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!