Thursday May 28

The board of directors met last night and approved the slate of candidates for the next fiscal year which begins July 1. All Officers are nominated for a 1 year term. Cindy Miller was nominated as President, Heather Dorr was nominated for a second term as Vice President, Wendy Kester was nominated for a second term as Secretary, Scott Taylor was nominated for a third term as Treasurer, and Renie Barger was nominated as Past President. Nominees for a 3 term as director were Denise Bristol, Pam Benzing, Sid Hancock, and Heather Overby. Continuing on the board are Bobbie Allen, Chip Bohle, Sarah Bynum, Ann Counts, and Jennifer Hughes. Completing their board terms and retiring from the board are Randy Davis, Mary Jean Grief, and Past President Valerie Pollard.

We still have a month to go in the current year but President Renie Barger has done a great job of leading the organization during a difficult year with the economy downturn. She and Past President Valerie Pollard have given the theatre a solid foundation in which we move forward into next year and they deserve a great deal of thanks for all their hard work. Valerie has served as the Special Events chair for a couple of years now and has really worked hard to come up with great events and raise money for the theatre's ongoing operations. Randy Davis and Mary Jean Grief have been involved with the theatre for over 3 years and they have helped design and coordinate the Holiday Home Tour and several other events.

Being on the board of directors is accepting a challenge to work behind the scenes without a lot of fanfare to sustain MHT and to help chart a course for the future. The theatre owes a lot of its success to these hard working volunteers from the community who give 3-7 years of service to the theatre. Valerie Pollard who will be retiring from the board after 7 years has been a huge source of inspiration and dedication to the theatre in her tireless work to raise funds and promote MHT. She will be missed on the board however she has graciously promised to continue to help out with several committees as a non board member.

MHT has lots of challenges facing us next year and lots of opportunities. Nominated board member Denise Bristol has served on the play selection committee for several years, stage managed 2-3 shows each season, and helped with fundraising events and other volunteer needs at the theatre. Denise works at the Houseman Law Firm. Pam Benzing has a daughter Rachel who has acted in several MHT youth productions and last year Pam stepped onstage in Anything Goes last year. Pam works for Computer Services Inc. Syd Hancock served on the MHT board several years ago and has a daughter Meg, who takes Footlights classes and has acted in several MHT youth productions. Syd has coordinated several big events for Clark Elementary and other non-profits in Paducah. Heather Overby got involved at MHT when her daughter Shelbe joined Footlights and performed in several youth productions. Heather works at Paducah Power System and she and her husband have volunteered at MHT over the past couple of years.

The Wizard of Oz has slowly become the biggest technical challenge in my history at the theatre. Jim Keeney yesterday joked that he now looked back at Beauty and the Beast as a much easier show. Beauty and the Beast had been the theatre's most expensive show. Wizard will surpass that. We ran Act Two twice last night. The back stage area is a constantly shifting staging area for the scenery that moves on and off the stage. I intentionally cast a limited number of actors because of the small stage and the cost of costuming lots of actors. However that means people are constantly changing costumes, makeup while the sets are constantly changing. This means a large crew to run the show. I think this is the largest crew in my memory for a play. Lights, sound, follow spots, digital projection operation, 3 floor crew and a stage manager. In the space of 3 scenes we move from the witches castle with several scenic pieces where the witch melts in front of the winkie guards, to the next scene of the Wizards chamber with lots of smoke and effects to the main square of Oz with a large balloon that flies out followed immediately by Glinda making her appearance with her machines that create her entrance. The winkies all have to change costumes and makeup to become Ozians during the Wizard chamber scene and be onstage at the start of the Oz town square scene.

Jim and I left about 2 hours after rehearsal ended last night after talking through several changes in the scenery and working with Sarah Cathcart who is designing the makeup for the characters.

Long days and long nights and it will only get longer. Two days until tech rehearsal which means everything an actor touches has to be in place. It doesn't have to be totally finished painting etc but has to be workable. We open 1 week from today.

Just in case I don't have a chance to blog tomorrow I want to note that this Friday is Alexis Davis's last day. It is somehow fitting that Alexis started work at MHT on the tech weekend of the most difficult show we had ever produced (Beauty and the Beast)and will be leaving us on the tech weekend for the newest version of the most difficult show the theatre has ever produced (Wizard of Oz). We will miss her a great deal. It's been great having her as a part of the MHT family. Alexis you always have friends in Paducah! Come back to visit us often.