Santaland Diaries First Read Thru

On Wednesday, November 5th we had the first read thru of The Santaland Diaries by David Sedaris. As usual, we had a potluck dinner first, then settled into the theatre to listen to the script.

The production team, plus a few others: Sarah Shulman (ASM), Mak Nichols, Suzanne Beal (Director), Karina Wright (Stage manager), Joann Lee (Set designer), Tom Majarov (sound designer) and Sarah Straw.

.

The Santaland Diaries premiered on November 7, 1996 at the Atlantic Theatre Company in New York City. MET has produced this show once before, in 2004 (our first Christmas in our current space) with Kevin Corbett as the elf.

.

Santaland director, Suzanne Beal, talks about the show.

.

The playwright, David Sedaris, was discovered reading his diary (which he has kept since 1977) in a Chicago club by radio host Ira Glass, who asked Sedaris to appear on his weekly local program The Wild Room. Sedaris's success on The Wild Room led to his National Public Radio debut on December 23, 1992, when he read a radio essay titled "SantaLand Diaries", which described his experiences working as an elf at Macy's department store during Christmastime in New York. "SantaLand Diaries" was an immediate success with radio listeners, and launched Sedaris's career as a writer, playwright and comedian.

.

Santaland is a one person show, and MET's version features ensemble member Rona Mensah. Rona basically has to memorize a 30 page monologue!

Team "A Doll's House"

A Doll's House has completed the first week of rehearsal! Here's team A Doll's House, all photos taken at the first read thru on Tuesday, September 17th:

Translator Vibeke Havre. © 2008 Joe Williams

.

Director and set designer Tad Janes. © 2008 Joe Williams

.

Gené Fouché as Nora. © 2008 Joe Williams

.
Brian Irons as Torvald. © 2008 Joe Williams

.

Jim Page as Krogstad. © 2008 Joe Williams

.Reiner Prochaska as Dr. Rank. © 2008 Joe Williams
.

Julie Herber as Kristine Linde. © 2008 Joe Williams
.

Michelle Simms as the au pair, Anne-Marie. © 2008 Joe Williams

.

Sound Designer Tom Majarov. © 2008 Joe Williams

.
Costume Designer Sherry Shaner

.
Stage Manager Sarah Straw. © 2008 Joe Williams

.
.
Not pictured are Props Mistress Lorrie Tripp (the only photos of her from the read thru are of the back of her head!), lighting designer Karina Wright and Assistant Stage Manager Sarah Shulman. Also missing are the children. The roles of Nora and Torvald's children have been double cast, so we have some kids from The Ensemble School who will join us: Nadya Downs, Lena Janes, Jackie Brinkman, Sarah Deleonibus, Sophie Stratyner, Elissa Dallimore and Amber Joglar.

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!

.

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!
.

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!

.

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.
.

Comedy Pig Anne Raugh helps pack up the old costume shop

.

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!
.

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.
.

Assistant Stage Manager Carey Rausch works with a sharp power tool.
.

Kevin Cole and Dean Wright (current and former Ensemble School students) work on the monastery walls.

.

Mark Barnhart builds the altar.

Milee and Stage Manager Ken work on the monastery walls.
.

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!

Incorruptible Set

Set designer Joann Lee explains her Incorruptible set model to the cast.

Incorruptible begins rehearsal

We are now in rehearsal for the first show of our 11th season! Incorruptible: A Dark Comedy for the Dark Ages opens September 4.

The first read thru for Incorruptible was held on July 29th

Playwright Michael Hollinger’s comedy Red Herring opened our tenth season with such a blast of energy that we thought we would look to the author once more for this season’s kick-off. Hollinger, a professor of theatre at Villanova University, has a background in musical performance and as a result his plays rely highly on tempo, rhythm and timing. This was evidenced in last season’s offering (think the overseas call delayed and masterfully performed by Matt Baughman and Amy Easton), but he adds a bit of slapstick and a dash of vaudeville to Incorruptible, making it a highly physical tour-de-force.

The Incorruptible cast prepares for the first reading.

MET ensemble members Mark Barnhart, Julie Herber, Tad Janes, Karen Paone and Reiner Prochaska join the cast. Joann Lee (sets), Julie Herber (costumes), Carey Rausch (lights), Tom Majarov (sound), and Milee McDonald (props), all ensemble members, have joined forces as our design team. Keeping us all on track and on time is company member Ken Poisson, our stage manager.

Designers listen to the read thru.

We’re very excited to be back in the rehearsal hall and very grateful to the Frederick community who has supported our work for the last decade.

- Gené Fouché, Director

Set designer Joann Lee shows stage manager Ken Poisson the set model.

Another fabulous set from Joann!

Company Set: Before and After

The Company set, designed by Joann Lee, is FABULOUS!

.

Before: the walls are up!

.

After: Everything is painted! Only detail work left.
.

Killer Joe Set Build

MET's next mainstage production, KILLER JOE, opens February 8th. The designers have been hard at work. Scenic Designer Milee McDonald, along with Technical Director Matt Weese and MET company members Brian Irons and Joann Lee spent a day building and installing part of the KJ set: It's always chaotic in the beginning. We started by setting the frig and stove in place and will build around it.

Joann cleans the disgusting frig and Matt and Brian discuss the framework to be built for the stage left exit into the "bedroom"

Braces are being added to the living room wall. A new window was framed using the flat from "Wreck the Halls" This wall is almost ready to go up.

Kitchen walls are in! It doesn't look like much right now, but this is a big deal.

Living room wall is up, blind is being hung. Door placement is located.

Not too shabby for a day's work.

There's still a lot to be done - more building, painting, wallpapering, set decoration.... Today Milee is installing paneling!