Thursday, April 5, 2012

Enchanted April & Membership Meeting

Enchanted April

After a frothy fun-filled opening musical of The Boy Friend, we at QCT are hard at work with our first straight play of the season, Enchanted April by Matthew Barber-based on the novel by Elizabeth Von Arnim. I really hope this play will draw an audience, because as we work on it, I fall more and more in love with it! I find these women heroic in their desire to find themselves and to go against convention in order to become the person they hope to be. We’ve completed the table work portion of rehearsals (that’s where we analyze and discuss the wants, desires and objectives of the play and characters) and are now hard at work on the Blocking (staging) portion. We open on April 26 and close on May 6th, and with all of the flowers already in full bloom, elongate that wonderful spring feeling by coming to see our production. The cast includes: Kylinn Flesner, Derek Hauk, Lorraine Morgan, Ann Pfaffe, Phil Quevillon, Jim Rupp, Julie Schuetz and Vonda St. Clair. I think it’s wonderful that there are veterans, newcomers and folks who have done just one or two productions all involved in this. I also have a new stage manager Katie Rodemich, who has been a non-stop ASM since Yes Virginia! Those of you that have seen both Tom Sawyer and The Boy Friend know that our new costumer, Anna Grywalsky is fabulous. As a matter of fact, why don’t you all come to our Membership Meeting on Monday, April 16 @ 6:30 PM so you can meet the cast and crew members, find out more about our production and season, as well as spend some time getting know some of the incredible people in our community that just happen to love being involved with us here at QCT. As a matter of fact, for a paltry $5 you can become a voting member and have an actual say in what goes on. Either way, we really hope to see you here either as a patron or a volunteer.

See you at the theatre!

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

The Season kicks off today!


So today officially kicked off my
first full season as Managing Artistic Director for Quincy Community Theatre! Now
a few of the handful of readers of my blog may say “didn’t theatre café kick
off your first season?” Technically,
yes-but that was a new experiment, which was very successful and that we will
certainly do again. So I’m thinking in a traditional way of the Kick off for
2012.
I watched the student matinée of Tom Sawyer-The Broadway Musical today
(Now thru Sunday, Feb. 5. Photo: Jay Stalder as Tom & Wes Friday as Huck)
. What fun I
had! I am always so proud of the work
our student theatre produces under the sure hand our student theatre director (Brandon Thomsen (who won the award for the Teaching Artist of the Year!!). We had a full house of area school kids and I
was fascinated by the responses we heard on their exiting the theatre. Seeing all their shiny faces made my
day. There is a very large gang of
adults and students involved in the cast, crew and pit—over 50 people all
told! It was great seeing many of the
performers I know up there doing excellent work, but also scoping the cast for
future actors for the QCT main stage.
We also started rehearsals for the
first “Season Ticket” production –The Boy
Friend by Sandy Wilson (March 8-18).
This was the first musical that QCT ever produced back in the 80’s. Sometimes I’m a bit frustrated at the small
turn out of performers at our auditions, so I am always beating the bushes for
new talent to grace our boards. The Boy Friend has five brand-new
performers and a few who just recently started acting with us. I get excited after the first few rehearsals
where we read and discuss what the play is about. It was very encouraging to hear all the
laughs from the cast.
I hope you have an opportunity to see these
first two productions –one student theatre, one main stage. If you aren’t a season ticket holder—you
should be, because we have a fun-filled season of excellent productions lined
up. Take a moment to go to our web site to
review the full line-up of offerings and make sure you sign up to receive our
email blasts. It’s the best way to keep
yourself abreast of what is happening.

Friday, January 13, 2012

Theatre Cafe and Freedon of Expression


I got an interesting call from a season ticket holder this morning regarding our Theatre Cafe, which is a series of short comedic plays, with strong language and adult situations, which we are stating is for "Mature Audiences" only. You see the reason behind doing this (besides helping to raise funds for three separate arts organizations) was to give our members a chance to stretch their artistic wings a bit. In order to satisfy our average season ticket holder, we do need to be a bit conservative in our choices for the main stage. But every once in a while, we need to challenge ourselves...as artists, as patrons, as human beings.
She was upset that we were doing something like this, and thought that the police should be on hand in case it gets out of control (it is a BYOB event). The sad part of this conversation was that this patron was informed by a friend who heard a radio interview and was disappointed that we were doing this. First off, how can someone complain about something they don't know anything about? All of her information was second hand. Secondly, the patron stated "us doing this show would jeopardize our area public TV station, and if someone bought tickets to Theatre Cafe, our station would close down!" How Bizarre! I don't see the connection, especially since a number of the patrons attending this event are the types that donate to causes like public broadcasting. She also mentioned that the head of the QNSFA Society was a menace and was bringing America down. How absurd, that someone who assists people to express themselves in a wonderful country like America, which was based on personal freedoms is bad for our country! One of the beautiful things about America is that if you don't want to come to a play...don't come! But if you do want to loose some the Sugary side effects of the holiday season, stop by with a beverage of your choice, spend a few hours with us and laugh a little bit. Laughter is good for the soul. So is compassion and understanding.