Another Opening of Another Show

To quote the lyrics from a song in Kiss Me Kate "another opening of another show". Ramona Quimby MHT's 500th production opened Thursday morning at 9 am to a full house of elementary students. By the end of the day on Thursday the cast had completed 3 performances and everyone was settling into the groove.



It was a hard road to get there. There were several nights in a row spent painting until almost midnight or after. You can always tell when we get to "hell week" because the stress levels go way up trying to get everything ready for the opening night. We are the only business that sells a product that hasn't been created, or exist in a physical form, and then makes sure it is ready on time to deliver at a precise day and time. On Tuesday and Wednesday evening a couple of volunteers stayed and painted. Betty Wise worked solid for the last two weeks before opening helping. Marsha Cash also camped out at the theatre painting all of the trees and bushes that are on the stage. Marsha and Betty stayed until after midnight on Wednesday to help with the final push. Heidi Yocum and her family of all ages came in and painted for two days. At first I wasn't so sure about how that would work with some of the kids being under 6 years old. The whole family was a great help and they seemed to have a good time. special thanks goes to Marsha and Betty for above and beyond help. In fact after the morning school matinees Marsha and I returned to do the final touch up on the bushes. I still have one more painting element I want to add today to really finish the set even though we are now officially open. This morning there are another two sold out matinees at 9 am and 11:30 am. A workshop after the 11:30 show and then a break before tonight's performance.



The show itself is terrific. Brenna who plays Ramona, and Kye who plays Beezus, do an outstanding job. I heard one person say Brenna acts all the way from her toes to the top of her head. I think that is right on target. Mary Kathrin Dorr is the stage manager for the show and she has stepped up and is doing a great job with Stage Managing a difficult show. There is a real art to being a good stage manager and she is showing all the signs of being a good one. April as always has done a great job of molding and shaping the show into a great production. Jim has worked long and hard on the sets as well and Janice has designed and built lots of great costumes for the play. There is a special thanks to the mom's who are covering backstage. Heather Dorr and some of the actor's mothers are taking turns "wrangling" kids. That is a job of keeping a large group of children quite and focused and making their entrances on time for the 1 hour production. It is no easy job to keep that many young children quiet.

I've done a couple of interviews about this being the 500th production. The one thing that keeps coming up is the efforts of all of the volunteers and staff to make a show happen. Thanks to one and all. If you don't have tickets for the play you should get them.