Jan. 30 2011

A lot has happened since my last post and it seems I just posted! Complete Works of William Shakespeare had a wonderful performance run. Steve, Al, and Chuck really outdid themselves and the audiences were very responsive.

The Kentucky Arts Council Grant was submitted on Jan. 15 after about a week of work. I wrote on Facebook that no matter how much prep time I get in I'm still always down to the wire to get it submitted.

In the middle of the run of Complete Works we learned that long time MHT actress and friend Mary Margaret Hoffman passed away. The service was held on the Saturday morning before Complete Works of Shakespeare shows that afternoon and evening. I spoke with Mary Margaret's niece Mary and we arranged to have lots of photos and the painting that is hanging in our lobby at the funeral. Thank you to Betty Wise who went through the photo albums to find pictures of Mary Margaret. I went through the boxes of old publicity photos and found lots of candid shots. The theatre is looking for an appropriate way to honor Mary Margaret and her long connection to MHT. I hope to have something to announce very soon.

Auditions were held for the Dixie Swim Club and 11 talented women auditioned for 5 parts. Because of the smaller turnout for the two nights of auditions I was able to read everyone several times and was able to cast the show without callbacks. Newcomer Sandra Wilson will play Lexie. Veteran Sue Fletcher will play Vernadette, Cat Tilker will play Sheree, Marsha Cash plays Jeri Neal, and Victoria Parrish plays Dinah.

Todd Duff brought his talents to the MHT stage on Sat. Jan. 29 to a sold out audience with all tickets going to benefit MHT Youth and Outreach programming. Todd and Tiffany Gust did a wonderful performance and audiences were very enthusiastic. Todd had a dress rehearsal Friday night the 28 and after the rehearsal we reconfigured the theatre seating to give Todd better access to the audience. We took the seating that was created for The Complete Works and turned the front rows sideways so they faced the middle of the theatre. This put half of the audience withing 4 rows of Todd's performance. Todd and Tiffany did a great job adapting to the new setup. A huge Thank You goes to Todd for all his work raising over $7,000 for the theatre during November, December and January.

This afternoon (Sun. January 30) Bawn in the Mash rehearsed on the MHT stage for a couple of hours to prepare for their performance next Saturday night. They are really excited about their performance and the opening act Pokey LaFarge. In December we rented the theatre to the Doo Wop group for their Christmas show and agreed to rent the theatre to Bawn in the Mash. We have very few dates available for shows like this due to our heavy performance and rehearsal schedule but it seemed to work out well. The musical groups have really commented on how much they enjoy MHT's acoustics for a music.

April is working on several shows all at once in the school system. With all of the snow dates some of her after school rehearsals have been canceled and they are really getting tight on time. In addition The Hundred Dresses is in rehearsal.

We've had a couple of groups contact us about our Murder for Hire Troupe so we are looking at a couple of scripts right now to produce with performances in March.

The Board of Directors met last Wednesday and approved the slate of plays for next season. We will announce our 48th Season at the Curtain Call Auction on March 4. The board also continued to work on the Curtain Call event coming up and reviewing the results of our Webb Management consultant report. President Cindy Miller has formed a couple of "task forces" for certain areas and we will come back with the results on a board retreat on April 16.

We have just under a month until auditions for Annie and our Curtain Call fundraiser. The Curtain Call committee chaired by Valerie Pollard has developed some great themed auction items for the event and everyone is excited.