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!

Closing Weekend - WHITE CHRISTMAS

It's hard to believe that WHITE CHRISTMAS closes this weekend - we've had a great five weekend run of the show and audiences were very enthusiastic about the show. Initially, I had some concerns about a show with only one "kid" for the holiday season, but it's a family friendly show and the audiences have come each and every weekend. The cast has been thrilled with the audience response to the show, and I could not be more proud of the hard work of our cast. Audience members always comments on the tap dance number at the top of Act Two ("I Love a Piano") and I remind them that three of the women in the number had never tap danced ever before tapping for this number - it amazes them!

Although the show has not yet closed, I am already hard at work on our 2011 opening musical OKLAHOMA. After doing THE PRODUCERS (2008) and LES MISERABLES (2009), we've had two years of more traditional opening musicals - THE WIZARD OF OZ (2010) and OKLAHOMA (2011). The good news is that the last time we produced the show at MCT was 1978, and it's never been done in our current facility - the Cole Theatre. We've cast the show and had the first cast meeting, and we start full rehearsals on Sunday, January 2nd. Below is a photo of the model for Act One.

Finally, I will be dedicating my work on OKLAHOMA to the memory of Charles Dickey, our Musical Director for the opening musical since 2004 who passed away on Saturday, December 4, 2010. Charles always challenged our singers to work hard and do better, and he could be difficult to work with but he always produced great shows and was a true friend to me and the theatre. He will be missed!!

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.