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.