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.
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