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.
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
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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