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.