AITA/IATA 2011 - Norway

It's now official - Midland Community Theatre has been invited by the organizers of the 2011 AITA/IATA International Theatre festival in Tromso, Norway to present our production of MY WAY this summer at the event. Needless to say, we are very excited about this invitation, and are looking forward to working on this important project. Here is a website for the festival - at last glance, it had not been updated to include the recent productions added to the festival.

We are currently in the process of putting together the production - three of the original four members of the show still live in the Permian Basin and have agreed to participate. I've had to add a new member to the production to replace Amy (who moved away) and the group is getting started in a week after I open OKLAHOMA. In addition, I can not devote my full attention to the production until I get done with HAIRSPRAY this spring - we may have some Saturday rehearsals and a slow beginning to the process before moving forward.

In addition, we'll need to work on raising the money to make this trip. When I asked the board's permission to accept this invitation (if offered), I agreed that we would not use funds from the 2011 operating budget for the trip. Therefore, we're going to need to raise a considerable sum to make this trip. I am planning to keep the traveling party small - six people - but Norway is an expensive country and summer is the busy travel season. I'll keep you posted as we develop more of our plans.

Tech Weekend - OKLAHOMA

We've reached the final week of rehearsals for our 2011 opening musical - OKLAHOMA. We open a week from tonight, and the next eight days will be filled with rehearsals and hard work to get ready for the opening. The cast has had a good week of work improving from our "stumble thru" on Sunday afternoon, and last night's run thru on the stage was a positive step forward. We'll run the show again tonight, and start technical rehearsals on Saturday by adding lighting, sound and the scenery. We'll have another actor rehearsal on Sunday afternoon, and another tech on Sunday night. Finally, we have dress rehearsals Monday through Thursday and then the opening on Friday night.

This is always an exciting part of the year, since it's the beginning of a new season. We recently had auditions for THE NERD, our first production in 2011 in Mabee Theatre II. They start rehearsals on Sunday in preparation for their opening in March, and soon the Pickwick Players will hold auditions and begin rehearsals for THE MAGICAL WORLD OF THE BROTHERS GRIMM. There are lots of volunteers needed for our opening musical backstage, and we have auditions coming up for HAIRSPRAY and the 2010 McLaren winner THERE'S NO JUSTICE JUST COURT COSTS, so become involved in your community theatre!

Oklahoma Rehearsals

OKLAHOMA rehearsals have continued over the past week - we are working six days a week to get ready for our opening on Friday, February 5, 2011. The cast has been working hard on the songs, dances and scenes, and we're starting to transition from the "learning" process into the "performing" process by getting off-book (lines memorized) and working on more character interactions.

On Sunday night, Jessi and Cameron Willmann - Jessi is playing Ado Annie - hosted the cast for a party after the rehearsal and it was a great chance to meet and talk outside of rehearsals. There are lots of new people in the show, and it was a great chance for people to meet and learn more about each other. Part of the joy of community theatre is the family atmosphere that exists within each cast. When you work together for 5-6 weeks and then perform together for several weekends, it has a bonding experience for the whole group. I've been really pleased with how the veterans have mixed with the newcomers in our 2011 opening musical.

OKLAHOMA Rehearsals

We are now 1/3 of the way through rehearsals for our 2011 opening musical OKLAHOMA. Almost all of the scenes have been blocked, and all of the songs have been introduced and the choreography roughed out for the musical numbers. Musical Director Bert Bostic has a full night of music rehearsals tonight, and Choreographer Misti Tytanic will be working on the Dream Ballet, the song "Kansas City" and other dances at rehearsals on Saturday morning and Sunday afternoon. All of this work leads up to our opening on Friday, February 4, 2011.

Several people have noted that our 2011 opening musical includes many performers who have never appeared on the MCT stage before, and we're very excited to welcome these newcomers. These newcomers include the actors playing Laurey (Jenness Rouse), Curly (Drew Ervin), Gertie (Cara Craggett), and Jud (Micheal Waid). Additional newcomers include Jim Johnson, Meaghan Hall, Leanne Ervin, Brady Suggs and Daniela Morales. Of course, there are others in the cast that you will recognize from past MCT productions, but we are thrilled to have so many newcomers participating in our 2011 opening musical!