Casting

The cast list for Tom Dick and Harry was posted this morning. We have several veteran actors in the production along with a couple of newcomers to MHT. Monday's auditions had the majority of auditionees. Tuesday added the final person to the cast. Instead of call backs I felt fairly confident that I could cast the show this morning. We start rehearsals on Monday Sept. 21 the day after we close the final weekend of Smoke on the Mountain Homecoming. With today's sales we have exceeded our budgeted single ticket sales goal for the show. It feels good to start the season off with a big success.

I got a call from a friend to tell me that Mayfield singer Kevin Skinner had just won America's Got Talent. I remember back this last spring when Cathy Creceilus from the WPSDLocal 6 called me and asked me to be one of the judges for the local competition. Kevin was one of over 20 performers who showed up for the competition. I remember watching him perform and being moved by this simple man who sang and played music that he wrote. I used the phrase the "real deal" when it was my turn to critique his performance. I'm happy that Kevin was able to take the opportunity that was given to him and to go all the way and win the competition. WPSDLocal 6 and Cathy Crecelius deserve a pat on the back for helping make Kevin's dream a reality.

It is somehow appropriate for me that Kevin won as I announced the cast list for the show today. I can't help but think about the many people who I have watched audition for shows over the many years. Some of them like Kevin have a natural talent that comes from the heart. You know it when you see them. Many of them have graced the MHT stage. Some of them have gone on to careers in New York or Los Angeles or other major cities. Some of them who were just as talented as Kevin went into careers in medicine or teaching or a variety of other occupations. It is the combination of talent, luck, hard work, and being the "real deal" that makes someone a success. The real deal part is probably the hardest and is often the thing that people lose, the more successful they become.

So to Kevin I say congratulations. You've done an amazing thing that many people dream about doing. To those who feel that desire to stand up in front of a crowd of people and know what it is like to perform, to make an audience laugh or cry or to be onstage at the end of a show and receive a standing ovation for a job well done - come on down. That's what Market House Theatre is all about. Giving you the opportunity to experience a little of your dreams. Smoke on the Mountain Homecoming cast has one of the other finalists from WPSDLocal 6's America's got Talent competition. Miki Abraham also went to Chicago for callbacks with Kevin. She and 7 other very talented people from Mayfield, Paducah and Metropolis will sing and make you laugh and cry this very weekend on the MHT stage. Come celebrate the local talent that is present in our community as we celebrate Kevin's national success.

Getting the word out

We just completed the second weekend of Smoke on the Mountain Homecoming. I've talked with several people who all heard how great the show is and told me they heard we were sold out. We are not sold out. We still have tickets left for all of the remaining shows next weekend. Last night I finished up the first draft of the walking ghost tour script and sent it off to the guides. I'm still working on the trolley script which visits several places not on the walking tour of downtown Paducah.

Tonight and tomorrow will be spent preparing for the auditions at 7 pm on Monday and Tuesday Sept. 13 & 14 in the main theatre for Tom Dick & Harry. I'll spend tomorrow selecting audition scenes for the play and contacting people to remind them about auditions. I hope to have the show cast by next Friday and start rehearsal the Monday following the close of Smoke on the Mountain Homecoming.

The auditors from Williams Williams and Lentz will be arriving at the theatre bright and early tomorrow for their annual audit. They go through all of our financial records and produce and audit that we use for applying for grants and several other projects.

We heard from the Kentucky Colonels this past week that they will be presenting grant awards at the end of the month. Two years ago they used the MHT studio theatre for the community awards ceremony and will do so again this year. We are all eagerly awaiting the grant award amount so we can order our new theatre seats.

The theatre will be moving our annual fund drive from January to October so we are busy trying to prepare for that to kick off the week following Fall Break.


MHT will offer adult classes and workshops this fall. Instructor, Joey Judd, will offer a theatre games class starting October 15 and running through November 19 on Thursday evenings from 5:30-7:00 pm. Class fees are $35.

Michael Cochran will offer a series of free one hour workshops for adults on Saturday mornings at 9 am. The first workshop, on Sat. Oct 10, will be how to audition and common mistakes actors make. The second workshop on Sat. Oct. 17 will be script analysis for the actor. The third workshop on Sat. Oct. 31 will be on set and lighting design. These workshops are meant as an introduction to the subject matter. Beginning students ages 16 and up are welcomed to register for the free workshops. Students should register in advance for Improv classes and the free workshops.

Smoke Opens

After weeks or preparation the season is underway as Smoke on the Mountain opened Thursday night to an enthusiastic audience response. The cast and crew have worked together to create a wonderful show that has received a standing ovation for every performance since opening. Maria Miller and Emily Yocum have filled in as the stage crew and are adding a fun element to the show as the offstage voices of 3 year olds Weldon and Eldon Culpepper. They create such mayhem at the side that it is not hard to believe two 3 years with their screaming and tantrums are really there. The matinee today at 2:30 will cap off the hectic week getting the show open and then give the performers 3 days off before they return for two more weekends of "Homecoming".

Footlights classes began Saturday morning. Joey Judd helped April with the High School class and taught the students some new improv skills in character building. Joey is working with April and I to offer a series of adult classes this fall.

A surprise visit from WPSD Local6 for the high school class had April calling me wondering why I hadn't told her they were coming. I didn't know anything about it. We are always thrilled for the community to get a better look at the education programming happening at the theatre.

The Ghost Tour guides will have a meeting Tuesday and the Murder for Hire troupe has a meeting Wednesday to prepare for the October events. MHT will provide a murder mystery performance for the Caldwell County Junior class as their fundraiser for the school.

Auditions for Tom Dick and Harry are coming up next Monday and Tuesday. The October newsletter is in the final stages before going to press. April begins rehearsal for Secret Life of Girl this next week as well.

Tech Weekend

It all began with a text message Friday morning. Lisa Humphrey-Wynn Assistant Director/Stage Manager for Smoke on the Mountain Homecoming texted me to say she was at her doctors office. She had been experiencing pain and her doctor was checking out her hip where she had had replacement hip surgery. There was a possibility she might have to be hospitalized. The second text arrived one hour later. Lisa was being hospitalized and was going in for surgery on her hip which had developed an extreme infection. She would be hospitalized for 4-5 days and out of the picture for the show. We still had the lighting and the stage crew people so I felt like we were still okay. We all kept Lisa in our thoughts and prayers and we set up the light board backstage so it could be run from there to coordinate with the stage crew. April and I left Sat. morning along with some friends and drove to St. Louis to see the Broadway touring production Mary Poppins at the Fox Theatre.

We had 15th row center seats and the show had some really fun moments but I felt that it was somewhat difficult to hear. I lost part of the dialogue in some of the scenes which made it hard to follow. In addition the lighting designer used lots of mood lighting and used follow spots to light the main characters which tended to make the overall light levels somewhat dark which led to my eyes getting tired. I must confess I fell asleep during part of the first act. The story line and songs for part of the show were also a little less than memorable for me. The second act was delightful and lots of fun effects including watching Bert the chimney sweep dancing in number where he walked up the wall and upside down across the proscenium 20 feet in the air and then back down the other side. We all left the theatre smiling but wishing the sound had been better.

On the drive home I got a voicemail which I didn't listen to until I got home about 9 pm. It was from Debbie the lighting person to tell me that her daughter who was supposed to be on the stage crew had been diagnosed with Swine Flu H1N1 and she and her daughter were out for at least a week. They never even got to see a single rehearsal of the show. With the technical rehearsal on Sunday I was now totally without a crew. I had agreed for Jim to go to Arkansas this weekend to help his wife with her fathers estate.

I moved the light board back out to the front of the house and April agreed to come in to help run lights and do the live sound effects to get through the technical rehearsal. We rehearsed early because one of the actors had an evening engagement and everything went pretty well for a first tech with costumes, lights, and sound.

Tomorrow Jim will be back and musical director Cindy Miller has offered her daughter Maria's help to do the running crew for the show. Jim will jump to lights and stage manager and we will be back on track. I've never had an incident before were I've lost the entire crew the day before the technical rehearsal. With no understudies for the show I always worry about a major character getting sick. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that everyone else will remain healthy. We wish a speedy recover to all of the crew members who are out sick. We may have been blown sideways a little this weekend but we will ready for Thursday nights opening!

Late August Rush

A whirlwind of activity in the printing area has been going on all weekend and during the first part of this week. The annual report was sent to the printer yesterday. This 4 page color document is a report on all aspects of MHT programming last season along with financial reports. All MHT Member/Contributors will receive a copy in the mail. A PDF of the report will be posted on the MHT website.

The September newsletter also went to the printer on Monday. We will be returning to a more robust schedule of newsletters this year. Last year we tried to move the newsletters to a quarterly printing in order to save funds. What we learned was that some of our information was out 1-2 months before the event and was soon forgotten. The MHT board has decided that we need to communicate more often with people interested in the theatre and has budgeted a doubling of newsletters for this season. The newsletter will also try to feature more of the people who are involved as volunteers at the theatre. Look for a newsletter to be posted today.

Volunteer Debra Harned, April Cochran and I have been hard at work to get the new program completed and sent the printer. We are also putting the final touches on our season brochure. All these things are timed to be ready for opening night of Smoke on the Mountain Homecoming which opens Sept. 3.

The box office is now selling tickets to Smoke and The Secret Life of Girls. In addition schools are calling in and making school matinee reservations for Secret Life of Girls, Best Christmas Pageant Ever, and There's a Boy in the Girl's Bathroom. All of those school performances are filling up quickly and some are already sold out. Because of the limited space in the studio theatre for Secret Life we have added a school discount price to the regular performance of Secret Life of Girls. Any school group of at least 30 can get a school matinee rate of $5 per ticket for a regular performance of the show. Interested schools can contact the box office for more information.

Jim is still doing the construction work on the back of our auditorium to make access easier for wheelchairs and walkers. We have removed the steps and made access a level entrance to the rear of the auditorium.

The theatre is getting ready to announce an exciting fundraiser for the fall and we are in the final planning stages for this event. We should be ready to announce this later this week!

School has started back and April is full swing teaching in the city and county school systems.

I feel your pain

Yesterday tickets went on sale for Smoke on the Mountain Homecoming and the Secret Life of Girls. We are just 3 weeks out from the opening of the first show of the 46th season. At rehearsal last night we spent the majority of time working on a couple of the characters monologues. We worked and reworked these moments where the characters testify about their faith. I think that it was rewarding for those actors who got to work on their parts. Unfortunately the others had a lot of sitting around while that happened. Last night I had Fowler, who plays Pastor Oglethorpe, empathize so much with those in his congregation that he had to act as if it were him that was suffering from bursitis, arthritis, locked bowels, and kidney stones. The other actors were rolling on the floor as Fowler contorted his body to "feel" their pain.

Meanwhile across the street open auditions were being held for Cardinal River Productions 48 hour film festival entry. Although they don't know what genre of script they will be creating those who showed up were taped doing a variety of improvisational exercises that covered several genres. This weekend should be an exciting one for film in Paducah with the 13 teams. One of the teams, other than the Cardinal River group, is headed up and composed solely of MHT performers and volunteers. It will be fun to see the projects that come out from this weekend. I encourage everyone to go and view the completed 4-7 minute films next week at the Maiden Alley Cinema and support the efforts of all of the MHT and community people who are involved in this competition.

If you see some terrific posters around town for Smoke on the Mountain Homecoming they are the work of the creative team over at IVS supervised by Todd Duff. IVS has done an outstanding job on the posters and we are working with them to create a coordinated and unified look to all of our show marketing. We have our website hosted by IVS and they do an outstanding job in everything they undertake.

layers

We are in the process of rehabbing the steps into the auditorium and making them safer. It is interesting when you uncover construction from 30 years ago. You suddenly discover that walls don't go all the way to the floor and the shortcuts that were taken to cover up the way carpet was installed over things that you now have to rebuild everything. When all is completed it should provide a smoother and safer entry into the theatre for not a lot of money. We have been putting this off until we changed over for the new seats.

I spoke with the Kentucky Colonels office the other day and they told me it was now going to be September before we hear anything about our seating grant. That will put our order with 10-12 weeks of manufacture, shipping and installation back into December or January for the new seats. We have moved forward with removing the 14th seat on every other row so that we adjust to the new seating chart with the first show. The new chairs will be 2 1/2" wider in the seat than the old chairs. That will be a major difference for some of our season ticket holders who were seated in the old 16" wide seats. We continue to look to see if there are other ways to improve the show experience for the audience. I am trying to come up with more ways that everyone who is connected to the theatre can give us ideas on how to improve all aspects of the theatre. We will do a survey with our first show for audience members and I will try and put an online survey for those who can't participate during the Smoke on the Mountain run.

This week we finished up with the first phase of season tickets as all the tickets were printed. We now move to phase two were the restaurant discount cards get added to each order. The ticket letters containing exchange and other important information that go with the tickets and a final check of tickets before they go out in the mail. This is a race to get the season tickets out and then put the single tickets on sale for Smoke on the Mountain Homecoming.

We are base coat painting the upstage walls for Smoke on the Mountain Homecoming so Kelly Salchli can come in and do the final scenic painting on them. Tonight we finish staging Act One of the Smoke and tomorrow is a review of Act One. Over the past week we have moved from just singing to the piano for the music to each of the actors playing instruments and singing the music. That is a big change for the performers. With the addition of the movement in the staging the hope is to no lose any of the vocal work that has been accomplished. Staging a show is like making layers on a cake. Each layer is built on top of the previous and adds more complexity. The goal is not to lose the base that you've built on as you add all the layers.