The theatre closed for the holidays at 5 pm on Wednesday Dec. 23 and will reopen on Tuesday Jan. 5. The Monday before we closed Jim Keeney and I unbolted all of the old chairs and created the single aisle chairs for pick up. We had a couple of doubles, one triple and one 4 chair "row" that we moved to the corner building so those who wanted to pick them up in time for Christmas could do so. I got back into town today and went down to the theatre to see what mail had come in over the holidays. I was pleased to see that the newsletter made it out to mailboxes. This helps us get the word out about footlights classes starting and auditions for Boy in the Girls Bathroom. Jim and I have a lot of work to get done before the end of January with installing the new seats. Doing a thorough check of the lighting system. We hope to take down all of the lighting instruments and clean the lenses and check the lamp bases. Some of the lights are close to 50 years old and they are showing their age.
While on break I read 6 scripts. All of them are being considered for next season. We have romantic comedies, farces, murder mysteries, thrillers and a couple of great musicals to choose from. The play selection committee will present their slate of plays to the board of directors in January for a vote. The rights will be applied for and the season announced to public in early March. I am looking at several possibilities for some additional productions in the studio theatre. We took a break this season and did not schedule any adult studio productions so we could look at some alternative funding ideas. I'm hoping that we can have studio productions announced in March along with the main stage season.
Also while we were on vacation I purchased some equipment that I found on sale for April to use in her classes. She has had a real problem hauling all of her sound equipment around. I found a great small system with a big output of sound that she can play with a remote using her iPhone as the mp3 player. She is looking forward to using it for the many shows she is working on when school starts up again.
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
chairs and more
I received an email yesterday from Wenger Corp in Minnesota telling me that our chairs had just left the factory. We were supposed to get a call 24 hours prior to delivery. Delivery was estimated for anytime from 4-7 days. You can imagine my surprise this morning when the driver called and said he was Amerisource and would be arriving at the theatre in approx. 30 minutes.
I quickly grabbed Jim and we made space for the semi truck to back in Maiden Alley off of Kentucky and then back into our lot and up to the back doors. As the pallets were unloaded Jim and I lifted and carried all of the crates of chairs into the studio theatre. We proceeded to unpack some of the more damaged cardboard boxes to inspect for damage. A few of the chairs were bent from shipping but I've already contacted the factory rep and they are shipping new chairs as soon as I find the total number which are damaged. In a second surprise many of the arms on the chairs didn't have a place for an embedded donor plaque. The factory is shipping the new arms to us. Wenger is a good company and really seems to follow through on their sales and service.
Jim and I will tag the old chairs which have been sold and will begin the slow process of dis assembly next Monday. We may have a few of the old chairs ready for pickup just in time for Christmas. The new chairs will be installed after new years day.
We got some good news today on the stage drape front. Last fall the Paducah City Fire Marshall came and did his annual inspection of our facility. In the wake of the Immanuel Baptist Church fire all theatres and schools in the city were double checked for fireproofing certificates on the stage drapes. Our drapes were a donation from WKCTC and the flame proofing certificate has expired. We were looking at an expensive process of having to redo the flame proofing to get the new certificate. This process can stain and ruin the finish on the fabrics. We found a company that will do a flame test on all of our stage drapes. If the drapes pass the test they will certify them for an additional period of time. The drapes have all been treated with borax as a initial flame retardant. We are sending samples of our drapes for testing and keeping our fingers crossed that they all pass.
Tomorrow night is the December board meeting which will be held at my house. The board will each bring a dish and we will do a pot luck. Immediately following the meeting will be the final rehearsal of the Murder Mystery troupe show Reunion at Hippie High. We are the entertainment for the Lone Oak elementary teachers Christmas Party. We did a show last year for the Lone Oak High School teachers party.
Best Christmas Pageant Ever goes back in performance next Saturday and Sunday. The cast party will be held at the theatre immediately following the last show and the set strike. The theatre will be open next week on Tuesday and Wednesday for any final Gift Certificates and last minute Mini Season ticket passes. The the staff will go away to be with family and friends and return to work on Monday January 4.
I quickly grabbed Jim and we made space for the semi truck to back in Maiden Alley off of Kentucky and then back into our lot and up to the back doors. As the pallets were unloaded Jim and I lifted and carried all of the crates of chairs into the studio theatre. We proceeded to unpack some of the more damaged cardboard boxes to inspect for damage. A few of the chairs were bent from shipping but I've already contacted the factory rep and they are shipping new chairs as soon as I find the total number which are damaged. In a second surprise many of the arms on the chairs didn't have a place for an embedded donor plaque. The factory is shipping the new arms to us. Wenger is a good company and really seems to follow through on their sales and service.
Jim and I will tag the old chairs which have been sold and will begin the slow process of dis assembly next Monday. We may have a few of the old chairs ready for pickup just in time for Christmas. The new chairs will be installed after new years day.
We got some good news today on the stage drape front. Last fall the Paducah City Fire Marshall came and did his annual inspection of our facility. In the wake of the Immanuel Baptist Church fire all theatres and schools in the city were double checked for fireproofing certificates on the stage drapes. Our drapes were a donation from WKCTC and the flame proofing certificate has expired. We were looking at an expensive process of having to redo the flame proofing to get the new certificate. This process can stain and ruin the finish on the fabrics. We found a company that will do a flame test on all of our stage drapes. If the drapes pass the test they will certify them for an additional period of time. The drapes have all been treated with borax as a initial flame retardant. We are sending samples of our drapes for testing and keeping our fingers crossed that they all pass.
Tomorrow night is the December board meeting which will be held at my house. The board will each bring a dish and we will do a pot luck. Immediately following the meeting will be the final rehearsal of the Murder Mystery troupe show Reunion at Hippie High. We are the entertainment for the Lone Oak elementary teachers Christmas Party. We did a show last year for the Lone Oak High School teachers party.
Best Christmas Pageant Ever goes back in performance next Saturday and Sunday. The cast party will be held at the theatre immediately following the last show and the set strike. The theatre will be open next week on Tuesday and Wednesday for any final Gift Certificates and last minute Mini Season ticket passes. The the staff will go away to be with family and friends and return to work on Monday January 4.
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Christmas Tech
We had a long day yesterday setting light cues and reworking some of the ideas I had on color for the set. April came home last night and worked on developing the sound cues until after midnight. This morning I went in early and continued refining the lighting and sound cues. I've been fighting two requests that April has asked for. She wants to have a light that has a soft edge on it and at the same time doesn't allow light to spill past a very narrow beam. the second request is that the sound system has a hiss in it whenever I turn the volume up above a certain point. I worked hard today to get rid of the hiss but then didn't have enough volume to play the sound effects loud enough. Tomorrow I'm going back to the drawing board to try some other ideas.
Today about 1:30 I was inside the theatre and heard someone walking by the auditorium doors knocking on the doors. I thought it was the Herdman kids in the play since they were supposed to be walking outside from the back stage to the front of the theatre to make their entrance. I stuck my head out the door and spotted three kids walking away from the door dressed in the Herdman costume of hooded sweatshirt and jeans with baseball caps on backwards. I yelled at them to stop knocking on the theatre doors. When the kids turned around none of them were the actors. They were kids who just happened to be walking by causing mischief dressed exactly like the Herdman kids in the show. I stepped back in the theatre and started laughing. I told April and she laughed.
MHT board members Sid Hancock, Jennifer Hughes and her daughter Sydney, and Heather Overby all brought in Hot dogs, pizza, brownies, and soft drinks to show their appreciation to the cast and crew after the tech rehearsal while April gave notes.
We have had one electrical circuit in the theatre that decided to blow out right before the tech rehearsal today which left part of the stage in the dark. I didn't have time to get out the ladders and tear into the circuit to repair it. The dimmers had flipped themselve to protect the system. So we just left the dimmers flipped and tried to work around the problem for the rehearsal.
The theatre's lighting equipment is over 40 years old and is showing its age lately. The light board has developed a new little quirk in that some of the little LED's that show you the progress change from one cue to another are now erratic and 1/2 the time don't work at all. We have a couple of slide faders that are also becoming finicky. Lights ghost on after you turn the system off until the dimmers shut down. We have all sorts of safety checks to make sure everything is safe. Many of the theatre lighting instruments are constantly being repaired to keep them in operation. We've developed a stack in the scene shop of lighting instruments that need to have their insides reworked and retrofitted.
On a bright note The Best Christmas Pageant achieved its budgeted income goal for the run last Thursday. All of the the theatre's shows this year have met or exceeded their box office income. Of course the economy was so bad last year that we were very conservative in our estimates.
Today about 1:30 I was inside the theatre and heard someone walking by the auditorium doors knocking on the doors. I thought it was the Herdman kids in the play since they were supposed to be walking outside from the back stage to the front of the theatre to make their entrance. I stuck my head out the door and spotted three kids walking away from the door dressed in the Herdman costume of hooded sweatshirt and jeans with baseball caps on backwards. I yelled at them to stop knocking on the theatre doors. When the kids turned around none of them were the actors. They were kids who just happened to be walking by causing mischief dressed exactly like the Herdman kids in the show. I stepped back in the theatre and started laughing. I told April and she laughed.
MHT board members Sid Hancock, Jennifer Hughes and her daughter Sydney, and Heather Overby all brought in Hot dogs, pizza, brownies, and soft drinks to show their appreciation to the cast and crew after the tech rehearsal while April gave notes.
We have had one electrical circuit in the theatre that decided to blow out right before the tech rehearsal today which left part of the stage in the dark. I didn't have time to get out the ladders and tear into the circuit to repair it. The dimmers had flipped themselve to protect the system. So we just left the dimmers flipped and tried to work around the problem for the rehearsal.
The theatre's lighting equipment is over 40 years old and is showing its age lately. The light board has developed a new little quirk in that some of the little LED's that show you the progress change from one cue to another are now erratic and 1/2 the time don't work at all. We have a couple of slide faders that are also becoming finicky. Lights ghost on after you turn the system off until the dimmers shut down. We have all sorts of safety checks to make sure everything is safe. Many of the theatre lighting instruments are constantly being repaired to keep them in operation. We've developed a stack in the scene shop of lighting instruments that need to have their insides reworked and retrofitted.
On a bright note The Best Christmas Pageant achieved its budgeted income goal for the run last Thursday. All of the the theatre's shows this year have met or exceeded their box office income. Of course the economy was so bad last year that we were very conservative in our estimates.
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
December Hustle
I watched the first part of Best Christmas Pageant ever last night in rehearsal and tried out a new flip video camera I got to help post some rehearsal shots on the theatre's website and facebook page. I'm still getting the hang of it. Last night was a trial attempt and now that I know what it looks like I will start posting some video items. We worked through some curtain issues last night. Jim spent a day hanging and preparing a traveler track and main drape which we eliminated last night in an effort to make the transitions flow more smoothly. We had hung the drape in an effort to solve a different problem. Designing in some ways is like directing. You try one solution to solve a problem and it creates a second problem that is worse than the first. My biggest challenge right now is to dress the interior set for Best Christmas Pageant using materials that can be flat on the wall since the walls fold in on each other during the church scene. I'm hoping for some inspiration from the swirling ideas I've got. The difficulty lies in making a decision as to which path to follow.
On today's schedule to complete the furniture for Best Christmas and to decide on a wall treatment for the house scene. Yesterday we assembled the rear screen projection frame and I worked on lights. Today will be another day of working on lights and set and then taping out the set for God's Favorite. Diane Byrd and the cast for that show started staging the show last night based on the set Diane and I developed.
Marsha is under the weather today and so is Rhiannon. I'm hoping that one of them will be able to work the box office today while I continue working on the tech for Best Christmas. If they can't them I'm on box office duty for the afternoon.
On today's schedule to complete the furniture for Best Christmas and to decide on a wall treatment for the house scene. Yesterday we assembled the rear screen projection frame and I worked on lights. Today will be another day of working on lights and set and then taping out the set for God's Favorite. Diane Byrd and the cast for that show started staging the show last night based on the set Diane and I developed.
Marsha is under the weather today and so is Rhiannon. I'm hoping that one of them will be able to work the box office today while I continue working on the tech for Best Christmas. If they can't them I'm on box office duty for the afternoon.
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