May 27 2013

We are one week away from the Technical Rehearsal for Les Miserables and the opening of the final production of the 49th Season.

This past weekend the orchestra rehearsed on both Saturday and Sunday and are scheduled to rehearse again today on Memorial Day. They are in preparation for joining the cast on Tuesday night for a run through of Act One.  Cindy Miller and Patt Lynch have been also rehearsing and working together almost every day the past two weeks outside of those rehearsals to work out all of the kinks in the digital music accompaniment for the show.  They are constantly editing and adjusting the software to make it easier to play.  This has caused several volume issues as we work through the setup.  Hopefully we will have that resolved by Tuesday as I've also done some software programming to help with the set up.

It is difficult to explain to the actors how the digital orchestra works since it works like a musical instrument that has to be learned and played and improved with practice. Patt with years of musical experience has to learn to play it and all of its oddities.  The joy this weekend has been to add the live musicians in which really make the show come to life and the digital instruments then become the background to help us expand the sound to a full orchestra feel with the tiny pit we have which can only accommodate 6 live musicians and their instruments.

Master Carpenter Jim Keeney and I worked this weekend on the set building set pieces and hanging masking.  In addition  Jason McHaney has been helping create the realistic rifles used in the show.  Virginia Seigal is working  on tables and chairs for the show along with the help of Jim.  Dean Palmer has offered his help with working on the motorized turntable that I built back in 1985 for the show The Importance of Being Earnest.  Some of our bracing has loosened up over the years and need to be re-secured to help keep the 16 ft diameter flooring section from drifting a 1/4 to 1/2 inch when the turntable runs for extended periods of time.

The Footlights troupe and held their performances of Munchkin Mediation Musical this past Saturday and Sunday afternoon.  Saturday was the final day of Footlights classes for the current school year and a new set of classes begins August 24 as the next school year begins.  The summer is not quite at MHT as a full slate of Youth Summer camps/classes and shows will start up in the next couple of weeks.

It seems like it was only a couple of months ago that I was announcing the slate of shows for the 49th season.  Time flies by so fast as we set out to produce the shows for the season.  Rehearsals start for each show and reach the opening night and then in short time the show is over and we take down the set and move on to the next production.   After the show the staff puts the photos in the theatre albums for archives and file the programs and box office and show reports in binders and we quickly move on.

There is another aspect to the shows produced that don't get filed away.  The friendships made by the actors, crews, and staff last long after the set is taken down.  I know that many of the friendships made at the theatre are those that last a lifetime.  April and I see the kids who grew up on the stage of the theatre and in the classes come back through after college classes and even years later come back to visit and want to show their families the place that magic happened for them.  We see the children of the kids who participated years ago taking footlights classes or auditioning for shows.  We see adults who first met in the rehearsals for a show years later still getting together for holiday and social events.

Three or four times over the past month as I've walked out of my side office door  I've overheard someone from Paducah unaware of my presence telling a group of family or friends "That's Market House Theatre which does really great shows!"  These are just everyday people who aren't actors, crews or volunteers but residents of our community pointing to the theatre with community pride.   I meet people everywhere in the community that go out of there way to tell me how much they love the theatre and their favorite show or a moment they remember from the theatre's history.

This final rehearsal week, before the opening of Les Miserables, will be filled with very long hours and dedicated work of the actors, crews, and staff.  We will all push ourselves to the point of exhaustion to give our best efforts in the creation of the show.  The group of people which first met during a first rehearsal last February, has again become a tightly knit group of friends and family challenging themselves and those around them to create something magical.  While the performances only last for a brief time during June.  The experiences and friendships will last long beyond the end of the 49th Season.