As we headed into the final push for the season everything that didn't fit within the 7 day, 14 hour a day work schedule got put in the to do stack. Unfortunately one of those things was my blog. I looked back today and realized it had been 3 weeks since my last blog. My apologies to those who read this blog. I'll try to do better in the future.
ANNIE. Wow! We have over 50 talented people working on this production. Chanyng Floyd as Annie has been a real joy to work with. This is her first show as an actress after lots of time in front of audiences as a dancer with the AMPA dance company. Chanyng like so many others has a lot of innate talent with singing and acting that she had never used before. Her mom told me just last night that before the show she didn't know Chanyng could sing. During the rehearsals musical director Doug Arnold has worked with her to develop those natural talents and I think audiences will be very impressed by her musical ability. In addition Chanyng has to play a tough optimistic kid who boldly searches for her parents and yet has vulnerable moments when she finds out the truth about why they left her. It is a credit to Chanyng that she is able to pull off the optimistic tough kid who threatens the older bigger kids with "do you want to sleep with your teeth inside or outside of your mouth" while retaining the vulnerability of an 11 year old alone who desperately wants to have a mom and dad in the song MAYBE.
Amy Perdue who plays Grace (Warbuck's personal secretary) in the show along with Landon Baker who plays Officer Ward and Drake (Warbuck's head butler) also do an outstanding job in what I think are difficult roles. Both have to be prim and proper and also exude a real sense of comedy and emotional connection to Annie that is not easy to pull off. Tom Dolan as Warbucks gives us a terrific portrayal of the loud commanding billionaire tycoon whose heart melts after spending time with Annie. It's easy to play that role as 2 dimensional always yelling, but takes a lot more talent and work to give us the feeling Daddy Warbucks character that Annie turns to as a father. Kelly Ann Rathunde as Miss Hannigan gives us a wacky version of the head of the orphanage and one of the chief villains. Between menacing the kids and being ditzy, Kelly, pulls off the role with lots of fun. Kelly along with Scott Salchli as Rooster and Mary Dorr as Lily provide a nice blend of comedy and their rendition of the song EASY STREET is really fun. Dorr in particular has a wonderful comic laugh that audiences loved.
I can't say enough about Katy Miller and Analiese Jones. They choreographed the big dance numbers HARD KNOCK LIFE, EASY STREET, I THINK I'M GONNA LIKE IT HERE, NYC, YOUR NEVER FULLY DRESSED (orphan's dance), and ANYTHING BUT YOU. Many of the adult actors at first thought they would never be able to dance some of the complex choreography. But after working really hard they pull them off and make them look effortless. There is so much going on with the choreography in layers on the stage that you almost have to see it twice to watch all the wonderful dance moments that happen. Analiese also deserves a huge pat on the back for the way she has shepherded the orphans in their performances. Taking the notes I've given the orphan actors and working with them while they are offstage constantly improving their performance and keeping them focused (which is no small task!)
The chorus of the show is filled with company members who play so many roles. If you look closely in the Hooverville scene and the big dance number NYC you will see almost the entire company disguised and costumed as people on the street of New York. It's fun to see Chuck Wilkins, who plays a homeless guy, rant about former president Herbert Hoover and later on see him as the President FDR in the wheelchair. Roy Hensel, Scott Salchli, Mary Dorr, Diane Byrd and Chip Bohle all play three to four different roles in the show. The chorus of homeless people, pedestrians in New York, and servants and radio performers make this show sparkle and so much fun to watch.
Denise Bristol keeps everybody on task in her role as stage manager calling light sound and technical cues for the show and Jim Keeney keeps the scene changes flowing with 3 stage crew and the help of the actors. Musical Director, Doug Arnold, has done a terrific job of bringing together a talented orchestra and getting a great vocal sound from the performers on stage. Sally Moore of Lodi Kennels tells me that Ashes, the yellow lab, who plays Sandy runs to the door and barks when it is time to go to the show because she is so excited. Sally does an outstanding job with training and is so easy to work with. I can't say enough good things about her abilities and I think she is just as good as any of the dog trainers I've seen on television on Animal plantet.
Finally the ten girls who play the orphans completely knock the audiences socks off! From the youngest Addie Beth Franklin to the oldest Leiren Jackson they have worked so hard and do such a great job in the show. The youngest Addie Beth, who plays Molly, holds her own with all the others in the choreography and singing and steals the show in some scenes.
WC Fields used to say never work with animals or kids because they always steal the show. Fortunately there are lots of talented adults in ANNIE who are able to hold their own against those odds although the kids and the animals really do give them a run for their money. I wouldn't hesitate to work with this talented bunch again.
Monday night while the actors are taking some well deserved time off will be the first rehearsal of the Curtain Call performance cameo cast. They will get to step on stage for the first time and learn where to walk and a little bit of the choreography for their big night on the final Saturday night performance of ANNIE June 18.
This has been a very successful season and the production of ANNIE wraps up the year with a beautiful red bow to top it off. I hope that everyone gets a chance to come see it.
Saturday, June 4, 2011
Monday, May 2, 2011
5-2-2011
Yesterday the theatre wrapped up a very successful run of the Dixie Swim Club. Director Lisa Humphrey and cast members Marsha Cash, Sue Fletcher, Victoria Parrish, Cat Tilker, and Sandra Wilson wowed audiences with great performances and received standing ovations throughout the run. The final weekend played to most sold out audiences. Crew members Kris, Debbie, Keirstyn, and Thomas did a great job of making things flow smoothly. TD Jim Keeney filled in on the stage crew helping with some of the changes as well. The cast had lots of fun "live theatre" moments with the show on the final weekend. Saturday afternoon Marsha Cash's blouse zipper came apart in the middle during a fast change and she did the entire scene trying to keep her blouse from falling off her. Most of the audience wouldn't have really noticed because she did such a great job, but the cast discovered the costume trauma when she walked onstage and sat down on the settee. Cast members did their best to "hang on" to the back of her blouse to help her out whenever they were standing by her.
I got a voicemail message last week from one of the playwrights congratulating us on our run and wishing us lots of success. We've had more and more playwrights reach out and connect to us over the past couple of years. With the internet and facebook playwrights are more connected than ever to theatres doing their plays.
Story Theatre is still out on tour however last Friday's show scheduled for Sikeston MO. was postponed to the end of May since the bridge access in and out of Cairo was closed due to flooding. It would have taken us more than 2 hours to drive there one way. This morning we were scheduled for Unity Elementary but Massac Unit 1 schools are closed due to the flooding. Hopefully it will stop raining and our region can dry out a little in the next couple of days to help all the communities struggling with rising water.
We've had several people call us to ask if the theatre is flooded. So far (knock on wood) the city's floodwall is holding just fine and we hope to escape without any damage. We've had audience members who have been unable to come to the Dixie Swim Club because of blocked roads. Our crew members from Livingston County Debbie and her granddaughter Keirstyn didn't make it in last Thursday when Smithland was shutdown.
Today Jim Keeney and I will transport all the Dixie scenery pieces back to our warehouse and bring platforms and scenery pieces back for Annie which rehearses onstage tonight at 6:30. EAT which is rehearsing in the studio theatre goes into technical rehearsals next Sunday for its opening the following week. We are still putting together the scenery and props for that show.
The dog trainer from Lodi Kennels stopped by Saturday and we talked about her dog Ashes which will play Sandy for the play ANNIE. Unfortunately Ashes is in heat for the next two weeks so she won't be able to start working with the show until after that. I will say in 30 years of directing this is the first time an "actor" couldn't make rehearsals because they were in heat.
On a funny note we had a season ticket holder call who had received her season ticket renewal order for next season. She was very concerned and wasn't sure if she would be able to renew here tickets because of one of the shows announced. She wanted to know if we were going to have the actors in Hairspray wear clothes. She apparently got the musicals Hair and Hairspray confused. After we assured here that yes the actors were going to remain fully clothed in the production she happily renewed her season tickets.
Monday, April 18, 2011
4-18-2 2011
The Theatre sends it's condolences and prayers to the Keeney family on the passing of Jim's Grandmother. Services were held Saturday in Benton.
Three Little Pigs Story Theatre Tour presented 3 productions last week and Dixie Swim Club had it's Technical Rehearsal yesterday. Just before we started the rehearsal yesterday I told the cast and the crew that we would work to get our costume and set changes down to 30-45 seconds. That is the longest an audience will sit during a scene change without losing energy from the previous scene. The cast and crew started to protest that wasn't going to be possible. As we got to the first scene change at 45 seconds I had the lighting person bring up the lights and we discussed what had happened and how close we were to finishing the changes. We worked through scene change issues making the movements more economical so that the crew person did things in an order that allowed them to not have to go offstage with removed items and then return. They brought items on and placed them and then took the other items off. The cast discovered who could help each other with changes and then we ran it again. By the third time we were ready to go at about 40 seconds. By the time we finish the run of the show I expect to have that time down to 25 seconds. It really is amazing what can be accomplished in 30 seconds when you are focused.
The cast for Dixie Swim did a great job yesterday working with costumes and props. Victoria who pours martinis throughout the first scene of the play ran out half way through the scene and then pretended to pour. She realized that she was going to have to make twice as much as she originally thought. On the other hand Lisa Humphrey who filled one of the martini glasses with milk for the one character who doesn't drink put way to much in and the actors had to be very careful not to spill the mill as they walked and talked. I programmed telephone rings into the sound cues and realize I had too many rings in for the amount of time it takes the actress to get off stage to answer the phone so I removed some of those rings. We had a pregnant padding for one of the actresses. Unfortunately it made her look ridiculous so today we will take some of that padding out. In another scene a dress that was supposed to look ridiculous didn't look that way so we will find another that looks even worse. Today will be spent hanging some additional lights and refocusing others to eliminate some of the dark spots that I noticed yesterday during the tech rehearsal. That's the process for this week. You create something you think will work and then you test it during the rehearsal that night. What doesn't work gets reworked the next day.
The board of directors held a planning meeting at First Presbyterian Church on Saturday afternoon and we worked through several items that needed longer time than our regular board meetings. Lots of progress was made in several areas and we hope to have some exciting announcements coming up in the next few months concerning fundraising events. The board also tackled several tough facility questions and we will move forward on the repairs for some big items we had been struggling with. One of those items is the water drainage behind the studio theatre that has been flooding our back hallway during heavy rains. We hope to have that corrected by the end of June.
On today's schedule are rehearsals for Eat, Dixie Swim Club, and Annie.
Three Little Pigs Story Theatre Tour presented 3 productions last week and Dixie Swim Club had it's Technical Rehearsal yesterday. Just before we started the rehearsal yesterday I told the cast and the crew that we would work to get our costume and set changes down to 30-45 seconds. That is the longest an audience will sit during a scene change without losing energy from the previous scene. The cast and crew started to protest that wasn't going to be possible. As we got to the first scene change at 45 seconds I had the lighting person bring up the lights and we discussed what had happened and how close we were to finishing the changes. We worked through scene change issues making the movements more economical so that the crew person did things in an order that allowed them to not have to go offstage with removed items and then return. They brought items on and placed them and then took the other items off. The cast discovered who could help each other with changes and then we ran it again. By the third time we were ready to go at about 40 seconds. By the time we finish the run of the show I expect to have that time down to 25 seconds. It really is amazing what can be accomplished in 30 seconds when you are focused.
The cast for Dixie Swim did a great job yesterday working with costumes and props. Victoria who pours martinis throughout the first scene of the play ran out half way through the scene and then pretended to pour. She realized that she was going to have to make twice as much as she originally thought. On the other hand Lisa Humphrey who filled one of the martini glasses with milk for the one character who doesn't drink put way to much in and the actors had to be very careful not to spill the mill as they walked and talked. I programmed telephone rings into the sound cues and realize I had too many rings in for the amount of time it takes the actress to get off stage to answer the phone so I removed some of those rings. We had a pregnant padding for one of the actresses. Unfortunately it made her look ridiculous so today we will take some of that padding out. In another scene a dress that was supposed to look ridiculous didn't look that way so we will find another that looks even worse. Today will be spent hanging some additional lights and refocusing others to eliminate some of the dark spots that I noticed yesterday during the tech rehearsal. That's the process for this week. You create something you think will work and then you test it during the rehearsal that night. What doesn't work gets reworked the next day.
The board of directors held a planning meeting at First Presbyterian Church on Saturday afternoon and we worked through several items that needed longer time than our regular board meetings. Lots of progress was made in several areas and we hope to have some exciting announcements coming up in the next few months concerning fundraising events. The board also tackled several tough facility questions and we will move forward on the repairs for some big items we had been struggling with. One of those items is the water drainage behind the studio theatre that has been flooding our back hallway during heavy rains. We hope to have that corrected by the end of June.
On today's schedule are rehearsals for Eat, Dixie Swim Club, and Annie.
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
3-22-2011
Phantom of the Market House Theatre had a successful weekend with an almost capacity audience on Friday night and over 2/3 full on Saturday. A great deal of thanks goes to the Cast- Renie Barger, Fowler Black on followspot, Chip Bohle, April Cochran, Tom Dolan, Audra Hall, Roy Hensel, Steve Schwetman, and Host for the weekend Valerie Pollard. We performed the same show the first Saturday in March at Caldwell County HS as a fundraiser for their Junior Class. If you missed out on seeing Phantom of the Market House Theatre you still have one more chance. The LATA group has booked the the Murder For Hire Troupe to perform Phantom on Friday April 1 at the Robert Cherry Civic Center as a fundraiser for Relay for Life. You can contact Audra Hall at audra.hall@lataky.com about tickets.
Another big thanks goes to Don & Renie Barger, Audra Hall, Steve and Kristy Schwetman,Fowler Black, Chip Bohle, Emily Yocum, and Luke Wilkins who stayed after the Saturday night performance of Phantom and helped us move the tables and chairs out and the put the theatre seats back in! Jim Keeney and I are extremely grateful for the help!
Footlights rehearsals moved onstage Monday in preparation for their troupe performances this weekend. The Dixie Swim Club had a run through of Act One last night in the classroom/rehearsal space which I attended. They are eager for their chance to get onstage after the Footlights performances with 4 weeks until they open.
EAT starts staging the first scenes of their show tonight in the Studio Theatre. This morning I'm taping out their set. The April Newsletter is in process and trying to get to the printer with the information about our next season along with Dixie Swim Club and a new session of Footlights that starts April 9.
March came in like a lion and seems to be going out the same way! See you at the theatre.
Another big thanks goes to Don & Renie Barger, Audra Hall, Steve and Kristy Schwetman,Fowler Black, Chip Bohle, Emily Yocum, and Luke Wilkins who stayed after the Saturday night performance of Phantom and helped us move the tables and chairs out and the put the theatre seats back in! Jim Keeney and I are extremely grateful for the help!
Footlights rehearsals moved onstage Monday in preparation for their troupe performances this weekend. The Dixie Swim Club had a run through of Act One last night in the classroom/rehearsal space which I attended. They are eager for their chance to get onstage after the Footlights performances with 4 weeks until they open.
EAT starts staging the first scenes of their show tonight in the Studio Theatre. This morning I'm taping out their set. The April Newsletter is in process and trying to get to the printer with the information about our next season along with Dixie Swim Club and a new session of Footlights that starts April 9.
March came in like a lion and seems to be going out the same way! See you at the theatre.
Sunday, March 13, 2011
3-13-2011 Winning and Losing
I had several people comment in person and post on my personal page about a status of seeing Wizard of Oz last night. This is one of those things that I have to be really careful about when I post something because I don't want to give people the wrong idea. I just got back from attending the regional Odessy of the Mind competition for Middle Schools yesterday and I watched the 6th grade Lone Oak Middle School team (of which Jade is a member) compete for a spot at the state competitions. There were several good friends of hers competing for Paducah Middle School at the same time and the kids were all cheering each other on and hoping that both teams would go on to state. As each team got their scores some were elated and some were depressed. They immediately wanted to compare their scores to the other schools scores. Who was better and who was worse. Who won and who lost.
Our culture is so focused on winning that if you don't place first many people feel like they lost. I've seen personally time and again at American Association of Community theatre competitions with 10 completely different kinds of shows competing that the 9 who didn't win feel like they failed, in casting shows that the 75 people who didn't get cast for 10 parts feel like they failed, even with shows that the Carson Center and the Market House Theatre or WKCTC produce that, that our nature is to want to declare a winner and a loser, one better than the other. This is really frustrating for me because every production, every audition, every creative endeavor is filled with personal challenges that we should be cheering on. There were great moments last night in the Wizard of Oz at the Carson Center, there were great moments in the Market House production of Wizard of Oz. Even 15 years ago at what was then PCC when they did Wizard of Oz there were some great moments. For the kids from Paducah who performed last night in Wizard of Oz at Carson Center, that was a really great moment. To perform in front of over a thousand people for each of 3 performances. That is really great. To take the risk of going out onstage and doing all the dance steps and singing with only a few rehearsals and to have the audience and parents cheer them does something magical for a person. That's what MHT does as its mission every single day. For the professionals in the show last night they have to be willing to go onstage and give it their all and risk doing a bad show in order to create something really magical. There reaches a point in the life of any show where the actors just start going through the motions. They start feeling like they don't have to go out and prove themselves every time they take the stage. The truly great performers are ones who really work at creating something new everytime they are on stage. Having said that I also have to say that just because you step onstage doesn't mean you should get a standing ovation every time. Some performances really create that synergy between performer and audience member and there is an electricity that makes a performance truly incredible. Some performances things just don't work out or the actors aren't really connecting and you are left with just an okay performance. We still applaud the effort for some really great moments, but we don't have to give a standing ovation every time.
I heard a great interview on Fresh Air the other day with the well known actor Alan Arkin, who talked about his time at Second City in Chicago. Each night they would go onstage and collect ideas from the audience and then take 10-15 minutes and create a play based on that audience's suggestions. They knew that each night a significant portion of what they created was going to fail. Sometimes miserably! But other moments might be pure genius. It is the most liberating and personal character building experience there is to put yourself into a a situation where the chance for failure is not only high but in some ways expected. It allows you to create something that is much better than you ever could have done if every thing you had to do was to succeed. Each mistake in the process is a building block that makes the final product better. Alan Arkin doesn't do Broadway shows anymore because it is so difficult to go out night after night and try to do exactly the same performance without making a mistake which is what the producers expect. The Spiderman show on Broadway is in previews. I personally think it is a mistake to charge audiences high ticket prices for shows that are still in process and to have every single performance minutely critiqued when you are trying to be creative. That doesn't seem to be a positive environment to create in. Audiences can be great partners at the right time in the creative process for feedback but if they are involved too early it kills the neccessary process of trial and error to create something better.
I can't tell you how many times we try something on stage that doesn't work. How many sets I've painted and designed that had to be redesigned or repainted after I saw how they worked and often didn't work. But I didn't have an audience watching me make those mistakes. If you want to be truly creative you have to fail in order to get better. The musical performer Sting talked recently about many musical efforts he does that fail in between the successes. He doesn't release every single thing he works on to the public to buy. One of my favorite writers once wrote that if anyone ever saw her first drafts they would believe that she was totally psychotic, without talent and must have stolen all her work from someone else because she could never be capable of creating anything of value. When casting a show we make the best decisions we can and sometimes we make mistakes. The process at Market House of having everyone watch auditions is probably the worst for both the actors and the directors. Many theatres do not allow spectators or other actors into the audition process because it puts a lot of pressure on both the person auditioning and the director. Everyone then becomes the judge of who they think should have got the part or how someone else did compared to someone else. It makes the director hesitant to try different things with different actors during the audition because the audience will think not everyone got to do exactly the same thing. Even though the director might be able to get a better audition out of each person. The audition spectators tend to pick winners and losers. If MHT had a bigger lobby we probably would do private auditions with just small groups at a time to eliminate some of that pressure on the performers and the directors. Private audtions also help that everyone gets to do a scene or dance for the first time without those who go last having the advantage of seeing how everyone else did theirs and correcting for others mistakes.
I guess my point in all this is that the Carson Center, WKCTC, MHT and all of the groups that are producing shows in our area should be proud of their work. When I see a Carson Center show it makes me proud of the many talented people who perform at MHT without taking anything away from the professional performers and when I see an incredible show at MHT it doesn't take anything away from the Carson Center shows. We need to go to plays and celebrate or commiserate with the performers when things go really well or things fail. We need to take pride in what we do and continue to strive to make it better while at the same time accepting failure without assigning winners and losers.
Creating something is incredibly rewarding, if we are willing to work hard at it and learn from our mistakes and make it better each time we perform it. Every show at MHT should be better than the last show because hopefully we have learned from the mistakes we made in the last show. Every performance should be better than the last performance. At MHT we are striving towards getting just a little better with each show and with each season. For the individual performer it means that with each audition you strive to get a little better and keep trying to improve yourself to get that call back or get cast in that show. Don't give up after the first time you don't get cast. Also just because you got cast doesn't mean you don't have to work at it. My favorite moment as a director was when I cast a young man in the lead in the first show he auditioned for. He just happened to be at the right place at the right time and the others who auditioned fit into other parts. In the next show he auditioned he got cast as a non speaking rock. His father later came up to me and thanked me saying it was the best thing that ever happened to his son. In another instance a local adult auditioned and got the lead in his first show which required a certain look and certain kind of accent. He never got another lead while here at MHT because his accent was too strong and he didn't work on changing it and his appearance tended to work against all the roles he wanted. That actor has since gone to L.A. and lost his accent and made some changes to his appearance. He is getting work as an extra with a few lines or small recurring characters on some television series. He is still waiting for his big break over 20 years after that first lead role at MHT, but he is happy acting in the roles in which his looks and voice work well for.
Even though both April and I have been in theatre for over 30 years we still have to go out and prove ourselves every time that curtain goes up. We still are working to create something very special with each performance and risking failure every time. So congratulations to the Carson Center on Wizard of Oz. I'm looking forward to seeing Nunsense at WKCTC in April. Here at MHT we are working hard to create a great performance of Phantom of the Market House Theatre on March 18 & 19, The footlights shows on March 26 & 27, Dixie Swim Club the last two weeks of April, EAT in May and ANNIE in June.
I'm also excited for my daughter and her LOMS Odessy of the Mind team. Even though the team placed 3rd in their competition, they get to go to the state competition and try again to create something special with their orginal Odessy of the Mind presentation. I haven't heard yet, but I hope the kids from Paducah Middle School made it to the state competition too! We can wish success to both of them, just as we do with the Carson Center, MHT, and WKCTC!
.
Our culture is so focused on winning that if you don't place first many people feel like they lost. I've seen personally time and again at American Association of Community theatre competitions with 10 completely different kinds of shows competing that the 9 who didn't win feel like they failed, in casting shows that the 75 people who didn't get cast for 10 parts feel like they failed, even with shows that the Carson Center and the Market House Theatre or WKCTC produce that, that our nature is to want to declare a winner and a loser, one better than the other. This is really frustrating for me because every production, every audition, every creative endeavor is filled with personal challenges that we should be cheering on. There were great moments last night in the Wizard of Oz at the Carson Center, there were great moments in the Market House production of Wizard of Oz. Even 15 years ago at what was then PCC when they did Wizard of Oz there were some great moments. For the kids from Paducah who performed last night in Wizard of Oz at Carson Center, that was a really great moment. To perform in front of over a thousand people for each of 3 performances. That is really great. To take the risk of going out onstage and doing all the dance steps and singing with only a few rehearsals and to have the audience and parents cheer them does something magical for a person. That's what MHT does as its mission every single day. For the professionals in the show last night they have to be willing to go onstage and give it their all and risk doing a bad show in order to create something really magical. There reaches a point in the life of any show where the actors just start going through the motions. They start feeling like they don't have to go out and prove themselves every time they take the stage. The truly great performers are ones who really work at creating something new everytime they are on stage. Having said that I also have to say that just because you step onstage doesn't mean you should get a standing ovation every time. Some performances really create that synergy between performer and audience member and there is an electricity that makes a performance truly incredible. Some performances things just don't work out or the actors aren't really connecting and you are left with just an okay performance. We still applaud the effort for some really great moments, but we don't have to give a standing ovation every time.
I heard a great interview on Fresh Air the other day with the well known actor Alan Arkin, who talked about his time at Second City in Chicago. Each night they would go onstage and collect ideas from the audience and then take 10-15 minutes and create a play based on that audience's suggestions. They knew that each night a significant portion of what they created was going to fail. Sometimes miserably! But other moments might be pure genius. It is the most liberating and personal character building experience there is to put yourself into a a situation where the chance for failure is not only high but in some ways expected. It allows you to create something that is much better than you ever could have done if every thing you had to do was to succeed. Each mistake in the process is a building block that makes the final product better. Alan Arkin doesn't do Broadway shows anymore because it is so difficult to go out night after night and try to do exactly the same performance without making a mistake which is what the producers expect. The Spiderman show on Broadway is in previews. I personally think it is a mistake to charge audiences high ticket prices for shows that are still in process and to have every single performance minutely critiqued when you are trying to be creative. That doesn't seem to be a positive environment to create in. Audiences can be great partners at the right time in the creative process for feedback but if they are involved too early it kills the neccessary process of trial and error to create something better.
I can't tell you how many times we try something on stage that doesn't work. How many sets I've painted and designed that had to be redesigned or repainted after I saw how they worked and often didn't work. But I didn't have an audience watching me make those mistakes. If you want to be truly creative you have to fail in order to get better. The musical performer Sting talked recently about many musical efforts he does that fail in between the successes. He doesn't release every single thing he works on to the public to buy. One of my favorite writers once wrote that if anyone ever saw her first drafts they would believe that she was totally psychotic, without talent and must have stolen all her work from someone else because she could never be capable of creating anything of value. When casting a show we make the best decisions we can and sometimes we make mistakes. The process at Market House of having everyone watch auditions is probably the worst for both the actors and the directors. Many theatres do not allow spectators or other actors into the audition process because it puts a lot of pressure on both the person auditioning and the director. Everyone then becomes the judge of who they think should have got the part or how someone else did compared to someone else. It makes the director hesitant to try different things with different actors during the audition because the audience will think not everyone got to do exactly the same thing. Even though the director might be able to get a better audition out of each person. The audition spectators tend to pick winners and losers. If MHT had a bigger lobby we probably would do private auditions with just small groups at a time to eliminate some of that pressure on the performers and the directors. Private audtions also help that everyone gets to do a scene or dance for the first time without those who go last having the advantage of seeing how everyone else did theirs and correcting for others mistakes.
I guess my point in all this is that the Carson Center, WKCTC, MHT and all of the groups that are producing shows in our area should be proud of their work. When I see a Carson Center show it makes me proud of the many talented people who perform at MHT without taking anything away from the professional performers and when I see an incredible show at MHT it doesn't take anything away from the Carson Center shows. We need to go to plays and celebrate or commiserate with the performers when things go really well or things fail. We need to take pride in what we do and continue to strive to make it better while at the same time accepting failure without assigning winners and losers.
Creating something is incredibly rewarding, if we are willing to work hard at it and learn from our mistakes and make it better each time we perform it. Every show at MHT should be better than the last show because hopefully we have learned from the mistakes we made in the last show. Every performance should be better than the last performance. At MHT we are striving towards getting just a little better with each show and with each season. For the individual performer it means that with each audition you strive to get a little better and keep trying to improve yourself to get that call back or get cast in that show. Don't give up after the first time you don't get cast. Also just because you got cast doesn't mean you don't have to work at it. My favorite moment as a director was when I cast a young man in the lead in the first show he auditioned for. He just happened to be at the right place at the right time and the others who auditioned fit into other parts. In the next show he auditioned he got cast as a non speaking rock. His father later came up to me and thanked me saying it was the best thing that ever happened to his son. In another instance a local adult auditioned and got the lead in his first show which required a certain look and certain kind of accent. He never got another lead while here at MHT because his accent was too strong and he didn't work on changing it and his appearance tended to work against all the roles he wanted. That actor has since gone to L.A. and lost his accent and made some changes to his appearance. He is getting work as an extra with a few lines or small recurring characters on some television series. He is still waiting for his big break over 20 years after that first lead role at MHT, but he is happy acting in the roles in which his looks and voice work well for.
Even though both April and I have been in theatre for over 30 years we still have to go out and prove ourselves every time that curtain goes up. We still are working to create something very special with each performance and risking failure every time. So congratulations to the Carson Center on Wizard of Oz. I'm looking forward to seeing Nunsense at WKCTC in April. Here at MHT we are working hard to create a great performance of Phantom of the Market House Theatre on March 18 & 19, The footlights shows on March 26 & 27, Dixie Swim Club the last two weeks of April, EAT in May and ANNIE in June.
I'm also excited for my daughter and her LOMS Odessy of the Mind team. Even though the team placed 3rd in their competition, they get to go to the state competition and try again to create something special with their orginal Odessy of the Mind presentation. I haven't heard yet, but I hope the kids from Paducah Middle School made it to the state competition too! We can wish success to both of them, just as we do with the Carson Center, MHT, and WKCTC!
.
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Five Events in Eight Days
It is only the 8th of March but it feels like a month has already gone by. We closed The Hundred Dresses on Feb. 28 with school matinees and no sooner did we get the set taken down that day then the theatre filled up that night with over 75 youth auditioning for ANNIE. The following night we had almost 30 teens and adults audition for ANNIE. The show calls for 8 children and over 25 adults. I worked hard to cut the 100 plus auditionees down to 25 children and 25 teens and adults for call backs. It was a very difficult decision on who to cast in many of the roles. I narrowed it down to the 7-8 strongest singers for the kids roles and then selected my choice for Annie from among the top 5 singers. Chanyng Floyd was selected for the role of Annie. This was the first time I've ever met Chanyng and was impressed by her strong dance, singing and acting abilities. I think she'll do a great job. I added three more kids as orphans from the most expressive kids who auditioned. I chose 10 orphans total because that was 5 bunk beds on the stage for the first scene and I felt that was all I could fit for the big Hard Knock Life dance number and keep everyone visible. I wish I could have cast 10 more! For the adults I only had 8 men audition for over a dozen parts. I will be trying to double and triple cast some of those men. I was fortunate that we had lots of talented men who auditioned and I could have cast the lead roles in a couple of different ways. For the women's roles two of the leads also went to first time auditionees- Kelly Ann Rathunde and Amy Perdue will play Miss Hannigan and Grace. Both gave very strong auditions and I feel they will do a great job.
We had an unusually large number of families with two or more auditioning for the show. With the limited stage space for the orphans I had to make some tough choices and not cast some family members while casting others. This was something that I felt really bad about. We have 6 families with two people in the cast. Kelly Ann Rathunde and her daughter Aubrianne, Amy Perdue and her daughter Ally, Scott Salchli and his daughter Belle, Chuck Wilkins and his wife Lisa, Chip Bohle and his wife Denise, and Roy Hensel and his daughter Emily. Each of these family members were cast independent of each other and it was quite a surprise when I discoverd that we had so many families represented. We had a couple of other first time auditionees that really impressed me- Heather Tomko and Adrianne Gleeson. Market House Theatre is blessed with a great deal of talent. We have cast members from Carbondale, Murray, and Benton. MHT is truly a regional theatre.
No sooner did I have call backs and we were taking out the chairs and putting in tables and individual chairs for the Curtain Call fundraiser Friday night. The theatre raised over $13,400 from the live and silent auction without ticket revenue from the event. Several cameo roles were auctioned off in live and silent auctions along with vacation packages and lake get away packages. A huge thank you goes to every who supported the theatre by buying a ticket and bidding on the auction packages. Several restaurants graciously donated the food and a truly hard working committee of volunteers put together auction packages and decorated the theatre for the event. Paducah Bank held a competition for an orphan girl role along with Elaine Spaulding and Mary Hammond. Elaine won a role along with Paducah Bank. Elaine and Mary graciously gave their role to a little girl who auditioned for Annie but didn't get into the final cast. Some of the large roles that were auctioned off for the one night only performance of Annie. Surprise winners were WPSD Vice President of Sales, David Jernigan, who will don a red wig and a dress as Annie to sing Tomorrow, April and Michael Cochran who the crowd all chipped in to buy the role of Miss Hanigan for April and Daddy Warbuck for me. April and I were both honored and extremely flattered by the generosity of the auction bidders in purchasing those parts for us. Don and Renie Barger purchased the role of Sandy the dog. Renie says she has a Dalmatian costume and can't wait to be Sandy for the special performance!
At the Curtain Call event we presented Todd Duff with a plaque honoring his $7,000 fund raising events of Magic shows and the finale performance of Stage to Street. After presenting the plaque to Todd it was time to announce the 48th Season lineup.
In September 2011, MHT will kick off the season with the Tony award winning musical The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. This is a very funny show about kids (played by adults) at a spelling bee. The audience in addition gets to be contestants in the spelling bee as well! October 2011, MHT's Theatre for Youth presents Charlotte's Web about Wilbur, Charlotte and Templeton. November 2011, MHT is thrilled to be one of the first community theatres in our area to produce The 39 Steps. This Hitchcock thriller combines Monty Pythonesque humor with a tingling spy thriller. Four performers play all 150 parts in the play with lots of special effects including plane crashes on stage! January 2012, during a break in hunting season MHT will produce the hysterical hunting comedy Escanaba in da Moonlight. A tale of the Soady family father and his adult sons who are out to overcome the shame of the oldest son never having bagged a buck. This is the hunting story that beats all other hunting stories and a riotous comedy. February 2012, brings MHT's Theatre for Youth The Adventures of Nate the Great. A young boy dons a fedora and takes on all the neighborhood mysteries. In April 2012 the romantic comedy Getting Sara Married takes the stage with a very funny comedy about a young woman who's Aunt kidnaps a young man has him bopped on the head and delivered to her niece's door. The Aunt thinks that he would make the perfect groom for her niece. After several concussions and lots of comedy the Aunt may be right. Wrapping up the season in June 2012 will be the hit musical Hairspray! Can Tracy find true love and integrate the Corny Collins show!
The Curtain Call Event was a big success and before the last audience members left from the event a group of staff and volunteers tore down the tables and chairs and reset the seats for the show that happens on Thursday of this week. But that didn't wrap up the week. On Saturday night a group of 10 in the Murder for Hire troupe left in two vehicles with a sound system and a set and drove to Caldwell County HS in Princeton and presented The Phantom of Princeton. A murder mystery play with a clue hunt that will be presented at the Market House as a dinner theatre on March 18 & 19.
Monday and Tuesday of this week April held auditions for EAT (It's Not About Food). Also on Monday the first rehearsal of Dixie Swim Club was held. Five separate events in 8 days!
Tomorrow McCracken County Gifted and Talented student will do their final rehearsal at the theatre for their performance on Thursday night. March is certainly coming in like a Lion as far as MHT is concerned.
We had an unusually large number of families with two or more auditioning for the show. With the limited stage space for the orphans I had to make some tough choices and not cast some family members while casting others. This was something that I felt really bad about. We have 6 families with two people in the cast. Kelly Ann Rathunde and her daughter Aubrianne, Amy Perdue and her daughter Ally, Scott Salchli and his daughter Belle, Chuck Wilkins and his wife Lisa, Chip Bohle and his wife Denise, and Roy Hensel and his daughter Emily. Each of these family members were cast independent of each other and it was quite a surprise when I discoverd that we had so many families represented. We had a couple of other first time auditionees that really impressed me- Heather Tomko and Adrianne Gleeson. Market House Theatre is blessed with a great deal of talent. We have cast members from Carbondale, Murray, and Benton. MHT is truly a regional theatre.
No sooner did I have call backs and we were taking out the chairs and putting in tables and individual chairs for the Curtain Call fundraiser Friday night. The theatre raised over $13,400 from the live and silent auction without ticket revenue from the event. Several cameo roles were auctioned off in live and silent auctions along with vacation packages and lake get away packages. A huge thank you goes to every who supported the theatre by buying a ticket and bidding on the auction packages. Several restaurants graciously donated the food and a truly hard working committee of volunteers put together auction packages and decorated the theatre for the event. Paducah Bank held a competition for an orphan girl role along with Elaine Spaulding and Mary Hammond. Elaine won a role along with Paducah Bank. Elaine and Mary graciously gave their role to a little girl who auditioned for Annie but didn't get into the final cast. Some of the large roles that were auctioned off for the one night only performance of Annie. Surprise winners were WPSD Vice President of Sales, David Jernigan, who will don a red wig and a dress as Annie to sing Tomorrow, April and Michael Cochran who the crowd all chipped in to buy the role of Miss Hanigan for April and Daddy Warbuck for me. April and I were both honored and extremely flattered by the generosity of the auction bidders in purchasing those parts for us. Don and Renie Barger purchased the role of Sandy the dog. Renie says she has a Dalmatian costume and can't wait to be Sandy for the special performance!
At the Curtain Call event we presented Todd Duff with a plaque honoring his $7,000 fund raising events of Magic shows and the finale performance of Stage to Street. After presenting the plaque to Todd it was time to announce the 48th Season lineup.
In September 2011, MHT will kick off the season with the Tony award winning musical The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. This is a very funny show about kids (played by adults) at a spelling bee. The audience in addition gets to be contestants in the spelling bee as well! October 2011, MHT's Theatre for Youth presents Charlotte's Web about Wilbur, Charlotte and Templeton. November 2011, MHT is thrilled to be one of the first community theatres in our area to produce The 39 Steps. This Hitchcock thriller combines Monty Pythonesque humor with a tingling spy thriller. Four performers play all 150 parts in the play with lots of special effects including plane crashes on stage! January 2012, during a break in hunting season MHT will produce the hysterical hunting comedy Escanaba in da Moonlight. A tale of the Soady family father and his adult sons who are out to overcome the shame of the oldest son never having bagged a buck. This is the hunting story that beats all other hunting stories and a riotous comedy. February 2012, brings MHT's Theatre for Youth The Adventures of Nate the Great. A young boy dons a fedora and takes on all the neighborhood mysteries. In April 2012 the romantic comedy Getting Sara Married takes the stage with a very funny comedy about a young woman who's Aunt kidnaps a young man has him bopped on the head and delivered to her niece's door. The Aunt thinks that he would make the perfect groom for her niece. After several concussions and lots of comedy the Aunt may be right. Wrapping up the season in June 2012 will be the hit musical Hairspray! Can Tracy find true love and integrate the Corny Collins show!
The Curtain Call Event was a big success and before the last audience members left from the event a group of staff and volunteers tore down the tables and chairs and reset the seats for the show that happens on Thursday of this week. But that didn't wrap up the week. On Saturday night a group of 10 in the Murder for Hire troupe left in two vehicles with a sound system and a set and drove to Caldwell County HS in Princeton and presented The Phantom of Princeton. A murder mystery play with a clue hunt that will be presented at the Market House as a dinner theatre on March 18 & 19.
Monday and Tuesday of this week April held auditions for EAT (It's Not About Food). Also on Monday the first rehearsal of Dixie Swim Club was held. Five separate events in 8 days!
Tomorrow McCracken County Gifted and Talented student will do their final rehearsal at the theatre for their performance on Thursday night. March is certainly coming in like a Lion as far as MHT is concerned.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
February 23 2011
This has been an incredibly active month behind the scenes at the theatre. Since The Complete Works of William Shakespeare closed on Jan. 23 we have presented Todd Duff and his performance of from Stage to Street, rented the theatre to Bawn in the Mash, started rehearsals for Phantom of the Market House Theatre Murder Mystery, auditioned Dixie Swim Club, and had lots of meetings about our big Curtain Call Fundraising event for Annie coming up March 4.
The Hundred Dresses will have it's first performance tomorrow morning with two school matinees followed by an evening show that night. Over the next 5 days the Hundred dresses will average 2-3 performances per day. That is the equivalent of an entire 2 week run for our mainstage shows into 1 weekend. There is a mix of newcomers and experienced MHT youth and adult actors in the production.
As with most youth productions we are struggling with all of the scenic changes and technical elements which are prominent in books for young audiences. Dozens of location changes, day dream sequences out of reality, and how to bring a book to life onstage. April has been working day and night in addition to her teaching schedule at the schools to create the music for the production. She uses a variety of sound effects and musical underscoring to set the tone of the play. I am always amazed at her ability to create a sound track for the youth productions and her ability to set just the right mood with just the right piece of music which only comes from hours of painstaking work. It has also been a challenge to create a set that changes locations so many times without slowing down the pace of the show with scene changes. April wanted a basic set that wasn't set in any specific location and to use certain areas of the stage for the school, a home, an abandoned house, the woods, etc... I designed a set with the idea that the walls would be representative like a small town quilt. Artist Theresa Perry has taken some quilt paintings that I found online and transferred those onto the set walls to give the feeling of a rural town in the 1930's. As with every show you take 2 steps forward each day and 1 step back. Things that you create during the day then have to be readjusted and redone after you see them onstage that night with the cast in a rehearsal. The creative process is rarely straight forward and ends up often with lots of trial and error which takes time yet that opening performance clock is counting down quickly.
The Curtain Call Committee chaired by past MHT President Valerie Pollard has been working very hard to come up with great auction items for the fundraiser a week from this Friday. Mary Hammond and Elaine Spaulding are raising money for the theatre to compete for one of the roles of the "oldest" orphan girl in the opening number "Hard Knock Life" in the show. There are so many committee members I can't even begin to name them all. Auction packages of vacation get away's, girl's night out, fishing parties, a day on boat at Kentucky lake, and many more will be auctioned off that night. In addition several cameo roles for the June 18 performance of Annie will be auctioned. There will be lots of great food along with beer and wine at the event and limited tickets are on sale at the box office.
Last night the arts and culture organization of Paducah/McCracken County went to the fiscal court budget workshop to request funding in the economic incentive funds. The commissioners asked lots of questions and got lots of information about all of the jobs and economic impact that the arts groups have in our community. We will hopefully hear more from the Fiscal Court in the next few months as to our possibilities for support. In total the 5 organizations last night will spend $5.5 million during the course of the year. That is paid for from tickets, fundraising events, individual and corporate donations, and support from local, state and federal government funding. The recent bills in the US House of Representatives have offered cuts of 25% to National Endowment for the Arts funding. NEA funding makes up about 15% of what the Kentucky Arts Council grants to local arts organizations. With budget cuts at the federal and state levels expected, arts groups are really struggling with providing services and programming at accessible prices for all in the community. It is the education programming that is the most subsidized by government grant money. Many groups like MHT have kept their student prices extremely low. Our children's ticket prices for youth shows have only gone up 50 cents per child over the past 10 years. Our story theatre shows have only gone up 25 cents per child over the past 10 years. When governments cut grant funding these are the programs that are hit the hardest.
Next Monday and Tuesday are auditions for Annie. I meeting today with Musical Director Doug Arnold and talked last week with Choreographer Katy Miller to prepare for the auditions. We've had lots of interest and expect a big turnout next week. The children audition on Monday night and the adults on Tuesday night.
The February Board of Directors meeting will be tonight at 5:30 in the box office lobby. They will be hearing from the Curtain call committee on last minute items left to do for the fundraiser next week and having an in depth discussion about MHT facilities and our current needs.
Life is never dull at MHT! We hope to see you at The Hundred Dresses and Curtain Call!
The Hundred Dresses will have it's first performance tomorrow morning with two school matinees followed by an evening show that night. Over the next 5 days the Hundred dresses will average 2-3 performances per day. That is the equivalent of an entire 2 week run for our mainstage shows into 1 weekend. There is a mix of newcomers and experienced MHT youth and adult actors in the production.
As with most youth productions we are struggling with all of the scenic changes and technical elements which are prominent in books for young audiences. Dozens of location changes, day dream sequences out of reality, and how to bring a book to life onstage. April has been working day and night in addition to her teaching schedule at the schools to create the music for the production. She uses a variety of sound effects and musical underscoring to set the tone of the play. I am always amazed at her ability to create a sound track for the youth productions and her ability to set just the right mood with just the right piece of music which only comes from hours of painstaking work. It has also been a challenge to create a set that changes locations so many times without slowing down the pace of the show with scene changes. April wanted a basic set that wasn't set in any specific location and to use certain areas of the stage for the school, a home, an abandoned house, the woods, etc... I designed a set with the idea that the walls would be representative like a small town quilt. Artist Theresa Perry has taken some quilt paintings that I found online and transferred those onto the set walls to give the feeling of a rural town in the 1930's. As with every show you take 2 steps forward each day and 1 step back. Things that you create during the day then have to be readjusted and redone after you see them onstage that night with the cast in a rehearsal. The creative process is rarely straight forward and ends up often with lots of trial and error which takes time yet that opening performance clock is counting down quickly.
The Curtain Call Committee chaired by past MHT President Valerie Pollard has been working very hard to come up with great auction items for the fundraiser a week from this Friday. Mary Hammond and Elaine Spaulding are raising money for the theatre to compete for one of the roles of the "oldest" orphan girl in the opening number "Hard Knock Life" in the show. There are so many committee members I can't even begin to name them all. Auction packages of vacation get away's, girl's night out, fishing parties, a day on boat at Kentucky lake, and many more will be auctioned off that night. In addition several cameo roles for the June 18 performance of Annie will be auctioned. There will be lots of great food along with beer and wine at the event and limited tickets are on sale at the box office.
Last night the arts and culture organization of Paducah/McCracken County went to the fiscal court budget workshop to request funding in the economic incentive funds. The commissioners asked lots of questions and got lots of information about all of the jobs and economic impact that the arts groups have in our community. We will hopefully hear more from the Fiscal Court in the next few months as to our possibilities for support. In total the 5 organizations last night will spend $5.5 million during the course of the year. That is paid for from tickets, fundraising events, individual and corporate donations, and support from local, state and federal government funding. The recent bills in the US House of Representatives have offered cuts of 25% to National Endowment for the Arts funding. NEA funding makes up about 15% of what the Kentucky Arts Council grants to local arts organizations. With budget cuts at the federal and state levels expected, arts groups are really struggling with providing services and programming at accessible prices for all in the community. It is the education programming that is the most subsidized by government grant money. Many groups like MHT have kept their student prices extremely low. Our children's ticket prices for youth shows have only gone up 50 cents per child over the past 10 years. Our story theatre shows have only gone up 25 cents per child over the past 10 years. When governments cut grant funding these are the programs that are hit the hardest.
Next Monday and Tuesday are auditions for Annie. I meeting today with Musical Director Doug Arnold and talked last week with Choreographer Katy Miller to prepare for the auditions. We've had lots of interest and expect a big turnout next week. The children audition on Monday night and the adults on Tuesday night.
The February Board of Directors meeting will be tonight at 5:30 in the box office lobby. They will be hearing from the Curtain call committee on last minute items left to do for the fundraiser next week and having an in depth discussion about MHT facilities and our current needs.
Life is never dull at MHT! We hope to see you at The Hundred Dresses and Curtain Call!
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