We slipped in just under the wire yesterday with getting a booth at the Lowertown Arts and Music festival. We will be at 7th and Madison next to the WKMS booth. Stop by and chat with one of the theatre’s volunteers who can give you information on Hairspray, summer camps and classes for kids, or our upcoming season. We still need some volunteers for the booth so if you are interested contact the theatre and we can sign you up for a shift to help spread the word about the great offerings MHT has.

Yesterday we just secured the 4th restaurant to once again offer a free appetizer or dessert with the purchase of an entree for season ticket holders on the night of their tickets for next season. That was a big hit with the majority of our ticket holders and it was a hit with the downtown restaurants as well. Next week the Board of Directors will meet and present a nominating list for new board members to join in July. The annual picnic will be held Monday June 18 in the theatre where we will give out awards and elect the new board members.

At the May 23 meeting of the board consultants from Webb Management and Shuler Shook will be present to present the final report of the second phase of our organizational assessment concerning facilities and programming. We are excited to explore their results as we plan for the theatre’s future!

We lost one of our supporting cast members for Getting Sara Married last week. Chris Stigall who was playing a small part in the show had to bow out due to work scheduling. This was an optional part in the script and we were sad to lose Chris. So instead of seeing the chiropractor (who had no lines) in the script “adjusting” Aunt Martha we now just hear about him.

Just before tech yesterday the Carson Center called and told us they needed their 5,000 lumen projector, that we had on loan back for an event this week. MHT owns a 3,000 lumen projector which is too weak to handle our needs for the set. We fortunately go through the tech with the borrowed projector before returning it. We are going to scramble to fill the need this week until opening night when the Carson Center projector is available again. I wrote and submitted a grant to the KY Colonels to help us purchase a 7,500 lumen projector that MHT would own so we don’t have to worry about losing a key scenic piece during a rehearsal or show run. The Carson Center has been more than generous with the loan of their projector so far, but things always seem to happen at the worst times and this is one of those.

Dress rehearsals for Getting Sara Married continue tonight through Wednesday and opening night is Thursday.

After a 2 week delay in getting the renewals out for season tickets it looks like it will finally happen this week. The company we work with for box office software had delayed the feature we were trying to add this year which is online renewals. That hurdle was cleared last Friday and the Marsha Cash, Kristy Waddie and Barb Ryan will be putting in extra hours today and tomorrow to get those forms out.

The Hairspray cast has been hard at work learning lots of dance choreography. Last week we stage Good Morning Baltimore, Nicest Kids in Town, Mama I’m a Big Girl Now, I Can Hear the Bells, and Miss Baltimore Crabs. Each rehearsal is jammed with work from start to finish and everyone is working hard. It is really difficult to get the entire cast present for rehearsals with track meets, and choir and band concerts, and even some college kids off at school with classes and finals. Emily Yocum comes in on Fridays from Louisville to pick up the dance scenes that she wasn’t there during the week. Emily Chapman Hensel is doing a terrific job of choreography with the numbers and helping me clean up and strengthen the musical numbers that I”m choreographing. Several of the cast went to Brad Rankin Photography last Thursday and he shot several publicity photos for us to use in our posters, billboards, and other media. A big thanks to Brad Rankin for doing that! Creatures of Habit are creating the costumes for the show and they had lots of fun costumes and wigs for the characters to do the publicity photos.

April is still working hard in the schools with classes after finishing up most of the shows she was directing at the schools before spring break. The Elementary Footlights troupe is working on a musical right now on Saturday mornings.

MHT is using http://power2give.org to help raise scholarship funds for low income footlights students. Please check it out and try to make a donation if you can. All donations are matched by Republic Bank so your dollar is doubled when you make the gift of giving a child a chance to increase their self confidence, improve their verbal and non verbal communication skills, and to expand their creativity.

This week we have a big party on Friday night at 7:30pm to announce our 49th Anniversary season. We’ve got refreshments, a cash bar, entertainment, and several really special auction items. The board of Directors has put together a really fun group of auction packages created from their own areas of expertise or passion. We have a shoe package for the shoe devotee from the ultimate shoe expert Renie & Don Barger, 2 hours of tutoring for any age or subject including SAT or ACT prep with the very talented teacher Jennifer Hughes, Wine Tasting 101 is a special class in wine tasting from our wine connoisseurs, Kristin and John Williams Jr., an exclusive backstage pass to Hairspray where you will get to be in the stage manager central with Denise Bristol and listen in on the headset to how the show works, a yoga and art package from Pam Benzing and the Yoga Artz hub, Cocktails, dinner and babysitting included along with playing the not so newly wed game hosted by board members and their spouses Sid Hancock, Kathryn Joyner, Heather Overby, and Susan Ybarzabal, a March Madness party pack of pizzas, drinks and the Kent Price family delivery where they wear your team colors and sing your teams fight song (Duke fans are not eligible to bid on this package!)a take out package from the “queen” of takeout, a yoga art package, 2 hour career and resume counseling from HR expert Maurie McGarvey, a walk on male and female role in the 49th season, a night on the town from one of MHT’s most eligible young bachelors, and a country catfish dinner for 8 friends at the home of Melisa and David Mast home! Admission is free and you won’t want to miss this event! The Crescendos from Lone Oak High School will entertain us.

Footlights will have their troupe performances on March 24 & 25. April is currently rehearsing several shows in the school systems. This month Clark Elementary presents the Jungle Book as their school play directed by April.

Getting Sara Married and Hairspray are now in rehearsal and the theatre is gearing up to put Season tickets for next year on sale after our announcement next week. It will go right down to the wire to get the rights to two of the shows for next season. We are waiting on approval from the playwrights which are checking against national tours of the shows we have selected. We hope to see you next Friday!

The February newsletter went off the printers. Hopefully it will be in mailboxes within a week and a half. You can already see some of the articles on the website with new pages for The Adventures of Nate the Great, the Volunteer Spotlight on ushers (with photos of some of the Escanaba ushers in their deer hunting costumes pieces) and a Murder by Magic article.

The theatre is currently reviewing many of the changes in ticketing software that has come about because of the “cloud”. In essence almost all box offices will be moving to a totally internet based system where we are connected to a site, that we log into securely, to handle all our ticket sales both in house and online. MHT’s online customers have already been using a service like this for the past 5 years. Our current “in-house” system is stored on a server located in the Paducah information age park and supported by System Solutions Inc. We connect to that server by fiber optic cable from the theatre. All of the major ticketing providers are transitioning to new software platforms and our current provider, Choice Ticketing, is no exception. MHT spends about $5,000 a year on our current ticketing software. Many of the changes promoted have the potential for us to offer better service to our ticket holders. MHT has always been one of the early adopters of new technology once it is proven to provide better service. We have always been insistent that ticket holders be able to select their seats online by looking at all available seats. We have tried to keep “walk up” and “telephone” transactions clear of all fees. As we look at the changes coming in the next year we will continue to strive to keep those values in place. The theatre is currently working on setting ticket prices for next season based on the shows selected and the costs of our programming.

The play selection committee has finished their work on selecting shows for the 49th Anniversary season next year. We are currently applying for royalties for those shows and will hopefully have those choices secured and ready to announce at a big party on March 16.

We are looking for crews for Nate the Great and Getting Sara Married. If you are interested in running lights, sound or working as stage crew we have lots of opportunities! It takes no experience and is a short time commitment. We provide the training. Just give the office a call at 270-444-6828 ext. 112 to sign up.

I must confess a mistake I have made more than once as Executive and Artistic Director of Market House Theatre. I underestimated the sensitivities of our audience. When we first looked at selecting this show it was passed up. Some of the reading committee loved the show (myself included) and others thought the humor was a little too crude. I will confess that I watched the movie version of this show and thought-”this may be too crude for our audience.” I pulled the show from consideration after that first year of reading because I was also worried that we would not get enough “hunters” to buy tickets to make the show successful.

To my surprise I discovered that not only did our audiences like the show, but women are often the source of the loudest laughs in the theatre.

As I watch the show from the back (mostly watching the audience reaction), it dawned on me- this was the reverse of Dixie Swim Club audiences where the show was about 5 women and their friendships and the loudest laughs came from male members of the audience. We all at some basic level love to see how the opposite sex acts when it’s just the guys or just the girls. We may be any age from 30-100 but inside of us there still lurks that 13 year old kid-looking for acceptance from our peer group and willing to do outrageous things to earn that acceptance. There is an honesty to the show (in addition to some really funny stuff) that I think makes the show work really well.

Another worry we had was finding a talented cast of 5 men to rehearse over the Christmas/New Year’s holidays which is usually a real struggle. We were able to cast a great group of guys and a girl to make the show a big success. I hope that everyone that missed out because of the sold out shows on the second week will get a chance to come to the encore performances.

Auditions for Getting Sara Married started last night. We had a terrific turnout of of women and men. I did not know the majority of those auditioning! That was a very welcome surprise. Auditions continue tonight and I believe that director Diane Byrd will be able to put together a great cast.

We have a workshop for Auditions for Hairspray on Feb 1 and then the auditions on Feb. 6 & 7. The workshop will let people know what songs to prepare and we will do a little bit of dance and share some of the scene selections I’ll use for the auditions. It really is just a primer for those auditioning who have never done this before.

Play selection committee met last night and chose the slate for next season. It will now go into the rights application stage and then if everything is available we will announce our next years season at a big party on March 16 at the theatre. Look for more information on this in the upcoming newsletter. A big thank you goes out to Denise Bristol who chaired that committee, and to its members who read dozens of plays to narrow down the list to our final choices.

The Murder for Hire Troupe is rehearsing for the next event. We will perform Murder by Magic at the Paducah Country Club on March 3 and then in 3 dinner theatre performances at the Market House March 8-10. It should be lots of fun with dinner catered by Neil’s Catering and a wine and beer cash bar again. Tickets are $35 each and we encourage people to get a team together to compete.

The Market House Board of Directors Meeting is tomorrow at 5:30 at the theatre. Williams Williams and Lentz will present the official audit to the theatre of our last completed fiscal year.

MHT completed our annual Kentucky Arts Council Arts Partnership application on January 13 and we hope that with all of the state budgets cut that they will be able to continue to fund the arts at some level. That funding leverages 4 times the tax revenue for the city and state as they dispense. The legislature cut the funding for the Kentucky Arts Council in the last two budgets. The arts council ended up eliminating all of their grants except for the Arts Partnerships for long standing arts groups. Any more cuts could quite possibly jeopardize matching funds from the National Endowment for the Arts and that could be the difference between groups being able to make that return on investment in tax revenue for the state which then reduces state revenues even further. Some cuts would literally be worse than others for state revenue. KAC funding isn’t just a quality of life issue. It truly is a tax revenue issue as well.

The theatre is still in process on Phase Two of our Organization and Facilities study. We hope to have some significant progress to announce by the end of this fiscal year in June as to our future plans for renovation and expansion. Everything from scene shop construction space to additional lobby restroom space is being studied. The good news is that we have lots of exciting options and a strong financial foundation to build on. Consultants will visit Paducah over the help us evaluate our options.

Escanaba in da moonlight is taking a short break for Christmas and will be back in rehearsal before New Years. That show opens Jan. 12 and it looks to be lots of fun! WARNING- if crude language and bodily function humor are not your cup of tea- this is not the show for you. If watching 5 male hunters go to any length to bag a buck, “wit lots o drinking o de maple sap whisky” and “yur males bonding wit de tall tales of da deer hunting” written by Jeff Daniels then this is da show fur u!

That was my limited attempt of the Upper Peninsula Michigan accent. There are websites devoted to this show about Yoopers and all things U.P.

The board of directors met last night with a pot luck get together to celebrate the holidays and review the first half of our current fiscal year. We’ve had lots of positive response to the news that MHT ended the second consecutive year in the black. We used almost all of the surplus to pay for maintenance repairs on the buildings in the current fiscal year and the consultants we’ve been working with on a future plan for MHT. Hopefully by the time we announce our 49th season in March we will have made some decisions about facility improvements and some exciting new programming for our 50th Anniversay in 2014!

Speaking of announcing our 49th season the play selection committee headed up by Denise Bristol is madly reading plays for consideration for next season! We have to have our list finalized and work on securing the rights by the end of January if at all possible.

January has auditions for The Adventures of Nate the Great on the 9&10, Getting Sara Married on the 23&24. Two weeks later on Feb. 6&7 are auditions for Hairspray.

The January newsletter is going through its final proofing and should hit mailboxes soon! We have lots of information about some new acting classes for adults that will start in Jan.

We have received some donations in memory of JC Dudley this past week. JC will be missed a great deal by everyone who knew him. He gave me a tie tack a few years ago that he wore to the theatre for opening nights. It is something I treasure. I’ve worn it a couple of times in his honor on the Sundays when he would be in the audience. I couldn’t help but smile when ever he entered the theatre.

On behalf of the Staff and the Board of Directors Merry Christmas, Happy Hannuka, we hope that everyone has a safe and joyous New Year! See you in 2012!

MARKET HOUSE THEATRE ENDS SECOND CONSECUTIVE FISCAL YEAR IN BLACK

“For the second year in a row, thanks to great productions by community performers and increased contributions from local and regional donors, who supported the mission of the theatre, we ended our fiscal year in the black,” said MHT Executive Director Michael Cochran.  “A great deal of the success goes to the Board of Directors, who worked diligently to build relationships with individuals and businesses.  In addition the MHT Staff worked incredibly hard to produce  over fifteen productions  and events and keep expenses in check.”  Cochran also credits the support of the City of Paducah, The Kentucky Arts Council and its largest corporate sponsors: Paducah Bank for underwriting its Main Season, The law firm of Kitchen and Thornton-Green for underwriting the Youth Season and Ray Black and Son General Contractors and Ashland Corporation (formerly International Specialty Products) for underwriting the Educational programming over the past two years along with at least a dozen other corporate sponsors.

Market House Theatre served over 23,000 youth last year with over 11,000 of those students receiving classes taught at their schools by MHT Education Director April Cochran.  April Cochran was awarded the National Distinguished Merit Award recently by the American Association of Community Theatres for her work.    The educational programming provided by MHT teaches communications skills and develops personal confidence while incorporating subjects like social studies, history, and science so that the students are using theatre to teach their fellow classmates core content.  In addition to MHT’s youth programming over 12,000 adults participated in MHT Main Season programming at the historic theatre located in downtown Paducah.

“Market House Theatre continues to see our programming demand increase for educational classes and opportunities for more local performers to act in productions produced by the theatre.  We strive for a professional quality production and make sure that we continue to cast as many new people as possible” said Executive Director Michael Cochran.  The theatre has a long history of awards and recognition on a state and national level.  “The biggest challenge,” said Cochran,” is maintenance on the 4 historic buildings listed on the National Historic Register that the theatre owns along with work on the main Market House building which is leased from the City of Paducah.  We’ve had significant roofing, masonry, and HVAC costs both last year and this year.  In addition we have some theatre equipment that is between 25-40 years old and we must continually upgrade and replace that equipment.

The theatre’s unrestricted operations and contributed revenue for the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2011 was $672,186.  The theatre’s operational expenses were $638,087 leaving a surplus of just over $34,000.   MHT has set aside that surplus to reinvest in the facilities and equipment and is in the second phase of paying for an analysis of MHT programming and facility needs to meet continued growth and demand.  “We are using that surplus to invest in a strong, stable, and sustainable financial foundation for the future,” said Cochran.  Market House Theatre will celebrate its 50^th Anniversary in 2013.

End press release

Additional notes to press release – MHT has had a line of credit with Paducah Bank for several years now but did not have to access it within the past two years.  The City of Paducah contributed $30,000 to MHT 2 years ago for operational support.  In the current fiscal year MHT received $9,000 from the City of Paducah.  The money from the city is used to help cover a portion of the maintenance fees on the Market House Theatre  building which is leased from the City of Paducah.