Gearing up...

Fight Girl Battle World: January 19-February 4

Here we are in the second week of January 2012, and here at NC Stage, we've hit the ground running in this new year.  We're gearing up for our next Catalyst Series production, Fight Girl Battle World by Qui Nguyen, which opens next week.  Just yesterday, cast member Rebecca Morris (remember Harper Pitt from Angels? That's her!) and director Charlie Flynn-McIver were interviewed by Dick Kowal on WCQS about the show.  Cast members are going all over town putting up posters and getting the word out about the production.  The cast also recently filmed some promotional videos in character about the play (which we'll post here once they're done).  In the mood for pizza? You might just find a flier for Fight Girl... atop your pizza box from Asheville Pizza and Brewing Company.  We're excited about this play, so understandably, we want everyone to know about it.  In fact, thanks for reading this! Now buy a ticket and go tell 10 friends to do the same.  Joking! But not really.  

So, Charlie is directing this production, but the big question is, "Where did you even find this play in the first place, dude?" More on the cast and their work on the production later, because what I have for you today is a link to an article from American Theatre magazine from October 2010.  Perhaps you recall lots of social media posts around that time from NC Stage telling you to read an article about Charlie Flynn-McIver and Scott Treadway.  Well, the article just after it in the print version of the magazine is about the Fight Girl Battle World playwright, Qui Nguyen, his aesthetic, and his work with Vampire Cowboys Theatre Company.  It's worth a read, and it's fascinating! 

More to come later on about FGBW and other upcoming productions (Love Child opens in a little over a month!) so subscribe to the blog if you like, or just keep your eyes peeled.  Until next time...

Why I'm excited to see Angels In America again.

Interview with Angie Flynn-McIver about Angels In America, Parts 1 and 2, and the challenges of directing such an epic play and what's it like to direct the same play for a second time.

Let's Fa(r)ce It

We here at NC Stage love farce.  Last year we had Joe Orton's What the Butler Saw, and in our earlier years we produced Loot, also by Orton.  The first play Scott & Charlie ever performed in together was one of Marc Camoletti's other famous plays, Don't Dress for Dinner.  Both are fans of the genre and have keen acting skills for farce.  So, today, we have a little treat: I've asked Charlie to interview Scott about farce and why they both love it. Enjoy!

from the 'Bedroom farce' Wikipedia article:

"Boeing Boeing is a classic French farce for the stage by Marc Camoletti. Monopolizing on most of the conventions of farce's canon, it concerns a Parisian playboy bachelor with three international stewardess fiancées he secretly keeps in careful rotation until their flight schedules change and he, along with his provincial friend and sassy maid, must keep them from finding out about each other. Lucky they have enough doors in the apartment to keep the girls unwittingly flitting about for two hours."

Do you like farce? 

Do you have any favorite farces? 

Do you want more farce? Let us know!

First Day of Boeing-Boeing Rehearsals...

Charlie as Bernard and Scott as Robert

First off, we want to give a big THANK YOU to everyone who came out the Reuter Center on Sunday to watch our (For)Play reading of Boeing-Boeing. As Charlie said, we hope it "puts you in the mood" to come see it when we open in mid-February (hint hint... get your tickets soon!). We're excited about it: we've got a great group of designers and a fantastic cast -- Scott & Charlie, Maria Buchanan, Vivian Smith, Julia Vanderveen, and Paige Posey -- and they start rehearsals tonight and continue them this week, provided it's not snowing-snowing. (Haha!)

If you missed the (For)Play reading and you aren't familiar with the play, here's the premise: Bernard is a successful businessman living in Paris whose three stewardess girlfriends never cross paths because they work for different airlines and, as Bernard says, "The whole secret is order. I am organized- beautifully organized. (...) All you need is a timetable." But, as we all know, jets get faster, weather delays occur, and timetables become irrelevant. Fortunately, Bernard has his maid/cook/servant/assistant Bertha and his old friend Robert to help him manage things. As Bernard puts it, "Yes, it is a bit touch and go today. But today's an exception. (...) Normally it's perfectly straightforward." How will it all unfold? Join us in February and you'll find out!

As rehearsals progress, you'll be seeing all kinds of different features on the blog: why Scott loves farce so much, some sneak peeks from designers, funny anecdotes from rehearsal, material inspired by Boeing-Boeing (did you know there's a Bollywood version?), and much more. Also, we'll be starting a series of Facebook contests with some pretty excellent prizes, so become a fan of NC Stage and you could win some sweet stuff! Keep checking back in.

Boeing-Boeing (For)Play Reading - SUNDAY!

Happy New Year everyone!  Hope all is well and 2011 is off to a great start for you, wherever you may be.  Things are building momentum and we're pretty excited about what's going on around here, and at the front of our minds is Boeing-Boeing.  Earlier this week our designers got together to share initial thoughts about themes of the play and this Sunday, our cast will be having our first read-through of the play, and you're invited!  That's right, as part of our (For)Play series, before actual rehearsals begin, we have a reading of the play in front of an audience -- no RSVP required.  You're welcome to stick around and meet the cast and director after the reading and ask any questions you may have. Now for the details...

Sunday, January 23 at 2 PM

at the Reuter Center on the UNCA campus

How do I get there? (Directions) 

Come see Scott, Charlie, and other Boeing-ers (cast members) bring the play off the page at the (For)Play reading. And speaking of reading, did you see the article in American Theatre magazine about the theatrical magic that duo makes on stage? No? Read this. 

Or, check out this clip from the movie version of Boeing-Boeing with Tony Curtis and Jerry Lewis!

"We'll take a cup of kindness yet, for auld lang syne."

And now for the reeeeeeally scary ghost! The ghost of Theatre Future!

Well, not really. The future looks good doesn’t it? At NC Stage we’re looking forward to beginning rehearsals for Boeing-Boeing in the immediate future. Scott Treadway and I have done three shows together over the past year and I directed him in one. But with all that time spent with Treadway over the last year, I’m still looking forward to spending even MORE time with him on Boeing-Boeing.

Later this spring, One Flea Spare will be directed by Angie and I know she’s been looking forward to that one for a while. What an amazing play! And then our Immediate Theatre Project friends, (the ITPeeps) will round out the year with what I’m sure will be an amazing production of the American classic, The Glass Menagerie.

As we wrap up this season, we’re also thinking ahead to future seasons. Next season will mark our 10th season of producing professional theatre in Asheville. It’s almost unbelievable to me that we’ve been doing this for 10 years.

So, what do we do to mark the occasion? Every one around the office is just itching to do part 2 of Angels In America, maybe along with part one performed in repertory… There are other plays on our short list for next season for next season that are pretty exciting to us, but we’re always interested to hear suggestions (feel free to post something in the comments if you have ideas).

As for the long-term future, there are a couple of big projects that Angie and I have been day-dreaming about, which we hope will turn into a reality, just as our daydream of a professional theatre in Asheville has become a reality. One of those daydreams involves another local arts organization, with whom we’ve recently worked, and a possible co-production of a profoundly amazing play. Another involves a collaboration with a funk band on a Shakespeare play. And yet another involves an adaptation of a novel that has a lot of meaning for Angie and me (we were both reading it when we started dating) and a lot of meaning for Western North Carolina. And it would involve music too. How can anything about Western North Carolina NOT involve music?

But of course, all these things are only possible with the support of our community. I hope you’ll take an opportunity before the tax year ends to support NC Stage’s work THIS year.

You can make an instand donation to NC Stage via the JustGive link, and help us make great theatre for Asheville and Western North Carolina for the next year and for years to come.

And don’t be a stranger. Share your hopes for the future on the blog. Visit the Facebook page and become a fan. Follow us on Twitter. But most of all, come see a play in 2011.

Happy New Year everyone! Be safe and keep telling your story!


Charlie

So thankful. A visit from the ghost of theatre present.

I hope your holiday weekend was pleasant and stress free and that you were able to celebrate and commemorate the story that means the most to you. Asheville had a white Christmas, which was actually really pleasant and relaxing, considering the busy fall we’ve had at NC Stage!

How busy, you ask?

We started out with the news that we had been voted readers favorite theatre company in the Mountain Xpress readers poll right before we dove into the Bard-a-thon back in September and about 200 participants read 12 Shakespeare plays over a 48 hour period. And yes, it was fun! But it also raised around $9,000 toward our programming and it was a great kick off to an exciting season.

Immediately after that wound down, and I mean immediately, we started rehearsals for Angels in America. Angie directed that so I was hanging with our kids while she tackled that behemoth of a play. Nearly 2,000 people attended Angels. It’s a play we’ve wanted to produce for quite awhile and we feel very fortunate that we got to do it and that we received such a positive response from the audience.

Then, while that was going on, we started rehearsals for three, count ‘em, THREE productions of Live From WVL Radio Theatre: It’s A Wonderful Life. This adaptation of the movie is something we’ve been doing with our partners Immediate Theatre Project (or the ITPeeps as we like to call them) since 2006.

Production #1 was a partnership with Flat Rock Playhouse, with performances at the Historic Henderson County Courthouse. On December 4th that cast moved to Charlotte where we partnered with the Blumenthal Performing Arts Center for a 2 week run in the Booth Theatre, while a replacement cast rehearsed and opened at the Courthouse in Hendersonville (Production #2) . I directed those productions so I had 2 trips to Charlotte in as many days! Meanwhile, our tour version – Production #3, produced by Immediate Theatre Project, was rehearsing and then went out on a multi-state tour that wound up on December 23rd in Newton-Conover, NC after visiting Maryland, Ohio, Illinois, Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee. All told, more than 5,000 people attended these three productions and experienced the message that “one person’s life touches so many others”.

Then MEANWHILE, Angie was directing scenes from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream for the Asheville Symphony Orchestra’s performance of Mendelssohn’s Midsummer at the Thomas Wolf Auditorium in mid November. It was a fantastic blending of actors, instruments, and voices.

We’re pooped. But it’s a good kind of pooped, and we are really enjoying the quiet of the snow before the storm of the second half of our season. More on that in the third email you will be visited by soon.

So as I reflect on the first part of the season with its great partnerships and collaborations and think to the next part, I’m reminded of something I read earlier today. (ok, I was perusing Twitter and came across this tweet); “Do NOT use this week to plan for 2011. Devote this week to thanking folks for support in the past year.”

If I don’t say it enough, let me say it now. Thank you. To all of the people who value theatre and NC Stage, to the hard working professionals that it’s my privilege to work with every day, to the board of directors, to everyone of you who’ve attended a play or convinced one of your friends to come see a play, and to every one of you who’ve contributed time, resources and money to NC Stage. Your support counts more than we can ever express and we are indeed lucky to be in such a beautiful, supportive place with people like you.


JustGive.org

Boeing-Boeing tickets on sale NOW!

9:59:57...58...59... 10 AM! Finally! I'm calling NC Stage right now.

The time has come...

 to get your Boeing-Boeing tickets!

If you're thinking "Gee, it seems early..." then you're right. It's a bit earlier than when we usually put tickets on sale for our shows, but we know seats are going to fly faster than a Concorde. Also, it's a great gift for a theatre-/farce-/fun-loving loved one, so if you're looking for a last-minute Christmas gift, or a really early Valentine's Day present, this is a good one. Plus, it's got the duo of all duos in it: Charlie Flynn-McIver and Scott Treadway, so why wait? Call our box office now (or go online) and you can get your top-choice seats! We look forward to hearing from you - 828.239.0263.

Sneak Hear: Radio Ad for Angels

We just got our newly recorded radio ad in the other day - give it a listen!

Holy sh*t!

What productions have you seen that made you think just that?

We're shooting for that kind of reaction with Angels, so I would suggest that you order those tickets you've been thinking about...

Oh crap! There are PEOPLE out there!!!

True West is opening up this week and we're really excited to get this one up and running. Scott Treadway and I are having a great time working on stage together. He's a very generous actor and a real joy to hang out with. Also in the cast are Kay Galvin, who you might have seen on any of the various stages around Asheville, and Lance Ball, an actor who has worked with our good friends at Immediate Theatre Project in their production of Copenhagen last year.

Had an invited dress rehearsal on Tuesday night with about 40 people in the audience. It went really well but it's always interesting the first time you perform a play you've been working on in front of people besides the artistic team of the theatre. Sometimes you discover things that are funny that you didn't realize were funny. You hear a laugh and think, "the hell???". Then, when you have a chance to think about it, you realize that it is funny. On the other hand, you do something during performance that consistently made the director and the sound designer laugh and then you do it in front of an audience and...nothin'. So you cut it. Oh well.

The most important aspect of the first audience is to see if the way you've crafted the show makes sense as a whole and that it's impacting an audience the way you intended, those little individual aforementioned moments aside. It allows us to gauge what the audience is noticing and responding to. It let's us punch up those elements that need punching up and get rid of the things that aren't working. So each afternoon this week we'll be gauging the response to the show from several audiences, taking notes and then rehearsing the bits that help us make the show as a whole more meaningful. By Saturday night this process should be finished and then it's official opening night and no more rehearsal during the day except for line brush ups with Scott and the other actors prior to the show.

In other news, I asked Amanda to take a little video tour of the set with Angie, who directed the production. The set was designed by Rob Bowen, whose head of the Department of Dramatic Art at UNCA and construction was headed up by Sylvia Pierce of Scenery Concepts. Enjoy!

True West is ramping up. Prepare the vacuum cleaner!

It’s that time again! Going into rehearsals this week for our next show, True West. To kick off our rehearsal process, we held two open readings of True West, free to the public. The readings went really well, and an unanticipated benefit was the terrific discussion that ensued afterward. The folks who had listened to the script had great insights into family dynamics, Sam Shepard's oeuvre, and specific language in the play--plus, they all seem excited to come and see the fully-mounted production!

I want to thank all the actors who read: Scott Treadway, who will be playing Austin, Kay Galvin who will be playing the Mom, Lance Ball who will be playing Saul, and Peter Savage who read Saul on the Sunday reading. Peter also tweeted during the reading and took a few vids. You can see them here and here. It’s an interesting thread about the reading so I encourage you to check it out.

I wanted to share with you a couple of interesting comments and questions
that came up--hopefully these will whet your appetite for this unusual
play!

Comment: Oh, I know this family. You know how it is in families--there
are no surprises. You all know what cards the other ones have. A topic
gets brought up, and you know that your mother is going to say this, and
that will make your sister say that, then your father chimes in with
this...We're just watching this family do their dance. It may get more out
of hand than your family does, but...well, it may not!

Q: How long have you been rehearsing together?
A: We read this for the first time today.
Q: Wait, no, because this play opens in--what? On February 17?
A: That's right. We rehearse all of our plays for three weeks.
Q: How do you do that?
A: Well, it's the big advantage of working with this cast--Scott and I
have done a number of plays together, Lance and Kay have worked together,
Kay and I have worked together...it leads to an ease in the rehearsal
room, and it also means we're not really starting at square one, since we
know how the other people in the room work and think and communicate.
Plus, rehearsing this play is a full-time job. We rehearse about 30 hours
per week.

Q: This is by Sam Shepard, the actor?
A: Yes! Except he's also Sam Shepard , the playwright. He's quite well-known as a writer of dark family dramas, as well, of course, as an actor in movies and on stage.

(Side note: I worked for three days on the film Sweet Dreams which starred Jessica Lange back in 1984. She and Sam Shepard had just started dating, I think, and Shepard sat on the side of the set the entire time we were shooting. Cool! BTW, Ed Harris looked at me funny in that film! Uber cool!!)

Angie takes me on a tour of the Beauty Queen set

Had a great opening weekend with lots of people attending Beauty Queen and some great performances turned in by some really talented and skilled actors. Check out the Asheville Citizen-Times review! Good review. The headline is "Delicious staging shows off 'Beauty Queen of Leenane'" and it speaks about the set and technical elements as well as the performances. So, since Actors' Equity Association won't let me show you the performers doing what they do in the show, I thought I'd show you the set! I made Angie take a break from the office and tour me around the set and show me some of the cool things about it. So I hope you'll check it out!

I'm Back!

Hey! Been a bit of a break, but we're getting ready to open up the brand new season. First, I want to share a shameless self promotional video of an interview with a person buying a subscription to our 2009-2010 season. I happened to be in the lobby when this person came in to buy her subscription and I asked if I could whip out the Flip Video Camera (man I love that thing. So handy) and ask her a few questions. She didn't disappoint!

Second, check out this post from Angie Flynn-McIver, director of our first production, Beauty Queen of Leenane. They are two thirds of the way through the rehearsal process. Angie comes home from rehearsals both exhausted and exhilarated and from what I know about the play and the people in the cast, I can totally see why. Check out the cast bios. You'll see some people you will recognize from some of best productions as well as a face you might remember from 1980s TV (She's in the middle of the back row between Bruno and Shorofsky). Perhaps those of you NOT watching the Cosby Show.

A letter to our Bard-a-thon participants

Hey there Bard-a-thon readers/fund raisers!

I wanted to check in with you and say thanks for helping us with this unique and grueling fund raiser for NC Stage. I also want to tell you that we still have some interesting roles available for reading (come on! 4am Titus everyone! It’s gonna raaawk!) so here’s a link to a google doc for info on still available roles. Feel free to send it to anyone you know who might be interested in participating.

Some cool things happening around the event:

I’m setting up a Livestream.com channel for NC Stage and, like last year, the Bard-a-lution will not be televised, but it will be streamed live over the interweb. But, unlike last year, more people will be able to watch at one time and you can also chat with other viewers in real time about what’s going on.

For those of you who do the tweets, I’ll be setting up a live feed from my TweetDeck and I’ve started a hashtag, #bardathon, to track any comments that come through. I’ll have the laptop hooked up to the projector and we can see any tweets that pop up regarding the Bardathon. So feel free to bring your phones, laptops, etc. and join in all the interconnected twittering fun. Come follow us on Twitter at @ncstage

Now to the core matter of this exercise: Raising money!!!

Since this is a fundraiser I thought I’d start a little check in process for all of us to share successes, challenges, tips, etc. as we go around asking our friends, families, stranger to sponsor us. So this letter will be posted on the NC Stage blog and we can all use the comments section to communicate with each other about advice or tips or updates.

First off I hope you are aware of the absolutely fantastic prizes that have been donated for the various categories of highest funds raised. If not, check them out here

Our goal is to raise over $7,000. So let’s do a little math. There are 26 participants so far in this year’s Bard-a-thon. Each participant would need to raise $270 for us to reach that goal. If each person got 14 sponsors at $20 each the goal would be met.

So, you get the idea, right? You can break it apart any way you like but the point is, how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time!

So you can ask people who will sponsor because they know you. Or you can appeal to someone’s philanthropic nature in general or because they like theatre, the arts or NC Stage in particular. If you’re in need of some talking poins for NC Stage, consider this: NC Stage is a professional, not for profit, 501(c)3 theatre; Contributions are tax deductible; We’ve produced over 30 productions and hired more than 300 artists; Our education program, Stages, has reached over 15,000 students in WNC with residencies and student performances covering subjects from Shakespeare to geometry!; NC Stage has donated thousands of dollars worth of tickets for local charity fundraisers for groups like WNCAP, MANNA Food Bank, YWCA of Asheville, The Mediation Center and Rotary Club of Asheville, , and NC Stage supports other local theatres every year with $14,000 of its own money through the Catalyst Series.

So that’s just a little update and check in. Hope you’ll join me on the blog and thanks again for helping NC Stage with this. It’s a rough time out there but with your help we’ll be able to start things off really well this year.

Charlie

Beautiful View Video

Hi all,

I'm posting a video of some footage I took when I visited rehearsals. I saw the invited dress rehearsal the other night and am really excited about this play. I've also been at Flat Rock Playhouse opening Man of La Mancha and rehearsing their next show, Perfect Wedding, all the while. While I'm writing, I just want to say how much I appreciate Flat Rock and what they do down there. They're a wonderful, talented and dedicated group of people who run that theatre. It's a big job and they've gone through a lot this past year, losing several members of their close theatre family, including their long time resident sound designer and their Executive Director, Robin Farquhar. All within the past year. So my hat's off to them and I thank them for letting me work there and for taking such good care of me.

About this video. In it are Anne Thibault - cast, Jay Putnam - director, Bitch - cast, Connie Silver - Stage Manager. Also, I didn't really edit any of it and the language can get saucy during rehearsal so be warned.

So, enjoy the video and go see a play!

Charlie

Season 09-10 Sneak Peek

Oh my goodness!!! What a busy spring! After closing A Number a month ago, we started the production process for our Rep Season which included a mammoth scheduling feat by our stage manager, Connie Silver. We're basically rehearsing, marketing and performing three full shows. The staff has been working triple time and has put up some really excellent plays.

We've also been raising money through our Help Get Us To 600 campaign and meeting with individual donors to get their input and advice on raising money more effectively.

We attended Arts Day, we participated in the NC Arts Council's grant panel, we had the immediate theatre project's production of Body Of Water, we presented a reading of the Heidi Chronicles, we hosted No Shame.

In the Flynn-McIver household we've attended weddings, funerals, end of school plays/sleepovers/parties for our kids.

To top that all off, I've started rehearsals for Man of La Mancha and A Perfect Wedding out at Flat Rock Playhouse.

But somewhere in there, we managed to pick a selection of plays for our 09-10 season. I'll get to that in a minute. But first, check out this video that our friend, Tim Carhart, shot over a couple of days while Angie and I battled it out over play titles. It's a pretty fair representation of the process that Angie and I go through while choosing a season and it's a good insight into our working relationship.

Check it out and then I'll tell you the season!

Share your story

In this blog I usually discuss rehearsals, set designs, background research on the plays NC Stage presents - you know, the fun stuff. But if you'll forgive me, today I'm going to take a moment to talk about fundraising and advocacy.

The other day, we realized that we have 473 current contributors listed in our playbill. As a non-profit professional theatre, individual contributions are crucial to our operating budget. So we set a goal for ourselves to reach 600 donors by May 15th. The good news is, we've reached our goal! We also got some great personal response from donors - you can click here to read the most recent email with some of those responses.

In that email, I also asked all of our supporters to do me a favor.

One of my duties, besides running the theatre, is advocating for the arts in Asheville and on a state-wide basis. As an example, I recently made a presentation to the Asheville HUB on behalf of performing arts groups in town and, most recently, visited our representatives in the NC State Legislature on Arts Day to encourage them to maintain funding for the NC Arts Council.

Every time I make a case for funding the arts, these bodies seem most interested in how much money arts activity generates (which is a lot, by the way). But focusing only on dollars and cents is dangerous: it risks minimizing the intrinsic value of the arts to our community. That’s not cool.

So whether or not you are able to give a gift, I’d like you to share your story in the comments. What does a well-produced play achieve for you and your community? How is it meaningful in these strange times we live in?

When I am out in the community advocating for the arts, I will use these stories to help me illustrate the value of art in our community. (Plus, it will be a shot in the arm for the NCSC staff when they need a little inspiration!)

So I hope you’ll take a few minutes to respond and share your story.

Thanks!
Charlie

So many plays! A Number!...AND...haiku contest!

Wow! These are some great plays, and LOTS of them! I can’t thank everyone enough for taking the time to jot down some of your faves. Turns out, a lot of them are our faves, too! Some are already on our short list, while some others are on a different list because they’ve been performed around here in the last 5 years, etc. You know what I really appreciate is the thoughtfulness of suggesting plays that you think either fit into our space, budget or aesthetic. So many of these suggestions are spot on. At this point, we really have no idea what we’ll be able to choose, get the rights for, etc. but the time is coming when we will need to get out a season announcement. So again, thanks for giving us such a HUGE reading list!

I just started rehearsals for A Number, by Caryl Chuyrchill. I won’t say much about that since we have a guest who will be writing regular, oh what should I call them, not updates, but impressions of the process of working on this play. Dacy is a student at Warren Wilson College and our director, Ron Bashford, is one of her professors. Dacy sat in on the first rehearsal on Monday night and took notes for a series of blog posts we’ve asked her to write. We’ve really given her no instructions on what the posts should be other than her own impressions of the process from someone not involved in the production and someone not really involved in professional theatre.

So here's the first 2 posts of a regular series that I hope you’ll enjoy and feel free to comment upon.

Finally, the LYLAS sketch comedy group wound up their 2009 show at NC Stage this past weekend. I caught it this past Saturday and had a great time. My favorite sketch involved tourists on Segways. Nuff said. Anyway, they gave their curtain speech about turning off cell phones, where the exits are, etc with a series of haikus. I really love haikus.

So I want to announce an unofficial, impromptu haiku contest for our blog readers. Post your best haiku in 3 categories: haiku about NC Stage; haiku in praise of theatre; and haiku about your favorite play you’ve ever seen, anywhere.

I am the sole judge of this contest and there are no prizes as of yet. I will post winning haikus on the NC Stage Facebook page and on the literal wall at the theatre. If they really kick my ass, I’m sure I can come up with a couple of tickets for an upcoming production or maybe a gift card. How about that?

Planning

I won’t say it’s been a quiet week in the office, but we haven’t been in rehearsal or performance for anything or holding some kind of event. A lot of prep work going on for the beginning of rehearsals for A Number on the production side of things and a lot of administrative stuff on the office side of things. Grant season don’t ya know.

Rehearsals for a number start next week, March 23rd. During the rehearsal and performance period, we will have a guest blogger from the Warren Wilson College Creative Writing program to come in and write about her perceptions of the process.

Elizabeth Dacy is in her second year at Warren Wilson College, where she plans to major in Creative Writing and minor in Theatre.  Elizabeth recently did the sound design for Thom Pain (based on nothing) and works on the Theatre Crew, one of the many that are part of the college's distinctive work program.

Elizabeth has agreed to be our guest observer and intrepid blog host over the next month or so as we produce and perform Caryl Churchill's harrowing and fascinating play, A Number. She'll be attending some rehearsals and meetings, and arranging blog posts by the folks working on the production. Welcome Elizabeth!

One of the biggest things Angie and I are doing right now is planning for next season. Although there is a lot of number crunching and prognosticating to do about the economy for the next year, still, one of the best parts of the process is choosing plays. There are many reasons for doing or not doing a play, cast size, budget, housing for out of town actors if we need it, set size, do we like the play, etc., but we always start out thinking about it as if none of those things mattered. What if we could do whatever we wanted?

So, with that in mind, I want to hear from you. What’s your favorite play and why? This isn’t a contest or anything. I’m just asking what you think. Several of our most successful productions, artistically and attendance wise, were suggested by patrons who get what we do.

So let’s hear it. Can’t wait to see what’s out there!

Welcome!

Hi! You've reached the new NC Stage blog. As the header hints at, this is a loose format blog of things I find interesting and I'm thinking you might too. We'll put stuff up about upcoming productions at NC Stage, we'll post reviews, (if we like them), links to podcasts and video, (oh yes, we have that kind of stuff. great podcasts coming up of discussions with the directors of our productions) and just stuff I think is interesting. I'll be inviting guests to post short articles as well. I've already got a special guest who is a volunteer for NC Stage, and I can't wait to read her post.

So check it out, recommend it to friends, subscribe to the feed, put it in your google reader, make comments! We'd love to hear from you! Also, if you have an idea for a guest post, let me know.