Hitting a sand bar

Things have been moving along this week as we prepare for the footlights shows tomorrow and Sunday. The ad campaign for Sugar Bean Sisters and the rehearsals are coming along. The auction for next Friday seems to be going well. Then our ship hit a sand bar- or in this case a publishing company that ground us to a stop and now we've got to get unstuck.

As Alexis proofed the final version of our next year's season ticket form with all the show descriptions, I happened to check on getting the rights for April's summer drama camp shows. This is with the same company I acquired the rights for our 2010 June musical. As I was looking up our account I saw that the show selected for 2010 was suddenly restricted. I called to find out what this change meant to us since I was issued a contract in Feb. I was told "Oh yeah-that got restricted last week because of a national touring company. Sorry- you can't get it now." Even though we had confirmed our desire to do the show and had a temporary agreement there is a clause in every contract that basically says that a publishing company can pull the rights at any time.

I told Alexis "Stop the press! Hold off on anything else with the season ticket renewal order forms until we find a show!" This sounds like the classic theatre script of the 1940's.

So today I'm scrambling to find a suitable replacement that is in the same style as the one the play selection committee picked and approved. I'm looking for a big name show that will sell lots of tickets and everyone wants to audition for that doesn't cost a fortune to produce, and here's the kicker.... finding a show we haven't done recently! There are several shows right on the edge of being released but won't be until next year. All of the other titles that are well known, we've already done if it can fit on our stage. So the race is on! Can we find a show before we announce the season next Friday. You'll have to buy tickets to the event to find out the answer to that question!

To quote a classical television actor- "Hey, Rockie, you wanna see me pull a rabbit out of my hat." For those that don't know the actor who said that...don't ask- it will just make me feel even older.