It was 2:30 pm on December 23 and all through the house (Market House that is) not a creature was purring, not even a mouse (we've trapped them all).
The staff hung their stockings on the mantle (prop fireplace in the display window in front of the scene shop) with care in the hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there.
Marsha and Rhiannon were complaining to Michael. We need more time off for Christmas to prepare!
Janice was busy in her second floor shop, trying to find a pair of knickers for Chuck before we stop.
Jim was out bargaining for a ukelele for Ross. Who wants the actors to learn to play music without any props.
April was entertaining, now that school was out. She took Jade and a friend, to an afternoon movie bout.
Marsha was busy with Constant Contact. She's trying to import graphics, which gives her a pain in the back.
Rhiannon is sorting and delivering mail, she's also on the look out for anything with a tail.
Michael is in the office fixing websites and grants. He's drinking his coffee and shouting in rants.
The end of the day is coming quickly said he, I hope that we get all this stuff done by three!
So its off to the kennel! And off to the bank! Go dash to the post office and don't be a crank!
So to all Market House fans, both far and near, Have a Merry Merry Christmas and we'll see you next year!
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Mid Year Update
Yesterday we started experiencing some telephone equipment problems and will be working to correct those. If you call the theatre you may end up having to leave a message and we will return your call. We are having to bypass our telephone system in order to allow incoming calls to reach our box office during business hours without cutting them off. Its amazing what you can work around when you need to. Unfortunately our telephone equipment is almost 10 years old and is still operating on a Windows 95 computer system that we keep in the phone closet. We are investigating upgrading out system. We have certainly got our money's worth out of the system.
April is rushing around with classes in the schools while at the same time holding auditions for some of the school productions that she directs. Clark Elementary school will produce Cinderella Kids as their school play and she is holding auditions at the school this work along with the school music teacher Dale Julian. She recently had auditions at Lone Oak Elementary for a play she is working on there as well. April has so many different classes and plays going on that I can't keep up with her schedule.
Technical Director, Jim Keeney, is continuing to work on the Complete Works set and is also still trying to organize the warehouse. I'm really hoping that he gets some time to clean the scene shop. It's in desperate need of a cleaning after our hectic fall schedule. If anyone has some time to sort screws and do general clean up in the shop it would be greatly appreciated.
Business Manager Marsha Cash and Box Office Assistant Rhiannon McIntosh are still on the hunt for a mouse who has made the office its home. We've set out traps and other devices to try to rid ourselves of it. Today in the box office we heard paper behind one of the desks moving and when we investigated we found that our little friend was nibbling on our season ticket holder charts! While not playing mousetrap the office staff has been looking at colors and working with a printer on new ticket stock. We order about 25,000 blank tickets at a time and as we sell them they are printed with information. About every 18 months we have to order new stock. We've had pink, green, and blue tickets. This year's color choice seems to be moving towards a pale purple.
The MHT Board of Directors met last night for our December meeting. Some of the staff was able to join the board in a more social setting at the Cochran house to share some holiday food and merriment! In addition to the social setting the board did conduct a business meeting and we reviewed two important documents the theatre received during the last month.
The first document was the official audit for the last year we completed back in June which was done by CPA firm Williams, Williams and Lentz. We had a great year last year and the theatre ended the year with a small surplus of funds. We have already invested some of that surplus into the purchase of the Arcade building and contracting Webb Management services out of NYC to do a thorough review of our organization structure and needs. The board intends to use the rest of the surplus to help us build up our reserve funds for those years that we don't do as well. I have already posted the official audit on our website and will add some additional information regarding number of people served and economic impact later today to that posting.
The second document discussed was the Webb management report as well. The report confirmed to us that our #1 priority is to secure the long term usage of the Market House building. Our lease runs out in 2014 and without long term control of our current space the theatre is not willing to commit the $50-$75,000 of renovation expenses on the lobby and restrooms. A committee is being formed to evaluate options and then meet with city representatives. We are waiting for the release of the River Area Master Plan report commissioned by the city. We would like to have this resolved as soon as possible so that we can move on to other organizational and facility needs that are outlined in our consultant report.
Overall the theatre is in a strong financial shape and we are almost half way through our current fiscal year. We are on track to meet our financial goals for the current year. I can't say enough about the MHT Board of Directors and the great job they are doing. President Cindy Miller has devoted countless hours to staying in touch with MHT donors and sponsors and letting them know how much we appreciate their support, helping put together the Offstage Noises Newsletters, and so many other things. Vice President Melisa Mast has been vital to MHT's marketing efforts and fundraising efforts with posters and flyers and postcards. Board members Scott Taylor, Jennifer Hughes, Barbara Allen, Don Barger, Pam Benzing, Chip Bohle, Denise Bristol, Sarah Roman, Sid Hancock, Kijsa Housman, Kathryn Joyner, Heather Overby, and Kristin Williams are passionate about the mission of the theatre and actively involved in all the fundraising events and strategic planning for the theatre. I can't thank them enough for all their work to support the theatre and the staff. In addition the Trustee group has provided invaluable advice over the past year on finances, programming and facilities. MHT has so many people working very hard to make it a success and they don't get thanked nearly enough.
As we get ready for the holidays and look back on the year I also want to thank all of the volunteers who are the heart and soul of this organization. We have a group of dedicated ushers who always step forward every time Marsha sends out an email request for help. We have been blessed so far this year with an incredible pool of actors who have created shows that truly delighted audiences. The small group of dedicated technical crew members have stepped in to help out when we needed them most this year deserve a big thanks as well.
The theatre office will be open through December 23. We will be closed December 24 through Jan. 3. The offices will reopen after the holidays on Jan. 4. Many of the theatre staff head off to various parts of the country over the Christmas break to be with family. A big thank you goes to the MHT staff who puts so much time and passion into their work- Marsha Cash, Rhiannon McIntosh, Janice Peterson, Jim Keeney, and Sandy Harben for all their hard work in 2010! Finally I have to thank April, who amazes me constantly with her talent and abilities in theatre. The theatre would never have achieved as much success as it has if it wasn't for her unending hard work and sacrifice. Every time I think she's peaked she just keeps getting better.
April is rushing around with classes in the schools while at the same time holding auditions for some of the school productions that she directs. Clark Elementary school will produce Cinderella Kids as their school play and she is holding auditions at the school this work along with the school music teacher Dale Julian. She recently had auditions at Lone Oak Elementary for a play she is working on there as well. April has so many different classes and plays going on that I can't keep up with her schedule.
Technical Director, Jim Keeney, is continuing to work on the Complete Works set and is also still trying to organize the warehouse. I'm really hoping that he gets some time to clean the scene shop. It's in desperate need of a cleaning after our hectic fall schedule. If anyone has some time to sort screws and do general clean up in the shop it would be greatly appreciated.
Business Manager Marsha Cash and Box Office Assistant Rhiannon McIntosh are still on the hunt for a mouse who has made the office its home. We've set out traps and other devices to try to rid ourselves of it. Today in the box office we heard paper behind one of the desks moving and when we investigated we found that our little friend was nibbling on our season ticket holder charts! While not playing mousetrap the office staff has been looking at colors and working with a printer on new ticket stock. We order about 25,000 blank tickets at a time and as we sell them they are printed with information. About every 18 months we have to order new stock. We've had pink, green, and blue tickets. This year's color choice seems to be moving towards a pale purple.
The MHT Board of Directors met last night for our December meeting. Some of the staff was able to join the board in a more social setting at the Cochran house to share some holiday food and merriment! In addition to the social setting the board did conduct a business meeting and we reviewed two important documents the theatre received during the last month.
The first document was the official audit for the last year we completed back in June which was done by CPA firm Williams, Williams and Lentz. We had a great year last year and the theatre ended the year with a small surplus of funds. We have already invested some of that surplus into the purchase of the Arcade building and contracting Webb Management services out of NYC to do a thorough review of our organization structure and needs. The board intends to use the rest of the surplus to help us build up our reserve funds for those years that we don't do as well. I have already posted the official audit on our website and will add some additional information regarding number of people served and economic impact later today to that posting.
The second document discussed was the Webb management report as well. The report confirmed to us that our #1 priority is to secure the long term usage of the Market House building. Our lease runs out in 2014 and without long term control of our current space the theatre is not willing to commit the $50-$75,000 of renovation expenses on the lobby and restrooms. A committee is being formed to evaluate options and then meet with city representatives. We are waiting for the release of the River Area Master Plan report commissioned by the city. We would like to have this resolved as soon as possible so that we can move on to other organizational and facility needs that are outlined in our consultant report.
Overall the theatre is in a strong financial shape and we are almost half way through our current fiscal year. We are on track to meet our financial goals for the current year. I can't say enough about the MHT Board of Directors and the great job they are doing. President Cindy Miller has devoted countless hours to staying in touch with MHT donors and sponsors and letting them know how much we appreciate their support, helping put together the Offstage Noises Newsletters, and so many other things. Vice President Melisa Mast has been vital to MHT's marketing efforts and fundraising efforts with posters and flyers and postcards. Board members Scott Taylor, Jennifer Hughes, Barbara Allen, Don Barger, Pam Benzing, Chip Bohle, Denise Bristol, Sarah Roman, Sid Hancock, Kijsa Housman, Kathryn Joyner, Heather Overby, and Kristin Williams are passionate about the mission of the theatre and actively involved in all the fundraising events and strategic planning for the theatre. I can't thank them enough for all their work to support the theatre and the staff. In addition the Trustee group has provided invaluable advice over the past year on finances, programming and facilities. MHT has so many people working very hard to make it a success and they don't get thanked nearly enough.
As we get ready for the holidays and look back on the year I also want to thank all of the volunteers who are the heart and soul of this organization. We have a group of dedicated ushers who always step forward every time Marsha sends out an email request for help. We have been blessed so far this year with an incredible pool of actors who have created shows that truly delighted audiences. The small group of dedicated technical crew members have stepped in to help out when we needed them most this year deserve a big thanks as well.
The theatre office will be open through December 23. We will be closed December 24 through Jan. 3. The offices will reopen after the holidays on Jan. 4. Many of the theatre staff head off to various parts of the country over the Christmas break to be with family. A big thank you goes to the MHT staff who puts so much time and passion into their work- Marsha Cash, Rhiannon McIntosh, Janice Peterson, Jim Keeney, and Sandy Harben for all their hard work in 2010! Finally I have to thank April, who amazes me constantly with her talent and abilities in theatre. The theatre would never have achieved as much success as it has if it wasn't for her unending hard work and sacrifice. Every time I think she's peaked she just keeps getting better.
Sunday, December 5, 2010
December 5 2010
The Story Theatre tour ended with a shocking finale at Meridian Elementary school. The Gym floor was made of small hardened rubber tiles that seemed to generate static electricity. Everything that we touched created a static shock. During the show I played the Wolf and put on Grandma's cape and glasses. After Little Red (Julie Price) discovers its the wolf in Grandma's bed, she gets chased around the stage with the wolf trying to get her goodies. I finally got the basket and pretended to eat all of the goodies and then got sleepy and fell asleep on the bed. Kim Yocum who played the Grandmother came out of hiding in the closet and took her glasses off the sleeping wolf's face and put them on. When Kim touched the glasses perched on my nose a large static shock was created between the glasses and my nose. It was everything I could do to keep pretending I was asleep and Kim had to fight bursting into laughter as the Grandma. It is certainly an electrifying moment in the final performance that I will always remember.
Last Thursday night the Lone Oak Middle School presented a murder mystery performance performed by the drama club and directed by April. The kids did a great job and the event sold out. April did a great job of directing as well. The event raised money for the school library.
Last week Jim Keeney cut a section of the front of the stage out and built steps to insert in the center front of the stage for the Complete Works of Shakespeare. There is a section of the show that requires the actors in the audience. We took rows A-G and separated the rows between seats 6 & 7. Seats 1-6 are now on the house right and seats 7-13 are on house left with a center aisle between them. We put in an aisle all the way across the theatre in front of row H for access to the center aisle. Marsha Cash and Rhiannon Mackintosh called those ticket holders who sit in seats 6 & 7 and either confirmed that they were okay with the change for Complete Works or moved them into open seats next to their original seats. The new seats we purchased at the beginning of 2010 allowed us to create this option for the Shakespeare show. I want to stress that this arrangement is just for this production of Complete Works.
The theatre has received the draft of the first part of our consultant report and it stresses the need for MHT to tackle several issues. The most important issue is for the theatre to get a long term commitment from the City of Paducah to occupy the Market House building. The theatre's lease ends in 2014 and we are in discussions with the consultants from the River Area Master Plan and the city to work out long term agreement. A second issue is a restroom renovation in the main theatre. Our preliminary costs are over $50,000 for the renovation. Over the next few months the theatre board will review the consultants reports and look for ways forward.
Tomorrow, Dec. 6 the staff will take the day off and celebrate the holidays with a lunch and then a movie in the afternoon. This is an annual staff tradition at the theatre. The next few weeks up to the Christmas break we will be working on the set fo the Complete Works of Shakespeare and continuing organizing our warehouse space. I'm putting the old theatre seats on sale on a couple of online websites to see if we can sell off the approximately 170 seats that are currently in storage. If you know of anyone who is interested in buying the seats have them contact the theatre.
On December 10 the theatre is rented for a musical group presenting a Doo Wop Christmas show. We have posters on the theatre doors that promote the event for the group.
Last Thursday night the Lone Oak Middle School presented a murder mystery performance performed by the drama club and directed by April. The kids did a great job and the event sold out. April did a great job of directing as well. The event raised money for the school library.
Last week Jim Keeney cut a section of the front of the stage out and built steps to insert in the center front of the stage for the Complete Works of Shakespeare. There is a section of the show that requires the actors in the audience. We took rows A-G and separated the rows between seats 6 & 7. Seats 1-6 are now on the house right and seats 7-13 are on house left with a center aisle between them. We put in an aisle all the way across the theatre in front of row H for access to the center aisle. Marsha Cash and Rhiannon Mackintosh called those ticket holders who sit in seats 6 & 7 and either confirmed that they were okay with the change for Complete Works or moved them into open seats next to their original seats. The new seats we purchased at the beginning of 2010 allowed us to create this option for the Shakespeare show. I want to stress that this arrangement is just for this production of Complete Works.
The theatre has received the draft of the first part of our consultant report and it stresses the need for MHT to tackle several issues. The most important issue is for the theatre to get a long term commitment from the City of Paducah to occupy the Market House building. The theatre's lease ends in 2014 and we are in discussions with the consultants from the River Area Master Plan and the city to work out long term agreement. A second issue is a restroom renovation in the main theatre. Our preliminary costs are over $50,000 for the renovation. Over the next few months the theatre board will review the consultants reports and look for ways forward.
Tomorrow, Dec. 6 the staff will take the day off and celebrate the holidays with a lunch and then a movie in the afternoon. This is an annual staff tradition at the theatre. The next few weeks up to the Christmas break we will be working on the set fo the Complete Works of Shakespeare and continuing organizing our warehouse space. I'm putting the old theatre seats on sale on a couple of online websites to see if we can sell off the approximately 170 seats that are currently in storage. If you know of anyone who is interested in buying the seats have them contact the theatre.
On December 10 the theatre is rented for a musical group presenting a Doo Wop Christmas show. We have posters on the theatre doors that promote the event for the group.
Sunday, November 14, 2010
11-14-2010
I don’t think I could be any more tired. Bloody Murder opened Thursday night to a great show. Jennifer Poff has done an outstanding job of coming in with only a couple of weeks before opening to take on the role of Lady Somerset. She has the largest amount of lines in the play and has really worked hard and it has paid off. Veteran cast members Kris Shanks, Tom Dolan, Rayla Trigg, Roy Hensel all do a great job. Kris Shanks would laugh being called a veteran considering just 5 months ago she was making her MHT debut. Seth Mittendorf who is making his debut with Bloody Murder has also turned in a great performance. With one weekend of the show now complete the audience response has been very positive and the cast can take a well deserved couple of days off before they start back up next Thursday.
Saturday saw a cold morning alternating between light rain and misting rain. The theatre was fortunate enough to be able to borrow a large truck from Ray Black and Son to try to move a majority of the 3,000 square feet of storage from the Easter Seals building behind Bikeworld to the theatre’s new storage building inside the old Arcade theatre. A small but determined crew turned out to take 4 truckloads of scenery. A huge thank you goes to Diane Bryd, Patt Lynch, and Charles Keeney who joined Jim Keeney and I from 9am-5pm lifting and carrying scenery. Jim’s parents joined in about mid day and stayed until the end. Luke Wilkins worked in the morning and had to leave mid day. The move was exhausting. Patt Lynch took lots of photos and I hope that I can get a copy of them to post on facebook.
Jim, his brother Charles, and I continued the move Sunday morning with the borrowed truck. The three of us did a load in the morning and then while I covered the Sunday matinee of Bloody Murder, Jim and Charles installed more racks at the arcade. As soon as the show was over the three of us went back to the Easter Seals and loaded all of the platforms and step units. As of Sunday night about ½ of the scenery has been transferred from the Easter Seals to the Arcade. Jim and I will continue during the week to take a couple of loads every day as weather and time permits. Our goal is to be out of the Easter Seals completely by Thanksgiving. We have two weeks left and I think we can make it. If anyone has time and the ability to help we can certainly use the help. Contact Jim Keeney or Marsha Cash and let them know when you are available.
MHT Board Members have been coming in to work on the annual fund drive campaign. Hopefully those letters will be out by mid week. I read in the paper today about the Carson Center year end deficit. We should have the MHT audit completed with the next couple of days and will share that with the public. We had a positive year that ended last June 30. By all of our early estimates MHT ended the year with a surplus of funds due to better than expected fundraising by the board of directors, strong box office receipts and a continued effort to reduce expenses.
While MHT ended the year with a surplus we have also invested a great deal of that surplus on consultants to help us with strategic planning for the next 3 years and the purchase of the arcade theatre building to solve our continuing storage problems. We hope that these expenses will help MHT be even more solvent in the future. The theatre staff and board have spent a great deal of time and effort on sustainability and long term financial growth for Market House Theatre.
Monday evening the play selection committee will meet again. We have a couple of great musicals that we are looking at. Several comedies and romantic comedies have been read and we are still looking for new scripts. It was just 12 months ago that we discovered the brand new script Bloody Murder. It is our goal to find great scripts and put them together with dedicated and talented actors and create a season that not only audiences will buy tickets for, but that actors want to audition for as well. Occasionally audience members will email me or tell me suggestions for scripts they have seen at other theatres. I’m always happy to hear from audiences and performers to try to balance a season of plays.
There are a few weeks left to book Todd Duff as a sleight of hand artist for holiday parities. All the proceeds from Todd’s bookings in November and December go to the Market House Theatre. Todd is incredibly talented and a big hit at any party. Don’t miss out!
Saturday saw a cold morning alternating between light rain and misting rain. The theatre was fortunate enough to be able to borrow a large truck from Ray Black and Son to try to move a majority of the 3,000 square feet of storage from the Easter Seals building behind Bikeworld to the theatre’s new storage building inside the old Arcade theatre. A small but determined crew turned out to take 4 truckloads of scenery. A huge thank you goes to Diane Bryd, Patt Lynch, and Charles Keeney who joined Jim Keeney and I from 9am-5pm lifting and carrying scenery. Jim’s parents joined in about mid day and stayed until the end. Luke Wilkins worked in the morning and had to leave mid day. The move was exhausting. Patt Lynch took lots of photos and I hope that I can get a copy of them to post on facebook.
Jim, his brother Charles, and I continued the move Sunday morning with the borrowed truck. The three of us did a load in the morning and then while I covered the Sunday matinee of Bloody Murder, Jim and Charles installed more racks at the arcade. As soon as the show was over the three of us went back to the Easter Seals and loaded all of the platforms and step units. As of Sunday night about ½ of the scenery has been transferred from the Easter Seals to the Arcade. Jim and I will continue during the week to take a couple of loads every day as weather and time permits. Our goal is to be out of the Easter Seals completely by Thanksgiving. We have two weeks left and I think we can make it. If anyone has time and the ability to help we can certainly use the help. Contact Jim Keeney or Marsha Cash and let them know when you are available.
MHT Board Members have been coming in to work on the annual fund drive campaign. Hopefully those letters will be out by mid week. I read in the paper today about the Carson Center year end deficit. We should have the MHT audit completed with the next couple of days and will share that with the public. We had a positive year that ended last June 30. By all of our early estimates MHT ended the year with a surplus of funds due to better than expected fundraising by the board of directors, strong box office receipts and a continued effort to reduce expenses.
While MHT ended the year with a surplus we have also invested a great deal of that surplus on consultants to help us with strategic planning for the next 3 years and the purchase of the arcade theatre building to solve our continuing storage problems. We hope that these expenses will help MHT be even more solvent in the future. The theatre staff and board have spent a great deal of time and effort on sustainability and long term financial growth for Market House Theatre.
Monday evening the play selection committee will meet again. We have a couple of great musicals that we are looking at. Several comedies and romantic comedies have been read and we are still looking for new scripts. It was just 12 months ago that we discovered the brand new script Bloody Murder. It is our goal to find great scripts and put them together with dedicated and talented actors and create a season that not only audiences will buy tickets for, but that actors want to audition for as well. Occasionally audience members will email me or tell me suggestions for scripts they have seen at other theatres. I’m always happy to hear from audiences and performers to try to balance a season of plays.
There are a few weeks left to book Todd Duff as a sleight of hand artist for holiday parities. All the proceeds from Todd’s bookings in November and December go to the Market House Theatre. Todd is incredibly talented and a big hit at any party. Don’t miss out!
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
10-26-2010
It seems I've just posted and it's already been a week. Alice in Wonderland Jr. finished up its run last weekend with terrific audience response. The cast and crew did an outstanding job with the production and it was received with an overwhelmingly positive response from audiences.
Last Friday the MHT Ghost Tours moved to Oak Grove Cemetery. Friday night's fundraising event was a terrific success. MHT Board President Cindy Miller and committee chair Kathryn Joyner along with committee members Heather Overby, Melisa Mast did a great job. All MHT board members contributed food for the event and helped with hosting at the hospitality tent. Tour guides Kim Yocum, Cat Tilker, Fowler Black and Marsha Cash did an outstanding job of learning the script with very little time and creating historical portrayals of the people interred in Oak Grove Cemetery. Saturday night the response was so positive that we added a tour at 7:20 after the 7:00 and 7:45 tours sold out. The guides were kept very busy just finishing up one tour group as another appeared.
A big thank you goes to the Paducah Parks department for helping MHT make this event possible. The night tours of the Mausoleum were a big hit with those taking the tour. The combination of history and a beautiful fall evening, with a full moon both nights, led to a wonderful event. The Oak Grove Cemetery tours continue this Thursday and Friday evening.
MHT has a board meeting this Wednesday to review the completed first quarter of the year. We have struggled with some income areas due to the economy and exceeded our goals in other areas. This year with the purchase of the Arcade building for storage has added a few additional expenses to get the building ready for use. MHT had to do over $2,000 in brick work to stabilize the building in addition to the purchase price. The electrical costs will also run about a $1,000 to get electric service to the building. The theatre has engaged Webb Management resources from NY to do a thorough review of MHT operations and our current facilities. All these things add up and the theatre board has done a great job of trying to balance the additional costs while staying within the budget and a strong financial position. MHT staff continues to keep a close eye on expenses as well.
Bloody Murder has gone through a couple of cast changes as it makes its way towards opening. One of the actors who was first cast had to drop out due to a family medical situation which required them to travel to be with their loved ones. Sunday the cast of Alice in Wonderland and some wonderful parents of some of the kids came in and we cleared the stage after the final performance. On Monday, Jim Keeney and I set up several flats for the beginning of the set for Bloody Murder and the cast moved to the stage with furniture and most of the walls in place less than 24 hours after the full Alice in Wonderland performance ended.
Debra Harned is finishing up the last of the program for Bloody Murder to submit this week while the newsletter written by Don Barger, Sarah Roman, Cindy Miller and myself goes to press. In addition the theatre is just about to send out our annual fund drive information. October has been a very, very, busy month.
Last Friday the MHT Ghost Tours moved to Oak Grove Cemetery. Friday night's fundraising event was a terrific success. MHT Board President Cindy Miller and committee chair Kathryn Joyner along with committee members Heather Overby, Melisa Mast did a great job. All MHT board members contributed food for the event and helped with hosting at the hospitality tent. Tour guides Kim Yocum, Cat Tilker, Fowler Black and Marsha Cash did an outstanding job of learning the script with very little time and creating historical portrayals of the people interred in Oak Grove Cemetery. Saturday night the response was so positive that we added a tour at 7:20 after the 7:00 and 7:45 tours sold out. The guides were kept very busy just finishing up one tour group as another appeared.
A big thank you goes to the Paducah Parks department for helping MHT make this event possible. The night tours of the Mausoleum were a big hit with those taking the tour. The combination of history and a beautiful fall evening, with a full moon both nights, led to a wonderful event. The Oak Grove Cemetery tours continue this Thursday and Friday evening.
MHT has a board meeting this Wednesday to review the completed first quarter of the year. We have struggled with some income areas due to the economy and exceeded our goals in other areas. This year with the purchase of the Arcade building for storage has added a few additional expenses to get the building ready for use. MHT had to do over $2,000 in brick work to stabilize the building in addition to the purchase price. The electrical costs will also run about a $1,000 to get electric service to the building. The theatre has engaged Webb Management resources from NY to do a thorough review of MHT operations and our current facilities. All these things add up and the theatre board has done a great job of trying to balance the additional costs while staying within the budget and a strong financial position. MHT staff continues to keep a close eye on expenses as well.
Bloody Murder has gone through a couple of cast changes as it makes its way towards opening. One of the actors who was first cast had to drop out due to a family medical situation which required them to travel to be with their loved ones. Sunday the cast of Alice in Wonderland and some wonderful parents of some of the kids came in and we cleared the stage after the final performance. On Monday, Jim Keeney and I set up several flats for the beginning of the set for Bloody Murder and the cast moved to the stage with furniture and most of the walls in place less than 24 hours after the full Alice in Wonderland performance ended.
Debra Harned is finishing up the last of the program for Bloody Murder to submit this week while the newsletter written by Don Barger, Sarah Roman, Cindy Miller and myself goes to press. In addition the theatre is just about to send out our annual fund drive information. October has been a very, very, busy month.
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
10-19-2010
It has been a long week since my last post. Alice in Wonderland Jr opened to rave reviews. I think that April has outdone herself again and the show ranks right up there with some of the best productions MHT has ever done. The cast is terrific and Janice Peterson's costumes really shine. Kelly Salchli who was the scenic artist also did a terrific job of creating a fantasy world. When I designed the panels, I asked Kelly to paint topiary with hidden animals in the bushes and wispy images of Alice in the clouds. She did a great job of hiding the images and you have to look close to find them all. See how many you can find if you attend the play next weekend. The cast did six school matinees which were sold out with standing room only. The public performances have been about 95% capacity. The cast is currently off for 4 days and will return for 2 final performances next Saturday and Sunday afternoon. If you haven't seen it don't wait to get tickets because I anticipate tickets will go fast for the final two performances.
The Downtown Walking and Bus Ghost Tours started off the month of October slow and last weekend finished with a bang! We had to add two additional tours on Saturday evening to accommodate the ticket demand. A very special thanks goes out to all the guides, Marsha Cash, Phil Counts, Cat Tilker, and Fowler Black. Last Friday evening while Alice in Wonderland was performing on the stage Cat Tilker had to lead all 3 walking tours that night. The following night Marsha Cash and I did three walking tours each and Fowler did both bus tours. Saturday night we did a total of 7 tours between 6:30 and 9:30. Speaking from experience as one of the guides to do 3 tours in a row takes a little over 3 hours of solid walking and speaking with only enough time to get a drink of water before heading out with the next tour. Great job Cat and Marsha! Fowler had his own unique experience with the bus tours on Friday night. The bus he was in stopped across the street from the old first national bank building on 3rd street near the Silver Bullet bar. Fowler was telling the tale of Popular Foot and suddenly a man dressed in dark clothing with a short cane staggered up to the bus and began to bank on the doors. The people on the tour were all startled and thought it was part of the tour. Fowler got off the bus to talk with the man who had obviously too much to drink and tried to get him to go back into the Silver Bullet. The man was quite obstinate. The amazing thing was that the story of Popular Foot is about a man who has his head cut off by a wagon wheel. The man in dark clothes that banged on the bus doors had a scar that ran from behind his ear almost all the way around his neck! Fowler said he was a little spooked by the coincidence as well! One of the people on the tour bus called the police because they were afraid the man would hurt himself falling in the street. The police showed up and Fowlers bus tour continued on. Needless to say it was a memorable event for everyone on the bus when "Popular Foot" made an appearance!
A huge thank you goes to First Presbyterian church and the several members of the church who volunteered as drivers for the tours. I can't thank the church and those volunteers enough for helping us with our tours.
Story theatre is in the final weeks before it sets out on tour with Little Red Riding Hood. The cast rehearses during the mornings and we are racing to get that set built and painted before it goes on Tour Nov. 1. Yesterday the brick and block work was completed at the old Arcade building. The electrician was there most of the day putting in the new power meter and breaker panel. Jim and I spent about 2 hours yesterday sweeping and removing dust and debris from the floor so that we could start moving furniture and scenery from the Easter Seals building to the Arcade. We can't begin the official move until we have permission from he building inspector after they look at the brick and block work and approve the electrical lighting for the space.
Bloody Murder is in rehearsal each week night. Last night The Complete Works of Shakespeare took advantage of the free stage space in the main theatre to rehearse with a couple of the cast members. Play selection met last night and discussed several plays.
This week we are working hard with the board and the staff to get ready for the Oak Grove tours starting Friday with the fundraising event. The tour guides from the walking tours are helping me with the Oak Grove tours and I owe them a huge thanks and apologies for getting them the script so late. Some of them are just getting their scripts today! They will have about 3 days to cram for the event in order to learn their parts. I'm still writing my part for the tours and will hopefully have it polished and ready to go before Friday as well.
Sunday evening I lead a tour for the First Presbyterian youth group as a way of saying thank you for the loan of the bus. As I finished up the last stories I did find myself sad and proud. Sad that the downtown walking tours had reached the end for this year as we move to Oak Grove and proud of all of the guides and the board members who helped make these tours happen. They all deserve a rousing ovation and my heartfelt thanks for creating something that was truly memorable.
The Downtown Walking and Bus Ghost Tours started off the month of October slow and last weekend finished with a bang! We had to add two additional tours on Saturday evening to accommodate the ticket demand. A very special thanks goes out to all the guides, Marsha Cash, Phil Counts, Cat Tilker, and Fowler Black. Last Friday evening while Alice in Wonderland was performing on the stage Cat Tilker had to lead all 3 walking tours that night. The following night Marsha Cash and I did three walking tours each and Fowler did both bus tours. Saturday night we did a total of 7 tours between 6:30 and 9:30. Speaking from experience as one of the guides to do 3 tours in a row takes a little over 3 hours of solid walking and speaking with only enough time to get a drink of water before heading out with the next tour. Great job Cat and Marsha! Fowler had his own unique experience with the bus tours on Friday night. The bus he was in stopped across the street from the old first national bank building on 3rd street near the Silver Bullet bar. Fowler was telling the tale of Popular Foot and suddenly a man dressed in dark clothing with a short cane staggered up to the bus and began to bank on the doors. The people on the tour were all startled and thought it was part of the tour. Fowler got off the bus to talk with the man who had obviously too much to drink and tried to get him to go back into the Silver Bullet. The man was quite obstinate. The amazing thing was that the story of Popular Foot is about a man who has his head cut off by a wagon wheel. The man in dark clothes that banged on the bus doors had a scar that ran from behind his ear almost all the way around his neck! Fowler said he was a little spooked by the coincidence as well! One of the people on the tour bus called the police because they were afraid the man would hurt himself falling in the street. The police showed up and Fowlers bus tour continued on. Needless to say it was a memorable event for everyone on the bus when "Popular Foot" made an appearance!
A huge thank you goes to First Presbyterian church and the several members of the church who volunteered as drivers for the tours. I can't thank the church and those volunteers enough for helping us with our tours.
Story theatre is in the final weeks before it sets out on tour with Little Red Riding Hood. The cast rehearses during the mornings and we are racing to get that set built and painted before it goes on Tour Nov. 1. Yesterday the brick and block work was completed at the old Arcade building. The electrician was there most of the day putting in the new power meter and breaker panel. Jim and I spent about 2 hours yesterday sweeping and removing dust and debris from the floor so that we could start moving furniture and scenery from the Easter Seals building to the Arcade. We can't begin the official move until we have permission from he building inspector after they look at the brick and block work and approve the electrical lighting for the space.
Bloody Murder is in rehearsal each week night. Last night The Complete Works of Shakespeare took advantage of the free stage space in the main theatre to rehearse with a couple of the cast members. Play selection met last night and discussed several plays.
This week we are working hard with the board and the staff to get ready for the Oak Grove tours starting Friday with the fundraising event. The tour guides from the walking tours are helping me with the Oak Grove tours and I owe them a huge thanks and apologies for getting them the script so late. Some of them are just getting their scripts today! They will have about 3 days to cram for the event in order to learn their parts. I'm still writing my part for the tours and will hopefully have it polished and ready to go before Friday as well.
Sunday evening I lead a tour for the First Presbyterian youth group as a way of saying thank you for the loan of the bus. As I finished up the last stories I did find myself sad and proud. Sad that the downtown walking tours had reached the end for this year as we move to Oak Grove and proud of all of the guides and the board members who helped make these tours happen. They all deserve a rousing ovation and my heartfelt thanks for creating something that was truly memorable.
Monday, October 11, 2010
10-10-10
I've always liked dates that have symmetry.
We have officially entered Tech Week for Alice in Wonderland Jr. That means that a tremendous amount of work has to be completed in a short time. Costumer Janice Peterson has been burning the midnight oil trying to get costumes ready and she still has a ways to go before we open Thursday. Some of the actors had complete costumes, but other were still wearing street clothes because their costumes were still awaiting assembly in the costume shop. The set was about 3/4 completed, lacking mostly just the final painting for Wonderland. Stools that Tech Director Jim Keeney had built remained raw wood and some of the prop pieces that drop from the "sky" were still "do-fers". For instance the bottle that magically appears for Alice to drink from was a green plastic Sprite bottle for rehearsal until the real bottle is created and attached. Jim Keeney is still working on the shades that we are using to create the look of the scenery growning and shrinking as Alice changes size during the show. They have to rise to a height of 10 feet and shrink to as little as 2 feet.
The scenic projections were purchased from Istock photo and Creststock photo. Some of them were Photoshopped to create a more illustrated look to match the painting on the set walls. I must have looked at almost 2,000 photos and illustrations to find the 10 images that will end up being in the show. In addition there is some video for Alice falling down the rabbit hole. I purchased the video and then opened it in video editing software to expand the length of the looped software. After several tries I finally got the 20 second video clip extended to 5 minutes. We projected the video and I immediately realized that I needed to put the video in slow motion. When I went back in and edited the video to create a slow motion effect the video slowed down but became jerky as it seemed to pause just slightly every so often. That lost the fluid movement that the extended video had so we then changed it back to the first video.
Tech week is full taking an idea that you have created which works in theory and then putting it into practice. What usually happens is that part of it works and part of it doesn't so you then begin to redesign and rebuild to work through the problems at each phase of the process until you have a finished product. I loaded the sound into the computer and April edited it into the software that we use for playback. We found there was a loud buzz in the system. After spending time making sure that all of the power sources were run through a power conditioner to eliminate any grounding problems I was no closer to solving the mystery of the buzz. I then began to change out all of the sound cables to see if one of them was laying across a power source or was unshielded. After several cords were changed out I finally found the culprit and eliminated about 90% of the buzz. There is still a few more cables to move and check but that requires ladders to trace the sound cables over 75 feet that winds its way from the back of the theatre to the stage.
All of this can lead to incredible stress on the director of the show. April is trying to pull all the actors together while the technical elements are added and sometimes eliminated for re-working and then re-added. Trying to make decisions as to what is acceptable, and what must change is a constant battle for all directors and designers. An example from yesterday's tech rehearsal were actors who were standing on the edge of the light at the front of the stage. Do you move the actors about a foot or do you refocus the lights a foot further over. If you refocus then the lights may light up an area that you are trying not to light because you want to reduce the acting area so that the entire set isn't lit. I probably have 50 lighting notes about refocusing, or redesigning some lighting cues to eliminate the actors standing at the edge of the scene who are in partially in the dark.
Friday MHT officially closed on the old Arcade theatre building after 2 1/2 months of setbacks. We still have some hurdles to jump getting the building ready for use as a storage space but the deal has at least been completed. This week masons will come in and brick up door openings between the Arcade theatre section and the rest of the Arcade building to create a firewall between the buildings. As soon as that is complete and new electric service is run and attached to the building then we can start moving our current storage space contents into the new building.
Saturday morning after about 2 weeks of smelling random natural gas on the side walk between the offices and the scene shop I called the gas company and they came out and found a small gas leak at a valve under the brick street. Saturday morning the gas company closed off 1/2 of the market house square (right during Market Square Mornings) and dug up part of the street to fix the leak. I was a little concerned about its effects on Market Square Mornings and the Ghost Tours for Saturday night but the street was reopened that afternoon with barricades around the hole in the street and waling and bus tours went on without a hitch. Next Friday and Saturday will conclude the last tours downtown before we move our historic tours to Oak Grove Cemetery on Oct. 22.
On the things to do list for this week are finish up Alice and get it open, story theatre rehearsals for Little Red Riding Hood and get that set design finalized, get a set design finalized so Phil Counts can begin staging for Bloody Murder which is rehearsing each night this week, get the Fall Annual Fund Drive letter printed and processed, get the Arcade ready for storage, read scripts for next season, finish up the research on the Oak Grove Cemetery script and planning for the event, do final details on the Mad Hatter Tea Party in connection with Alice in Wonderland, and hopefully selling lots of tickets to all of the events!
We have officially entered Tech Week for Alice in Wonderland Jr. That means that a tremendous amount of work has to be completed in a short time. Costumer Janice Peterson has been burning the midnight oil trying to get costumes ready and she still has a ways to go before we open Thursday. Some of the actors had complete costumes, but other were still wearing street clothes because their costumes were still awaiting assembly in the costume shop. The set was about 3/4 completed, lacking mostly just the final painting for Wonderland. Stools that Tech Director Jim Keeney had built remained raw wood and some of the prop pieces that drop from the "sky" were still "do-fers". For instance the bottle that magically appears for Alice to drink from was a green plastic Sprite bottle for rehearsal until the real bottle is created and attached. Jim Keeney is still working on the shades that we are using to create the look of the scenery growning and shrinking as Alice changes size during the show. They have to rise to a height of 10 feet and shrink to as little as 2 feet.
The scenic projections were purchased from Istock photo and Creststock photo. Some of them were Photoshopped to create a more illustrated look to match the painting on the set walls. I must have looked at almost 2,000 photos and illustrations to find the 10 images that will end up being in the show. In addition there is some video for Alice falling down the rabbit hole. I purchased the video and then opened it in video editing software to expand the length of the looped software. After several tries I finally got the 20 second video clip extended to 5 minutes. We projected the video and I immediately realized that I needed to put the video in slow motion. When I went back in and edited the video to create a slow motion effect the video slowed down but became jerky as it seemed to pause just slightly every so often. That lost the fluid movement that the extended video had so we then changed it back to the first video.
Tech week is full taking an idea that you have created which works in theory and then putting it into practice. What usually happens is that part of it works and part of it doesn't so you then begin to redesign and rebuild to work through the problems at each phase of the process until you have a finished product. I loaded the sound into the computer and April edited it into the software that we use for playback. We found there was a loud buzz in the system. After spending time making sure that all of the power sources were run through a power conditioner to eliminate any grounding problems I was no closer to solving the mystery of the buzz. I then began to change out all of the sound cables to see if one of them was laying across a power source or was unshielded. After several cords were changed out I finally found the culprit and eliminated about 90% of the buzz. There is still a few more cables to move and check but that requires ladders to trace the sound cables over 75 feet that winds its way from the back of the theatre to the stage.
All of this can lead to incredible stress on the director of the show. April is trying to pull all the actors together while the technical elements are added and sometimes eliminated for re-working and then re-added. Trying to make decisions as to what is acceptable, and what must change is a constant battle for all directors and designers. An example from yesterday's tech rehearsal were actors who were standing on the edge of the light at the front of the stage. Do you move the actors about a foot or do you refocus the lights a foot further over. If you refocus then the lights may light up an area that you are trying not to light because you want to reduce the acting area so that the entire set isn't lit. I probably have 50 lighting notes about refocusing, or redesigning some lighting cues to eliminate the actors standing at the edge of the scene who are in partially in the dark.
Friday MHT officially closed on the old Arcade theatre building after 2 1/2 months of setbacks. We still have some hurdles to jump getting the building ready for use as a storage space but the deal has at least been completed. This week masons will come in and brick up door openings between the Arcade theatre section and the rest of the Arcade building to create a firewall between the buildings. As soon as that is complete and new electric service is run and attached to the building then we can start moving our current storage space contents into the new building.
Saturday morning after about 2 weeks of smelling random natural gas on the side walk between the offices and the scene shop I called the gas company and they came out and found a small gas leak at a valve under the brick street. Saturday morning the gas company closed off 1/2 of the market house square (right during Market Square Mornings) and dug up part of the street to fix the leak. I was a little concerned about its effects on Market Square Mornings and the Ghost Tours for Saturday night but the street was reopened that afternoon with barricades around the hole in the street and waling and bus tours went on without a hitch. Next Friday and Saturday will conclude the last tours downtown before we move our historic tours to Oak Grove Cemetery on Oct. 22.
On the things to do list for this week are finish up Alice and get it open, story theatre rehearsals for Little Red Riding Hood and get that set design finalized, get a set design finalized so Phil Counts can begin staging for Bloody Murder which is rehearsing each night this week, get the Fall Annual Fund Drive letter printed and processed, get the Arcade ready for storage, read scripts for next season, finish up the research on the Oak Grove Cemetery script and planning for the event, do final details on the Mad Hatter Tea Party in connection with Alice in Wonderland, and hopefully selling lots of tickets to all of the events!
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
10-4-2010
We had the first two evenings of Ghost Tours this past weekend. We knew that with fall break starting and the Paducah Symphony playing Saturday we might have small crowds for the Ghost Tours. We did have quite a few who bought tickets at the door so that was great. It was disappointing that we didn’t have anything in the newspaper until Sunday about the ghost tours and the October events. I told someone else it’s hard to believe that October is here. MHT Business Manager Marsha Cash did the first two tours on Friday night and Cat Tilker and Fowler Black shadowed her tours. I took the last tour Friday. Both Marsha and I have been battling allergies and colds. We both sounded like frogs Friday night. Saturday Marsha had no voice and she gladly gave up the guide spot to Cat Tilker. Cat did the 6:30 pm Saturday tour and I took the 7:30 and 8:30 tours. Next weekend we will hopefully have both Cat and Fowler up to speed and I’ll concentrate on guiding the bus tours.
Saturday morning was the third Market Square Morning where the streets were closed off around the Market House building. We had a smaller turnout than the first two weeks. We didn’t close the square last week because of the BBQ festival. It was also Fall break so that may have contributed to the lower numbers. One of vendors commented that there is always someone ready to offer a quick reason that attendance is down when you do something like this. We have 3 more weekends to to go and are looking forward to bigger crowds. We will wrap up Oct. 23.
Last week was crazy in trying to wrap up the sale of the Arcade theatre building. It seemed that just as soon as we cleared one hurdle another presented itself. Most of the hurdles came from trying to find out who had what paperwork or authority in the city government and to get the inspection department to sign off on the project even after we had cleared all the other hurdles. With so many city departments involved it was a miracle that we got through it as quickly as we did. I spent almost 2 full days last week tracking down city departments and information.
This morning the auditors came in for our annual audit. I spent part of the day reprinting minutes of past board meetings and trying to locate other files. As part of our grant processes we have an independent audit firm conduct an annual audit. Sandy our bookkeeper had me tracking down how many mentions WKMS made and for what production last year as part of the trade for sponsorships. There will be interviews with all staff members and the usual review of how all income and expenses are documented and the processes by which money is handled. While this is important for our grants, it is more a matter of MHT have transparency in all our financial dealings so that donors and participants can all have confidence that we are spending money wisely and that our board and staff are all concerned with the integrity of the organization. When someone donates they want to know that the bulk of their donation is going to fund programs they care about and not administrative overhead. I’m pleased to say that MHT does an outstanding job in directing the donated funds and grant funds to where it can do the most good with almost no administrative costs.
We have 6 days until the technical rehearsal for Alice in Wonderland Jr. That means that we are working on getting the set finished and getting the scenery and projections completed. Tech week is always a long labor intensive week that requires a great deal of work to be done in a very short time. As of today we have to paint all the scenery to look like a park setting. The slides have to be designed yet for the different locations and two large trees, a house that moves on and offstage, a house costume for Alice when she grows bigger than the house have yet to be built. Two courtroom dockets, some small bushes and branches and a bench that wraps around a tree. In addition when the rabbit goes down the hole our trap door lift has to be configured for the actors weight. TD Jim Keeney, scenic artist Kelly Salchli, myself, and costumer Janice Peterson have a lot to do. April as director is also out hunting props today for several costume/props pieces.
I’m still working on the script for the Oak Grove Cemetery tours. I hope to have that done before the end of the week so the tour guides and actors can have at least two weeks with it before we perform it. I’ve gotten some great help from several people who have provided me with research materials. Speaking of scripts play selection meets for the second time this evening at 5:30 at the theatre. There is a group of about 10 people who have all volunteered to read scripts. Over the weekend I read 3 more scripts that might be possibilities for next season. Some of them are by playwrights whose work we’ve recently produced at the theatre.
We hope to have our fall annual fund drive kicked off next week so we are putting the finishing touches on that campaign. Many of the theatre’s donors have been involved with us for years and keep supporting us even during tough economic times. I received a wonderful compliment this past Saturday from someone who has been coming to the theatre for over 30 years. She said that the positive impact MHT has had on the youth of this community will be felt for generations to come. We see so many adults who participated as a child and are now coming back to the theatre and bringing their children with them and signing them up for Footlights classes.
Saturday morning was the third Market Square Morning where the streets were closed off around the Market House building. We had a smaller turnout than the first two weeks. We didn’t close the square last week because of the BBQ festival. It was also Fall break so that may have contributed to the lower numbers. One of vendors commented that there is always someone ready to offer a quick reason that attendance is down when you do something like this. We have 3 more weekends to to go and are looking forward to bigger crowds. We will wrap up Oct. 23.
Last week was crazy in trying to wrap up the sale of the Arcade theatre building. It seemed that just as soon as we cleared one hurdle another presented itself. Most of the hurdles came from trying to find out who had what paperwork or authority in the city government and to get the inspection department to sign off on the project even after we had cleared all the other hurdles. With so many city departments involved it was a miracle that we got through it as quickly as we did. I spent almost 2 full days last week tracking down city departments and information.
This morning the auditors came in for our annual audit. I spent part of the day reprinting minutes of past board meetings and trying to locate other files. As part of our grant processes we have an independent audit firm conduct an annual audit. Sandy our bookkeeper had me tracking down how many mentions WKMS made and for what production last year as part of the trade for sponsorships. There will be interviews with all staff members and the usual review of how all income and expenses are documented and the processes by which money is handled. While this is important for our grants, it is more a matter of MHT have transparency in all our financial dealings so that donors and participants can all have confidence that we are spending money wisely and that our board and staff are all concerned with the integrity of the organization. When someone donates they want to know that the bulk of their donation is going to fund programs they care about and not administrative overhead. I’m pleased to say that MHT does an outstanding job in directing the donated funds and grant funds to where it can do the most good with almost no administrative costs.
We have 6 days until the technical rehearsal for Alice in Wonderland Jr. That means that we are working on getting the set finished and getting the scenery and projections completed. Tech week is always a long labor intensive week that requires a great deal of work to be done in a very short time. As of today we have to paint all the scenery to look like a park setting. The slides have to be designed yet for the different locations and two large trees, a house that moves on and offstage, a house costume for Alice when she grows bigger than the house have yet to be built. Two courtroom dockets, some small bushes and branches and a bench that wraps around a tree. In addition when the rabbit goes down the hole our trap door lift has to be configured for the actors weight. TD Jim Keeney, scenic artist Kelly Salchli, myself, and costumer Janice Peterson have a lot to do. April as director is also out hunting props today for several costume/props pieces.
I’m still working on the script for the Oak Grove Cemetery tours. I hope to have that done before the end of the week so the tour guides and actors can have at least two weeks with it before we perform it. I’ve gotten some great help from several people who have provided me with research materials. Speaking of scripts play selection meets for the second time this evening at 5:30 at the theatre. There is a group of about 10 people who have all volunteered to read scripts. Over the weekend I read 3 more scripts that might be possibilities for next season. Some of them are by playwrights whose work we’ve recently produced at the theatre.
We hope to have our fall annual fund drive kicked off next week so we are putting the finishing touches on that campaign. Many of the theatre’s donors have been involved with us for years and keep supporting us even during tough economic times. I received a wonderful compliment this past Saturday from someone who has been coming to the theatre for over 30 years. She said that the positive impact MHT has had on the youth of this community will be felt for generations to come. We see so many adults who participated as a child and are now coming back to the theatre and bringing their children with them and signing them up for Footlights classes.
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change Final Weekend
(***After I wrote this Tuesday, I found out that our website provider has been experiencing some technical problems they hope to have resolved later today and will get us changed over hopefully by the end of the day Wednesday.)
As I write this I'm using a new blogging software and the theatre will hopefully unveil our redesigned website today. I hope that you like our new website format. While it is easier to update and change it has taken me a while to learn the ins and outs of a new software program. As a result I'm behind in my blogs about the show and what's going on at the theatre. We hope that the new home page format will allow smart phone users and computer internet users an easier way to interact with our site.
I Love You You're Perfect Now Change is about to enter its third and final week of performances. It has been a wonderful run so far with lots of great moments. Audience response has been overwhelmingly positive. During the first weekend we had a very special treat for audiences on Friday evening Sept. 3! I had been contacted by Russ Whalen about using the theatre for a short time so that he could propose to his girlfriend. Russ was driving in from Louisville and meeting his girlfriend Emily Kaler in Paducah. I suggested instead that he come to the performance of I LOVE YOU, YOU'RE PERFECT and at intermission "pop" the question. The production of I LOVE YOU, YOU'RE PERFECT, has had more people propose during performances than any other. He agreed and on the night of the performance I went up to do the raffle drawing and then said "We have decided to pick someone at random out of the audience to do or drawing tonight! I then walked back down the aisle to his seat and pointed at Russ and said we had chosen him. He stood up and then turned to Emily and said "before I do that I would like to do something else" He pulled out a diamond ring and asked her to marry him.
The second weekend our audience response was overwhelmingly positive again and we settled in for a great weekend of performances. On Saturday evening during the "car" scene Melanie Koch's chair got a flat (lost a wheel) as she was spinning around in circles and she had to literally drag the chair back to the center to finish the song. She did it with such style that I couldn't tell what had happened. On Sunday Towneley Williams called me to tell me she had lost her voice. I called all of the actors in 30 minutes early and Towneley tried to sing her part. I made a decision to have the other actresses fill in for her in her solo scenes. Melanie did "A Stud and a Babe", Audra did "He Called Me" and because of the difficulty with the staging and the lyrics, Towneley acted the role in "The Marriage Tango" while Victoria Parrish stood offstage and sang while Towneley lip-sinked the song. The entire cast all did a great job of covering and we are all keeping our fingers crossed that Towneley has fully recovered for the final week of the show. It is one thing to be familiar with the show and to step in to do someone's role. It is a whole other level to step in with 30 minutes notice to learn the music and do the movement in front of an audience and do it from memory. Fowler emailed me Monday morning to tell me that his voice was gone and that he was headed to the doctor for some help before we start back up again Thursday night. I've got my fingers crossed we have a healthy cast on Thursday.
I knew that when the Play Selection Committee selected I LOVE YOU, YOU'RE PERFECT, NOW CHANGE that some in our audience would not like the play. It has a little bit stronger language and adult content than many of the plays that we have done in the last several years. I received a call this afternoon from a season ticket holder who did not like the show at all and wanted to express his feelings. I noticed a few people leave at intermission and I assumed that the play was not something they enjoyed. The gentleman who called me this afternoon was very polite and simply wanted to express his feelings. It is never easy to sit quietly and have someone tell you how unhappy they are with something you have done. I do appreciate that this ticket holder cared enough to call me to let me know that not everyone loved the show. Every audience member is important to us and we value their opinions. We are a community theatre and as such we try to make sure that the majority of our programming reflects the community values.
As the Artistic Director of the theatre it is my job to select and review all the plays that the theatre considers producing. I am the person who submitted this play to be considered by the play selection committee. It received rave reviews from other theatres around the country. I wanted to take a moment to share why I thought this was a show that MHT should produce. I LOVE YOU, YOU'RE PERFECT, NOW CHANGE contains a comic view of men and women and the biological and emotional rollercoaster that we ride on as we look for love and companionship in our lives. Two of the songs in the show are extremely poignant in the show. "I Will be Loved Tonight" and "Shouldn't I be Less in Love with You". Speak about the joy and the pain that relaitionships, or the lack of, bring to our lives. "The very first dating video of Rose Ritz" is an incredibly funny and moving story of a woman whose husband abandoned her and whose world collapses, yet she picks herself up and goes back out to find love again. "Funeral's are for Dating" lets us look at what it is like for two older people who have lost the love of their lives, their spouses to death, and they continue on with life because they still have so much to give. Very few plays can bring us to tears from laughter and tears from an honest moment in the story of relationships. The last song- "Keep coming Back" sums it all up. Those were the reasons that I submitted this play for reveiw even though I knew some of our season ticket holders would not like it.
The theatre's purpose is to enrich our lives with stories and entertainment. Our brand " We don't just entertain... We change lives" means more than just a slogan. If we wanted to just entertain we would never do anything that would upset or challenge our audiences. (I'm not sure it's possible to not upset anyone and still do something that has value.) Almost every play that has some "guts" to it will upset someone. Cinderella upset some audience members because they thought it had too much kissing in it. Wizard of Oz upset some audience members because it had magic and witches. Smoke on the Mountain upset some audience members because they said we were doing church plays and not secular plays. Any time we do a drama we upset someone because they feel we should only do comedies that make us forget about the problems of real life. If we do a children's show some adults don't want to see children acting, if we do an adult show some audience members want us to do shows that acceptable for children to watch. In the end the only thing I can do is to accept criticism from others in the spirit that they really do care about the theatre and feel that their thoughts and feelings matter to make MHT a better place.
Each play we put on someone comes up to me and tells me they love this play and it is the best show they've every seen and someone else will walk out at intermission (or before) and tell me how much they hated this play. Like the song at the end of I LOVE YOU YOU'RE PERFECT NOW CHANGE, we as a theatre company keep coming back. Back to deciding to produce another play, back to auditioning another cast, back to creating a play that we know someone will love and someone will hate.
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Pefect Now Change
Tech week is over and tonight we open the show and the official start of our 47th season. It must be something in the air as all of the other arts and business people I talked to in the last week talked about crazy things are right now. Getting the first show open is a marathon task. Debra Harned is the graphic artist for the theatre who lays out our program. We were late this year in getting our ad sales and sponsors which then pushed the program up and past the deadline. We print the cover and all the color pages once for the entire year. That’s 10,000 covers and color pages that have to be correct for the entire year. After we dropped off what we thought was the final proof on Friday August 13, we had two more color ads come in from businesses that we had given up on. I literally ran over to our printer and told them to hold the press and had them reset the color pages. We worked almost round the clock on the weekend of August 21 & 22 getting final ad copy and sponsor listing for the 32 black and white pages that we turned in August 23. I was still talking to sponsor and getting and creating ad copy right up to turning in the proof. The good news is that we received the printed programs yesterday and they look great.
At the same time we were in rehearsals for the show and trying to finish the set and lights. Last Saturday it was a 14 hour work day which was to finish the hang and focus of lights which started on the Thursday before. We began setting light cues at about 3:30 Saturday afternoon and ended about 10:30 that night. Setting light cues involves Stage Manager Denise Bristol walking through the different scenes on stage while I sit in the audience with the light board and set the cues. At 10:30 Denise left with a prop list of items that was needed for the tech rehearsal the next day and I went home to work until about 1 AM locating images on the internet and creating title slides for the large rear screen projections during the show. This continued starting about 6 AM the next morning until 11 AM when I programmed them into the computer backstage to display the images. (The majority of the images I found and programmed I changed almost immediately after the technical rehearsal because they didn’t work the way I thought they would and pulled “focus” from the actors in the scene.) From 11 AM to 1PM I focused on finding sound effects for the show and setting up the 8 wireless microphones and receivers. We are using the microphones primarily for a monitor speaker for Patt Lynch who is playing piano to hear the actors because he is seated several feet behind the actors and can’t hear their singing as he plays the music for them. We had the tech rehearsal on Sunday technical rehearsal last Sunday we have been dealing with microphone and sound issues along with scenery issues. The lighting and follow spot crew got their dates mixed up and Jim forgot to confirm the day before so they didn’t show up for the rehearsal. When the mistake was discovered TD Jim Keeney had to make and emergency call to his wife and daughter to fill in for the missing crew along with his running some of the equipment. The technical rehearsal went well and afterwards the cast was treated to a great meal while I gave notes from the rehearsal. Volunteers Don and Renie Barger, Ralph and Stephanie Young, Dick Holland, Valerie Pollard and others have taken on the task of making food for the cast crew and orchestra as a way of showing their appreciation for the hard work that has been done to get the show open.
Sunday evening I spent working with April to design the set for Alice in Wonderland Jr. which April started staging the next day. April has asked to create a set that can grow and shrink with Alice. I had some basic ideas for how to make that work but working through the actual design takes lots discussion and sketches of different ideas and how the actors might move in the different scenes in a space. There are over 30 actors in the show and they all are onstage in a couple of different scenes. We need lots of different height levels so the audience can see everyone and at the same time the choreography and movement needs a flat floor space to work best. We settled on a raked floor that will will elevate those at the back above those in the front and give us a space without steps that would impede the choreography. A rough sketch of the set was completed with very general ideas of how special effects would work to make things grow and shrink. That was enough to get her started.
Monday the focus returned to Perfect Change and the costumes, sets, lights, sound and staging. I had been unhappy with a section of one of the songs in the Wedding scene and decided it needed more choreography. I spent time in the afternoon working through some different possible movements for the “gospel church choir” to do which made them more involved in the scene instead of just standing and singing. When the cast arrived at 6:30 we spent 20 minutes on learning the choreography that would be performed in the song in the first act. Just as we were about to start we had major sound issues with the piano because I had tried to add a hard masking piece in front of the piano for a visual effect. Patt couldn’t hear what he was playing on the piano. We ended up adding monitors for Patt and the percussionist. We started the rehearsal and in the first act a scene with a bed began with a crash. Three actors have to get in a bed that was built to fold in half between the head board and the footboard so it would get through the side masking to get onstage and the head of the bed is elevated so the audience can see the actors when they sit up. That afternoon Tech Director Jim Keeney had decided to redo the casters on the bed to make it easier to roll on and off. The larger casters changed the center of balance on the bed and when the three actors sat down in the dark scene change the bed collapsed into a V shape causing the headboard and the footboard to come together. Al Knudsen who was behind the head board was thrown backwards as the bottom of the headboard kicked out. Audra, Melanie, and Chris hit their heads hard on the head board and everyone came running on to help. We brought up the lights and made sure that everyone was okay. My first thought was “Oh God we just killed 3 actors in bed!” Fortunately everyone was able to continue bruised and a little shaken. Don't let anyone tell you theatre isn't dangerous! We hauled the broken bed offstage and did the scene with the actors sitting on 3 chairs for the rehearsal that night. The rest of the rehearsal went surprisingly well.
Tuesday Jim Keeney rebuilt the bed and readjusted the center of balance. That afternoon Jim and I both jumped up and down on the bed structure with all our combined weight to test the redesign to prevent any future breaking. When the cast showed up that night we opened up the bed and I jumped up and down on it with all my weight to reassure the cast it was now fixed. Audra Hall called in sick right before we began the rehearsal Tuesday night so the other women in the cast had to quickly fill in for her so that we could do the run through. They did a great job not only filling in but also helping us continue to improve the show to get ready for the final dress rehearsal.
Wednesday evening we did the final dress rehearsal. We pay a royalty to the authors to allow a small test audience of performer’s friends and family to see our “preview” of the show. Audra was healthy and back onstage. She had to learn some of the changes that we made on Tuesday night to refine choreography and stage the curtain call with just a very quick walk through before we started. During the second scene of the first act we suddenly had an unknown voice coming through the sound system. After a frantic search it was discovered that the church across the street from the theatre was using a wireless microphone on the same frequency as ours. This created a mad search to track down which wireless receiver was picking up the signal and changing the frequency channels while the first scene was in process. The actors and musicians kept right on going without missing a beat. It was an alert audience member who realized it was the church across the street and he went out during the first scene and asked them to change their frequency. He told me at intermission that the preacher from across the street said that the night before they were hearing us through their sound system. I can only imagine a church service suddenly hearing people sing "If I were a Stud" or "sexually trained attorneys helping you get the satisfaction you want in bed."
With all of the trials and tribulations that go with opening the show and the season, it all comes together tonight as we kick of the 47th Season. One of the family members who was in the audience for the final dress was laughing so hard she was crying at the dating scenes. In another scene Fowler Black’s solo “Shouldn’t I be less in Love with You?” moved the audience to total silence at the end of the scene when the lights went down instead of the standard applause so that you could hear a pin drop. That’s when you know you the audience is really moved by the performance. I hope lots of people will come and be moved to tears and laughter by this great season opener.
At the same time we were in rehearsals for the show and trying to finish the set and lights. Last Saturday it was a 14 hour work day which was to finish the hang and focus of lights which started on the Thursday before. We began setting light cues at about 3:30 Saturday afternoon and ended about 10:30 that night. Setting light cues involves Stage Manager Denise Bristol walking through the different scenes on stage while I sit in the audience with the light board and set the cues. At 10:30 Denise left with a prop list of items that was needed for the tech rehearsal the next day and I went home to work until about 1 AM locating images on the internet and creating title slides for the large rear screen projections during the show. This continued starting about 6 AM the next morning until 11 AM when I programmed them into the computer backstage to display the images. (The majority of the images I found and programmed I changed almost immediately after the technical rehearsal because they didn’t work the way I thought they would and pulled “focus” from the actors in the scene.) From 11 AM to 1PM I focused on finding sound effects for the show and setting up the 8 wireless microphones and receivers. We are using the microphones primarily for a monitor speaker for Patt Lynch who is playing piano to hear the actors because he is seated several feet behind the actors and can’t hear their singing as he plays the music for them. We had the tech rehearsal on Sunday technical rehearsal last Sunday we have been dealing with microphone and sound issues along with scenery issues. The lighting and follow spot crew got their dates mixed up and Jim forgot to confirm the day before so they didn’t show up for the rehearsal. When the mistake was discovered TD Jim Keeney had to make and emergency call to his wife and daughter to fill in for the missing crew along with his running some of the equipment. The technical rehearsal went well and afterwards the cast was treated to a great meal while I gave notes from the rehearsal. Volunteers Don and Renie Barger, Ralph and Stephanie Young, Dick Holland, Valerie Pollard and others have taken on the task of making food for the cast crew and orchestra as a way of showing their appreciation for the hard work that has been done to get the show open.
Sunday evening I spent working with April to design the set for Alice in Wonderland Jr. which April started staging the next day. April has asked to create a set that can grow and shrink with Alice. I had some basic ideas for how to make that work but working through the actual design takes lots discussion and sketches of different ideas and how the actors might move in the different scenes in a space. There are over 30 actors in the show and they all are onstage in a couple of different scenes. We need lots of different height levels so the audience can see everyone and at the same time the choreography and movement needs a flat floor space to work best. We settled on a raked floor that will will elevate those at the back above those in the front and give us a space without steps that would impede the choreography. A rough sketch of the set was completed with very general ideas of how special effects would work to make things grow and shrink. That was enough to get her started.
Monday the focus returned to Perfect Change and the costumes, sets, lights, sound and staging. I had been unhappy with a section of one of the songs in the Wedding scene and decided it needed more choreography. I spent time in the afternoon working through some different possible movements for the “gospel church choir” to do which made them more involved in the scene instead of just standing and singing. When the cast arrived at 6:30 we spent 20 minutes on learning the choreography that would be performed in the song in the first act. Just as we were about to start we had major sound issues with the piano because I had tried to add a hard masking piece in front of the piano for a visual effect. Patt couldn’t hear what he was playing on the piano. We ended up adding monitors for Patt and the percussionist. We started the rehearsal and in the first act a scene with a bed began with a crash. Three actors have to get in a bed that was built to fold in half between the head board and the footboard so it would get through the side masking to get onstage and the head of the bed is elevated so the audience can see the actors when they sit up. That afternoon Tech Director Jim Keeney had decided to redo the casters on the bed to make it easier to roll on and off. The larger casters changed the center of balance on the bed and when the three actors sat down in the dark scene change the bed collapsed into a V shape causing the headboard and the footboard to come together. Al Knudsen who was behind the head board was thrown backwards as the bottom of the headboard kicked out. Audra, Melanie, and Chris hit their heads hard on the head board and everyone came running on to help. We brought up the lights and made sure that everyone was okay. My first thought was “Oh God we just killed 3 actors in bed!” Fortunately everyone was able to continue bruised and a little shaken. Don't let anyone tell you theatre isn't dangerous! We hauled the broken bed offstage and did the scene with the actors sitting on 3 chairs for the rehearsal that night. The rest of the rehearsal went surprisingly well.
Tuesday Jim Keeney rebuilt the bed and readjusted the center of balance. That afternoon Jim and I both jumped up and down on the bed structure with all our combined weight to test the redesign to prevent any future breaking. When the cast showed up that night we opened up the bed and I jumped up and down on it with all my weight to reassure the cast it was now fixed. Audra Hall called in sick right before we began the rehearsal Tuesday night so the other women in the cast had to quickly fill in for her so that we could do the run through. They did a great job not only filling in but also helping us continue to improve the show to get ready for the final dress rehearsal.
Wednesday evening we did the final dress rehearsal. We pay a royalty to the authors to allow a small test audience of performer’s friends and family to see our “preview” of the show. Audra was healthy and back onstage. She had to learn some of the changes that we made on Tuesday night to refine choreography and stage the curtain call with just a very quick walk through before we started. During the second scene of the first act we suddenly had an unknown voice coming through the sound system. After a frantic search it was discovered that the church across the street from the theatre was using a wireless microphone on the same frequency as ours. This created a mad search to track down which wireless receiver was picking up the signal and changing the frequency channels while the first scene was in process. The actors and musicians kept right on going without missing a beat. It was an alert audience member who realized it was the church across the street and he went out during the first scene and asked them to change their frequency. He told me at intermission that the preacher from across the street said that the night before they were hearing us through their sound system. I can only imagine a church service suddenly hearing people sing "If I were a Stud" or "sexually trained attorneys helping you get the satisfaction you want in bed."
With all of the trials and tribulations that go with opening the show and the season, it all comes together tonight as we kick of the 47th Season. One of the family members who was in the audience for the final dress was laughing so hard she was crying at the dating scenes. In another scene Fowler Black’s solo “Shouldn’t I be less in Love with You?” moved the audience to total silence at the end of the scene when the lights went down instead of the standard applause so that you could hear a pin drop. That’s when you know you the audience is really moved by the performance. I hope lots of people will come and be moved to tears and laughter by this great season opener.
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Mid August update & Mini Season Sale
Wow the summer has flown by. Two weeks from today is the opening of I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change. We have had lots of actors off on vacations or other conflicts so we have been trying to accomplish a lot in just a short time. Debra Harned has been spending hours trying to get our program into shape for the opening production of our 47th season. We got the color pages (8) to the printer last week and then had a couple of changes to it right before we went to press. This week we are trying to get all of the black and white pages (32) to the printer. The cast, crew, and musician listings along with bios and photos have to be written, arranged and proofed. We are still looking for a very talented violinist for the show. The music is written for piano and violin and the violin part is very difficult.
April held auditions for Alice in Wonderland Jr. Monday and Tuesday of this week and had over 125 youth audition. She and Musical Director Cindy Miller spent hours last night after the call back audition trying to cast the show and left without a final cast list. They will work on it again today. April leaves tomorrow morning at 6 am flying out of Paducah for a weekend Educational Directors Conference in Des Moines Iowa. I'm willing to be that the cast list won't be finalized until moments before she leaves.
We are still in the process of trying to secure warehouse space. We have hit some unexpected issues in our efforts to purchase the old arcade theatre building and are trying to work through those with the city and the present owner. I'm hoping that all can be resolved within the next week so we can move forward. That has been taking up a great deal of time this past month. Some people have asked if we were looking at renovating the arcade into a theatre space and the answer is a definite no. The space would require a large investment and would end up being much smaller than our current space in the Market House. We are strictly looking at this for storage space of our current platforms, flats, and furniture for use at the Market House. Speaking of furniture we are currently looking for 8 wooden chairs with wooden seats and no cushion. We need them for I Love You, You're Perfect for the opening number. Actors have to sit, stand, drag, and swing their legs over the back of them. We are going to the Executive Inn sale this morning to see if we might find them. In addition we are searching for 8 white hooded robes for the show as well. We have found chairs and robes online but they come at an expense that is more than we would like to afford.
Our budget this year for sets, costumes, lights, props, and royalties around $60,000 which depends on us penny pinching on every show. The royalties for the 12 productions (mainstage, youth, story theatre, footlights, and drama camps) alone account for over half of that $60,000. Musicals due to extensive sets, costumes, props, and lights take up the bulk of the remaining funds. Some of our smaller productions depend totally on stock scenery and costumes and have production budgets as low as $50. (Masking tape, two gallons of paint, and screws and hardware to assemble the scenery will use up that budgeted amount very quickly.)
A committee from the board is currently working out the details of the Ghost Tours that will begin in October. We will have the downtown walking tours again but are also adding an Oak Grove Cemetery tour with a big kickoff on Oct. 22. There are lots of fun ideas we are considering for the Oak Grove tour that will also allow school groups during the daytime hours.
Don Barger has added his talents to our newsletter writing staff. Cindy Miller, Sarah Roman, and Don Barger now write articles for the Off Stage Noises. We sent the September edition to the printer Tuesday and we hope to have the online version out today.
I Love You, You're Perfect tickets go on sale today. Tickets are $20 for Adults and $17 for Students age 21 & under. As we finish up season ticket sales we are going to offer a special 1 week only MINI SEASON SALE starting today! We have great seats remaining for performances as we start single ticket sales for I Love You, You're Perfect. You can call the box office starting at 9 am this morning to order a mini season ticket. Mini Season Tickets are discounted to $17 per show. You must purchase a minimum of 3 shows and a maximum of 4 shows. Ticket buyers will receive reserved seats for specific performance dates. If you are interested call the box office at 270-444-6828 and tell them you would like the mini season sale and mention code B47 to get your seats.
April held auditions for Alice in Wonderland Jr. Monday and Tuesday of this week and had over 125 youth audition. She and Musical Director Cindy Miller spent hours last night after the call back audition trying to cast the show and left without a final cast list. They will work on it again today. April leaves tomorrow morning at 6 am flying out of Paducah for a weekend Educational Directors Conference in Des Moines Iowa. I'm willing to be that the cast list won't be finalized until moments before she leaves.
We are still in the process of trying to secure warehouse space. We have hit some unexpected issues in our efforts to purchase the old arcade theatre building and are trying to work through those with the city and the present owner. I'm hoping that all can be resolved within the next week so we can move forward. That has been taking up a great deal of time this past month. Some people have asked if we were looking at renovating the arcade into a theatre space and the answer is a definite no. The space would require a large investment and would end up being much smaller than our current space in the Market House. We are strictly looking at this for storage space of our current platforms, flats, and furniture for use at the Market House. Speaking of furniture we are currently looking for 8 wooden chairs with wooden seats and no cushion. We need them for I Love You, You're Perfect for the opening number. Actors have to sit, stand, drag, and swing their legs over the back of them. We are going to the Executive Inn sale this morning to see if we might find them. In addition we are searching for 8 white hooded robes for the show as well. We have found chairs and robes online but they come at an expense that is more than we would like to afford.
Our budget this year for sets, costumes, lights, props, and royalties around $60,000 which depends on us penny pinching on every show. The royalties for the 12 productions (mainstage, youth, story theatre, footlights, and drama camps) alone account for over half of that $60,000. Musicals due to extensive sets, costumes, props, and lights take up the bulk of the remaining funds. Some of our smaller productions depend totally on stock scenery and costumes and have production budgets as low as $50. (Masking tape, two gallons of paint, and screws and hardware to assemble the scenery will use up that budgeted amount very quickly.)
A committee from the board is currently working out the details of the Ghost Tours that will begin in October. We will have the downtown walking tours again but are also adding an Oak Grove Cemetery tour with a big kickoff on Oct. 22. There are lots of fun ideas we are considering for the Oak Grove tour that will also allow school groups during the daytime hours.
Don Barger has added his talents to our newsletter writing staff. Cindy Miller, Sarah Roman, and Don Barger now write articles for the Off Stage Noises. We sent the September edition to the printer Tuesday and we hope to have the online version out today.
I Love You, You're Perfect tickets go on sale today. Tickets are $20 for Adults and $17 for Students age 21 & under. As we finish up season ticket sales we are going to offer a special 1 week only MINI SEASON SALE starting today! We have great seats remaining for performances as we start single ticket sales for I Love You, You're Perfect. You can call the box office starting at 9 am this morning to order a mini season ticket. Mini Season Tickets are discounted to $17 per show. You must purchase a minimum of 3 shows and a maximum of 4 shows. Ticket buyers will receive reserved seats for specific performance dates. If you are interested call the box office at 270-444-6828 and tell them you would like the mini season sale and mention code B47 to get your seats.
Saturday, July 31, 2010
July wrapup
As the last day of July unfolds today we wrap up the final performance of the Pied Piper Lunchbox Theatre on the Main Stage. I heard from many people how pleased they were that we had brought back this summer favorite for young children. Over the past 4 days we've had over 300 children in the theatre munching on hamburgers and hot dogs and coloring their rat hats to play along with the show the Pied Piper. While the show got off to a slow start with the change of summer festival dates it has picked up toward the end of the week. We will definitely put it on our calendar again for next summer.
The board of directors met last Wednesday and reviewed ideas for the October Ghost Tour Fundraiser, the purchase of the old Arcade theatre building for warehouse space, and the wrap up of the last years financials. It looks as of the board meeting that the theatre will end they year with with about a $40,000 surplus in operational income. This is great news!
The I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change cast has been learning music all week. They have been extremely patient with my changes and reshuffling of parts while we try to put together the show. Since I cast more than the script called for I have been shifting around parts and songs to try to even things out among all the performers. It looks to be a great show! The cast is constantly breaking into laughter while listening to their fellow cast mates sing some of the songs in the show. We move from the classroom to the stage Monday as we begin to stage the beginning of the show. Musical Director Patt Lynch is working extremely hard at trying to sort through and play the dozens of musical styles in the show. We move from 50's rock and roll to tango to country to 80's pop. The orchestra is composed of Patt on piano, a violinist and percussionist.
Auditions for Disney's musical Alice in Wonderland Jr. will be coming up in a couple of weeks. The Jr. designation means that all performers must be elementary, middle and high school age. No adults over 18 are allowed. The show will be lots of fun and have parts for both new and experienced performers. Perusal scripts are available at the box office for check out with a refundable deposit.
We are in the last week of our drive for program advertisers for the first program. If anyone is interested in a great marketing opportunity contact me at the theatre at 270-444-6828 ext. 114 for more details. It's hard to believe we open the first show of our 47th season in just 4 weeks!
Aaron Spoden has been a technical intern from Moorehead State University all summer and has helped us with Cinderella, the Aladdin Camp, the Grammarosaurus camp, and the Pied Piper. He will be heading back to school soon and we really appreciate his work with us this summer and Moorehead State for his internship opportunity.
We hope to have our redesigned website up and operating within the next couple of weeks. It has been redesigned for to work not only on the web but with smart phones as well.
The board of directors met last Wednesday and reviewed ideas for the October Ghost Tour Fundraiser, the purchase of the old Arcade theatre building for warehouse space, and the wrap up of the last years financials. It looks as of the board meeting that the theatre will end they year with with about a $40,000 surplus in operational income. This is great news!
The I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change cast has been learning music all week. They have been extremely patient with my changes and reshuffling of parts while we try to put together the show. Since I cast more than the script called for I have been shifting around parts and songs to try to even things out among all the performers. It looks to be a great show! The cast is constantly breaking into laughter while listening to their fellow cast mates sing some of the songs in the show. We move from the classroom to the stage Monday as we begin to stage the beginning of the show. Musical Director Patt Lynch is working extremely hard at trying to sort through and play the dozens of musical styles in the show. We move from 50's rock and roll to tango to country to 80's pop. The orchestra is composed of Patt on piano, a violinist and percussionist.
Auditions for Disney's musical Alice in Wonderland Jr. will be coming up in a couple of weeks. The Jr. designation means that all performers must be elementary, middle and high school age. No adults over 18 are allowed. The show will be lots of fun and have parts for both new and experienced performers. Perusal scripts are available at the box office for check out with a refundable deposit.
We are in the last week of our drive for program advertisers for the first program. If anyone is interested in a great marketing opportunity contact me at the theatre at 270-444-6828 ext. 114 for more details. It's hard to believe we open the first show of our 47th season in just 4 weeks!
Aaron Spoden has been a technical intern from Moorehead State University all summer and has helped us with Cinderella, the Aladdin Camp, the Grammarosaurus camp, and the Pied Piper. He will be heading back to school soon and we really appreciate his work with us this summer and Moorehead State for his internship opportunity.
We hope to have our redesigned website up and operating within the next couple of weeks. It has been redesigned for to work not only on the web but with smart phones as well.
Saturday, July 24, 2010
July 24 2010
Lots of things have happened this week. Friday at 5 pm we wrapped up the Grammarosaurus camp with a performance of the show. The theatre was packed with parents and friends for the one and only performance of the show. April as always did a great job with the kids for the limited time they have to rehearse. During the camp the kids got to run the light board, crawl in the passage way under the stage to get to the trap door (one of their favorites), learn how we make explosions and smoke onstage, had a makeup demonstration where they all got black eyes (which they all pretended were real to their parents), and learned about projected scenery when they did designs which we digitally projected on our rear screen on the stage for their show. We took about 400 photos on Friday morning at the final dress rehearsal and they went fast. Janice Peterson did a great job with baseball caps creating dinosaur heads for all the kids.
Friday after a couple weeks of looking and negotiations we signed a contract to purchase a new warehouse space. The theatre had narrowed it down to two spaces and the board decided on the purchase of 111 S. 5th Street as our new warehouse space. It seems appropriate that we should acquire the space. For those who don't know why that is appropriate it is the auditorium of the old Arcade Theatre. It has been stripped of all the chairs and theatrical equipment and is a space of just under $5,000 square feet with 30 foot ceilings. We will hopefully close in the middle of August and begin moving scenery from our current warehouse location immediately. The Easter Seals of Western Kentucky has been very generous with MHT in letting us use some of their storage space over the past couple of years in exchange for tickets for their clients. The contacted us back in June and notified us that they would be developing the space we were using. So the next time you drive down Kentucky Ave towards the river look to your left when you are across from the McCracken County Library and you will see the back of the Columbia theatre building and the side of the Arcade Theatre building. We will be putting out the word for help when its time to move.
Marsha and Rhiannon have printed out the last sets of Season Tickets and have put them into envelopes with the instructions for how to exchange and purchase additional discounted tickets. We are waiting for the restaurant discount cards to come back from the printer. In addition it takes volunteers to help us check and double check each ticket order before we send them out. After processing over a thousand season tickets it is easy to make a mistake and asking a couple of fresh eyes to review the orders is always helpful. Marsha and Rhiannon are also processing the Flex Pass tickets and creating the Flex Pass Cards. Marsha is working hard to get everything in the mail before she goes on vacation in August.
On Sunday we will have a Tech rehearsal for Pied Piper Lunchbox Theatre. Performances of Pied Piper are Wednesday through Sunday July 28-31. We are trying to get the word out to parents about this really fun event that is a "dinner theatre" for kids featuring hamburgers, hot dogs, ice cream and the show all for $10. Jim Keeney, Aaron Spoden and I will be hauling all of theatre seating out of the auditorium and setting up 15 round tables with chairs for the show. We put a banner up for Pied Piper on the side of the building on Thursday hoping it might help sell some tickets from the group at the Carson Center for Summer Festival.
The cast of I Love You You're Perfect Now Change rehearsed both Thursday and Friday this past week starting to learn the music to the show. I took some photos during the rehearsal that I will post soon. During the "Wedding Event" song the cast was rocking out trying to learn the complicated rhythms. Fowler Black who was out of town last week on business will have join the cast on Monday for the next rehearsal with some catching up to do.
April will be attending the AACT Education Directors conference in Des Moines Iowa in August. She facilitated the conference a couple of years ago and met lots of great people. This year she is happy to just be attending and is looking forward to seeing the group of educators again at the conference this year.
Friday after a couple weeks of looking and negotiations we signed a contract to purchase a new warehouse space. The theatre had narrowed it down to two spaces and the board decided on the purchase of 111 S. 5th Street as our new warehouse space. It seems appropriate that we should acquire the space. For those who don't know why that is appropriate it is the auditorium of the old Arcade Theatre. It has been stripped of all the chairs and theatrical equipment and is a space of just under $5,000 square feet with 30 foot ceilings. We will hopefully close in the middle of August and begin moving scenery from our current warehouse location immediately. The Easter Seals of Western Kentucky has been very generous with MHT in letting us use some of their storage space over the past couple of years in exchange for tickets for their clients. The contacted us back in June and notified us that they would be developing the space we were using. So the next time you drive down Kentucky Ave towards the river look to your left when you are across from the McCracken County Library and you will see the back of the Columbia theatre building and the side of the Arcade Theatre building. We will be putting out the word for help when its time to move.
Marsha and Rhiannon have printed out the last sets of Season Tickets and have put them into envelopes with the instructions for how to exchange and purchase additional discounted tickets. We are waiting for the restaurant discount cards to come back from the printer. In addition it takes volunteers to help us check and double check each ticket order before we send them out. After processing over a thousand season tickets it is easy to make a mistake and asking a couple of fresh eyes to review the orders is always helpful. Marsha and Rhiannon are also processing the Flex Pass tickets and creating the Flex Pass Cards. Marsha is working hard to get everything in the mail before she goes on vacation in August.
On Sunday we will have a Tech rehearsal for Pied Piper Lunchbox Theatre. Performances of Pied Piper are Wednesday through Sunday July 28-31. We are trying to get the word out to parents about this really fun event that is a "dinner theatre" for kids featuring hamburgers, hot dogs, ice cream and the show all for $10. Jim Keeney, Aaron Spoden and I will be hauling all of theatre seating out of the auditorium and setting up 15 round tables with chairs for the show. We put a banner up for Pied Piper on the side of the building on Thursday hoping it might help sell some tickets from the group at the Carson Center for Summer Festival.
The cast of I Love You You're Perfect Now Change rehearsed both Thursday and Friday this past week starting to learn the music to the show. I took some photos during the rehearsal that I will post soon. During the "Wedding Event" song the cast was rocking out trying to learn the complicated rhythms. Fowler Black who was out of town last week on business will have join the cast on Monday for the next rehearsal with some catching up to do.
April will be attending the AACT Education Directors conference in Des Moines Iowa in August. She facilitated the conference a couple of years ago and met lots of great people. This year she is happy to just be attending and is looking forward to seeing the group of educators again at the conference this year.
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Mid July update
Here it is the 18 of July and I'm just doing the first post! I can't believe it's already 1/2 way through the month. Yesterday was the Fred Paxton Fund run for Charity. The theatre raised almost $4,300 in donations and I'm sure we will be close to $4,500 by the time all the late registrations are recorded. With the matching of $4,300 from the foundation that will put the theatre endowment fund at approx. $90,000!
Several MHT volunteers won trophies for their times in the run in their age groups. April and I were very proud of our daughter Jade who won First Place Overall in the Kids run for all of the kids ages.
I found out today that long time theatre friend Sarah Roush died today after a long battle with cancer. Sarah helped revitalize several buildings downtown and was a prolific artist. Her enthusiasm in helping others and her creative spirit will be missed. Our thoughts and our prayers are with her family.
Tomorrow begins the final week of the Grammarsoris Camp. April has been rehearsing with the kids this past week. Each day the kids have learned something new about the theatre. Last Tuesday they got to run the light board, learn how we make flash pots and smoke onstage and they got to crawl under the stage in the little crawl space that is used for the trap door. That was the biggest highlight of the whole thing- so much so that they wanted to do it again on Wednesday so we let them. In addition on Wednesday they learned the difference between front and rear screen projections and saw how their set drawings will be projected on the screen for their show. Friday the kids got a tour of the costume shop, dressing rooms and prop areas while they were taking a break from the rehearsal.
Auditions were held last Monday and Tuesday for I Love You You're Perfect Now Change. The show called for 2 men and 2 women. I had a large group of talented people audition and I cast 4 men and 4 women. Cast members are Fowler Black, Audra Hall, Al Knudsen, Melanie Koch, Victoria Parrish, Scott Salchli, Chris Schnarr, and Townley Williams. Patt Lynch is the musical director. We had a rushed first rehearsal last Friday because 3 of the cast was going out of town the first part of this week. It was fun to watch the actors read the script for the first time because many of them were totally unfamiliar with the show they had just been cast in. They only knew bits and pieces from the auditions.
Cindy Miller, Melisa Mast, Kim Yocum, Kristin Williams, and I are out meeting with businesses to sponsor our upcoming season and selling program ads. We hope to have this wrapped up before the end of the month.
Several board members and staff are looking at warehouse spaces. In the past 26 years the warehouse has had to relocate 5 times. That is an average of every 5 years. We are looking at possible lease spaces and exploring possibly buying a building for storage space. The theatre currently needs about 3,000 square feet with high ceilings. We are waiting on insurance quotes and utility quotes to make the decision whether to buy or lease. We are hoping to start moving scenery out of our current space and into a new space starting August 1. Jim will be looking for lots of help when we do move so if you have some free time in August we would be very appreciative.
Marsha and Rhiannon have been hard at work on season tickets. They have processed all of the renewals and most of the new orders. They will begin printing out the tickets and putting them into envelopes along with restaurant discount cards within the next couple of weeks. Ann Counts has been helping with the renewals for the restaurant discount cards so we are just finishing up gathering the information before sending those cards off to print.
As usual we are behind in getting our Season Information brochure to the printer. Debra Harned has been working on logos for the shows and we have been refining the show descriptions. We have also been trying to work through the other fundraising events that will happen this year. It never fails we start out on track to get the brochure done in a timely manner and soon we are at least a month behind schedule. Last year the season brochure was finished just before we opened the first show of the season. Fortunately we quit using the brochure years ago as the primary season ticket sales form.
I have been working with Innovations brandinghouse on a new website design for the theatre that is smart phone friendly. Hopefully you will get to see it make its premiere in the next few weeks. April and I are currently adding information and we hope that it will allow for a more interactive site. It is designed with a Word Press blogging type of setup which means that more than one person can make changes. I've been the only person over the years who has been able to make changes and that sometimes means the site isn't always as up to date as we would like.
The Pied Piper opens Wednesday July 27 and runs through Saturday July 30 for Lunch box theatre and we hope to have a good turnout. Neil's Catering will be handling the hot dogs and hamburgers for the show.
Several MHT volunteers won trophies for their times in the run in their age groups. April and I were very proud of our daughter Jade who won First Place Overall in the Kids run for all of the kids ages.
I found out today that long time theatre friend Sarah Roush died today after a long battle with cancer. Sarah helped revitalize several buildings downtown and was a prolific artist. Her enthusiasm in helping others and her creative spirit will be missed. Our thoughts and our prayers are with her family.
Tomorrow begins the final week of the Grammarsoris Camp. April has been rehearsing with the kids this past week. Each day the kids have learned something new about the theatre. Last Tuesday they got to run the light board, learn how we make flash pots and smoke onstage and they got to crawl under the stage in the little crawl space that is used for the trap door. That was the biggest highlight of the whole thing- so much so that they wanted to do it again on Wednesday so we let them. In addition on Wednesday they learned the difference between front and rear screen projections and saw how their set drawings will be projected on the screen for their show. Friday the kids got a tour of the costume shop, dressing rooms and prop areas while they were taking a break from the rehearsal.
Auditions were held last Monday and Tuesday for I Love You You're Perfect Now Change. The show called for 2 men and 2 women. I had a large group of talented people audition and I cast 4 men and 4 women. Cast members are Fowler Black, Audra Hall, Al Knudsen, Melanie Koch, Victoria Parrish, Scott Salchli, Chris Schnarr, and Townley Williams. Patt Lynch is the musical director. We had a rushed first rehearsal last Friday because 3 of the cast was going out of town the first part of this week. It was fun to watch the actors read the script for the first time because many of them were totally unfamiliar with the show they had just been cast in. They only knew bits and pieces from the auditions.
Cindy Miller, Melisa Mast, Kim Yocum, Kristin Williams, and I are out meeting with businesses to sponsor our upcoming season and selling program ads. We hope to have this wrapped up before the end of the month.
Several board members and staff are looking at warehouse spaces. In the past 26 years the warehouse has had to relocate 5 times. That is an average of every 5 years. We are looking at possible lease spaces and exploring possibly buying a building for storage space. The theatre currently needs about 3,000 square feet with high ceilings. We are waiting on insurance quotes and utility quotes to make the decision whether to buy or lease. We are hoping to start moving scenery out of our current space and into a new space starting August 1. Jim will be looking for lots of help when we do move so if you have some free time in August we would be very appreciative.
Marsha and Rhiannon have been hard at work on season tickets. They have processed all of the renewals and most of the new orders. They will begin printing out the tickets and putting them into envelopes along with restaurant discount cards within the next couple of weeks. Ann Counts has been helping with the renewals for the restaurant discount cards so we are just finishing up gathering the information before sending those cards off to print.
As usual we are behind in getting our Season Information brochure to the printer. Debra Harned has been working on logos for the shows and we have been refining the show descriptions. We have also been trying to work through the other fundraising events that will happen this year. It never fails we start out on track to get the brochure done in a timely manner and soon we are at least a month behind schedule. Last year the season brochure was finished just before we opened the first show of the season. Fortunately we quit using the brochure years ago as the primary season ticket sales form.
I have been working with Innovations brandinghouse on a new website design for the theatre that is smart phone friendly. Hopefully you will get to see it make its premiere in the next few weeks. April and I are currently adding information and we hope that it will allow for a more interactive site. It is designed with a Word Press blogging type of setup which means that more than one person can make changes. I've been the only person over the years who has been able to make changes and that sometimes means the site isn't always as up to date as we would like.
The Pied Piper opens Wednesday July 27 and runs through Saturday July 30 for Lunch box theatre and we hope to have a good turnout. Neil's Catering will be handling the hot dogs and hamburgers for the show.
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Last Day of the year
No its not December 31 but it feels like it sometimes. June 30 is the last day of the fiscal year for the theatre. Cinderella Enchanted closed on the 20 with a cast party that followed the show. There was almost no strike except to empty the orchestra pit and put in a large fulcrum lift and then put the cover back on for Aladdin Kids.
The Picnic which was held on June 21 honored retiring board members and voted in the new board members. The Golden Screw awards were presented to those persons who distinguished themselves during the past season in ways they would like to forget. Fowler Black and Katy Miller won the costume award for the moment when Katy's dress got caught on Fowler's medals and when she stood up it pulled the left side of her dress so she had to quickly adapt and do the entire scene seated next to Fowler while they slowly unhooked themselves. Sydney Hughes won the "What's my line award" for yelling that she had to go home and block up her TV. It was supposed to be the word chimney. Eden Lance won for the grace in motion as she was so energetic trying to get off the stool after trying on the slipper that she ran into a wall and ended up crawling offstage. We moved the Picnic/annual meeting inside the theatre and sat in the air conditioned comfort while it was over 100 with the heat index outside.
On Friday and Saturday June 25 & 26 we presented the show Aladdin Kids. Janice Peterson did a great job of adapting the costumes from the Aladdin Jr show 4 years ago to a much younger cast. As usual April did an outstanding job putting the performances together after only 8 rehearsals.
The next day on Sunday June 27 we hosted the Paducah Symphony String Quartet to the MHT stage for a chamber concert.
Monday and Tuesday were spent trying to get publicity out for the upcoming season while the box office staff worked on processing mail orders for season tickets. The final deadline to renew season tickets was June 20. Marsha and Rhiannon have been calling season ticket holders we haven't heard from to confirm they wanted to release their tickets.
The theatre so far has gotten a good response for the fund run as we work towards a 10,000 maximum match. As of yesterday we had raised over $2,500 which was the minimum to get a match. The final day to make a donation to the fund run to benefit MHT is Monday.
Yesterday I went and looked at potential warehouse space. today I went to another location and looked at warehouse space. We have to find a space that we can begin to move into by July 31. We need about 3,000 square feet. We will need lots of help in August to move the scenery from one warehouse to another. This makes about the 5 time we've move warehouse's in the past15 years. I'm hoping to find a long term lease at a reasonable price or buy a space that we know we can always keep for 5-10 years.
We have still not heard from the Kentucky Arts Council on funding for next fiscal year. With so many state budget cuts it looks grim for us to remain at the same levels we had been funded in the past.
April starts Gramasoris camp on July 12 which is the same date I have auditions for I LOVE YOU YOU'RE PERFECT- NOW CHANGE. I've been talking with the Paducah Parks Department on ways we can partner for the theatre to produce an Oak Grove walking tour this October. We confirmed walking ghost tour dates for October today and gave them to the Convention and visitors center.
The theatre will end the current year with an operating surplus. We have been trying to get all of the things that needed maintenance in before the June 30th last day so they wouldn't get charged to next season. This week we had both theatre vans in for repairs and hopefully we are ready to kick off the 47th Anniversary Season with a bang!
The Picnic which was held on June 21 honored retiring board members and voted in the new board members. The Golden Screw awards were presented to those persons who distinguished themselves during the past season in ways they would like to forget. Fowler Black and Katy Miller won the costume award for the moment when Katy's dress got caught on Fowler's medals and when she stood up it pulled the left side of her dress so she had to quickly adapt and do the entire scene seated next to Fowler while they slowly unhooked themselves. Sydney Hughes won the "What's my line award" for yelling that she had to go home and block up her TV. It was supposed to be the word chimney. Eden Lance won for the grace in motion as she was so energetic trying to get off the stool after trying on the slipper that she ran into a wall and ended up crawling offstage. We moved the Picnic/annual meeting inside the theatre and sat in the air conditioned comfort while it was over 100 with the heat index outside.
On Friday and Saturday June 25 & 26 we presented the show Aladdin Kids. Janice Peterson did a great job of adapting the costumes from the Aladdin Jr show 4 years ago to a much younger cast. As usual April did an outstanding job putting the performances together after only 8 rehearsals.
The next day on Sunday June 27 we hosted the Paducah Symphony String Quartet to the MHT stage for a chamber concert.
Monday and Tuesday were spent trying to get publicity out for the upcoming season while the box office staff worked on processing mail orders for season tickets. The final deadline to renew season tickets was June 20. Marsha and Rhiannon have been calling season ticket holders we haven't heard from to confirm they wanted to release their tickets.
The theatre so far has gotten a good response for the fund run as we work towards a 10,000 maximum match. As of yesterday we had raised over $2,500 which was the minimum to get a match. The final day to make a donation to the fund run to benefit MHT is Monday.
Yesterday I went and looked at potential warehouse space. today I went to another location and looked at warehouse space. We have to find a space that we can begin to move into by July 31. We need about 3,000 square feet. We will need lots of help in August to move the scenery from one warehouse to another. This makes about the 5 time we've move warehouse's in the past15 years. I'm hoping to find a long term lease at a reasonable price or buy a space that we know we can always keep for 5-10 years.
We have still not heard from the Kentucky Arts Council on funding for next fiscal year. With so many state budget cuts it looks grim for us to remain at the same levels we had been funded in the past.
April starts Gramasoris camp on July 12 which is the same date I have auditions for I LOVE YOU YOU'RE PERFECT- NOW CHANGE. I've been talking with the Paducah Parks Department on ways we can partner for the theatre to produce an Oak Grove walking tour this October. We confirmed walking ghost tour dates for October today and gave them to the Convention and visitors center.
The theatre will end the current year with an operating surplus. We have been trying to get all of the things that needed maintenance in before the June 30th last day so they wouldn't get charged to next season. This week we had both theatre vans in for repairs and hopefully we are ready to kick off the 47th Anniversary Season with a bang!
Thursday, June 17, 2010
June update
I feel like I've been running a marathon since June started and I'm getting closer to the finish line as the month is over half completed. With the opening of Cinderella and the great performances it has been trying to play catch up and prepare for the the events happening in the middle and the end of the month. I just returned yesterday from Washington D.C. where I was part of a group of business and civic leaders who met with government and agency leaders to help lobby for Paducah issues. The trip turned into a wonderful opportunity for me to make new friends with local leaders and to deepen relationships with others as we all came together for a common purpose.
I left Paducah Monday morning after getting about 3 hours of sleep on the first flight out. Check in time at the airport was 4:30-4:45 am. The plane was scheduled to leave at 6 am but we ended up sitting on the runway until almost 7 am because of weather delays and a fueling spill when the plane had to take on additional fuel to fly around the weather to get to Chicago. I ran through O'hare airport with Mark Dulley from Ingram Barge, Mayor Paxton and City Commissioner Gerald Watkins to get on board the flight that left at 9 am from Chicago to D.C. We arrived about 11:30 am Eastern Time and checked into the hotel located about a block from the main mall area by the Smithsonian and the Monuments. Mark became my tour guide and we must have walked about 3-5 miles to see the sights. We walked past the White house and the Washington Monument then back towards the capital building and our hotel. Mark was a great tour guide and we shared alot of family and business stories during our walk. I went to dinner with two others from the group and had a wonderful time there as well. On Tuesday we all gathered at Clyde's for lunch and our assignments. Some of the group had already been in meetings with the Homeland Security Department. I was in charge of a group that went to the National Endowment for the Arts for a meeting with key staff and hopefully the chairman of the NEA Rocco Landesman for a few minutes. Just before we arrived the NEA contacted the group and said our meeting had been moved to the Chairman's office. We were escorted their by NEA staff member Pepper Smith who had written the wonderful cover story article about Market House Theatre in the NEA magazine this quarter. We went into a conference room and then met with Pepper, Jaimie Bennet public relations director and Chairman Rocco Landesman for almost 30 minutes. It was a terrific meeting and we got a promise from Chairman Landesman that he would come to visit Paducah within the next fiscal year. We also talked about support for state arts councils and how that funding filters down to community organizations and about local projects in Paducah that were models for the rest of the country. We left feeling terrific about the meeting. We grabbed a cab and then headed to the capital building and met up with the rest of our group for a meeting with Senator McConnel and Representative Whitfield. We grabbed the tour bus back to the hotel and then madly changed into black tie formal attire for the Kentucky Society Dinner honoring Elaine Chao. At the cocktail party I spent time talking to the Chairman of USEC and thanked him for the local sponsorship of Cinderella. I talked with Senator Bunning, and several staff members for Congressmen and Senators at the reception and then we headed down to the dinner. At the dinner I was at a side entrance and turned around to suddenly be face to face with Senator McConnel and his wife Elaine Chao. I had a nice exchange about the theatre with the Senator and Secretary Chao and then we headed into the ballroom.
I had to fly back Wednesday morning to be here for the Dress rehearsal of the Curtain Call auction winners for Cinderella. All I can say after the Dress Rehearsal is that this is a performance you won't want to miss. The "guest stars" all did a great job and there were several times that the cast could not go on for a few moments because they were trying to maintain their character. When City Commissioner Richard Abraham appeared in a gold lame dress and boa and sang Falderall and Fiddly De Dee to Cinderella and danced he brought the house down. John Williams Jr also brought the house down in his Burgundy dress, wig and crown in his duet with Tom Miller of "Boys and Girls like you and Me".
Tonight we go back into performance mode with the regular cast of Cinderella as we move through the final weekend of performances. I'm trying to work through the annual Golden Screw Awards for the Annual Meeting next Monday and Picnic at Keiler Park. I hope to see everyone at the picnic next Monday at 5:30 pm. Bring a dish to pass and the theatre provides BBQ and Fried Chicken and Soft Drinks for the main course.
April Cochran has the Aladdin camp in full swing this week every morning and that performs the weekend after Cinderella closes. There is a lot going on behind the scenes at MHT as we wrap up June and the end of our 46th Season.
I left Paducah Monday morning after getting about 3 hours of sleep on the first flight out. Check in time at the airport was 4:30-4:45 am. The plane was scheduled to leave at 6 am but we ended up sitting on the runway until almost 7 am because of weather delays and a fueling spill when the plane had to take on additional fuel to fly around the weather to get to Chicago. I ran through O'hare airport with Mark Dulley from Ingram Barge, Mayor Paxton and City Commissioner Gerald Watkins to get on board the flight that left at 9 am from Chicago to D.C. We arrived about 11:30 am Eastern Time and checked into the hotel located about a block from the main mall area by the Smithsonian and the Monuments. Mark became my tour guide and we must have walked about 3-5 miles to see the sights. We walked past the White house and the Washington Monument then back towards the capital building and our hotel. Mark was a great tour guide and we shared alot of family and business stories during our walk. I went to dinner with two others from the group and had a wonderful time there as well. On Tuesday we all gathered at Clyde's for lunch and our assignments. Some of the group had already been in meetings with the Homeland Security Department. I was in charge of a group that went to the National Endowment for the Arts for a meeting with key staff and hopefully the chairman of the NEA Rocco Landesman for a few minutes. Just before we arrived the NEA contacted the group and said our meeting had been moved to the Chairman's office. We were escorted their by NEA staff member Pepper Smith who had written the wonderful cover story article about Market House Theatre in the NEA magazine this quarter. We went into a conference room and then met with Pepper, Jaimie Bennet public relations director and Chairman Rocco Landesman for almost 30 minutes. It was a terrific meeting and we got a promise from Chairman Landesman that he would come to visit Paducah within the next fiscal year. We also talked about support for state arts councils and how that funding filters down to community organizations and about local projects in Paducah that were models for the rest of the country. We left feeling terrific about the meeting. We grabbed a cab and then headed to the capital building and met up with the rest of our group for a meeting with Senator McConnel and Representative Whitfield. We grabbed the tour bus back to the hotel and then madly changed into black tie formal attire for the Kentucky Society Dinner honoring Elaine Chao. At the cocktail party I spent time talking to the Chairman of USEC and thanked him for the local sponsorship of Cinderella. I talked with Senator Bunning, and several staff members for Congressmen and Senators at the reception and then we headed down to the dinner. At the dinner I was at a side entrance and turned around to suddenly be face to face with Senator McConnel and his wife Elaine Chao. I had a nice exchange about the theatre with the Senator and Secretary Chao and then we headed into the ballroom.
I had to fly back Wednesday morning to be here for the Dress rehearsal of the Curtain Call auction winners for Cinderella. All I can say after the Dress Rehearsal is that this is a performance you won't want to miss. The "guest stars" all did a great job and there were several times that the cast could not go on for a few moments because they were trying to maintain their character. When City Commissioner Richard Abraham appeared in a gold lame dress and boa and sang Falderall and Fiddly De Dee to Cinderella and danced he brought the house down. John Williams Jr also brought the house down in his Burgundy dress, wig and crown in his duet with Tom Miller of "Boys and Girls like you and Me".
Tonight we go back into performance mode with the regular cast of Cinderella as we move through the final weekend of performances. I'm trying to work through the annual Golden Screw Awards for the Annual Meeting next Monday and Picnic at Keiler Park. I hope to see everyone at the picnic next Monday at 5:30 pm. Bring a dish to pass and the theatre provides BBQ and Fried Chicken and Soft Drinks for the main course.
April Cochran has the Aladdin camp in full swing this week every morning and that performs the weekend after Cinderella closes. There is a lot going on behind the scenes at MHT as we wrap up June and the end of our 46th Season.
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Cinderella Opening
Tonight is the opening of Cinderella Enchanted by Rodgers and Hammerstein. Theatre is a collaborative art form where many people work together to make something that is greater than the individual could do on their own. Director Bonnie Daniels has done a terrific job of bringing this updated classic to life along with very talented leads and a strong chorus. The show has some more modern costumes, props, and lines that may at first puzzle a few audience members comparing it to the Disney version of the show but the classic story comes through loud and strong.
The concept for the show was to give the costumes a little bit of fun modern touch to a few of the characters. Audience will see the Fairy Godmother who arrives in the pumpkin patch in a 1920's style costume to go along with her lines about having done the traditional fairy godmother thing with the wand but now prefers to standout from the crowd. At one moment the prince and his steward does a fist bump and in the following scene the prince is practicing his baseball pitching with a modern ball and glove. These are just a few of the changes that were made conceptually to go along with some of the more modern language in the play. We hope that audiences will enjoy this elements that keeps this story fresh after hundreds of years. Jack and Natalia Cody who own Creatures of Habit have created beautiful costumes based on Bonnies suggestions for the show.
Kelly Salchli has done an outstanding job with the scenic painting. As the scenic and lighting designer I've given Kelly a broad outline of what I wanted painted as wall textures on the scenery and she has taken those ideas and created a beautiful look. Kelly is a much better painter than I am and she has added lots of depth and design to my original ideas. Cast members have popped in during the past week and helped paint. Denise Bohle helped out yesterday and is back again today working on the fireplace and the large pumpkin carriage.
Part of the design was to go very minimal and theatrical with the furniture for the show. I gave Jim Keeney some illustrations of what I wanted built for furniture and he has done a wonderful job of creating the framework and ornamental wood pieces along with the upholstery.
Cindy Miller who is the musical director has worked tirelessly with the cast and musicians to create a very strong musical production. She has worked hard to bring out the voices and to work with a 6 piece orchestra to create a rich sound without over powering the actors. We have area choral microphones but not wireless individual microphones for the cast so balance is critical to being able to hear the performance. Bonnie and Cindy have worked very hard on diction and enunciation for the actors to be heard by the audience.
Two days ago I had a moment that I had been dreading would happen. Tony Vancil with Action Audio has been extremely gracious in loaning his large rear projection screen to the theatre over the past several years when ever we needed it. I knew that one day we would be depending on the screen and he would have it rented some place else. Tony stopped by Tuesday to tell me he needed his screen for next weekend. My heart stopped as we are very dependent on that screen for Cinderella. Tony sells equipment and was able to get me a great price on a new screen and get it here between opening and second week of the run. Sunday we will strike his screen and return it to him and Wednesday our new screen will come in and we will install it for the Thursday night show. That was an unanticipated $1,700 expense that we didn't see coming. We've done over a dozen shows with his screen and this was the first time he needed it during our run.
Today we are still doing lots of painting on the set. I'm still hanging several lights to try to fix "dark spots" that are created in the space between one light area on the stage and an adjacent area.
Tonight's opening should be outstanding and audiences will walk away with the beautiful love songs ringing in their ears and a renewed love for the story of Cinderella. Rodger's and Hammerstein's Cinderella Enchanted will rate up there with their other musicals like Oklahoma, The King and I, South Pacific, and so many others as a love story for all ages. There are over 40 people who have collaborated to make the production tonight come together and each of them have contributed something to make the show much better than we could have ever envisioned when we started. Call and get your tickets today for what will surely be a big hit!
The concept for the show was to give the costumes a little bit of fun modern touch to a few of the characters. Audience will see the Fairy Godmother who arrives in the pumpkin patch in a 1920's style costume to go along with her lines about having done the traditional fairy godmother thing with the wand but now prefers to standout from the crowd. At one moment the prince and his steward does a fist bump and in the following scene the prince is practicing his baseball pitching with a modern ball and glove. These are just a few of the changes that were made conceptually to go along with some of the more modern language in the play. We hope that audiences will enjoy this elements that keeps this story fresh after hundreds of years. Jack and Natalia Cody who own Creatures of Habit have created beautiful costumes based on Bonnies suggestions for the show.
Kelly Salchli has done an outstanding job with the scenic painting. As the scenic and lighting designer I've given Kelly a broad outline of what I wanted painted as wall textures on the scenery and she has taken those ideas and created a beautiful look. Kelly is a much better painter than I am and she has added lots of depth and design to my original ideas. Cast members have popped in during the past week and helped paint. Denise Bohle helped out yesterday and is back again today working on the fireplace and the large pumpkin carriage.
Part of the design was to go very minimal and theatrical with the furniture for the show. I gave Jim Keeney some illustrations of what I wanted built for furniture and he has done a wonderful job of creating the framework and ornamental wood pieces along with the upholstery.
Cindy Miller who is the musical director has worked tirelessly with the cast and musicians to create a very strong musical production. She has worked hard to bring out the voices and to work with a 6 piece orchestra to create a rich sound without over powering the actors. We have area choral microphones but not wireless individual microphones for the cast so balance is critical to being able to hear the performance. Bonnie and Cindy have worked very hard on diction and enunciation for the actors to be heard by the audience.
Two days ago I had a moment that I had been dreading would happen. Tony Vancil with Action Audio has been extremely gracious in loaning his large rear projection screen to the theatre over the past several years when ever we needed it. I knew that one day we would be depending on the screen and he would have it rented some place else. Tony stopped by Tuesday to tell me he needed his screen for next weekend. My heart stopped as we are very dependent on that screen for Cinderella. Tony sells equipment and was able to get me a great price on a new screen and get it here between opening and second week of the run. Sunday we will strike his screen and return it to him and Wednesday our new screen will come in and we will install it for the Thursday night show. That was an unanticipated $1,700 expense that we didn't see coming. We've done over a dozen shows with his screen and this was the first time he needed it during our run.
Today we are still doing lots of painting on the set. I'm still hanging several lights to try to fix "dark spots" that are created in the space between one light area on the stage and an adjacent area.
Tonight's opening should be outstanding and audiences will walk away with the beautiful love songs ringing in their ears and a renewed love for the story of Cinderella. Rodger's and Hammerstein's Cinderella Enchanted will rate up there with their other musicals like Oklahoma, The King and I, South Pacific, and so many others as a love story for all ages. There are over 40 people who have collaborated to make the production tonight come together and each of them have contributed something to make the show much better than we could have ever envisioned when we started. Call and get your tickets today for what will surely be a big hit!
Monday, May 24, 2010
Studio theatre and Lowertown
This weekend were jumping between events as usual. Friday afternoon Jim Keeney and Aaron Spoden set up the Market House informational tent at the Lowertown Art and Music Festival. That all happened while I was at Lone Oak Elementary performing Pied Pipers final shows. Saturday morning April had her dress rehearsal of the Footlights Elementary Troupe musical in the Studio Theatre. Joey Judd was having a run through of the Footlights Troupe High School Improv show in the Studio Theatre. We checked in on the Lowertown Festival during the day and prepared for The Way Home performance on Saturday night in the Studio Theatre.
Saturday evenings performance of The Way Home was terrific. The studio theatre was about 80% capacity for the benefit performance and a nice reception was held afterwards next door at Two Street Studio. About $1,000 was raised to help local artist Sarah Roush with her medical bills as she battles cancer.
Sunday saw the Lower Town Festival for its final day. The temperature was sizzling in the mid 90's on the blacktop streets but lots of people came by the MHT booth over the weekend and got information on classes and shows. Sunday afternoon Cinderella had a run through and I took some rehearsal Flip Video which I'll post on the face book pages and the MHT website.
Wednesday evening is the MHT board meeting. We are in the last two months of our fiscal year and are working on board nominations for next year and budgeting. This week will have lots of long days as we are in the final push for Cinderella. We bring in the costumes on Thursday evening and have the full tech rehearsal on Sunday.
I was disappointed to read in the Paducah Sun yesterday that the County government has decided not to fund the arts request. It takes time to show that the benefits of arts funding is just as important as recreational sports funding. While soccer and baseball got some limited funding the arts did not. Hopefully next year we can make our case again. The arts in Paducah returns $6 in local tax revenue for every $1 local government invests in the arts. In tough economic times people tend to view the arts as a luxury and not as an economic growth engine. We are making some headway but we obviously still have a long way to go to get that message out.
Saturday evenings performance of The Way Home was terrific. The studio theatre was about 80% capacity for the benefit performance and a nice reception was held afterwards next door at Two Street Studio. About $1,000 was raised to help local artist Sarah Roush with her medical bills as she battles cancer.
Sunday saw the Lower Town Festival for its final day. The temperature was sizzling in the mid 90's on the blacktop streets but lots of people came by the MHT booth over the weekend and got information on classes and shows. Sunday afternoon Cinderella had a run through and I took some rehearsal Flip Video which I'll post on the face book pages and the MHT website.
Wednesday evening is the MHT board meeting. We are in the last two months of our fiscal year and are working on board nominations for next year and budgeting. This week will have lots of long days as we are in the final push for Cinderella. We bring in the costumes on Thursday evening and have the full tech rehearsal on Sunday.
I was disappointed to read in the Paducah Sun yesterday that the County government has decided not to fund the arts request. It takes time to show that the benefits of arts funding is just as important as recreational sports funding. While soccer and baseball got some limited funding the arts did not. Hopefully next year we can make our case again. The arts in Paducah returns $6 in local tax revenue for every $1 local government invests in the arts. In tough economic times people tend to view the arts as a luxury and not as an economic growth engine. We are making some headway but we obviously still have a long way to go to get that message out.
Friday, May 14, 2010
Printer, Piper, Pieces of Cinderella and Couches
I met with Cinderella director Bonnie Daniels on Wednesday and we further refined some of the furniture that we are building for Cinderella.
On Thursday morning we finished up the newsletter and got it off to the printer. Cindy Miller and Sarah Bynum combined to write the newsletter and I put in the photos and did the final layout to send it to the printer. Newspaper ad reps came by and tried to get me to commit to various size contracts for the year. Our new budget doesn't begin until July 1 so I can't commit to anything right now without that being finalized. We pay the "benevolent rate" of $19 per column inch. For those that don't know that means we pay over $400 per color ad in local papers. That really starts adding up.
During the day yesterday we met with a prospective board member nominee. President Cindy Miller and I along with members of the nominating committee meet with various candidates to give them an in depth briefing on the condition of the theater and on what is required for board service. So far the committee has met with 2 of the 4 potential nominees. The nominating committee must present the slate at the May 26 meeting to be voted on so it can be presented at the Family Reunion Picnic for approval. The budget committee set up a meeting for next week as we try to hammer out a budget for next season. Like all groups there is never enough money to do all the things that we would like to do.
Cindy Miller, Heather Overby and Pam Benzing have been trying to find simple items that MHT could sell as a fundraiser in conjunction with the performance of Cinderella. They've settled on a couple of fun items that won't cost much to sell.
Thursday night I attended the rehearsal of The Way Home which is the spoken opera by Constance Alexander. The show will perform Saturday May 22 at 7:30 pm and all proceeds will go the Sarah Roush fund at Paducah Bank to help in her battle against cancer. They were missing one of the actors last night so April read in the part. I was there to watch for lighting design and help April with some ideas for the projections. It is an interesting script because you have three women and a chorus of three women. The chorus at times comments on the action and at other times fills in as additional characters. I found the script very moving at moments with humorous moments in several spots. We are trying to get the word out and hopefully we will have a good turnout for the event.
This morning began with a meeting at Etcetera coffee shop with some of the directors of arts groups meeting with the new conductor of the Paducah Symphony Orchestra. Maestro Ponti (hope I spelled that right) is a very enthusiastic gentleman who is looking for lots of different ways for all of the arts to work together. I came in late but was still impressed with his desire for collaboration. As the meeting ended I spent some time with Jim Keeney looking at the couch he was building for Cinderella. We cut down the size a little to help it move easily on and off the stage. JIm asked me to pick out fabric for the upholstery as soon as possible so he could finish up the build.
Then it was off to Murray Kentucky and two performances of the Pied Piper with cast members Julie Price, Miki Abraham, and Sydney Hughes. We stopped off at Culvers which is Julie's absolute favorite to grab some lunch before the shows. Our directions to the school were a little off but we managed to find it without too much trouble. As we unloaded the set one of the wheels which had been falling off of the table on a regular basis decided to split out the wood that it was barely sitting in. We got the set onstage and propped the table up with the wheel so it looked normal. Unfortunately Miki decided to punctuate one of her lines with a bang on the table and the wheel fell off the table causing it to tilt back off its' front wheels. We made it through the first show without any more serious damage and were able to remove all the wheels from the table before the second show. As we started to pack up the rain began to fall and we pulled the van as close as we could to the gym door and loaded the set back in for the drive back to Paducah.
We went through the drive through at Culvers on the way out of Murray and picked up ice cream and coffee for the cast. Then it was back to Paducah.
We are still finishing up the program for Cinderella. That will be the next big printing task to be completed for the show. Marsha Cash is going through he current list of donors trying to put them in order for the donations listing. Wile the cast has assembled their photos and bios we are still collecting photos and bios from the orchestra and the crew. Cindy Miller has been working on a new business brochure listing all of the options for support. That has to get approved by the board before we can go to press with it since we have some changes that are recommended. Jennifer Hughes has assembled a group of people to man the MHT booth at the Lower Town Festival on May 21-23.
Several of the auction winners from the Curtain Call auction have come in this week to be measured for their costume. Next Wednesday the Heath High School coach will put on a dress and perform for the Heath high school student body in a scene from the show that we are taking to Heath High. The Heath students were the winners of our school competition to raise funds to get their coach as a "Lady in Waiting
The pressure is building as we are now less than 3 weeks from opening Cinderella.
On Thursday morning we finished up the newsletter and got it off to the printer. Cindy Miller and Sarah Bynum combined to write the newsletter and I put in the photos and did the final layout to send it to the printer. Newspaper ad reps came by and tried to get me to commit to various size contracts for the year. Our new budget doesn't begin until July 1 so I can't commit to anything right now without that being finalized. We pay the "benevolent rate" of $19 per column inch. For those that don't know that means we pay over $400 per color ad in local papers. That really starts adding up.
During the day yesterday we met with a prospective board member nominee. President Cindy Miller and I along with members of the nominating committee meet with various candidates to give them an in depth briefing on the condition of the theater and on what is required for board service. So far the committee has met with 2 of the 4 potential nominees. The nominating committee must present the slate at the May 26 meeting to be voted on so it can be presented at the Family Reunion Picnic for approval. The budget committee set up a meeting for next week as we try to hammer out a budget for next season. Like all groups there is never enough money to do all the things that we would like to do.
Cindy Miller, Heather Overby and Pam Benzing have been trying to find simple items that MHT could sell as a fundraiser in conjunction with the performance of Cinderella. They've settled on a couple of fun items that won't cost much to sell.
Thursday night I attended the rehearsal of The Way Home which is the spoken opera by Constance Alexander. The show will perform Saturday May 22 at 7:30 pm and all proceeds will go the Sarah Roush fund at Paducah Bank to help in her battle against cancer. They were missing one of the actors last night so April read in the part. I was there to watch for lighting design and help April with some ideas for the projections. It is an interesting script because you have three women and a chorus of three women. The chorus at times comments on the action and at other times fills in as additional characters. I found the script very moving at moments with humorous moments in several spots. We are trying to get the word out and hopefully we will have a good turnout for the event.
This morning began with a meeting at Etcetera coffee shop with some of the directors of arts groups meeting with the new conductor of the Paducah Symphony Orchestra. Maestro Ponti (hope I spelled that right) is a very enthusiastic gentleman who is looking for lots of different ways for all of the arts to work together. I came in late but was still impressed with his desire for collaboration. As the meeting ended I spent some time with Jim Keeney looking at the couch he was building for Cinderella. We cut down the size a little to help it move easily on and off the stage. JIm asked me to pick out fabric for the upholstery as soon as possible so he could finish up the build.
Then it was off to Murray Kentucky and two performances of the Pied Piper with cast members Julie Price, Miki Abraham, and Sydney Hughes. We stopped off at Culvers which is Julie's absolute favorite to grab some lunch before the shows. Our directions to the school were a little off but we managed to find it without too much trouble. As we unloaded the set one of the wheels which had been falling off of the table on a regular basis decided to split out the wood that it was barely sitting in. We got the set onstage and propped the table up with the wheel so it looked normal. Unfortunately Miki decided to punctuate one of her lines with a bang on the table and the wheel fell off the table causing it to tilt back off its' front wheels. We made it through the first show without any more serious damage and were able to remove all the wheels from the table before the second show. As we started to pack up the rain began to fall and we pulled the van as close as we could to the gym door and loaded the set back in for the drive back to Paducah.
We went through the drive through at Culvers on the way out of Murray and picked up ice cream and coffee for the cast. Then it was back to Paducah.
We are still finishing up the program for Cinderella. That will be the next big printing task to be completed for the show. Marsha Cash is going through he current list of donors trying to put them in order for the donations listing. Wile the cast has assembled their photos and bios we are still collecting photos and bios from the orchestra and the crew. Cindy Miller has been working on a new business brochure listing all of the options for support. That has to get approved by the board before we can go to press with it since we have some changes that are recommended. Jennifer Hughes has assembled a group of people to man the MHT booth at the Lower Town Festival on May 21-23.
Several of the auction winners from the Curtain Call auction have come in this week to be measured for their costume. Next Wednesday the Heath High School coach will put on a dress and perform for the Heath high school student body in a scene from the show that we are taking to Heath High. The Heath students were the winners of our school competition to raise funds to get their coach as a "Lady in Waiting
The pressure is building as we are now less than 3 weeks from opening Cinderella.
Monday, May 10, 2010
Fiscal Court and Cinderella
I have been working hard this past week culminating today with a meeting at 11:30 am with Basil Drossos and Brian Laczko, Darlene Dryer, May Louise Zumwalt, Landee Bryant, Julie Harris, and Michael Crouse where we worked out a formula for a unified ask of the McCracken County Fiscal Court for funding. This was a difficult task because each group had individually asked the City of Paducah for funding. The McCracken County Court asked us to present it as one unified voice for funding. We looked at the local tax return on the arts and culture organizations investment and found out that it was 17%. We took half of that return, 8.5%, and rounded that down to 7%. Then we asked the County to fund half of that or 3.5% of the organizations total operating expenses. Last year organizations received on the average about 7% of our operating expenses in funding from the city of Paducah. some organizations received a much larger percentage of budget and others a much smaller percentage. Hopefully this formula will work out the inequities in that request format. Basil Drossos did a great job tonight at the fiscal court meeting as a neutral presenter of our proposal. The Fiscal court asked lots of good questions and we discussed how the economy has impacted all of the organizations. Hopefully the fiscal court will be able to find some money for funding our request and hopefully the city will be able to do the same. The funding we might receive will make the difference between operating at a loss and breaking even. This year MHT eliminated a staff position because of a reduced funding from the Kentucky Arts Council and a drop in corporate sponsors. Many of our long time sponsors had to drop to lower levels of support due to the loss of income in their corporate spending. Hopefully 2010 will see a little better economy. We have seen small signs of growth in our ticket sales for this current year.
Cinderella is onstage (finally) We had a murder mystery and the McCracken County Gifted Talented show in the theatre after Wedding Belles closed. The Cinderella company had been rehearsing across the street in the classroom waiting to move onstage.
April had a rehearsal tonight of The Way Home which is a spoken opera written by Constance Alexander. She has a group of terrific actresses line up to do the benefit performance of the show on Saturday May 22 at 7:30 pm. All proceeds will go to help Sarah Roush with her medical costs.
I got in a couple of scripts from various publishing houses. I had great hopes for the 80's Prom show which was styled on the lines of Tony N Tina's Wedding. Unfortunately the majority of the cast is in their 20's play teenagers. It's fun to do a show like that which goes back in time and you get to relive your Prom. We had a large group of actors in their 20's and 30's when we did Tony N Tina's Wedding. Now most of our actors are under 20 and older than 40. We need more performers in their 20's in order to do a show like 80's Prom Night.
Story Theatre's The Pied Piper kicks off again tomorrow with a performance at Morgan Elementary at 9 am tomorrow morning. You can tell it's getting close to the end of the school year.
MHT will participate again this year in the Fred Paxton Fund Run for Charities. Our goal is to raise $10,000 and get matched that amount. If we can do that we should be close to $100,000 in our endowment. We are also working to kick off a planned giving society. This would be a society that features the names of those in our community which have named Market House Theatre in their will. Look for more details about the fund run and the society in the next newsletter coming out soon.
Cinderella is onstage (finally) We had a murder mystery and the McCracken County Gifted Talented show in the theatre after Wedding Belles closed. The Cinderella company had been rehearsing across the street in the classroom waiting to move onstage.
April had a rehearsal tonight of The Way Home which is a spoken opera written by Constance Alexander. She has a group of terrific actresses line up to do the benefit performance of the show on Saturday May 22 at 7:30 pm. All proceeds will go to help Sarah Roush with her medical costs.
I got in a couple of scripts from various publishing houses. I had great hopes for the 80's Prom show which was styled on the lines of Tony N Tina's Wedding. Unfortunately the majority of the cast is in their 20's play teenagers. It's fun to do a show like that which goes back in time and you get to relive your Prom. We had a large group of actors in their 20's and 30's when we did Tony N Tina's Wedding. Now most of our actors are under 20 and older than 40. We need more performers in their 20's in order to do a show like 80's Prom Night.
Story Theatre's The Pied Piper kicks off again tomorrow with a performance at Morgan Elementary at 9 am tomorrow morning. You can tell it's getting close to the end of the school year.
MHT will participate again this year in the Fred Paxton Fund Run for Charities. Our goal is to raise $10,000 and get matched that amount. If we can do that we should be close to $100,000 in our endowment. We are also working to kick off a planned giving society. This would be a society that features the names of those in our community which have named Market House Theatre in their will. Look for more details about the fund run and the society in the next newsletter coming out soon.
Friday, April 30, 2010
Week wrap up
We took down the set for Wedding Belles last Sunday after the final performance and had a wonderful cast party at Sue and Frank Fletcher's home. Monday Jim Keeney spent the day moving the continuing the strike and moving the Wedding Belles scenery back to the warehouse and clearing the stage. On Tuesday Jim and I removed the chairs from the auditorium. Wednesday Jim got the rental tables from the Carson Center and put those up. He and I measured on Thursday to space them evenly in the theatre. Wednesday evening was the board of directors meeting where the theatre reviewed our financials as of the end of March and looked ahead with a list of names to meet with for nominating for board of director positions next year. We are doing very well for the year so far after taking steps to cut our expenses at the beginning of the season. For the 3 quarters we have completed so far this fiscal year we spent over $50,000 less than last year at this time. On the income side we have taken in $37,000 more than last year. We ended last year with a budget deficit and this year we are looking good so far to end with a small surplus. The board of directors has been working hard on fundraising and annual fund drive while the staff has worked hard to cut costs. The performers and crews for the shows this year have been terrific and all the shows have met or exceeded budget so far this year and we have only 2 months left in the fiscal year. Our biggest show of the year is the final show Cinderella Enchanted. With a production budget of over $25,000 it always is our biggest expense show of the year. We are seeing a steady stream of donations to the theatre with our season ticket forms and we are within $10,000 of meeting our annual goal for contributions. We still have about $53,000 left to raise in income this year to meet budget but we are feeling very positive about our prospects. We also moved the date for our annual Curtain Call auction next year to March 4. We have moved the date a couple of times already and the announcement of Wizard of Oz at the Carson Center next year on March 11 forced us to move the date to the 4th.
The Youth Season will produce two plays next year. The Disney Musical Alice in Wonderland October 14-17, 22-24, and the powerful play based on a book 100 Dresses to be performed February 24-28. The theatre is also planning to produce the play EAT which was written by Linda Daughtery, the playwright who wrote The Secret Life of Girls. EAT is about teenage girls and boys with eating disorders and tools for coping with these pressures.
Thursday the Murder for Hire Troupe went back into rehearsal for an event this Saturday for the Paducah Remediation Services group. They are doing a benefit performance of our murder mystery to raise funds for The American Cancer Society.Two weeks ago the murder for hire troupe had a great time performing for Community Christian Academy and their spring formal.
The studio theatre tonight is rented for a group to do a performance. All week Cinderella has also been in rehearsal. Story Theatre's Pied Piper performed today at Unity School outside of Brookport IL for grades K-8.
This past Tuesday we had a meeting of arts organizations in Paducah and held a follow up meeting this morning. Several of the arts groups are going together to make a presentation to the McCracken County Fiscal Court on May 10. We all shared our schedules and issues. We do this quarterly and it is a time for all of us to work together as a group.
This afternoon we are working on brochures, newsletters, and fundraising campaign mailings. There is never a dull moment at MHT.
The Youth Season will produce two plays next year. The Disney Musical Alice in Wonderland October 14-17, 22-24, and the powerful play based on a book 100 Dresses to be performed February 24-28. The theatre is also planning to produce the play EAT which was written by Linda Daughtery, the playwright who wrote The Secret Life of Girls. EAT is about teenage girls and boys with eating disorders and tools for coping with these pressures.
Thursday the Murder for Hire Troupe went back into rehearsal for an event this Saturday for the Paducah Remediation Services group. They are doing a benefit performance of our murder mystery to raise funds for The American Cancer Society.Two weeks ago the murder for hire troupe had a great time performing for Community Christian Academy and their spring formal.
The studio theatre tonight is rented for a group to do a performance. All week Cinderella has also been in rehearsal. Story Theatre's Pied Piper performed today at Unity School outside of Brookport IL for grades K-8.
This past Tuesday we had a meeting of arts organizations in Paducah and held a follow up meeting this morning. Several of the arts groups are going together to make a presentation to the McCracken County Fiscal Court on May 10. We all shared our schedules and issues. We do this quarterly and it is a time for all of us to work together as a group.
This afternoon we are working on brochures, newsletters, and fundraising campaign mailings. There is never a dull moment at MHT.
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