Sunday, August 31, 2008

Weekend before Incorruptible Tech Week

Incorruptible opens on Friday! Over the weekend, we held another work call:

Props mistress Milee McDonald wraps the purple lady.
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Lorrie Tripp works on the monastery walls.
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MET technical director Matt Weese stabilizes a wall.
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Rona Mensah paints the upstage wall. And yes, her shoes are magic!
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Volunteer John Kearns repairs a wall damaged during the run of Runaways. Apparently, a foot went through the wall!

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Mark Barnhart secures molding to the top of the monastery walls.
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Ken Poisson!

More than set building was happening:
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Costume designer Julie Herber pins out a costume
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Allison Lepelletier breaks down shelving in the old costume shop so it can easily be moved to our new costume space.
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Lisa Burl and Karen Paone continue sorting the archives. I know this looks exactly like a photo I took last weekend, but I promise progress is being made!

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Tad Janes untangles cords in the new office space.
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Gené Fouché works at the desk in her new office.
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Karen, our new Box Office Manager, also gets some work done in the new box office

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To see the fruit of all this labor, come see the show!




Monday, August 25, 2008

Moving Weekend

It was a crazy busy weekend at MET! We continued to move our office, cleaned the Greene Room (and made several trips to the dump!), cleared out the current costume shop, started to build a new costume shop in the far end of the Greene Room, held a work call to build the Incorruptible set, held auditions for A Doll's House and managed to find time for a bridal shower for ensemble member Amy Easton! Both Saturday and Sunday found MET full of ensemble members, Incorruptible cast members and some terrific MET volunteers. How did we do it all? Check out the photos:

Associate Artistic Director Julie Herber makes copies in the almost empty old office!
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This room formally held our box office, workspace for me (development and marketing) and an additional workspace that was shared between everyone else! The room also contained our library of plays and theatre resources, archives, the copier and pretty much any thing else we could fit!

My friend Jessica Hibbard and her husband, Christopher donated some office furniture! We thought we were just getting a desk..but came away with 4 chairs, some filing cabinets and bookshelves. Thanks Jessica and Christopher! It took us 2 trips to get it all to MET -thanks Lorrie and Milee for the use of your trucks!
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Company members Lorrie Tripp, Karen Paone and Lisa Burl work on sorting the MET archives. In the past our old posters, playbills, reviews, etc. have been stored in several different filing cabinets in different rooms. Now everything can be in the same place - the Company Office!
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Karina Wright organizes the Stage Manager Nook. We now have a dedicated space just for stage managers! SMs can store their supplies and have a work space - we're all VERY excited!

Julie sets up her office (desk by Jessica and Christopher).

The new office wasn't the only place getting some work this weekend. To get the new office space, we have to give up our current box office and costume shop. Now that the office is almost totally moved, we can move on to the costume shop. The plan is to get rid of a bunch of stuff in the Greene Room (which was done on Saturday) and build a new costume shop at the far end of the Greene Room.
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Comedy Pig Anne Raugh helps pack up the old costume shop


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Ensemble member Ken Poisson moves costumes into the Greene Room.

Producing Artistic Director Tad Janes explains the construction plans for the new costume shop to volunteer John Kerns.


John works on the new costume shop, which will be a completely walled off room, with double-tier costume storage and a cutting/work table!
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Tad talks with Lorrie as she organizes costumes in the new space. There's still a lot of work to be done, but all costumes have been moved and we have room to spare.

Incorruptible opens in less than two weeks, so a set build was also taking place over the weekend. Set designer Joann Lee and technical director Matt Weese led the charge:

Strike for "Runaways" was held on Saturday night, and everyone was back at work Sunday morning, working on "Incorruptible." You can see the graffiti from "Runaways still surrounds the in-progress monastery.

Several mini production meetings were held:


"Incorruptible" director Gené Fouché talks with Tad and sound designer Tom Majarov

Julie is designing costumes for "Incorruptible." She goes over fabric samples with Gené.

Gené and props mistress Milee McDonald test a prop with cast members Bette Cassat and Denny Grizzle.


Matt Wesse and Joann Lee discuss build plans.
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Assistant Stage Manager Carey Rausch works with a sharp power tool.
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Kevin Cole and Dean Wright (current and former Ensemble School students) work on the monastery walls.

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Mark Barnhart builds the altar.

Milee and Stage Manager Ken work on the monastery walls.
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Reiner Prochaska, Carey and Richard Cole set up an arch.

And of course, moving an office, costume shop and building a set isn't enough for one weekend! We held a bridal shower for ensemble member Amy Easton - who is to marry ensemble member Matt Baughman next month. Luau theme!

The new classroom was perfect for Amy's bridal shower, hosted by ensemble member and maid of honor Lisa Burl.

And the day ended with auditions for A Doll's House:

Reiner prepares for his audition. He pretty much laid down a drill and walked into his cold reading. Notice the always fashionable work boots!

It was amazing weekend. The energy from so many people working on MET stuff was contagious and energizing. As always, there's still plenty of work to be done! But we hope to be settled in our new spaces in the next 2-3 weeks. Check back for updates!





Wednesday, August 20, 2008

The MET is moving!

Well...just our office. The MET Box Office and administration offices are moving down the hall and will now be located at the bottom of the stairs leading in from Patrick Street, but the Bank of America.
Here's what our current office looks like:




We're not slobs! It's just that there are three full time staff members sharing this space, plus whoever is working the box office. The space is also used by stage managers, designers and any company member who needs to make a phone call or check their email. There's just not enough space to put things away!
The office also houses ensemble member mailboxes, our copier and our library of plays and theatre resources. So people are constantly coming in and out of the office to use these things.

Here's the current box office:


It's officially the box office, but this nook is often used for other office activities, cluttering the space and the computer desktop!


This is the view from my desk:

I love being close to everyone else, and since I'm often the only one in the office to answer the phone, I've gotten to know many MET patrons, which is awesome. But the cramped quarters also mean that I'm often distracted, as are the other people who work in the office.


And here is the hallway of our new office:


The new office suite is really sweet! It has 5 private offices, one of which we will probably use for a meeting room and another for a company office where stage managers, designers and the random email checker can use the computer, phone and storage space.


This is the new box office! Look how many people can fit in it - more people than could fit in the entire old office!


Milee McDonald, Lorrie Tripp, Tad Janes and Gené Fouché

This is one of the private offices:

They have lovely sliding glass doors, so we can still see each other, but they also close, so we can have some quit when we need to concentrate on writing a grant, or a FUN Company script or developing curriculum for an Ensemble school class.

Another office view:


At the end of the hallway is a bigger room, which we are planning to use for a meeting room, so our board of directors doesn't have to meet in the lobby...or wherever else they can squeeze in! The room will also be used for other meetings and gatherings that need to be away from the controlled chaos (rehearsals, classes, committee meetings, production meetings, work calls, etc) that is MET on most evenings.


And here is the back hallway! Yes, we have 2 hallways!


This hallway leads to the last private office space, which we will use for our company office, and to a larger space we are planning to use for a classroom:




We are really excited about this classroom space. We can teach more classes, but more importantly, we can teach classes during rehearsals or even a performance. Currently, our main classroom space is right next to the stage, which means anything that happens in the classroom can be heard by the audience or the cast rehearsing in the theatre, and vice versa, which is distracting for everyone!


We'll be moving over the next two weeks, hopefully completely settled by September 1st. Stop by and see it - but be prepared to carry a box! : )


- Sarah Straw


Saturday, August 16, 2008

RUNAWAYS OPENS......AND IT'S SMOKIN'!

We're finishing up the summer at MET with the hard-hitting musical "Runaway's" by Elizabeth Swados. We opened to nearly sold-out crowds on Thursday & Friday night. This show only runs 2-weekends....so make your plans now not to miss the event of the summer! The stage is full of some of the most talented young performers you'll ever see. MET photographer, Misti Morningstar, got some great shots at our opening night performance:




At our final dress rehearsal, freelance photographer David Spence of Spence Photographics llc, stopped by to take some pics for an article in The Gazette. He got some great shots as well...and was quite impressed with what he saw at rehearsal. Check out his blog to see some fabulous photos & feedback!