We are in the final stages of getting ready for our opening of WHITE CHRISTMAS on Friday night. The photo is from technical rehearsals (for the musical number "Snow") and we've added costumes and additional set, lighting, props and sound over the past week. Tonight is our final dress rehearsal, and we're ready for an audience to enjoy the show. 

When you see WHITE CHRISTMAS, I hope that you will appreciate the tremendous work and the amazing talents of Choreographer Judith Giebler and our volunteer dancers. Community theatre has lots of people who can act and sing, but finding dancers is much more difficult. Our cast has worked hard on these great dance numbers - like "Happy Hollidays", "Blue Skies", "The Best Things Happen When You're Dancing" and the tap number "I Love a Piano" - for the past six weeks, and we hope that you will appreciate their dedication and hard work on these numbers. It is really a treat to see these volunteers learn the dance moves and work hard to make the song shine. Kudos to Judith and our talented performers. 

Many performances have sold-out, but remember that there are usually empty seats and we squeeze in those people on the waiting list into any available seats. Join us for Irving Berlin's wonderful musical and a classic holiday story - WHITE CHRISTMAS from November 19-December 18 at the Cole Theatre
 

Tech Weekend - WHITE CHRISTMAS

We survived tech weekend for WHITE CHRISTMAS. If you've never participated, it's a long - but necessary - part of the process, especially for a musical. We worked on Act II on Friday night, and I was back on Saturday morning doing some backstage work. Those with wireless microphones arrived at Noon on Saturday for balancing with Eddie Taylor (lights and sound) and the sound operators (Cole and Ryan for this show). The cast arrived at 1 p.m. and we were off and working through the whole show.

Ran into an interesting problem on Saturday - the new mid-stage traveler broke in the middle of our tech of Act One. We had purchased a new curtain and rigged the motor to work on this curtain line that's been there for years but we've rarely used. So, we were faced with a problem - how do we move forward with tech on the show when it depends upon this curtain? After 10 minutes, the guys realized it would take about 30 minutes to fix it - rather than 2-3 hours - so we jumped ahead and went through the tech of Act Two, took a 30 minute break while they fixed it and then came back and picked up Act One. We could go forward to Act Two because it uses the mid-stage curtain only twice, where as Act One depends upon it. In the end, we got all our work done and were actually done around 6 p.m. Not a bad Saturday afternoon tech!

Sunday started around Noon and we had an actor run through at 2 p.m. with just acting, singing and dancing - no props, set pieces or lighting and sound. Judith (choreographer), Bert (musical director) and I were able to make some improvements and adjustments with the actors onstage - that's our last chance. From here on out, we'll have to give notes after the show and hope that the actors remember our notes and incorporate them into the show. We then had a cast and crew dinner in the lobby - always a great bonding experience for the group as we head towards opening night - and the hair and makeup people did their meetings with the cast. We had a quick change rehearsal to prepare for the dress rehearsal on Monday, and then on Sunday night we ran the show again with full tech - lights, sound, sets and props. Tonight (Monday) we add costumes and on Tuesday we add makeup and hair.

Tech Weekend - WHITE CHRISTMAS

Well, we've finally reached tech weekend for our 2010 holiday musical WHITE CHRISTMAS. We've had extra rehearsals for the complex dance number in this show - include our first group tap dance number since CRAZY FOR YOU - but we are heading toward our opening weekend with great anticipation. The talented cast have worked hard on the songs, dances and scenes in this show, and our technical staff and awesome volunteers are working hard on the sets, props, costumes, lighting and sound. Last night (Thursday), we did a dry tech (no actors) and then a wet tech (with actors) on Act One, and we'll do the same for Act Two tonight (Friday). On Saturday, we'll have a full technical rehearsal with all of the lighting, sound, props and set changes for the afternoon - always one of the longest rehearsals of the whole process. On Sunday, we return in the afternoon with an actors only rehearsal, followed by a dinner with a review of hair, makeup and costume changes, and then another tech rehearsal on Sunday night. Starting on Monday, we add costumes for our first dress rehearsal.

Tickets are currently on sale for our 2010 holiday musical - which is the last production in our 2010 membership season. Many performances are already sold out, so don't wait to call the box office (432-570-4111) or purchase tickets through our website.