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!