New MET Website!

We have a new look for our MET website! Same address (www.marylandensemble.org), different look.

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And now you can access the MET Blog from the new homepage, just click the Blog link on the left side of the page.

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In the photo, Gené and I are talking (on our fancy new phone in our fancy new conference room with our fancy new table!) with web guy Phil Graves. Gené designed the look of the site and Phil put everything together for us.

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As with any new technology, there are always bugs to work out - thank you for being patient as we make this transition. Let us know what you think about the new site! Email me at sstraw@marylandensemble.org

The MET Furniture Line

Since we moved into our new offices, ensemble member Mark Barnhart has been hard at work, building us our own furniture line! We call it the 'Maärk Collection':

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His first project was a bookshelf for the back hallway. Mark did the construction and staining in the scene shop, but brought the shelves into the classroom for assembly.

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Done! The shelves are completely full of books, plays and set models now.

Next Mark built some desks for our company office, they match the look of the book shelves above.
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Once the desks were done, and the A Doll's House set finished, Mark moved on to a large table for our conference room.
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It makes me nervous with all the sparks flying around!

The table was moved into the conference room yesterday, Reiner helped! First they set up the legs and base. Then they attached the table top.
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Our beautiful new conference table! We're very excited about having a dedicated space for meetings. No longer will the Board of Directors be squished into the Greene Room, or the Technology Committee be forced to meet in the lobby, with Ensemble School students working on scenes close by. Yay!
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Mark has also built a new fabulous work table and wood storage unit in the scene shop. Next time you're at the MET, ask for a tour of the Maärk Collection!

Chairs from PNC Bank

Today we received more furniture for our new offices! One of our Fun Company sponsors, PNC Bank, was reorganizing their offices and had stuff to give away to nonprofits. Before this trip, we desperately needed chairs. Fortunately, PNC had many that fit our needs.

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Stacey Collins, from PNC, holds the door for Mark Barnhart.

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We scored some great matching chairs that will look awesome in our new conference room, a couple of rolling desk chairs and some occasional chairs.
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Mark helps load Marilyn's van

We also ran into an old MET friend - Marilyn Orsinger. She was also at PNC to pick up donated furniture for a nonprofit arts organization - The Delaplaine.

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Stacey holds the door for Marilyn, who was very excited about tables with wheels!

Mark Barnhart, Milee McDonald, Marilyn Orsinger and Stacey Collins

Once again company member Milee McDonald came through with a truck - thanks Milee (and Merch)!

Milee's truck, all loaded up.

.It was raining off and on today, but we lucked out and managed to get everything back to the MET without getting wet. We started to unload our goodies, and I found out that one of the chairs was too heavy for me...and dropped it:

Milee helps me recover the dropped chair, but we're both laughing too hard!

Thank you Stacey and PNC, our chair needs have been met and we have almost everything we need to make our new space functional!

We've got Karen!

Hello, METsters!
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This is Karen Paone, your newly-minted Box Office Manager/ Full-time Company Member, sending out a little hello and an "OMG, I'm so excited!" missive for our lovely blog.
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For those of you who don't know me, I'll give you a little background: I grew up in Philadelphia, PA, where I acted and sang in high school musicals and took dance lessons from the age of three. I moved to Washington, DC in 1991 to attend The Catholic University Of America, graduating in 1995 with a Bachelors Degree in Music (concentration in Musical Theatre Performance.)
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For the next six years, I worked with such companies as Source, Signature, Horizon, and Interact and was a member of the political satire troupe Mrs. Foggybottom and Friends. I did a brief stint working as a Vocal Mechanics instructor for the Bethesda Academy of Performing Arts and, more importantly for the purposes of my new position at the MET, as a host, waitress, temp and retail manager. Customer Service? I've got you covered.
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I took a break from theatre in 2001 and moved to Washington State. When I moved back to the DC area in 2002 I still was keeping my distance from the theatre scene until that fateful day in 2003 when former Company Member Tim King asked me to come see him in Hedwig at the MET. At first, I was skeptical. Theatre in Frederick? But I was absolutely wowed. When Tim asked me to come up and act in Lance and The Fam, a show he had written for MET-X, I was in.
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My first official show at MET was the Planet Claire revival at The Baltimore Theatre Project and I've been here ever since. I became a Company Member in 2005 and moved up here in 2006 to be closer to the action.
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In the past four years I've taught at the Ensemble School, been in fifteen main stage productions (and counting!), fourteen Fun Company productions (and counting!), numerous cabarets and school touring shows and co-direct the Artist Residency program with Julie Herber (I'm still in a daze over that one!)
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I'm not sure quite what else to say, except that there are a lot of changes coming to the MET (our shiny, new offices being a BIG part of that) that I'm proud to have been given the opportunity to help further the MET mission. I'm absolutely honored to be a part of the MET. These people are my family, and the fact that I get to work with them every day is better than anything in the world.
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So, if you're Downtown, stop by and say hello (and buy some tickets for our fantastic season while you're here!)
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I'll be the chick with the black specs looking madly industrious in the front office ;)
-- Karen

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!

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