This morning we loaded in April's stand and small stage at the Museum of the American Quilters. April was representing the the Market House Theatre as part of Kids Day in the Arts. She began promptly at 9 am and began to tell stories. Jade and I were the first to hear some of her new stories. The stage is a small wooden box with sides that open out to create a miniature frame for the artwork to appear inside. Almost like a tiny stage or television box with ornate cut wooden sides. The form of story telling April presents is called Kamishibai. It is based on the Japanese story tellers who used to bring their bicycle to an area and then clap together wooden blocks to alert the kids in the neighborhood. All of the children would run to the story teller when they heard the noise. The story teller was in reality a candy maker. The back of his bicycle had a box with delicious candies the children could buy. If a child bought candy they got a front row seat for the story. If they did not they could still stay to hear the story but had to stand in the back. With a flair for story telling and colorful story boards illustrated with artwork about the story it was easy to see how this would delight children and adults of all ages.
April told stories with lots of audience participation until about 2 pm today when her voice finally gave out from exertion. Kids Day in the Arts had puppet making, flag coloring and lots of craft activities provided by the Museum, a hands on display of musical instruments kids could try out from the Paducah Symphony, and a puppet show by Loretta Folsom. Lots of activities and inflatables were on the lawn outside the museum. All of it was free to the public and lots of kids seemed to be having a great time! It was across from the Farmers Market as well so we got to stroll over to get some just picked vegetables and a hot dog from Louie Kirchhoff's hot dog cart. The only thing that was a little disappointing was the hot air balloon was unable to setup because of the strong winds. Over all the day was a great way for kids to experience the arts as something they could participate in.
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
streets, costumes, and seats
April began the morning with the first rehearsal of her drama camp on the main stage. She had a boom box and her computer hooked up to playback the sound from the show that will be presented Friday evening at 5 pm. The show is by Bad Wolf Press called Character Matters Too. The premise of the show is the fairy tale council has a meeting and they address concerns raised by some of the fairy tale creatures. There are songs about gratitude, and it pays to be polite. In the polite song the witch who eats children is taught not to eat those children who come to her house because it pays to be polite. The show has some very funny writing that also gets the point across that the "character" of a person is important.
As April was getting ready I was finding out about the street closings from a group at the Market Square Coffee shop. I left the coffee shop and contacted the Parks department which has the official word and map of what streets are closed and when they are closed. This is crucial for our 5 pm show this Friday that parents can drop young children off at the stage door of the theatre without a major street being blocked. After the rumors were put to rest and the real information was received we then went to work on getting ready for the show. However April discovered that the stage air conditioning unit wasn't working. We installed a safety shut off last year to keep the drain pans from overflowing onto the ceilings above the dressing rooms. The safety worked perfectly when the drain was clogged and the pan was full of water. Jim spent about an hour cleaning out the drain and flushing the pipes to get the system back up and working.
Meanwhile Janice Peterson is hard at work with the help of couple of other volunteers to make the costumes for Character Matters Too. I saw some of the costumes modeled by my daughter and they look terrific.
Marsha and Rhiannon have been working on assigning seats for Season Ticket holders. We are down to the last couple of performances. Several people have been extremely generous and moved their seats to help us prepare for the new seats we plan to install in the fall. We only have two performances now where we need people to change their seats in order to accommodate everyone in the new wider seats. Marsha has been calling people and many people have been extremely nice in helping us get this done. They started printing the tickets this afternoon and we will have restaurant discount cards printed this next week hopefully.
Rehearsal for Smoke on the Mountain is off for tonight and resumes tomorrow. I'm still trying to contact sponsors and program advertisers to get our next season off to a great start. If you know of someone who is interested in sponsoring a play have them email me at the theatre. Non Musicals are $1,750 and Musicals are $3,000. You get approximately 30 tickets to the play you sponsor and get promotional credit on all advertising for the show.
If you are downtown on Saturday for the Kids Day in the Arts at the Quilters Museum check out Aprils Japanese storytelling. She has some great stories for kids and they are told in a an ancient form of story telling that is lots of fun. April told me about one of the new stories that she has which is about a man who takes a wife with an unusual talent. The talent is so unusual the man wants to immediately take her back to her family because he is so embarrassed. I can't wait to hear her tell that story! If you want to know what the talent is you will have to come and hear her. She tells stories on the half hour all day Saturday!
As April was getting ready I was finding out about the street closings from a group at the Market Square Coffee shop. I left the coffee shop and contacted the Parks department which has the official word and map of what streets are closed and when they are closed. This is crucial for our 5 pm show this Friday that parents can drop young children off at the stage door of the theatre without a major street being blocked. After the rumors were put to rest and the real information was received we then went to work on getting ready for the show. However April discovered that the stage air conditioning unit wasn't working. We installed a safety shut off last year to keep the drain pans from overflowing onto the ceilings above the dressing rooms. The safety worked perfectly when the drain was clogged and the pan was full of water. Jim spent about an hour cleaning out the drain and flushing the pipes to get the system back up and working.
Meanwhile Janice Peterson is hard at work with the help of couple of other volunteers to make the costumes for Character Matters Too. I saw some of the costumes modeled by my daughter and they look terrific.
Marsha and Rhiannon have been working on assigning seats for Season Ticket holders. We are down to the last couple of performances. Several people have been extremely generous and moved their seats to help us prepare for the new seats we plan to install in the fall. We only have two performances now where we need people to change their seats in order to accommodate everyone in the new wider seats. Marsha has been calling people and many people have been extremely nice in helping us get this done. They started printing the tickets this afternoon and we will have restaurant discount cards printed this next week hopefully.
Rehearsal for Smoke on the Mountain is off for tonight and resumes tomorrow. I'm still trying to contact sponsors and program advertisers to get our next season off to a great start. If you know of someone who is interested in sponsoring a play have them email me at the theatre. Non Musicals are $1,750 and Musicals are $3,000. You get approximately 30 tickets to the play you sponsor and get promotional credit on all advertising for the show.
If you are downtown on Saturday for the Kids Day in the Arts at the Quilters Museum check out Aprils Japanese storytelling. She has some great stories for kids and they are told in a an ancient form of story telling that is lots of fun. April told me about one of the new stories that she has which is about a man who takes a wife with an unusual talent. The talent is so unusual the man wants to immediately take her back to her family because he is so embarrassed. I can't wait to hear her tell that story! If you want to know what the talent is you will have to come and hear her. She tells stories on the half hour all day Saturday!
Thursday, July 16, 2009
updates
We updated our ticketing software system yesterday. It had been over a year since our last update. We have experienced difficulty in the past with updates doing strange things to our data. For instance the last time we updated it took everyone who was marked with a yes to receive our newsletter and changed them to a no. There are almost 6,000 people who receive a newsletter from the theatre! Yesterday seemed to go smoothly and we are excited with some of the new features that are now available to us. But experience has taught us to be very careful as we proceed with the new update. Alexis used to beg not to have to upgrade. I think it is like the new upgrades for Operating systems. Windows 98 used to crash all the time. They fixed it with Windows XP and then when we moved to Vista we had all sorts of problems. I'm gun shy on upgrading operating systems and this is similar to what we did with the ticketing system. We spend almost $3,000 a year on service and support for our ticketing system. The equipment and the system itself cost us $18,000 initially. I remember the days of pre-printed tickets and hand written charts. I still have to look back at those charts occasionally when I'm trying to gauge the old number of tickets sold for a show back in the early 90's. We have gone through 5 different ticketing systems since our first jump into computer ticketing. Getting reports and information out of the systems is so much easier but the draw back is that when our system is not working we are unable to sell anything.
April's about to finish up the first week of her two week camp Character Matters. Sylvia Steiner and Emily Hensel are both conducting classes in the afternoons. We are still in the process of doing maintenance and digging out. Each morning I walk into my office I think today I will dig this out and then I end up covered over with a project or problem and at the end of the day I walk out thinking I'll try to dig out tomorrow.
Cindy Miller has been rehearsing with the cast of Smoke on the Mountain Homecoming. I haven't been to any of the rehearsals yet as they are just working on the music. Next week I'll take a couple of the rehearsals while Cindy is out on vacation and see if I can teach a couple of the performers how to play my guitar and mandolin. It has been so many years since I played regularly that I'm very rusty but I still know the basics of how to play and chord structures and can usually help teach someone to play enough to get by. Fortunately about half of the cast already plays musical instruments so we are only trying to augment the sound with additional musical instruments. The last two shows we did of Smoke on the Mountain cast members learned how to play the string bass. Fortunately many of the songs were in a key that allowed the bass to play mostly open strings without having to worry about fretting the notes.
Debra Harned and I are going back and forth on the logo designs for the brochure for next season and work on the first program has already begun. A newsletter is in the very early stages and an annual report is in process to send to all of the members of the theatre. I hope to have the brochure ready to go to the printer by the end of this month.
The fund run is Saturday at Noble Park. If you participate don't forget to include MHT in your list of donors in your registration form!
April's about to finish up the first week of her two week camp Character Matters. Sylvia Steiner and Emily Hensel are both conducting classes in the afternoons. We are still in the process of doing maintenance and digging out. Each morning I walk into my office I think today I will dig this out and then I end up covered over with a project or problem and at the end of the day I walk out thinking I'll try to dig out tomorrow.
Cindy Miller has been rehearsing with the cast of Smoke on the Mountain Homecoming. I haven't been to any of the rehearsals yet as they are just working on the music. Next week I'll take a couple of the rehearsals while Cindy is out on vacation and see if I can teach a couple of the performers how to play my guitar and mandolin. It has been so many years since I played regularly that I'm very rusty but I still know the basics of how to play and chord structures and can usually help teach someone to play enough to get by. Fortunately about half of the cast already plays musical instruments so we are only trying to augment the sound with additional musical instruments. The last two shows we did of Smoke on the Mountain cast members learned how to play the string bass. Fortunately many of the songs were in a key that allowed the bass to play mostly open strings without having to worry about fretting the notes.
Debra Harned and I are going back and forth on the logo designs for the brochure for next season and work on the first program has already begun. A newsletter is in the very early stages and an annual report is in process to send to all of the members of the theatre. I hope to have the brochure ready to go to the printer by the end of this month.
The fund run is Saturday at Noble Park. If you participate don't forget to include MHT in your list of donors in your registration form!
Monday, July 13, 2009
Working out the details
The board finished up the retreat Sunday afternoon after planning several fundraising events for the upcoming year and discussing ways to increase volunteers and performers. One of the key areas the theatre needs to do a better job in is the recruitment and training of technical volunteers. Those technical positions for a play are often a little scary for newcomers who worry about having to have lots of knowledge in order to run lights and sound. The opposite is true. Our lighting system has been computerized for almost 20 years now. Our digital sound system is also very easy to run. If you can click a mouse button on a computer or push a button you can run light or sound. We use middle school and high school students as well as adults to fill tech crew positions. Many families make it a point to work tech together. Jim Roush and son Ted often run lights and follow spot for a play. Kim, Todd, and Daniel Yocum recently all worked on the Wizard of Oz crew. For people wanting to get involved this is the perfect way to meet lots of new people and do something fun and creative. Crew members make a commitment to be there from Tech Sunday (4 days before the show opens) through the dress rehearsals (Mon.-Wed. before the show opens) and then work all of the performances. For main stage shows that can run 2-3 weekends. For youth shows it can be as little as 1 weekend.
If you are interested in learning more about being on the tech crew for a show contact me or the box office.
Marsha Cash is busy working on filling season ticket orders. We are trying to find some creative ways to transition to our new seats next fall.
Classes for Character Matters Drama camp started this morning with April auditioning the kids, Janice measuring them for costumes and everyone playing theatre games. April does a daily newsletter of what happened during the day and what is on the schedule for the next day.
Jim is doing maintenance on the lighting and the masking drapes.
I'm working on sponsorship packets and grants. We have a terrific group of new board members set to make our 46th season a smashing success! If you are bored and looking for something to do this summer come down and lend a hand. We have lots of general maintenance projects that we are working on.
If you are interested in learning more about being on the tech crew for a show contact me or the box office.
Marsha Cash is busy working on filling season ticket orders. We are trying to find some creative ways to transition to our new seats next fall.
Classes for Character Matters Drama camp started this morning with April auditioning the kids, Janice measuring them for costumes and everyone playing theatre games. April does a daily newsletter of what happened during the day and what is on the schedule for the next day.
Jim is doing maintenance on the lighting and the masking drapes.
I'm working on sponsorship packets and grants. We have a terrific group of new board members set to make our 46th season a smashing success! If you are bored and looking for something to do this summer come down and lend a hand. We have lots of general maintenance projects that we are working on.
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Planning and Assessing
Friday evening the board of directors held the first of two sessions this weekend in a planning retreat. A range of issues were discussed including evaluating the mission of the theatre and its continued relevance to the community. How to assess the success in concrete and measurable terms. We spent some time taking a broad look at our current financial position and operations in comparison to other theatres with similar size budgets.
Most of the evening was spent talking about ways to improve our annual fund drive, sponsorships and program advertising campaigns. Lots of great ideas were generated. You will see some of these ideas realized in the next few months. One of those ideas is an annual report of the state of the theatre that will be sent to all current members.
Our fiscal year just ended on June 30. We are currently in the processes of submitting the final report to the Kentucky Arts Council which is a requirement for the grant that we received last season. We just received notification of our new grant award for 2009/2010 and it increased above last year. The Kentucky Arts Council has awarded MHT over $20,000 in grant funding for general operational support. Along with the City of Paducah's recent support statement for the current fiscal year we are proving to the city and the state how valuable MHT is not only as a source of quality of life programming in the community but also that we are an economic asset that provides $3.2 million worth of economic activity in our community and provides over 50 jobs as a result our programming. In tough economic times it still is a good investment and return when our local and state government supports MHT.
Another investment is the Kentucky Governors School for the Arts students who finish up their classes today with a final performance featuring some of their work they created over the past couple of weeks. We are thrilled to see so many students who have participated at MHT involved in the Governors School programs. Cindy and the Miller family are watching their daughter Katy do her presentation today in Musical Theatre. Then they are off to Louisville Music Theatre to see Robert Sharkey performing in Singing in the Rain tonight and tomorrow.
Most of the evening was spent talking about ways to improve our annual fund drive, sponsorships and program advertising campaigns. Lots of great ideas were generated. You will see some of these ideas realized in the next few months. One of those ideas is an annual report of the state of the theatre that will be sent to all current members.
Our fiscal year just ended on June 30. We are currently in the processes of submitting the final report to the Kentucky Arts Council which is a requirement for the grant that we received last season. We just received notification of our new grant award for 2009/2010 and it increased above last year. The Kentucky Arts Council has awarded MHT over $20,000 in grant funding for general operational support. Along with the City of Paducah's recent support statement for the current fiscal year we are proving to the city and the state how valuable MHT is not only as a source of quality of life programming in the community but also that we are an economic asset that provides $3.2 million worth of economic activity in our community and provides over 50 jobs as a result our programming. In tough economic times it still is a good investment and return when our local and state government supports MHT.
Another investment is the Kentucky Governors School for the Arts students who finish up their classes today with a final performance featuring some of their work they created over the past couple of weeks. We are thrilled to see so many students who have participated at MHT involved in the Governors School programs. Cindy and the Miller family are watching their daughter Katy do her presentation today in Musical Theatre. Then they are off to Louisville Music Theatre to see Robert Sharkey performing in Singing in the Rain tonight and tomorrow.
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