansas City which had been our home and headed to Paducah. I had looked at a house about 3 weeks earlier that was across from Paducah Middle School. That house had fallen through and one of the board members at the time had secured a house for us on Clark Street with a 1 year lease. We took the house on the recommendation of a board member. All I had was an address in Paducah as to where April and I were going to live. April was going to stay for a week and then she was driving to Wisconsin to prepare for our Wedding which was set for Nov. 19, 1983. We drove as far as Mount Vernon that first day and then got a room at the Holidome there. We arrived in Paducah on Halloween and located the house. It was small but cozy. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

I remember coming to the interview only a month earlier. The theatre was doing the technical rehearsal for the play The Rainmaker on the day I came for an interview. I remember following the directions into Paducah and pulling up outside of the theatre. I can still distinctly remember thinking- "where did they put a theatre in this tiny space?" When I walked in all of the actors were present. They were setting light cues and all of the actors had to stand in place while the lights were set. This process took several hours (something I changed immediately upon being hired). The floor was painted white so that it would reflect the lights up onto the actors. The floor was also made of particle board so that every time someone dropped something on it the floor dented. All of the canvas walls were painted with a powdered pigment paint that rubbed off on all the costumes if you brushed against it. In fact the side of the building still had some remnants of color on it from the last strike where the strike crew "washed" off the color from the flats so they could be used again. I met with the board of directors that night at Virginia Glover's home. I spent the night at Executive Director Paul Meier's home. His young son Cameron had given up his bedroom for me to sleep in while I stayed overnight and I remember sleeping on Smurf sheets. I had never set foot inside a community theatre before in my life and never worked for one either. Apparently the board was impressed with my portfolio of set, costume and lighting designs along with my technical director portfolio. I had directed and acted in plays and was a theatre generalist. I talked money with the board and then drove back to Kansas City. I received a call the next week offering me a job. I also had offers from two other professional theatres but there was something about Paducah that appealed to me. I accepted the job of Technical Director for $14,000 a year with no benefits (I also had to pay all my own taxes at that time). The theatre was celebrating its 20th anniversary. When the board asked me why I was interested in Paducah I told them that April and I were looking for a place to start a family and a place where we could become part of a community.

As April and I unpacked our belongings I went to work and began the set and costumes for my first production at MHT which was Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs which opened the first week of December 1983. Looking back now at the playlist from the very first one produced in 1963, Snow White was the 95th production that MHT had produced in its history. I designed and built the sets, designed and hung the lights, and designed and sewed all the costumes for the actors. (My biggest costuming at MHT was the first production of the Miracle Worker where I sewed over 20 dresses by myself. Some of those dresses are still in costume storage and occasionally used.) That first year the theatre produced 5 shows total. I directed my first show at MHT that April with the production of To Kill a Mockingbird.

In 1985 Paul Meier left the theatre and MHT hired April as its Executive Director. April held that position until 1995 when she left for a couple of years to work as the Youth Minister at Grace Episcopal Church. I took over as the Executive Director in July of 1995.

Tom Dick and Harry marks MHT's 510th production and my 100th show to direct at MHT. MHT has grown a great deal over the time I've been fortunate enough to be involved with it. The main thing that has remained is a group of talented people who continue to impress me with the dedication and donation of their time and money to produce professional quality theatre. The board of directors has always been supportive and caring. The staff and volunteers I work with each day are truly dedicated to making great theatre.

This month I will attend the National Community Theatre Directors Conference in Madison Wisconsin. It is a conference that never fails to recharge my batteries. Almost 100 Managing Directors from across the country will sit in a room for 3 days and share all of their successes and failures. We will also adjourn to a local bar after hours and over our favorite spirits share our personal stories complete with pictures of children and grandchildren with long time friends.

So this November 1, we have a hit show (Tom Dick and Harry) on stage at MHT, a youth show (Best Christmas Pageant Ever) in in rehearsal, a Story Theatre musical (The City Mouse and the Country Mouse)touring production that has its first school performance on Tuesday, and the River City Ghost Tours for school groups that continue on Thursday. The work hasn't slowed down a bit in 26 years. But the things that made me feel something special about MHT and Paducah when April and I first arrived on Halloween 1983 are still present today.

NY Times Article about learning lines

Whispers Offstage? Could Be Actor’s Next Line
By PATRICK HEALY
Published: October 28, 2009
Ticket holders at this week’s first previews of Matthew Broderick’s new Off Broadway play have been privy to a second drama: watching the veteran theater actor try to learn his lines, with help from a prompter sitting in the front row.

Veteran stage actors, including Angela Lansbury, have used prompts as fallbacks.
In 2002, Vanessa Redgrave asked if she could have a prompter in the front row for “Long Day’s Journey Into Night.”

Matt Mulhern said he was recently fired from a Hartford Stage theater production because he peeked at bits of dialogue.
The play, Kenneth Lonergan’s “Starry Messenger,” has been undergoing rewrites amid preview performances, and Mr. Broderick has struggled so much that he called out for lines multiple times on Monday and Tuesday nights. His offstage helper is expected to be on hand at least until this weekend.

The problems have led the show’s producer, the New Group, to delay opening night for a week; at the same time some audience members have complained about paying to see a star who has not memorized his part. Mr. Broderick was not available to comment, but Scott Elliott, artistic director of the New Group, said there was no shame in using a prompter. “It happens now and then,” he said, “but people simply don’t know about it.”

The stage and screen legend Angela Lansbury, for instance, said in an interview this week that she used an earpiece to stay on cue during her Tony Award-winning turn in “Blithe Spirit” on Broadway last season.

“It’s not something you ever want to do, but if we’re going to play important roles at our age, where our names are above the title on the marquee, we’re going to ask for some support if we need it,” said Ms. Lansbury, 84, who is set to star this winter in the Broadway revival of “A Little Night Music.”

But now the use of prompts has become a matter of inquiry for the Actors’ Equity union, which is investigating a recent dismissal by the Hartford Stage theater of an actor who peeked at bits of dialogue that he had taped inside his character’s hat for a difficult scene.

While opera companies have long had hidden prompters at the rim of the stage, many theater actors shudder at the idea of needing help with lines during performances. For them, mastery of a script is a benchmark of professionalism. Still, acting fallbacks have a long but largely unnoticed history in the theater. During the national tour of “Legends” in the 1980s, Mary Martin, who was in her 70s at the time, used an earpiece that also picked up taxi signals, according to published accounts.

In the Hartford Stage incident, the fired actor, Matt Mulhern, 49, was appearing in Horton Foote’s “Orphans’ Home Cycle,” a series of three plays over nine hours. Mr. Mulhern said he never received any warning from Hartford Stage that his job might be in jeopardy; “Orphans” is a co-production with Signature Theater Company in New York, where it is transferring next month.

In an interview, Mr. Mulhern described the prompt in his hat as a “crutch” that he relied on because of script changes during rehearsals. He said he had been “emotionally devastated” by his Sept. 22 dismissal, the first of his 27-year career. He also acknowledged he had “ruffled feathers” among colleagues for a variety of other reasons after rehearsals began in July.

Michael Wilson, the artistic director of Hartford Stage and director of “The Orphans’ Home Cycle,” declined to comment, saying the theater did not discuss employment issues. Maria Somma, a spokeswoman for Actors’ Equity, also declined to comment.

Hartford Stage has yet to give Equity a formal reason for firing Mr. Mulhern, according to the actor. Ms. Somma again would not comment on the matter.

“Actors being fired for this reason vary by the situation,” Harry Weintraub, general counsel of the League of Resident Theaters, which includes Hartford Stage, said in an interview. When asked if the production created hardships for actors because it spanned nine hours and included script changes, Mr. Weintraub said, “I wasn’t aware that Mr. Mulhern had nine hours of lines to learn.”

Actors’ Equity contracts do not forbid actors to use prompts, though directors sometimes fire actors who have trouble learning their lines. Robert Falls, the artistic director of the Goodman Theater in Chicago, said he had done so in the past. But he has also made adjustments, he said.

In 2002, for instance, Vanessa Redgrave was having “a stressful time learning the lines” for the role of Mary Tyrone in the Goodman’s production of “Long Day’s Journey Into Night,” Mr. Falls said. When previews began, she asked the producers and Mr. Falls if she could have a prompter in the front row with a script. Ms. Redgrave never called for a line, he said. She went on to win the Tony Award for best actress when the production transferred to Broadway in 2003.

“The prompter was more of a security blanket for Vanessa than anything else,” Mr. Falls said. A representative for Ms. Redgrave said she had no comment.

In the Broadway production of “The Gin Game” (1977-78), the characters played by Jessica Tandy and Hume Cronyn spent stretches of time playing gin rummy. The actors at first used randomly dealt cards with numbers that, naturally, did not match the dialogue. While the two spent extra hours drilling lines for the gin rummy sequences, they were both nearing 70 and had memory lapses.

“The initial solution for this was to pare down each scene, then write notes on the top of the card table” for the actors to refer to, said Nina Seely Sommer, the production supervisor for the show. “This was difficult, because the stage was raked so that the audience could see the top of the table, so these notes had to look like player graffiti.” Eventually the faces of the playing cards were sanded off, so the actors would not get confused.

Although prompters once played a part in theater, audiences are no longer accustomed to them. And with Broadway producers now charging $125 for orchestra seats, ticket buyers expect at a minimum that actors will know their parts. New wireless technology has made it easier for actors to mask, say, flesh-colored earpieces. Ms. Lansbury recalled that when she and Marian Seldes were on Broadway in Terrence McNally’s “Deuce” in 2007, a tiny speaker was behind their chairs in early performances to pipe lines to them if needed.

Ms. Lansbury emphasized, though, that neither the “Blithe Spirit” nor “Deuce” prompts diminished the productions — or audiences’ apparent pleasure.

“In the early days of theater, there was a ‘prompt corner’ with a person ready to throw the line to any actor,” Ms. Lansbury recalled. “In the electronic age, some 80-year-old performers wear earpieces. And all of us lose ourselves in a play at moments. Laurence Olivier did at the height of his career. This is part of theater.”

This season “A Steady Rain” is one of the most dialogue-driven plays on Broadway, with the actors Hugh Jackman and Daniel Craig — who have extensive experience in the theater, not just movies — shouldering all 90 minutes of dialogue. A spokesman for the show said this week that neither man used prompts. Still, Mr. Jackman said in an interview in August that the amount of memorization was a tall order and that he and Mr. Craig even tossed a ball back and forth while running their lines.

“I hope we won’t have to use cue cards,” Mr. Jackman joked, then added, “It’s a slog to learn the whole script, but there’s no other way to do it.”

Bad Words

Before I get into my topic for this blog I want to promote the added Walking Ghost Tour dates. Thursday Oct. 29 and Friday Oct. 30 we have added a 6:00 and 6:30 pm ghost tour. Tickets are available online or by calling the box office.

Now on to my topic-
Thursday I received a phone message to call a woman who wanted to talk to the director of Tom Dick and Harry. Immediately I worried about why this woman wanted to talk with me. She had called the box office earlier in the week and asked if there was any "foul" language in Tom Dick and Harry. I told the box office to tell the woman that if the play were to be rated like a movie it would have language that easily fit into the G rating. We are not allowed to rate our plays based on the movie rating system because that is copyrighted by the Motion Picture Association and they don't allow "others" to use their rating system. The television ratings system are the same way and most people get confused by the TV ratings system. So trying not to use the movie ratings yet give this person some information, and keep my integrity, I used the words "if" the play were rated like a movie it would be rated G.



I wasn't going to get off the hook that easy apparently. The woman wanted to know specific words. This is like trying to have a conversation with someone about what constitutes foul language in code without actually saying the words. Other than the infamous "f" word what else constitutes foul language? Is it the "A" word, the "B" word, the "D" word, the "G" word, the "H" word, the "S" word, etc. etc... This conversation is like being in an absurdest comedy.


The woman called again and asked to speak to me. I was out of the office and returned her call. Generally I'm pleased that people call and ask about subject matter and appropriateness for children etc. This helps our ticket buyers make an informed decision. But deciding on foul language is a slippery slope.


So I began the conversation. My thoughts are in parenthesis.

Woman: I want to know if there is any foul language in the play.

Me: (okay just dive in and figure out what she is talking about) Well a couple of times during the play someone might say the word hell. Like "what the hell are you doing!"

Woman: Oh that's the worst thing that someone can say.

Me: (I can think of a lot worse words-okay now I have a better idea of where you are coming from) They also use the expression "Oh God!" sometimes.

Woman: Those are the two worst words you can use.

Me (When did asking God for help become a foul language word? I always thought that taking the Lord's name in vain meant that you tried to make money by connecting yourself to God. Nope don't say that to this woman!) I can't think of any other words that I would define as foul. (Some how I think she probably will find something else that I haven't thought of.)

Woman: Can you take them out of the play? I really want to come see this play but I can't come if those words are in it.

Me: Well that's a really difficult request.

Woman: Everything has so much foul language these days that I can't even watch TV.

Me: Well you see we sign a contract that says we won't change the language in a play without the playwrights permission. In Tom Dick and Harry the playwright has given us permission in the script to change the locations to help make the play easier to understand but hasn't given us permission to change the basic dialogue.

Woman: Well other places change stuff all the time. They take out words and music and add songs and do what ever they want to a play.

Me: I can't speak to what other places do. I can only tell you that we abide by the letter of the law. These plays are copyrighted and you are not allowed to change them. If you change them you run the risk of the publishing company finding out and then you run the risk of being fined or not being able to publish any of their authors in the future.

Woman: Well (she names a theatre in Western Kentucky) does it all the time.

Me: I'm sorry but we don't do that. When we choose a play, the play selection committee looks at the language in a play and tries to decide if it is within the standards of the majority of our community. They select plays knowing that we can't change the language. If they feel it is too much language then we don't choose to produce the play. We just finished doing Smoke on the Mountain Homecoming which was enjoyed by a wide range of ages and audiences.

Woman: You won't change those words?

Me: No, I'm sorry.


Woman: Then we won't be coming to see your play.


Me: I hope that you will consider coming to one of our other plays this season. I appreciate your calling and your concerns.

We ended the phone conversation.

We are in the process of play selection for next season right now. There are several wonderful plays that I'm sure audiences will love. Some of them do contain the words that this woman wanted me to remove. It is not just language. I've gotten letters from audience members upset that we have actors who pretend to drink alcohol onstage, we were once asked to stop a performance in Graves County because the husband of the owner of the company that hired our murder mystery troupe stopped the show and told the crowd he was standing up for Christian Morality when a character took a flask out of his pocket and pretended to drink from it (he had water in the flask). I really try not to pass judgement on other people's ideas of morality. But as the Artistic Director I work with the play selection committee to present plays that are positive and life affirming.

While someone may not always approve of every word or action in the plays we produce. I can promise that we will always respect another person's opinion and try to give an honest answer when we cannot honor their requests. MHT shows are enjoyed by over 30,000 people each year. I receive maybe 10 or so complaints during the past year. In our just completed surveys taken during Smoke on the Mountain Homecoming the audiences, who have come four or more times during the past two years, have overwhelming said keep up the good work!

One of the plays we tried to review for possible future production was a comedy by the writers of The Compleat Works of William Shakespeare Abridged. It is a show called "The Bible Abridged". I'm not sure we could do this play because it would get a "PG-13" rating (if we rated our shows like movies which we don't because we aren't supposed to). The Bible has lots of foul language, sex, violence and drinking in it. I can just imagine my phone already ringing .....

New Seats Press Release

Market House Theatre has raised over $55,000 towards the purchase of new seats. “We’ve placed the order for the new seats and will receive them around mid December,” according to MHT Executive Director Michael Cochran. “This will replace all but the last three rows of our current seats. The original seats were manufactured in the early 1900’s out of cast iron. We began the campaign four years ago and with prices rising every year we felt we needed to purchase the majority of the seats now and not wait another year” Cochran said. “Since we first began this project costs have increased by over $16,000.”

Funding has come from a variety of sources. The theatre held a new seat campaign for donors to have their name engraved on a plaque on the new seats in addition to taking orders from those people who want to own a piece of history by purchasing the old seats. The theatre seat campaign raised over $22,000 in donations. A grant was secured from the Honorable Order of Kentucky Colonels Good Works program for over $18,000. “The final piece was using the earnings from our endowment,” said Cochran. The Market House Theatre’s Endowment is held at the Community Foundation of Western Kentucky. Each year individuals have donated to MHT’s Endowment and the theatre received matching funds from the Fred Paxton Fund Run for Charities. Those individual contributions and matching funds raised over $14,000 in earnings revenue without touching the principal. “This is exactly what the Community Foundation and the Fred Paxton Fund Run has been encouraging us to do- grow our endowment so that the earnings can help with projects like this or when funds get tight. This project was a perfect fit,” said Cochran.

While the theatre still needs to raise $10,000 to purchasing the remaining seats, Cochran said that he feels confident that those funds can be raised within the next two seasons. “We have several projects that the theatre is working on before we reach our 50th Anniversary of the founding of the theatre in 2014. Lots of exciting changes are on the horizon for Market House Theatre.” MHT audiences will get their first chance to sit in the new seats next January.

the lead up to hell week

We are beginning hell week with lots of positive energy!

We have seen a terrific response to the Ghost Tour fundraiser. Several of the tours so far have been sold out and the theatre has raised over $5,000 with one final Saturday left. There are still tickets left for the final Saturday tour. We have added a 7:10 pm tour to the October 24 tour times. What we have found is that the early tours 6:00, 6:45, and 7:30 tend to sell out through advanced online sales or people calling the box office during the week. The later tours 8:15 and 9:00pm have been selling more tickets at the door with a smaller advanced sale. So if you are thinking of coming next Saturday I would definitely recommend buying your tickets ahead of time. We will close the online sales for at 2 pm on Saturday. The box office will open at 5:45 for walk up sales for the evening. Remember that walk up sales are cash or check only. The box office for the walk up sales is located in the MHT Studio Theatre. Popcorn and apple cider are provided free to all tour ticket holders to enjoy while they wait for their tour to be called. We recommend arriving 20-30 minutes before your tour time. All tours depart on time.

Our tour guides so far have included; Jody Smith for the trolley tours; Jim Roush, Marsha Cash, and myself (Michael Cochran) for the Oct. 10 tours; Marsha Cash, Chris Black, and Phil Counts for the Oct. 17 tours; and Chris Black, Kim Yocum, and Jim Roush for the Oct. 24 tour.

Over the course of the tours we have had so many compliments and people telling us additional details about other ghost stories and buildings in the downtown area. We definitely have plenty of material for additional tours next year. We are looking at several options for the future and will definitely be making the walking tours a part of MHT future programming.

Tonight are the auditions for Best Christmas Pageant Ever. Because of a dance class in classroom until 5 pm the audition tonight will start in the main theatre building. The auditions will probably be completed by 6:30pm when the rehearsal for Tom Dick and Harry is supposed to start tonight. If they are still going on the auditions will shift across the street to the classroom until they are completed no later than 7 pm. Tomorrows auditions will all be held in the classroom. Tom Dick and Harry rehearsal starts at 5:30 pm tomorrow.

I received a notice from the Wenger Corporation that our new chairs are scheduled to arrive December 14. We will replace all but the last three rows of the theatre. We still are trying to raise $10,000 to complete those last three rows. It's not too late to donate funds and have a plaque on a seat named in someones honor that will be there for years to come.

The murder for hire troupe will go out Saturday to Caldwell County High School for their fundraiser and our performance of Reunion at Hippie High written by Mysteries by Moushey. We had our first rehearsal off book Sunday afternoon and the cast is working hard on their characters and lines.

This Sunday is the technical rehearsal for Tom Dick and Harry. Cast members are bringing in their clothing so we can choose costumes. For some we are digging into our own costume storage and for others we will be renting costumes from Creatures of Habit. The show is set present day so that helps us with the costuming costs by having actors wear much of their own clothing. Thursday night was the first time Jim Roush had to climb into the couch and Al Knudsen sit on top of it while Jim was in there. It was very funny to watch Al riding up and down in the air as Jim pushed the seat up and down as called for in the script.

The story theatre cast of City Mouse Country Mouse had a rehearsal this morning after a week off for fall break. They have their first performance a week from today and they were off book (no scripts in hand) today. Many of our performers are involved in the Ghost Tours, Murder for Hire, and Story Theatre. We all laugh about having to memorize multiple scripts all at the same time.

Al and Chuck Wilkins only have one script to memorize but they are really having a tough time with lines because they repeat the same actions several times in Tom Dick and Harry with only slight variations. Chuck will stop and look from one door to the other and say "I know I exit! I just can't figure out if I exit out the front door this time or exit out the upstairs door?" Al must say the words Shut up over 30 times in the play when Dick and Harry start talking about a crazy ideas. It has become almost an automatic response for Al to now say "Shut up" to anyone onstage when he doesn't know what else to say. The final week of rehearsals and then tech rehearsals and dress rehearsals are called hell week because of the overwhelming amount of work that must be completed before opening night. We are now entering hell week for 3 shows all at the same time- Reunion at Hippy High, Tom Dick and Harry, and City Mouse Country Mouse.

Preparations

The Trolley Ghost Tour held on Oct. 3 and the walking ghost tour that was held last Saturday Oct. 10 were a huge success. We sold out both events. This weekends continuation of the walking tour on Sat. Oct. 17 is also selling so well that we added two more tour times. A 7:10 tour and an 8:40 pm tour. We have this weekend and next weekend. I can already tell that this will be an ongoing event of the theatres. We had lots of stories left over that we didn't use. There are still some tickets left for the Sat. 17th tour and the Sat. 24th tour. We will take group reservations for additional bookings by request. We are not doing the walking tours on Oct. 31. We have a performance of Tom Dick and Harry that night.

Next Monday and Tuesday are the auditions for The Best Christmas Pageant Ever at 5 pm in the classroom above the studio theatre. April will direct. She needs lots of adults and kids to fill the roles. It's a great chance for the whole family to do a show. Rehearsals are generally from 5-7 pm. The show opens Dec. 10.

Tonight was to be the start of and Adult Improv class taught by Joey Judd. Joey is a terrific teacher and is great at improv games. We did not have enough people sign up for the class at this time so we will cancel the class for the fall and try again next January. I have a free workshop this Saturday at 9 am on Script Analysis. The workshop is open to anyone interested in acting and there are lots of openings available for people to still sign up.

We are putting the finishing touches on the Annual Fund Drive Campaign. The campaign letters should go out in the mail before the end of this month. A core group of board members have been working on this project and we hope that some of the changes we have made will make a big difference in how people understand donating to the theatre.

Tonight for Tom Dick and Harry is a run through of Act Two. Maria Miller who jumped in as Katerina has been gone since last Sunday on Fall Break. The other actors will be happy to see her back. This week so far has been spent on working on Act One off book. We open two weeks from today and things are tight but on schedule. The set got all of the doors yesterday for the first time and we worked on timing with the doors. The play has such rapid action that the doors are critical in their function. We tried out 3 different wheelbarrows over the past week to find just the right one that will carry Jim Roush on and Shawn James off. We have also rebuilt the couch and tonight will do our trial run of having Jim Roush fall into it and then having Al shut the top and sit on it. We raised it up about 2 inches so Jim could get into it with ease.

Kelly Salchli came in yesterday and today and painted the scenery for the City Mouse County Mouse Tour of Story Theatre which goes out November 2. She has painted the wall of the country mouse with seed packets as decoration and the city mouse home has framed postage stamps as her wall decorations.

I'm off to check on the new posters for Tom Dick and Harry at IVS before tonight's rehearsal. The billboard went to Lamar today for The Best Christmas Pageant Ever show. We always seem to have at least 3 shows in process at all times and often working on marketing for even more.

Kicking off the second quarter

October kicks of the the second quarter of our fiscal year and it has started at full speed. This week has been non stop. From wrapping up Secret Life of Girls and the Trolley Tours last weekend we have been on the run all week. Rehearsals are going on for the City Mouse and the Country Mouse Story Theatre Tour which goes out November 2, Reunion at Hippie High which is the Murder for Hire troupe putting on a performance for Caldwell County High School Junior Class fundraiser on Oct. 24, the walking Ghost Tours which are this weekend, and Tom Dick and Harry which opens 3 weeks from today.

Last night at rehearsal for Tom Dick and Harry we unfortunately had to replace one of the actresses. She is going through some difficult family issues and it was in her best interest and that of the the family for her to drop out. What is most important in everything we do is the health and well being the people involved.

After rehearsal last night I contacted Maria Miller who just finished the Secret Life of Girls to step into the role. I dropped off a script at her home about 9:30 last night and she will be at rehearsal tonight for a review of Act Two and then tomorrow night for a run through of the entire show. Maria is then off with her family for 4 days on Fall Break. The character she will play only speaks Albanian. So Maria will be studying her lines will lying on a beach and when she gets back she will have just 2 weeks to prepare for opening. I'm confident in her abilities to do a great job. Last night we finished blocking the show. That means that all of the performers now know where to stand, sit, and what part of the stage to move to on their lines. Blocking a farce comedy is like a giant crossword puzzle. Each person has to be at certain spots in order to see or not see what is happening in the scene. In addition characters have to enter and exit room at exactly the right time in order to keep the comedy at a heightened level. Some people love farces because the action and the pace are so fast that it leaves you almost breathless. Farces are about action and that means lots of movement. My armchair definition of a farce is a room with 6 doors. Tom Dick and Harry has 5 doors and a window and all are used for entrances and exits. Jim and I went to the warehouse yesterday and brought back several door frames and wall units to start building the set. We should have the basic structure up by this weekend and then there is a lot of finish work to do. We also brought back the bench seats for the theatre van to take the Murder Mystery Cast to Caldwell County on the 24th. Those have to get removed again to put in the set for the Story theatre show to go out 1 week later. A lot of the time at the theatre is spent moving equipment from one building to another and then moving it back. An example is the lighting for Secret Life of Girls. A large part of the lighting instruments are used in the main theatre. We have to un-cable the lights and take them down and re-hang and focus them for the studio show and then un-cable, take them down and re-hang and focus them back on the mainstage for the next show over there.

April just completed the performances of the Gifted and Talented show she directed at Lone Oak Elementary. Technical Director Jim Keeney made her a portable masking unit for her to be able to hide the kids behind at the sides of the performance space. The gifted talented shows often perform in the library in a space where there are no "wings" or side areas masked off from the audience. We've used large 4x8 foot flat walls in the past, but they were difficult for April to transport and manage by herself. The new masking set up more like the fabric panel dividers that you would find at a convention or expo center to separate exhibits. We used some of old drapes that were donated by the community college when they purchased new drapes a few seasons ago.

The Curtain Call fundraiser committee met last night to continue its planning for next the auction event next March. Melisa Mast, Valerie Pollard, and Renie Barger are heading up the committee. Melisa has been working on the business campaign and has some great ideas. We also did brainstorming last night on some of the auction packages including a couple of adult Prince and Princess parties. The auction is really shaping up to be lots of fun and those that attend will also be able to bid on roles in CINDERELLA for a one night only performance. The wicked stepsisters and a couple of other fun roles like the mice who help Cinderella and some of the princesses that the prince has to dance with at the ball will be up for auction. These are all great cameo roles.

Cindy Miller has been hard at work on the Annual Fund Drive campaign that will kick off the week after Fall Break. We are moving the annual campaign into the first part of our fiscal year in order to do a better job of managing the funds from this campaign. This is going to be a long month.

So far all of the the shows and events this season have made their budgeted goals. The first quarter has been very successful for the theatre and the second quarter is looking good as well.

Success comes in many forms

This has been a wild weekend. With 8 performances of the Secret Life of Girls and the kick off of the Ghost Tours with a party and Trolley tours everyone is ready for a quiet Sunday evening.

Last night we had 90 people who took the trolley and heard the legends and lore of Paducah's Downtown and Lowertown ghosts. First I want to thank Lew Jetton and the Paducah Transit authority for working with us to offer the trolley tours for the kick off. In addition we want to thank Big Top Popcorn for helping us with Popcorn for the tour attendees. Board President Cindy Miller made a great deal of food and brought in flowers and decorations. Board members Barbara Allen, Heather Dorr, Jennifer Hughes, Melisa Mast, and volunteer Kim Yocum also helped provide food and flowers for the event. A thanks also goes to the spouses of the board members and volunteers who also helped set up and take down and clean up after the event. Maria Miller helped set up the event before going across the street to perform in the Secret Life of Girls. Mary Kathryn Dorr, Katey Miller and Landon Baker also helped during the evening to replenish food and make popcorn. Marsha Cash volunteered her time as well to help with the ticketing and trolley boarding.

We had about 1/2 of our tour guests waiting for the theatre doors to open promptly at 6 pm. We had arranged for the trolley to show up at 6 pm so we could do a sound check with the trolley microphone and talk with the driver about the stops along the way. Our first tour was scheduled for 6:30 pm. When Our trolley hadn't shown up by 6:10 pm I called and was told the trolley driver was still out on her daily route and would be back to the garage soon. In addition our trolley was still charging for the evening. I began to panic slightly, worrying that we wouldn't have time to fix any problems with sound or route before loading. I also knew we had several 6:30 tour guests who had tickets to the symphony at 7:30 pm. At 6:20 I called again and was told the driver should be leaving any moment. At 6:40 I called again and they were surprised the trolley hadn't arrived yet. The trolley showed up at 6:45 and we hustled the guests aboard to start the first tour. As the first tour was boarding we found that there was no microphone that could be used on the trolley. Our tour guide would have to try to project his voice to 30 people over the sounds of the trolley. Many tour guides stand in the middle of the trolley to give tours. This was going to be difficult to allow everyone to hear. Phil Counts has been the coordinator of the tour guides for both the kick off and the walking tours. Phil's job last night was to help guide the bus as it went on the route. Jody Smith was going to be our only story teller for the evening. A big thanks is owed to both Phil and Jody for the efforts last night.

There is a story that went on behind the scenes last night. Jody Smith, has performed in several plays at MHT and WKCTC. Jody has a wonderful vocal delivery and sense of humor. He is someone who loves to perform. Those of us who know Jody, know that he has been dealing with an illness and treatment that makes him physically very weak. Jody can no longer stand or walk for extended periods of time because of the medication he takes for his illness. Jody refuses to be negative about this or to give up. When Phil Counts and I discussed guides for the tour Jody's name came up and we both thought that Jody would do a terrific job as the trolley guide but also this would be something meaningful for Jody as his stage opportunities have become more limited. Those who boarded the trolley for the tour had no idea how much effort Jody made just to be there. In addition he was going to have to project his voice, without a microphone, to people sitting behind him while trying to also tell stories that required him to get loud and soft at certain points in the stories. Jody did 3 tours without a break. As we helped him off the trolley he was totally exhausted but in high spirits. The tour on Saturday night raised almost $3,000 for the theatre but also allowed Jody the opportunity to perform for an audience (including his parents) which is something that he loves doing. It meant a great deal to Phil and I that Jody was able to guide last night. Thank you Jody and Phil for adapting to the difficult situation with almost no notice and for a job well done.

In the future, if we do another trolley tour, we will know to provide our own sound system for the trolley and to ask for the trolley at least an hour before our first tour start time to build in any problems with its arrival... well, maybe and hour and a half ahead of our first tour time:)

Every director has moments when they are helpless to do anything but watch and hope that everything works out. As the door closed on the trolley and they headed off for the first tour I felt this. That's thing about live theatre. You never know what is going to happen. No matter how much you plan. You work as a team and count on team members to come through when things don't go as planned. I knew that we had rehearsed the stories 3 times that day and built in ways to cut and stretch the stories if we needed. I had faith in Jody's ability as a performer.

On Friday evening during the performance of the Secret Life of Girls, April had one of those moments. In the middle of the show Chandler Emmons- Smith was onstage and typing when blood suddenly started dripping from her nose. Chandler did an outstanding job of continuing her performance without missing a beat. At the end of her scene she exited the stage. Two scenes later cast member Nicki Caturano was supposed to be onstage but wasn't. Nicki came on for the last scene. After the show we found out what happened. Chandler developed a nose bleed out of the blue. Nicki being very alert got ready for her scene early and then went to help Chandler with tissues and costumes. Chandler stuffed tissue up her nose to try to stop the bleeding trying to disguise it and then ran back onstage for her next scene. Unfortunately Nicki changed her costume a little too early and forgot she had to go back onstage in her other costume. Nicki was stuck offstage until the scene she had dressed for started. Afterwards we all laughed about it. I don't know that most of the audience even realized what was going on.

The Secret Life of Girls has a talk back session at the end of each performance to help teenage girls deal with the effects of social bullying. We will have performed to over 500 girls when this run is completed. A person associated with the Four Rivers Behavioral Health last night told April that no matter how many lectures or pamphlets they give to girls to help them cope with the effects of bullying, nothing is as powerful or as helpful as what the theatre is doing with this show to get that message through.

This weekend reminded me of what MHT is all about, We don't just entertain.... we change lives! With the trolley tour, Jody Smith's limitations weren't what defined him. What defined him was his talent for performance. Chandler's bloody nose came in front of a large group of people as she was performing, but she managed to deal with it in stride and do a great performance in spite of it. Nicki Caturano jumped in to help out a fellow performer sacrificing her own scene to do it and everyone onstage covered for her. Young girls learned how to be defenders when they are faced with social bullying. Theatre teaches you to deal with challenges and not let your circumstances define who you are.

Over 30 people performed, made food and helped the events this weekend, all as volunteers. They did things that made the community proud them.

Success comes in many forms. This weekend we had lots of it.

First Weekend of October

I'm writing this about 45 minutes before The Secret Life of Girls performance on Friday evening. Since the show opened Thursday morning the cast has already done 5 performances. Tonight will be another big crowd with a school group from Christian County. Many of the schools who couldn't get into the school matinees took advantage of our school matinee group price for the evening shows. Our goal was to try to get as many girls into the performances as possible. The after show discussions have been great. We have the performance tonight and then Saturday evening, Sunday afternoon and 3 shows on Monday.

The staff celebrated Jim Keeney's birthday today. Jim turned 44 last Wednesday but we couldn't get everyone together until today for the cake and card. April didn't make it because she was at a performance of the gifted and talented show that she directed at Lone Oak Elementary school.

Board members came in and decorated the stage this afternoon for the ghost tours. Jody Smith, who has been a little under the weather, Phil Counts, and I will do a dry run of the Trolley tour tomorrow morning. We will make any last minute adjustments at that time in preparation for the party and tours Saturday night.

The Strategic Planning Committee had a meeting today at noon to work on the structure of the theatre's planning dates. We discusses several of the planning sessions that have taken place in the past and looked for a way forward towards the planning methods that will be used this year. The theatre is trying to make a comprehensive plan for the future as we move toward our 50th anniversary in 4 years.

Footlights classes are tomorrow morning starting at 8 am for the early elementary students.

House is now open for the Secret Life of Girls show tonight and I'm needed as a crew member for the performance. Gotta run!

New Seats, New Shows, New Ghosts

Tomorrow I will order new seats. The theatre will spend over $54,000 on the project but will fall just shy of our goal of $63,000 to complete replace all the old seats. We will still have 3 rows at the back of the theatre that will be left with the old seats. I'm hoping that those who have said they wanted to contribute for new seats will do so within the next few weeks. We are about $9,000 short of finishing our goal. If we can receive enough donations in the next couple of weeks we can finish up this campaign in this year! Chair prices go up this October.

Today was the technical rehearsal for Secret Life of Girls. The cast and crew was treated to a Taco Dinner after the rehearsal courtesy of board members Sid Hancock, Heather Dorr, and Jennifer Hughes. Tomorrow evening is the first play selection meeting at 5:30 pm in the corner building. Chair Denise Bristol will run the meeting and talk about the guidelines for the selection process. If you are interested just show up at 5:30 at the box office building.

The Murder for Hire troupe will rehearse tomorrow for the show Reunion at Hippie High. We have only had a read through two weeks ago and tomorrow we start staging the show. Because of this rehearsal the cast for both Secret Life of Girls and Tom Dick and Harry have the night off. At some point this week we will do a dry run through of our trolley ghost tour which starts with the big party kickoff next Saturday. If you see me driving a van with Jody Smith and Phil Counts inside you will know what we are up to. Some people have seen me standing on street corners downtown talking to with Marsha Cash or Kim Yocum and I'm waving my arms and looking very strange. I haven't lost my mind. We are doing dry runs of the ghost walking tours this week as well.

Make plans to come see the Secret Life of Girls and the Ghost Tours. I think audiences will enjoy them both a great deal.

Post Smoke

Congratulations to Sarah Bynum and Alex Roman on their wedding last Saturday evening at Grace Episcopal Church. Everyone at MHT wishes you many years of happiness!


Smoke on the Mountain Homecoming ended its run last Sunday with a weekend of sold out performances and a run of standing ovations. The cast received a standing ovation every performance. Most of the performers know that I'm a firm believer in short curtain calls. Just about any show can get a standing ovation if the curtain call lasts long enough. A true measure is when the audience is standing before the last person walks onstage for a curtain call. For many of the performances of Smoke the audience started standing when the first performers walked on stage to take a bow and in some cases even before the lights came up for the curtain call. Congratulations to the cast on an outstanding performance. Cindy Miller did an outstanding job with the music for the production.

It was nice to have Emily Yocum and Maria Miller fill in as Weldon and Eldon. For the final performance I had them come out at intermission and draw the winning raffle number. Emily was 4 years old when she first appeared on the MHT stage in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Maria was 9 years old when she first stepped on the MHT stage in The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. Both of them have grown up doing plays and are now High School students and extremely talented performers. It was also nice to have Lisa Humphrey Wynn and Debbie Burnett back with us for the final two weeks of performances after a multi-year hiatus.


We are still totaling up the numbers but preliminary estimates show that Smoke did significantly better than projected single ticket sales. This is a great way to kick off the season. We had such high demand that Business Manager, Marsha Cash, who was working the box office by herself during the day sometimes had 3 callers on hold and people lined up a the ticket window. We have decided to bring Box Office Assistant, Rhiannon Dodds, in for more hours to help cover the box office during peak times. We really missed having one more full time person in the box office that we had last year with Alexis Davis. Alexis has kept in touch and tells us things are going well for her in her new job at SIU. We are trying to streamline our online ticketing so that audiences can more easily purchase tickets through the website instead of having to call the box office during peak box office times.


Business Manager, Marsha Cash, and I are working on ways to get class registrations and other events also on the website for easier access. You can buy tickets for the Secret Life of Girls and the River City Ghost Walking Tours online right now and have the tickets waiting for you when you arrive for the event. Someday (not yet!) we may even be able to do exchanges online for our season ticket holders, but that is a much more difficult process.


Wednesday we get the official word on our grant from the Kentucky Colonels about our seating campaign. We have a board meeting Wednesday evening to make plans for the purchase. The board is getting ready for the big party on Sat. October 3 for Gala Trolley Ghost Tour kickoff. The second draft of the tour script has been sent to the guides and we are in the process of walking, riding, and working through the final details. Our guides our Jody Smith, Marsha Cash, Kim Yocum, Phil Counts, Chris Black, and myself. We've had some school groups also book daytime ghost tours.



Our annual fund drive will kick off the week after fall break. Cindy Miller has been in several days now working with the database so we can contact past and present members to tell them about all the great things going on at the theatre.



Although we just closed a show Sunday, 24 hours after we finished striking the set we met onstage for the first rehearsal for Tom Dick and Harry. Last night was the first read through of the script. There were times the cast was laughing so hard that they couldn't speak. The show is a farce comedy with lots of mistaken identity and fast moving physical comedy. We start staging the first scene tonight. The cast for Tom Dick and Harry is Al Knudsen, Chuck Wilkins, Landon Baker, Sabrina Beck, Victoria Demarco, Diane Byrd, Jim Roush, Phil Counts, and Shawn James with Denise Bristol as the Assistant Director.



Next Sunday is the technical rehearsal for Secret Life of Girls. Although we produced the show last May it is still just as much work to get the technical elements ready as doing it for the first time. Lights have to be hung and focused and projectors re-hung and programmed. In addition we are doing several school matinees for the show so the cast and crew will have over 10 performances into 5 days.



We are in rehearsal for Reunion at Hippie High to be presented by the Murder for Hire troupe as a fundraiser for the Caldwell County High School Junior Class. Valerie Pollard, Renie Barger, Audra Hall, April Cochran, Marsha Cash, Fowler Black, Steve Schwetman, Chip Bohle are in the cast for that show.



Story Theatre will begin rehearsals within the next few weeks to prepare for its fall tour! That's four cast members out touring for a month. That is 5 productions along with Footlights classes and our new classes of Theatre Games for Adults offered by Joey Judd and workshops on auditioning, script analysis, and technical theatre, that I'm offering all in October. I'm tired just writing this! But the exciting thing is that we have so many people who want to participate! The energy and enthusiasm about the theatre is very high.

Casting

The cast list for Tom Dick and Harry was posted this morning. We have several veteran actors in the production along with a couple of newcomers to MHT. Monday's auditions had the majority of auditionees. Tuesday added the final person to the cast. Instead of call backs I felt fairly confident that I could cast the show this morning. We start rehearsals on Monday Sept. 21 the day after we close the final weekend of Smoke on the Mountain Homecoming. With today's sales we have exceeded our budgeted single ticket sales goal for the show. It feels good to start the season off with a big success.

I got a call from a friend to tell me that Mayfield singer Kevin Skinner had just won America's Got Talent. I remember back this last spring when Cathy Creceilus from the WPSDLocal 6 called me and asked me to be one of the judges for the local competition. Kevin was one of over 20 performers who showed up for the competition. I remember watching him perform and being moved by this simple man who sang and played music that he wrote. I used the phrase the "real deal" when it was my turn to critique his performance. I'm happy that Kevin was able to take the opportunity that was given to him and to go all the way and win the competition. WPSDLocal 6 and Cathy Crecelius deserve a pat on the back for helping make Kevin's dream a reality.

It is somehow appropriate for me that Kevin won as I announced the cast list for the show today. I can't help but think about the many people who I have watched audition for shows over the many years. Some of them like Kevin have a natural talent that comes from the heart. You know it when you see them. Many of them have graced the MHT stage. Some of them have gone on to careers in New York or Los Angeles or other major cities. Some of them who were just as talented as Kevin went into careers in medicine or teaching or a variety of other occupations. It is the combination of talent, luck, hard work, and being the "real deal" that makes someone a success. The real deal part is probably the hardest and is often the thing that people lose, the more successful they become.

So to Kevin I say congratulations. You've done an amazing thing that many people dream about doing. To those who feel that desire to stand up in front of a crowd of people and know what it is like to perform, to make an audience laugh or cry or to be onstage at the end of a show and receive a standing ovation for a job well done - come on down. That's what Market House Theatre is all about. Giving you the opportunity to experience a little of your dreams. Smoke on the Mountain Homecoming cast has one of the other finalists from WPSDLocal 6's America's got Talent competition. Miki Abraham also went to Chicago for callbacks with Kevin. She and 7 other very talented people from Mayfield, Paducah and Metropolis will sing and make you laugh and cry this very weekend on the MHT stage. Come celebrate the local talent that is present in our community as we celebrate Kevin's national success.

Getting the word out

We just completed the second weekend of Smoke on the Mountain Homecoming. I've talked with several people who all heard how great the show is and told me they heard we were sold out. We are not sold out. We still have tickets left for all of the remaining shows next weekend. Last night I finished up the first draft of the walking ghost tour script and sent it off to the guides. I'm still working on the trolley script which visits several places not on the walking tour of downtown Paducah.

Tonight and tomorrow will be spent preparing for the auditions at 7 pm on Monday and Tuesday Sept. 13 & 14 in the main theatre for Tom Dick & Harry. I'll spend tomorrow selecting audition scenes for the play and contacting people to remind them about auditions. I hope to have the show cast by next Friday and start rehearsal the Monday following the close of Smoke on the Mountain Homecoming.

The auditors from Williams Williams and Lentz will be arriving at the theatre bright and early tomorrow for their annual audit. They go through all of our financial records and produce and audit that we use for applying for grants and several other projects.

We heard from the Kentucky Colonels this past week that they will be presenting grant awards at the end of the month. Two years ago they used the MHT studio theatre for the community awards ceremony and will do so again this year. We are all eagerly awaiting the grant award amount so we can order our new theatre seats.

The theatre will be moving our annual fund drive from January to October so we are busy trying to prepare for that to kick off the week following Fall Break.


MHT will offer adult classes and workshops this fall. Instructor, Joey Judd, will offer a theatre games class starting October 15 and running through November 19 on Thursday evenings from 5:30-7:00 pm. Class fees are $35.

Michael Cochran will offer a series of free one hour workshops for adults on Saturday mornings at 9 am. The first workshop, on Sat. Oct 10, will be how to audition and common mistakes actors make. The second workshop on Sat. Oct. 17 will be script analysis for the actor. The third workshop on Sat. Oct. 31 will be on set and lighting design. These workshops are meant as an introduction to the subject matter. Beginning students ages 16 and up are welcomed to register for the free workshops. Students should register in advance for Improv classes and the free workshops.

Smoke Opens

After weeks or preparation the season is underway as Smoke on the Mountain opened Thursday night to an enthusiastic audience response. The cast and crew have worked together to create a wonderful show that has received a standing ovation for every performance since opening. Maria Miller and Emily Yocum have filled in as the stage crew and are adding a fun element to the show as the offstage voices of 3 year olds Weldon and Eldon Culpepper. They create such mayhem at the side that it is not hard to believe two 3 years with their screaming and tantrums are really there. The matinee today at 2:30 will cap off the hectic week getting the show open and then give the performers 3 days off before they return for two more weekends of "Homecoming".

Footlights classes began Saturday morning. Joey Judd helped April with the High School class and taught the students some new improv skills in character building. Joey is working with April and I to offer a series of adult classes this fall.

A surprise visit from WPSD Local6 for the high school class had April calling me wondering why I hadn't told her they were coming. I didn't know anything about it. We are always thrilled for the community to get a better look at the education programming happening at the theatre.

The Ghost Tour guides will have a meeting Tuesday and the Murder for Hire troupe has a meeting Wednesday to prepare for the October events. MHT will provide a murder mystery performance for the Caldwell County Junior class as their fundraiser for the school.

Auditions for Tom Dick and Harry are coming up next Monday and Tuesday. The October newsletter is in the final stages before going to press. April begins rehearsal for Secret Life of Girl this next week as well.

Tech Weekend

It all began with a text message Friday morning. Lisa Humphrey-Wynn Assistant Director/Stage Manager for Smoke on the Mountain Homecoming texted me to say she was at her doctors office. She had been experiencing pain and her doctor was checking out her hip where she had had replacement hip surgery. There was a possibility she might have to be hospitalized. The second text arrived one hour later. Lisa was being hospitalized and was going in for surgery on her hip which had developed an extreme infection. She would be hospitalized for 4-5 days and out of the picture for the show. We still had the lighting and the stage crew people so I felt like we were still okay. We all kept Lisa in our thoughts and prayers and we set up the light board backstage so it could be run from there to coordinate with the stage crew. April and I left Sat. morning along with some friends and drove to St. Louis to see the Broadway touring production Mary Poppins at the Fox Theatre.

We had 15th row center seats and the show had some really fun moments but I felt that it was somewhat difficult to hear. I lost part of the dialogue in some of the scenes which made it hard to follow. In addition the lighting designer used lots of mood lighting and used follow spots to light the main characters which tended to make the overall light levels somewhat dark which led to my eyes getting tired. I must confess I fell asleep during part of the first act. The story line and songs for part of the show were also a little less than memorable for me. The second act was delightful and lots of fun effects including watching Bert the chimney sweep dancing in number where he walked up the wall and upside down across the proscenium 20 feet in the air and then back down the other side. We all left the theatre smiling but wishing the sound had been better.

On the drive home I got a voicemail which I didn't listen to until I got home about 9 pm. It was from Debbie the lighting person to tell me that her daughter who was supposed to be on the stage crew had been diagnosed with Swine Flu H1N1 and she and her daughter were out for at least a week. They never even got to see a single rehearsal of the show. With the technical rehearsal on Sunday I was now totally without a crew. I had agreed for Jim to go to Arkansas this weekend to help his wife with her fathers estate.

I moved the light board back out to the front of the house and April agreed to come in to help run lights and do the live sound effects to get through the technical rehearsal. We rehearsed early because one of the actors had an evening engagement and everything went pretty well for a first tech with costumes, lights, and sound.

Tomorrow Jim will be back and musical director Cindy Miller has offered her daughter Maria's help to do the running crew for the show. Jim will jump to lights and stage manager and we will be back on track. I've never had an incident before were I've lost the entire crew the day before the technical rehearsal. With no understudies for the show I always worry about a major character getting sick. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that everyone else will remain healthy. We wish a speedy recover to all of the crew members who are out sick. We may have been blown sideways a little this weekend but we will ready for Thursday nights opening!

Late August Rush

A whirlwind of activity in the printing area has been going on all weekend and during the first part of this week. The annual report was sent to the printer yesterday. This 4 page color document is a report on all aspects of MHT programming last season along with financial reports. All MHT Member/Contributors will receive a copy in the mail. A PDF of the report will be posted on the MHT website.

The September newsletter also went to the printer on Monday. We will be returning to a more robust schedule of newsletters this year. Last year we tried to move the newsletters to a quarterly printing in order to save funds. What we learned was that some of our information was out 1-2 months before the event and was soon forgotten. The MHT board has decided that we need to communicate more often with people interested in the theatre and has budgeted a doubling of newsletters for this season. The newsletter will also try to feature more of the people who are involved as volunteers at the theatre. Look for a newsletter to be posted today.

Volunteer Debra Harned, April Cochran and I have been hard at work to get the new program completed and sent the printer. We are also putting the final touches on our season brochure. All these things are timed to be ready for opening night of Smoke on the Mountain Homecoming which opens Sept. 3.

The box office is now selling tickets to Smoke and The Secret Life of Girls. In addition schools are calling in and making school matinee reservations for Secret Life of Girls, Best Christmas Pageant Ever, and There's a Boy in the Girl's Bathroom. All of those school performances are filling up quickly and some are already sold out. Because of the limited space in the studio theatre for Secret Life we have added a school discount price to the regular performance of Secret Life of Girls. Any school group of at least 30 can get a school matinee rate of $5 per ticket for a regular performance of the show. Interested schools can contact the box office for more information.

Jim is still doing the construction work on the back of our auditorium to make access easier for wheelchairs and walkers. We have removed the steps and made access a level entrance to the rear of the auditorium.

The theatre is getting ready to announce an exciting fundraiser for the fall and we are in the final planning stages for this event. We should be ready to announce this later this week!

School has started back and April is full swing teaching in the city and county school systems.

I feel your pain

Yesterday tickets went on sale for Smoke on the Mountain Homecoming and the Secret Life of Girls. We are just 3 weeks out from the opening of the first show of the 46th season. At rehearsal last night we spent the majority of time working on a couple of the characters monologues. We worked and reworked these moments where the characters testify about their faith. I think that it was rewarding for those actors who got to work on their parts. Unfortunately the others had a lot of sitting around while that happened. Last night I had Fowler, who plays Pastor Oglethorpe, empathize so much with those in his congregation that he had to act as if it were him that was suffering from bursitis, arthritis, locked bowels, and kidney stones. The other actors were rolling on the floor as Fowler contorted his body to "feel" their pain.

Meanwhile across the street open auditions were being held for Cardinal River Productions 48 hour film festival entry. Although they don't know what genre of script they will be creating those who showed up were taped doing a variety of improvisational exercises that covered several genres. This weekend should be an exciting one for film in Paducah with the 13 teams. One of the teams, other than the Cardinal River group, is headed up and composed solely of MHT performers and volunteers. It will be fun to see the projects that come out from this weekend. I encourage everyone to go and view the completed 4-7 minute films next week at the Maiden Alley Cinema and support the efforts of all of the MHT and community people who are involved in this competition.

If you see some terrific posters around town for Smoke on the Mountain Homecoming they are the work of the creative team over at IVS supervised by Todd Duff. IVS has done an outstanding job on the posters and we are working with them to create a coordinated and unified look to all of our show marketing. We have our website hosted by IVS and they do an outstanding job in everything they undertake.

layers

We are in the process of rehabbing the steps into the auditorium and making them safer. It is interesting when you uncover construction from 30 years ago. You suddenly discover that walls don't go all the way to the floor and the shortcuts that were taken to cover up the way carpet was installed over things that you now have to rebuild everything. When all is completed it should provide a smoother and safer entry into the theatre for not a lot of money. We have been putting this off until we changed over for the new seats.

I spoke with the Kentucky Colonels office the other day and they told me it was now going to be September before we hear anything about our seating grant. That will put our order with 10-12 weeks of manufacture, shipping and installation back into December or January for the new seats. We have moved forward with removing the 14th seat on every other row so that we adjust to the new seating chart with the first show. The new chairs will be 2 1/2" wider in the seat than the old chairs. That will be a major difference for some of our season ticket holders who were seated in the old 16" wide seats. We continue to look to see if there are other ways to improve the show experience for the audience. I am trying to come up with more ways that everyone who is connected to the theatre can give us ideas on how to improve all aspects of the theatre. We will do a survey with our first show for audience members and I will try and put an online survey for those who can't participate during the Smoke on the Mountain run.

This week we finished up with the first phase of season tickets as all the tickets were printed. We now move to phase two were the restaurant discount cards get added to each order. The ticket letters containing exchange and other important information that go with the tickets and a final check of tickets before they go out in the mail. This is a race to get the season tickets out and then put the single tickets on sale for Smoke on the Mountain Homecoming.

We are base coat painting the upstage walls for Smoke on the Mountain Homecoming so Kelly Salchli can come in and do the final scenic painting on them. Tonight we finish staging Act One of the Smoke and tomorrow is a review of Act One. Over the past week we have moved from just singing to the piano for the music to each of the actors playing instruments and singing the music. That is a big change for the performers. With the addition of the movement in the staging the hope is to no lose any of the vocal work that has been accomplished. Staging a show is like making layers on a cake. Each layer is built on top of the previous and adds more complexity. The goal is not to lose the base that you've built on as you add all the layers.