The Board of Directors met tonight for the last meeting of 2012 to reflect on the first half of the 49th Season. It seems hard to believe its already been 6 months since we kicked off the season. The theatre is in solid financial conditions with strong box office performances for 9 to 5, Willy Wonka Jr, and A Christmas Story. The annual fund drive is still getting donations in on a daily basis. The Masquerade Ball was a big success again this year. The Board of Directors has done a great job of raising money and working extremely hard to help MHt plan for the future! Story Theatre Tour and the Downtown and Oak Grove Cemetery walking Ghost tours were also successful. Overall we ended the first half of the year in the black.
The Play selection committee has been reading lots of plays for the 50th Anniversary Season and has a deadline of the last week of Jan. to make selections and have the board vote on the slate of plays. We apply for rights and if everything goes okay we announce our new season on March 1. They've been given the task of finding a balance between new plays and favorites from the past. Denise Bristol is the chair of the committee.
April produced several school plays and finished this final week of school before break by having auditions today for Clark Elementary's school play. You can look on the website on the newsletter page. Click on the January 2012 Newsletter and see photos of the Lone Oak Elementary show Pirates of Grammar Island.
The cast for Duck Hunter Shoots Angel has been hard at work for months and they finally moved onstage Tues night. Jim Keeney has built a large tree that for the actors to climb during the show. We have just a couple of days left before the cast goes on Christmas break along with the theatre staff. When we come back we have about 4 days before dress rehearsals begin and then opening night on Jan. 10.
Last night at the City Commission the City of Paducah agreed to partner with Market House Theatre to apply for an Our Town Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts for a $100,000 matching grant for planning that MHT has been conducting for an expansion project.
It feels like the story The Night Before Christmas. The stockings were hung by the chimney with care in the hopes that St. Nicholas would soon be there. The theatre has worked very hard for the first half of the year and now we're getting ready to close for a well deserved winter night's sleep (break) to celebrate the holidays with family and friends. When we come back we will open up the second half of the the season like opening presents. Excited to see what new challenges lie ahead as we finish up the 49th season and get ready for the 50th Anniversary season.
A huge thank you goes to all the actors, technical crews, ushers, volunteers, and board members who help keep MHT running, to all the donors who helped provide the funds to do our programming, and our audiences who support the stage productions that we do!
Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Wednesday, December 19, 2012
Wednesday, October 3, 2012
October 13, 2012
Although its fall break for many of the schools in our area we've been working on The Little Red Hen Story Theatre tour set. Rehearsals are in progress for the show which begins touring in November. Willy Wonka has also been in rehearsal and set construction is going on for that show as well. Auditions for A Christmas Story are next Monday and Wednesday evening at 6:30 pm in the classroom above the studio theatre located at 120 Market House Square next to Etcetera Coffeehouse. Lots of great roles are available for adults and kids.
The Masquare Ball is in high gear getting ready for Saturday October 20. We are pulling scenery and getting the decorations together for the event. Look for either Mike Muscarella or David Mast to appear at various moments around town in a pink bunny suit to raise money in their competition to see who will play Ralphie, in a cameo walk on role in A Christmas Story in a special performance. The Masquerade Ball committee has come up with some really terrific auction items and Laura Duff with A Pampered Palate has an incredible menu planned for the event.
Ghost Tours begin Friday October 12 and have some new stories along with your favorites. It is always amazing to me how much unusual history is all around us that we walk by every day. This years stories include a riverboat captain who cursed all that go up and down the Ohio River and a haunted elevator right in the heart of the downtown area. Tickets are available online or by calling the box office.
Congratulations to Head BBQ Judge Michelle Hequembourg (recently in 9 to 5) on another great year of BBQ judging. I was thrilled to be a part of the festivities again this year as a Ribs judge and can tell you that it was lots of fun! After 9 to 5 closed we said goodbye to Robert Carter who headed off to Louisiana and to Ian Mills who headed back to Boston. The 9 to 5 cast did a great job!
Play selection committee had its first meeting last Monday night with chair Denise Bristol heading up the group. We have a big challenge to select a 50th anniversary season to top the 49th! The call was put out to poll audiences and actors as to what their favorite shows were from the past 49 seasons. Lots of great titles were mentioned. We will do a blend of MHT beloved plays from the past and some new plays next season. Post your favorite plays on the MHT Facebook page that you would like to see us do for the 50th Anniversary. The one play I've always wanted to do but we just can't do it on our stage is Peter Pan. It's really difficult to fly people other than straight up and down when you have no offstage wing space.
MHT just received our audit from last year. We made a couple of decisions mid year that created a deficit at the end of the fiscal year for the first time in 3 seasons. We did extensive roof repairs and tuck pointing on the 3 buildings MHT owns. In addition we did the 2nd phase of a 3 phase study on MHT programming for the future and those costs exceeded our income for the year. The MHT board made the decision last year to make those long term investments using the surplus we had acquired from the previous 2 years of operations in the black to pay for the overage. Without those long term expenses MHT still managed to balance our operational and programming income and expenses which is still a strong sign of MHT's financial position. The theatre ended the year with a zero balance on our line of credit.
Wednesday, September 12, 2012
September 12, 2012
Yesterday after a couple of weeks of talking about it I tore into one of the exit doors on the west side of the Market House building. We scraped off the peeling paint from the window panes on the outside of the door and removed a plywood piece from the inside of the door to allow light to come into the theatre. We plan on doing that for all four exit doors. During performances we will cover those windows with a dark curtain or shutter so as not to distract inside the theatre. However during the day and during non performance times we will let the line come into the theatre and allow pedestrians walking by to peek in to see the rehearsal process for upcoming shows without disturbing the rehearsals. These changes are restoring the historic look to parts of the building. On just the four exits we will be replacing 19 broken window panes that had been busted out at some point in the past. These panes had been replaced over the years with a variety of sheet metal, masonite, or wood. I hope to have the project completed by the end of this month.
Footlights classes have been going for almost a month now. Several parents have commented about the changes in studio theatre, as they wait for their kids during footlights classes. If you haven't had a chance to see the studio theatre lately check out the cabaret style seating that is now set up for parties, meetings and events. The main theatre is also now set up for small events on a limited basis as well.
April has started rehearsals for Willy Wonka. She is working on music at the present time and then will begin staging later this week which means I have to have her set design for her a couple days before she starts staging. It seems that every show these days calls for scenes that flow from one place to the next with no scene changes and yet has to have large visual elements in each scene. She has a cast of over 40 kids in the show and by all reports it will be an outstanding musical sound as well as show. Cindy Miller is musical directing the production.
The theatre is in high gear getting ready for the Masquerade Ball on October 20. It should be bigger and better this year than last year and make sure that you make plans to attend. Creatures of Habit will again donate a portion of the costume rentals to the theater to help with the fundraising event. About 70% of people last year dressed in costume with the rest in cocktail attire. This year I'm willing to bet the costume percentage should go even higher as it was so much fun! It told someone that last year with the masks I would say hello to someone I thought I knew only to discover a few moments later that wasn't who I thought it was. I always love the scenes in modern fairy tale remakes of Cinderella or any number of other films where a castle is filled with people in all sorts of costume attire dancing and partying to sound of modern music with so much fun and laughter. Don't be left out of the fun! Make sure you come to the Ball!
Ghost tours are working on getting shaped up again for October weekends. Look for a couple of new stories to be added again this year as well as keeping some of the favorites from the past.
Our 49th Season is well underway and lots of exciting things are happening at the theatre!
Sunday, August 5, 2012
August 5, 2012
It has been sometime since my last post. I feel like it was only a few weeks ago but it turns out it has been more than a couple of months. MHT is already in high gear for the 49th season. In early July April and I attended the American Association of Community Theatre convention in NYC. We saw 3 great plays- The Book of Mormon, Warhorse, and Peter and the Star Catcher. People asked me which was the best (I don't know why I always get that question- even about shows I direct!) Each was great for different reasons. Book of Mormon at the Eugene O'Neil Theatre was extremely satirical and had some very funny moments in it. I would definitely not recommend this show to anyone with kids or to those who will be offended by language. It is by the creators of South Park and while I'm not a big fan of that show, I found Book of Mormon very funny and at times even theologically relevant. Some of the songs are about believing in things that are hard to believe and trying to make sense of the world and looking for where you belong. On a completely different note Warhorse was a magnificent work of acting and technique with staging where the performers creating the horses made me forget they were there. I'm not sure it will translate well in a large auditorium on tour but in the close up performance space of the Vivian Beaumont theatre in Lincoln Center it was breathtaking. Finally Peter and the Star Catcher at the Brooks Atkinson theatre was a prequel to Peter Pan. Twelve men and one woman told the story with very limited props and costumes and switched characters back and forth mid sentence. It was a play written for adults but could be enjoyed by kids.
Each theatre we went to on Broadway had extremely tight seating areas. My knees were jammed against the back of the seats in front of me or against the balcony railing on every performance! MHT seating is a dream compared to Broadway seating. Many of the theatres had auditoriums that weren't much deeper than Market House Theatre. Just a little wider and a balcony. However their lighting and sound systems were something I drooled over!
After we got back from NYC MHT had lots of summer camp classes for kids. We had a performance of Forsooth its Good Manners at the end of July. In addition 9 to 5 began rehearsals with a cast of 19. We are 2 weeks into the rehearsals and have just finished staging the first 5-6 scenes of Act One. This past Friday we had a dance rehearsal for 9 to 5 and Around Here. Rebecca Evans is a new choreographer and she began to put the performers through their paces.
MHT's board met at the end of July and looked at last years financial ending. After 2 years in a row of ending in the black MHT ended the 48th season with a deficit. We had several very large building maintenance issues and also brought in consultants to help us with strategic planning. Without the consultants (which weren't budgeted) we would have still ended the year in the black, even with several thousands dollars of roofing, tuck pointing and Air Conditioning repair work.
We are switching around the seating for the Pajama Party murders that open this week setting up tables and chairs. You may see a few changes around the theatre this year in having our tables and chairs set up more often to allow us to do a couple of different things this year outside the regular main stage and youth performances.
The theatre just purchased a white 1998 Ford Van to replace the older Blue Chevy van the scene shop has driven for the past several years. The "new" van has airconditiong and the windows roll down. The older Chevy van the windows didn't roll down anymore (motorized) and the air conditioning has stopped working last year! Jim will be a much cooler guy driving out to pick up lumber and to the warehouse.
Footlights starts August 25 and Auditions for Willy Wonka are August 27 & 28! Welcome to the 49th Season!!
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
May 23, 2012
Today we have the consultants from NYC and Chicago flying in to make a presentation at the board meeting tonight. That will be very exciting to look at the wrap up this phase of our strategic planning for MHT's future. Tonight the board will also approve the nominees for incoming board members and officers for next year as well as do an assessment of the Masquerade Ball event for this fall.
In the meantime I'm out looking at Kiddie pools and large plastic flower urns to see if any of them will work with our massive Hairspray can as the top piece above the can. I always get the strangest looks when I walk in stores from people trying to help me. I'm always looking at objects and re-imagining them either upside down or used for different purposes than they were intended. This week I spent time scouring beauty supply stores, dollar stores and discount stores looking at hairspray cans and hair products to use for rehearsal until we get our canned haze in that I ordered. If you can picture the face of the clerk walking up to me as I look at hair products it's always a quizzical look on their face. When we did the show The Colored Museum I went out in search of Afro Sheen and the clerks were really confused as a bald white guy is trying to find African American hair products. One day I was in the hallway of the offices talking to someone as I was working on murder mystery props I was holding a bottle of wine and one of our 38 caliber stage handguns which look totally real. A customer walked in at that moment, took one look at me and forgot what they came in to order.
We are just 8 days from opening night and the show is coming together. Last night we ran act one and worked and cleaned up lots of choreography and music issues. We are still shaping and refining characters, dialogue and pacing. The rehearsals are long but progress is happening! Tonight is focused on Act Two. Joe Plucknett and Ben Shelby joined Patt in the orchestra pit on Monday and started to work through music with the cast. Terry Mike Jeffrey will join the pit orchestra Friday. Up until this week it has been just Patt on the piano in the pit.
Hairspray opens May 31!
Monday, May 21, 2012
May 21 2012
A huge thank you goes out the volunteers who manned the Market House Theatre booth at the Lowertown Festival this past weekend. I'm not sure if I have all the names but I know that April and Jade Cochran, Jim and Kathy Keeney, Don and Renie Barger, Melisa, David and Ashley Mast, Sandra Wilson, Josh and Lea Morehead, the McHaney family, and Janet Bloomingburg all helped fill in shifts. Thanks to all!
Saturday during the day while the festival was going on Jim Keeney and I worked on the set for Hairspray along with Kelly Salchli who came in to paint several of the scenic pieces used in the show. The set is starting to come along. There is still lots of painting left to do. Jim is starting today on building the giant Hairspray can for Edna to appear out of. We ordered a case of the Canned Haze product to use for the Hairspray that is used in a couple of numbers during the show. The product is generally referred to as canned smoke as well. We found out we lost the use of our digital projector last week so we scrambled and trying unsuccessfully locally to rent a 5k-10k lumen projector have rented one from a national company who does that. That will arrive a couple of days before the technical rehearsal.
Our drummer Joe Plucknett arrives tonight to start working with Patt Lynch and we are about to put up the webbing for the orchestra pit after the drumset is put in. Debra Harned has been working hard to finish up the program and we just got the last cast bio and photo last night! With graduation this week we will be missing some of our teenage performers but hopefully most will be there for the majority of the week. The show is in the final week and a half push to get ready for opening which means long rehearsals and lots of work on polishing and shaping. Thursday and Friday of last week we made lots of progress and I hope that continues this week. Next Sunday is the technical rehearsal where we bring all the costumes lights and scenic elements together. This week and a half is the time I call "hell week" It means that the cast will have 4 hour rehearsals almost everyday until opening and Jim and I will work 14-16 hours a day every day until the show opens.
Everyone works incredibly hard to make the final product look effortless. I always think of the questions I get from people who ask "So what do you do when you aren't in performance". Think of it like the launch of a brand new product that takes hundreds of hours of preparation and is still being created right up until opening night and has to unveil to the public fully formed. Most businesses that create a new product spend months testing and trying out the product. Then doing "soft openings" to tweak their products based on consumer feedback. The life of the theatre is that opening night the audience and the critics come and a show has to be at its peak. We expect and demand a professional attitude and quality from the amateur performers and it never ceases to amaze me how time after time they step up to that challenge.
Thursday, May 17, 2012
May 17 2012
It is two weeks from today that Hairspray opens. Last night we finished staging the last song in the show. With 34 performers singing and dancing the stage is incredibly crowded. Emi Chapman Hensel has done a great job with the choreography for the show. It has been very difficult to rehearse many of the numbers due to the constant absences of teenage cast members. With the end of school comes band concerts, choir concerts, graduations, we are still dealing with track meets, etc... I don't think we have a staged a number yet where we haven't been missing someone. The show usually pulls together in these last two weeks. We have so many new people in the show that has been a real challenge as well. One more than one occasion I've had to yell at someone who is late for an entrance because they are unfocused offstage distracted by texting or facebook. I've warned the actors twice that rehearsal is a no cell phone zone but it's difficult in long dance rehearsals when they have extended periods of time offstage to keep that in mind. The challenges of missing people will go right up to our tech rehearsal on May 27. The goal is to get the show tightened up and sounding good before it gets overwhelmed with costumes and lighting and tech before opening.
We slipped in just under the wire yesterday with getting a booth at the Lowertown Arts and Music festival. We will be at 7th and Madison next to the WKMS booth. Stop by and chat with one of the theatre's volunteers who can give you information on Hairspray, summer camps and classes for kids, or our upcoming season. We still need some volunteers for the booth so if you are interested contact the theatre and we can sign you up for a shift to help spread the word about the great offerings MHT has.
Yesterday we just secured the 4th restaurant to once again offer a free appetizer or dessert with the purchase of an entree for season ticket holders on the night of their tickets for next season. That was a big hit with the majority of our ticket holders and it was a hit with the downtown restaurants as well.
Next week the Board of Directors will meet and present a nominating list for new board members to join in July. The annual picnic will be held Monday June 18 in the theatre where we will give out awards and elect the new board members. At the May 23 meeting of the board consultants from Webb Management and Shuler Shook will be present to present the final report of the second phase of our organizational assessment concerning facilities and programming. We are excited to explore their results as we plan for the theatre's future!
Monday, April 16, 2012
April 16, 2012
Getting Sara Married had its technical rehearsal yesterday and afterwards the cast and crew were fed by a terrific group of volunteers, Don and Renie Barger, Ralph and Stephanie Young, Dick Holland, and Valerie Pollard. They themed the food to reflect the show- pb&j and tuna wraps, spicy chicken chili, jalapeno cornbread, and wedding cake for dessert. Thanks so much to this merry band of culinary volunteers. The food as always was great and greatly appreciated.
We lost one of our supporting cast members for Getting Sara Married last week. Chris Stigall who was playing a small part in the show had to bow out due to work scheduling. This was an optional part in the script and we were sad to lose Chris. So instead of seeing the chiropractor (who had no lines) in the script "adjusting" Aunt Martha we now just hear about him.
Just before tech yesterday the Carson Center called and told us they needed their 5,000 lumen projector, that we had on loan back for an event this week. MHT owns a 3,000 lumen projector which is too weak to handle our needs for the set. We fortunately go through the tech with the borrowed projector before returning it. We are going to scramble to fill the need this week until opening night when the Carson Center projector is available again. I wrote and submitted a grant to the KY Colonels to help us purchase a 7,500 lumen projector that MHT would own so we don't have to worry about losing a key scenic piece during a rehearsal or show run. The Carson Center has been more than generous with the loan of their projector so far, but things always seem to happen at the worst times and this is one of those.
Dress rehearsals for Getting Sara Married continue tonight through Wednesday and opening night is Thursday.
After a 2 week delay in getting the renewals out for season tickets it looks like it will finally happen this week. The company we work with for box office software had delayed the feature we were trying to add this year which is online renewals. That hurdle was cleared last Friday and the Marsha Cash, Kristy Waddie and Barb Ryan will be putting in extra hours today and tomorrow to get those forms out.
The Hairspray cast has been hard at work learning lots of dance choreography. Last week we stage Good Morning Baltimore, Nicest Kids in Town, Mama I'm a Big Girl Now, I Can Hear the Bells, and Miss Baltimore Crabs. Each rehearsal is jammed with work from start to finish and everyone is working hard. It is really difficult to get the entire cast present for rehearsals with track meets, and choir and band concerts, and even some college kids off at school with classes and finals. Emily Yocum comes in on Fridays from Louisville to pick up the dance scenes that she wasn't there during the week. Emily Chapman Hensel is doing a terrific job of choreography with the numbers and helping me clean up and strengthen the musical numbers that I"m choreographing. Several of the cast went to Brad Rankin Photography last Thursday and he shot several publicity photos for us to use in our posters, billboards, and other media. A big thanks to Brad Rankin for doing that! Creatures of Habit are creating the costumes for the show and they had lots of fun costumes and wigs for the characters to do the publicity photos.
April is still working hard in the schools with classes after finishing up most of the shows she was directing at the schools before spring break. The Elementary Footlights troupe is working on a musical right now on Saturday mornings.
MHT is using http://power2give.org to help raise scholarship funds for low income footlights students. Please check it out and try to make a donation if you can. All donations are matched by Republic Bank so your dollar is doubled when you make the gift of giving a child a chance to increase their self confidence, improve their verbal and non verbal communication skills, and to expand their creativity.
We lost one of our supporting cast members for Getting Sara Married last week. Chris Stigall who was playing a small part in the show had to bow out due to work scheduling. This was an optional part in the script and we were sad to lose Chris. So instead of seeing the chiropractor (who had no lines) in the script "adjusting" Aunt Martha we now just hear about him.
Just before tech yesterday the Carson Center called and told us they needed their 5,000 lumen projector, that we had on loan back for an event this week. MHT owns a 3,000 lumen projector which is too weak to handle our needs for the set. We fortunately go through the tech with the borrowed projector before returning it. We are going to scramble to fill the need this week until opening night when the Carson Center projector is available again. I wrote and submitted a grant to the KY Colonels to help us purchase a 7,500 lumen projector that MHT would own so we don't have to worry about losing a key scenic piece during a rehearsal or show run. The Carson Center has been more than generous with the loan of their projector so far, but things always seem to happen at the worst times and this is one of those.
Dress rehearsals for Getting Sara Married continue tonight through Wednesday and opening night is Thursday.
After a 2 week delay in getting the renewals out for season tickets it looks like it will finally happen this week. The company we work with for box office software had delayed the feature we were trying to add this year which is online renewals. That hurdle was cleared last Friday and the Marsha Cash, Kristy Waddie and Barb Ryan will be putting in extra hours today and tomorrow to get those forms out.
The Hairspray cast has been hard at work learning lots of dance choreography. Last week we stage Good Morning Baltimore, Nicest Kids in Town, Mama I'm a Big Girl Now, I Can Hear the Bells, and Miss Baltimore Crabs. Each rehearsal is jammed with work from start to finish and everyone is working hard. It is really difficult to get the entire cast present for rehearsals with track meets, and choir and band concerts, and even some college kids off at school with classes and finals. Emily Yocum comes in on Fridays from Louisville to pick up the dance scenes that she wasn't there during the week. Emily Chapman Hensel is doing a terrific job of choreography with the numbers and helping me clean up and strengthen the musical numbers that I"m choreographing. Several of the cast went to Brad Rankin Photography last Thursday and he shot several publicity photos for us to use in our posters, billboards, and other media. A big thanks to Brad Rankin for doing that! Creatures of Habit are creating the costumes for the show and they had lots of fun costumes and wigs for the characters to do the publicity photos.
April is still working hard in the schools with classes after finishing up most of the shows she was directing at the schools before spring break. The Elementary Footlights troupe is working on a musical right now on Saturday mornings.
MHT is using http://power2give.org to help raise scholarship funds for low income footlights students. Please check it out and try to make a donation if you can. All donations are matched by Republic Bank so your dollar is doubled when you make the gift of giving a child a chance to increase their self confidence, improve their verbal and non verbal communication skills, and to expand their creativity.
Sunday, March 11, 2012
March 11, 2012
March is packed full of events that you won't want to miss at MHT. Yesterday we finished up with the murder mystery dinner theatre Murder by Magic. We did one performance at Caldwell County in February and then did three performances in the theatre with the regular chairs removed and dinner theatre style seating put in. We had a terrific final performance with an almost sold out crowd on Saturday night. Renie Barger, Marsha Cash, April Cochran, Audra Hall, Travis Hensel, Valerie Pollard, Steve Schwetman, and Heather Tomko, who all did a great job. Many thanks go to Don the Magnificent Barger who helped out the with clue hunt. Special thanks goes to Neil's Catering who also did a great job. The theatre raised almost $4,000 after expenses and we hope to find a date for the next dinner theatre event.
This week we have a big party on Friday night at 7:30pm to announce our 49th Anniversary season. We've got refreshments, a cash bar, entertainment, and several really special auction items. The board of Directors has put together a really fun group of auction packages created from their own areas of expertise or passion. We have a shoe package for the shoe devotee from the ultimate shoe expert Renie & Don Barger, 2 hours of tutoring for any age or subject including SAT or ACT prep with the very talented teacher Jennifer Hughes, Wine Tasting 101 is a special class in wine tasting from our wine connoisseurs, Kristin and John Williams Jr., an exclusive backstage pass to Hairspray where you will get to be in the stage manager central with Denise Bristol and listen in on the headset to how the show works, a yoga and art package from Pam Benzing and the Yoga Artz hub, Cocktails, dinner and babysitting included along with playing the not so newly wed game hosted by board members and their spouses Sid Hancock, Kathryn Joyner, Heather Overby, and Susan Ybarzabal, a March Madness party pack of pizzas, drinks and the Kent Price family delivery where they wear your team colors and sing your teams fight song (Duke fans are not eligible to bid on this package!)a take out package from the "queen" of takeout, a yoga art package, 2 hour career and resume counseling from HR expert Maurie McGarvey, a walk on male and female role in the 49th season, a night on the town from one of MHT's most eligible young bachelors, and a country catfish dinner for 8 friends at the home of Melisa and David Mast home! Admission is free and you won't want to miss this event! The Crescendos from Lone Oak High School will entertain us.
Footlights will have their troupe performances on March 24 & 25. April is currently rehearsing several shows in the school systems. This month Clark Elementary presents the Jungle Book as their school play directed by April.
Getting Sara Married and Hairspray are now in rehearsal and the theatre is gearing up to put Season tickets for next year on sale after our announcement next week. It will go right down to the wire to get the rights to two of the shows for next season. We are waiting on approval from the playwrights which are checking against national tours of the shows we have selected. We hope to see you next Friday!
This week we have a big party on Friday night at 7:30pm to announce our 49th Anniversary season. We've got refreshments, a cash bar, entertainment, and several really special auction items. The board of Directors has put together a really fun group of auction packages created from their own areas of expertise or passion. We have a shoe package for the shoe devotee from the ultimate shoe expert Renie & Don Barger, 2 hours of tutoring for any age or subject including SAT or ACT prep with the very talented teacher Jennifer Hughes, Wine Tasting 101 is a special class in wine tasting from our wine connoisseurs, Kristin and John Williams Jr., an exclusive backstage pass to Hairspray where you will get to be in the stage manager central with Denise Bristol and listen in on the headset to how the show works, a yoga and art package from Pam Benzing and the Yoga Artz hub, Cocktails, dinner and babysitting included along with playing the not so newly wed game hosted by board members and their spouses Sid Hancock, Kathryn Joyner, Heather Overby, and Susan Ybarzabal, a March Madness party pack of pizzas, drinks and the Kent Price family delivery where they wear your team colors and sing your teams fight song (Duke fans are not eligible to bid on this package!)a take out package from the "queen" of takeout, a yoga art package, 2 hour career and resume counseling from HR expert Maurie McGarvey, a walk on male and female role in the 49th season, a night on the town from one of MHT's most eligible young bachelors, and a country catfish dinner for 8 friends at the home of Melisa and David Mast home! Admission is free and you won't want to miss this event! The Crescendos from Lone Oak High School will entertain us.
Footlights will have their troupe performances on March 24 & 25. April is currently rehearsing several shows in the school systems. This month Clark Elementary presents the Jungle Book as their school play directed by April.
Getting Sara Married and Hairspray are now in rehearsal and the theatre is gearing up to put Season tickets for next year on sale after our announcement next week. It will go right down to the wire to get the rights to two of the shows for next season. We are waiting on approval from the playwrights which are checking against national tours of the shows we have selected. We hope to see you next Friday!
Friday, February 17, 2012
February 17, 2012
As we move into tech weekend for Nate the Great we are also getting ready to head to Caldwell County High School to perform the Murder Mystery production of Murder for Hire. The cast has had 5 rehearsals and are spending all of the their energy concentrating on character and lines. While there is a large component of improv with the murder mysteries we do there are often about 35 pages to dialogue to memorize as well. We will pack the theatre trailer hooked up to the theatre van tomorrow with sound and lighting equipment. The actors will meet at 3:30 pm and we will head off for the first performance of Murder by Magic. March 3 we will perform the show at the Country Club of Paducah and March 8-10 will perform again at the Market House.
April has quite a few new kids in The Adventures of Nate the Great. Some of these cast members are very young. Twice I've heard April give the note to the very youngest that they can't just sit down onstage when they get tired. They have to constantly react to the the other characters. Tonight I did a rough lighting design and the cast acted under stage lighting. April warned them ahead of time that they couldn't shield their eyes with their hands or squint trying to peer into the darkness. These kids are very young. Patrick McHaney and Emma Kate Schaaf are doing great jobs as Nate and Kate in the show.
Diane Byrd has had a few rehearsals for Getting Sara Married but she is waiting on a set from me to really start staging. Diane has all 6 actors in the show making their Market House Theatre debut.
Last week I cast Hairspray. We have a whole lot of new faces in the Hairspray cast. I'm looking forward to getting started on March 5. The rehearsal materials arrived this week for the show and I will pass those out on the 5th.
Today was the deadline for royalty requests for our play choices for next years season. We will make the big announcement March 16. The board members have been brainstorming how to create fun auction packages for the event that audience members at the big announcement party would like to purchase. I've seen some of the packages and they look like it will great fund.
April has quite a few new kids in The Adventures of Nate the Great. Some of these cast members are very young. Twice I've heard April give the note to the very youngest that they can't just sit down onstage when they get tired. They have to constantly react to the the other characters. Tonight I did a rough lighting design and the cast acted under stage lighting. April warned them ahead of time that they couldn't shield their eyes with their hands or squint trying to peer into the darkness. These kids are very young. Patrick McHaney and Emma Kate Schaaf are doing great jobs as Nate and Kate in the show.
Diane Byrd has had a few rehearsals for Getting Sara Married but she is waiting on a set from me to really start staging. Diane has all 6 actors in the show making their Market House Theatre debut.
Last week I cast Hairspray. We have a whole lot of new faces in the Hairspray cast. I'm looking forward to getting started on March 5. The rehearsal materials arrived this week for the show and I will pass those out on the 5th.
Today was the deadline for royalty requests for our play choices for next years season. We will make the big announcement March 16. The board members have been brainstorming how to create fun auction packages for the event that audience members at the big announcement party would like to purchase. I've seen some of the packages and they look like it will great fund.
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
January 31,2012
With the hugely successful run of Escanaba in da Moonlight now over, we have jumped right into the next set of shows. Last night The Adventures of Nate the Great moved into the mainstage theatre with the platforms and some walls already onstage. The audience participation murder mystery, Murder by Magic, took the stage as soon as the last Nate the Great cast member was out the door and rehearsed for its first performance Feb. 18 at Caldwell County High School. Thirty minutes later the first rehearsal for Getting Sara Married started across the street in the studio theatre. A big thank you goes to the cast and crew of Escanaba in da Moonlight who came in on Sunday afternoon and struck that set and loaded in the platforms for the Nate the Great set so they could rehearse onstage Monday night.
The February newsletter went off the printers. Hopefully it will be in mailboxes within a week and a half. You can already see some of the articles on the website with new pages for The Adventures of Nate the Great, the Volunteer Spotlight on ushers (with photos of some of the Escanaba ushers in their deer hunting costumes pieces) and a Murder by Magic article.
The theatre is currently reviewing many of the changes in ticketing software that has come about because of the "cloud". In essence almost all box offices will be moving to a totally internet based system where we are connected to a site, that we log into securely, to handle all our ticket sales both in house and online. MHT's online customers have already been using a service like this for the past 5 years. Our current "in-house" system is stored on a server located in the Paducah information age park and supported by System Solutions Inc. We connect to that server by fiber optic cable from the theatre. All of the major ticketing providers are transitioning to new software platforms and our current provider, Choice Ticketing, is no exception. MHT spends about $5,000 a year on our current ticketing software. Many of the changes promoted have the potential for us to offer better service to our ticket holders. MHT has always been one of the early adopters of new technology once it is proven to provide better service. We have always been insistent that ticket holders be able to select their seats online by looking at all available seats. We have tried to keep "walk up" and "telephone" transactions clear of all fees. As we look at the changes coming in the next year we will continue to strive to keep those values in place. The theatre is currently working on setting ticket prices for next season based on the shows selected and the costs of our programming.
The play selection committee has finished their work on selecting shows for the 49th Anniversary season next year. We are currently applying for royalties for those shows and will hopefully have those choices secured and ready to announce at a big party on March 16.
We are looking for crews for Nate the Great and Getting Sara Married. If you are interested in running lights, sound or working as stage crew we have lots of opportunities! It takes no experience and is a short time commitment. We provide the training. Just give the office a call at 270-444-6828 ext. 112 to sign up.
The February newsletter went off the printers. Hopefully it will be in mailboxes within a week and a half. You can already see some of the articles on the website with new pages for The Adventures of Nate the Great, the Volunteer Spotlight on ushers (with photos of some of the Escanaba ushers in their deer hunting costumes pieces) and a Murder by Magic article.
The theatre is currently reviewing many of the changes in ticketing software that has come about because of the "cloud". In essence almost all box offices will be moving to a totally internet based system where we are connected to a site, that we log into securely, to handle all our ticket sales both in house and online. MHT's online customers have already been using a service like this for the past 5 years. Our current "in-house" system is stored on a server located in the Paducah information age park and supported by System Solutions Inc. We connect to that server by fiber optic cable from the theatre. All of the major ticketing providers are transitioning to new software platforms and our current provider, Choice Ticketing, is no exception. MHT spends about $5,000 a year on our current ticketing software. Many of the changes promoted have the potential for us to offer better service to our ticket holders. MHT has always been one of the early adopters of new technology once it is proven to provide better service. We have always been insistent that ticket holders be able to select their seats online by looking at all available seats. We have tried to keep "walk up" and "telephone" transactions clear of all fees. As we look at the changes coming in the next year we will continue to strive to keep those values in place. The theatre is currently working on setting ticket prices for next season based on the shows selected and the costs of our programming.
The play selection committee has finished their work on selecting shows for the 49th Anniversary season next year. We are currently applying for royalties for those shows and will hopefully have those choices secured and ready to announce at a big party on March 16.
We are looking for crews for Nate the Great and Getting Sara Married. If you are interested in running lights, sound or working as stage crew we have lots of opportunities! It takes no experience and is a short time commitment. We provide the training. Just give the office a call at 270-444-6828 ext. 112 to sign up.
Friday, January 20, 2012
January 24, 2012
Escanaba in da Moonlight has really taken off since the first weekend. The cast has been terrific under Ross Daniel's direction and audiences have been really responsive. We have added two encore performances of the show because of audience demand on Jan. 27 & 28 at 7:30 pm.
I must confess a mistake I have made more than once as Executive and Artistic Director of Market House Theatre. I underestimated the sensitivities of our audience. When we first looked at selecting this show it was passed up. Some of the reading committee loved the show (myself included) and others thought the humor was a little too crude. I will confess that I watched the movie version of this show and thought-"this may be too crude for our audience." I pulled the show from consideration after that first year of reading because I was also worried that we would not get enough "hunters" to buy tickets to make the show successful.
To my surprise I discovered that not only did our audiences like the show, but women are often the source of the loudest laughs in the theatre.
As I watch the show from the back (mostly watching the audience reaction), it dawned on me- this was the reverse of Dixie Swim Club audiences where the show was about 5 women and their friendships and the loudest laughs came from male members of the audience. We all at some basic level love to see how the opposite sex acts when it's just the guys or just the girls. We may be any age from 30-100 but inside of us there still lurks that 13 year old kid-looking for acceptance from our peer group and willing to do outrageous things to earn that acceptance. There is an honesty to the show (in addition to some really funny stuff) that I think makes the show work really well.
Another worry we had was finding a talented cast of 5 men to rehearse over the Christmas/New Year's holidays which is usually a real struggle. We were able to cast a great group of guys and a girl to make the show a big success. I hope that everyone that missed out because of the sold out shows on the second week will get a chance to come to the encore performances.
Auditions for Getting Sara Married started last night. We had a terrific turnout of of women and men. I did not know the majority of those auditioning! That was a very welcome surprise. Auditions continue tonight and I believe that director Diane Byrd will be able to put together a great cast.
We have a workshop for Auditions for Hairspray on Feb 1 and then the auditions on Feb. 6 & 7. The workshop will let people know what songs to prepare and we will do a little bit of dance and share some of the scene selections I'll use for the auditions. It really is just a primer for those auditioning who have never done this before.
Play selection committee met last night and chose the slate for next season. It will now go into the rights application stage and then if everything is available we will announce our next years season at a big party on March 16 at the theatre. Look for more information on this in the upcoming newsletter. A big thank you goes out to Denise Bristol who chaired that committee, and to its members who read dozens of plays to narrow down the list to our final choices.
The Murder for Hire Troupe is rehearsing for the next event. We will perform Murder by Magic at the Paducah Country Club on March 3 and then in 3 dinner theatre performances at the Market House March 8-10. It should be lots of fun with dinner catered by Neil's Catering and a wine and beer cash bar again. Tickets are $35 each and we encourage people to get a team together to compete.
The Market House Board of Directors Meeting is tomorrow at 5:30 at the theatre. Williams Williams and Lentz will present the official audit to the theatre of our last completed fiscal year.
MHT completed our annual Kentucky Arts Council Arts Partnership application on January 13 and we hope that with all of the state budgets cut that they will be able to continue to fund the arts at some level. That funding leverages 4 times the tax revenue for the city and state as they dispense. The legislature cut the funding for the Kentucky Arts Council in the last two budgets. The arts council ended up eliminating all of their grants except for the Arts Partnerships for long standing arts groups. Any more cuts could quite possibly jeopardize matching funds from the National Endowment for the Arts and that could be the difference between groups being able to make that return on investment in tax revenue for the state which then reduces state revenues even further. Some cuts would literally be worse than others for state revenue. KAC funding isn't just a quality of life issue. It truly is a tax revenue issue as well.
The theatre is still in process on Phase Two of our Organization and Facilities study. We hope to have some significant progress to announce by the end of this fiscal year in June as to our future plans for renovation and expansion. Everything from scene shop construction space to additional lobby restroom space is being studied. The good news is that we have lots of exciting options and a strong financial foundation to build on. Consultants will visit Paducah over the help us evaluate our options.
I must confess a mistake I have made more than once as Executive and Artistic Director of Market House Theatre. I underestimated the sensitivities of our audience. When we first looked at selecting this show it was passed up. Some of the reading committee loved the show (myself included) and others thought the humor was a little too crude. I will confess that I watched the movie version of this show and thought-"this may be too crude for our audience." I pulled the show from consideration after that first year of reading because I was also worried that we would not get enough "hunters" to buy tickets to make the show successful.
To my surprise I discovered that not only did our audiences like the show, but women are often the source of the loudest laughs in the theatre.
As I watch the show from the back (mostly watching the audience reaction), it dawned on me- this was the reverse of Dixie Swim Club audiences where the show was about 5 women and their friendships and the loudest laughs came from male members of the audience. We all at some basic level love to see how the opposite sex acts when it's just the guys or just the girls. We may be any age from 30-100 but inside of us there still lurks that 13 year old kid-looking for acceptance from our peer group and willing to do outrageous things to earn that acceptance. There is an honesty to the show (in addition to some really funny stuff) that I think makes the show work really well.
Another worry we had was finding a talented cast of 5 men to rehearse over the Christmas/New Year's holidays which is usually a real struggle. We were able to cast a great group of guys and a girl to make the show a big success. I hope that everyone that missed out because of the sold out shows on the second week will get a chance to come to the encore performances.
Auditions for Getting Sara Married started last night. We had a terrific turnout of of women and men. I did not know the majority of those auditioning! That was a very welcome surprise. Auditions continue tonight and I believe that director Diane Byrd will be able to put together a great cast.
We have a workshop for Auditions for Hairspray on Feb 1 and then the auditions on Feb. 6 & 7. The workshop will let people know what songs to prepare and we will do a little bit of dance and share some of the scene selections I'll use for the auditions. It really is just a primer for those auditioning who have never done this before.
Play selection committee met last night and chose the slate for next season. It will now go into the rights application stage and then if everything is available we will announce our next years season at a big party on March 16 at the theatre. Look for more information on this in the upcoming newsletter. A big thank you goes out to Denise Bristol who chaired that committee, and to its members who read dozens of plays to narrow down the list to our final choices.
The Murder for Hire Troupe is rehearsing for the next event. We will perform Murder by Magic at the Paducah Country Club on March 3 and then in 3 dinner theatre performances at the Market House March 8-10. It should be lots of fun with dinner catered by Neil's Catering and a wine and beer cash bar again. Tickets are $35 each and we encourage people to get a team together to compete.
The Market House Board of Directors Meeting is tomorrow at 5:30 at the theatre. Williams Williams and Lentz will present the official audit to the theatre of our last completed fiscal year.
MHT completed our annual Kentucky Arts Council Arts Partnership application on January 13 and we hope that with all of the state budgets cut that they will be able to continue to fund the arts at some level. That funding leverages 4 times the tax revenue for the city and state as they dispense. The legislature cut the funding for the Kentucky Arts Council in the last two budgets. The arts council ended up eliminating all of their grants except for the Arts Partnerships for long standing arts groups. Any more cuts could quite possibly jeopardize matching funds from the National Endowment for the Arts and that could be the difference between groups being able to make that return on investment in tax revenue for the state which then reduces state revenues even further. Some cuts would literally be worse than others for state revenue. KAC funding isn't just a quality of life issue. It truly is a tax revenue issue as well.
The theatre is still in process on Phase Two of our Organization and Facilities study. We hope to have some significant progress to announce by the end of this fiscal year in June as to our future plans for renovation and expansion. Everything from scene shop construction space to additional lobby restroom space is being studied. The good news is that we have lots of exciting options and a strong financial foundation to build on. Consultants will visit Paducah over the help us evaluate our options.
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