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.
Monday, May 24, 2010
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.
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