Another fabulous review for a fabulous show. Check it out. The review and the show!

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StarExponent.com - The Culpeper Star Exponent | <b><font color="cc0000">REVIEW</font></b> 'The Compl

An interesting article on using some of the Information Management packages for not-for-profit theatres. Sure there's a need, but as the article points out, these things are developed for the guys with big budgets and not those who struggle day to day to keep the doors open. Someone could make a small fortune if they could hit that market.

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PerformInk Online

Today we began planning for the annual transition of bringing in new company members at Wayside Theatre. Each spring we bring in between 6 and 10 new interns and there is also staff turnover. This year the staff turnover is larger than it has been in the last four seasons. We've got some exciting talent coming in and are sad to see some talented individuals move on who have made significant contributions to the great work we do.

The hardest part is for those of us who stay on and move through the transition as we muster the patience to allow the new folk to make their mark and change our dynamic. Always an exciting and anxious time.

A fabulous review out this morning from The Winchester Star for The Complete History of America, Abridged and well deserved! Audiences so far are in hysterics and complaining of laughing too much!

Some quotes:

"Off the charts, over the top, on the edge..."

"For those who want to laugh uproariously at funny material, then run don't walk to Wayside for this fast-paced, zany play"

"riotious guffaws"

Here's a link to the entire review.

The Winchester Star

Fascinating look at our audiion process at Wayside Theatre.

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The Winchester Star

Well, the first preview performance of Complete History of America, Abridged was a smashing success. The audience loved it and didn't want to let the actors leave the stage. Bravo to John, J.J. and Ray. Great job. We've got another one in a few hours so back to tweaking.

For those who follow this blog from a Tablet PC or computing front, a preview performance is like our beta test of the show in front of a paying audience. We guage what works and what doesn't and then tweak the show for the next perfomance. The big difference, the bug reports are swift and brutal. If a joke falls flat, you know it right away.

It is such a relief to know you're on the right track after weeks of work.

Ok, rehearsals are over and now it's time for the audience. The Complete History of America, Abridged begins previews today. Get ready to laugh.

Beginning this Saturday, April 2, the comedy begins with The Complete History of America, Abridged. It's the entire history of this country from Columbus's discovery to present day, told by three zany actors in 90 minutes. You'll laugh and laugh some more so come on down for this comic delight.

Tonight brings to a special show to a close. Of course we like to think that every show we do at Wayside Theatre is special, but some shows, some casts and some theatre experiences will just live on in memory with a special meaning. Hank Williams: Lost Highway is one of those shows.

My special thanks and a long standing ovation goes out to Doug, Clay, Steve, Dave, Anna Marie, Faith, Katie, Richard, Elliott and especially Robbie. They became a remarkable family and the lives they touched with this show was a truly magical thing to behold.

Bravo!

I peeked in on rehearsal for The Complete History of America, Abridged earlier today. Get ready to laugh unitl body parts start to hurt or fall off. The cast is hysterical. It opens next week.

Hank Williams: Lost Highway has one more weekend left in its run. We're sold out for this weekend and almost for the final one. Hope you get a chance to see it if you haven't already. My thanks to a fabulous cast and production team for such a successful run.

The almost sold out run of Hank Williams: Lost Highway has just a couple of more weeks left in its standing ovation every night run. So what's up next at Wayside Theatre? More comedy than you can throw a history book at.

The Complete History of America, Abridged begins its run on April 2 and its one of the funniest looks at American history you can imagine. Three men telling the entire history in 90 minutes. Make sure you plan to check it out.

Ok, we're done. In more ways then one. This conference can really drag you down with the workload. We interviewed and called back over 100 folk in three days which on the surface may not sound like much but when you have to really communicate with them and get to know their story and tell them yours in a brief span of time it wears you down.

All in all I'm pleased with how we are leaving the conference today. We've got some options for every position we need to fill and that is all you can hope for at this point. I'll start making some offers this week and we'll see how well we did in a couple of weeks.

My favorite line in response to a question:

What makes you interested in stage managing?

I like paperclips and post-it-notes.

That will go far.

Onward and upward.

Day 2 is done. Better quality folk today. Good in depth conversations. Basically a more mature crop of folks to deal with which is promising. One more day to go.

Ok, Day 1 is over. Thank goodness. Met and interviewed quite a few interesting candidates today. Also met and interviewed quite a few clueless people today. It amazes me the number of folks who have too much of an opinion of their talents and their place in the world. Now don't get me wrong here, I'm not setting myself or my theatre up as any great shakes here, but I do recoginzie who we are and when we are good and when we are bad, when we are on target and when we are off. Some of these folks think they are much too good to work with anyone, much less tiny little Wayside Theatre. Good luck to them.

More of the same tomorrow, we'll see how it goes.

We're here in Greensboro, NC for the Southeastern Theatre Conference, just returned back to the hotel after dinner. Got things set up for the auditions which begin tomorrow. Should be chaotic. Always is. Through this many theatre people in the same convention center and watch out for chaos, in which folks are trying to be hired and folks are trying to hire. I doubt I'll have much time to add other entries this weekend as we go literally from early morn to midnight and sometimes beyond, but we'll see.

Hold on to your hats.

Ok, we here at Wayside Theatre are about 60?% through the casting season. We've seen about 1200 actors/designers/technicans so far at several auditions and still have two more active rounds to go.

This week we head off to the SETC (Southeastern Theatre Conference) which is a monster. Not only will we see about 800 actors and about 300-400 designer/techs, but the conference is much larger than just the professional auditions. There are divisions for Professional, Academic, (both college and high school) and Community Theatres. We'll all assemble in Greensboro, NC beginnin Wednesday night and go through a bit of organized chaos through Sunday.

If you're there, check us out.

Hank Williams: Lost Highway continues going strong after a wonderful opening and great reviews. Audiences are loving the show giving a standing ovation after every performance. Tickets are selling fast and the cast is doing a splendid job of growing with the show. I hope you get a chance to see this one. It is special. I've added show shots to the photo blog so check them out.

It has been awhile since I've posted here and I'm not only sorry but I've missed doing so. Things have been hectic as we conducted auditions at the UPTA conference in Memphis earlier this month seeing over 200 actors a day and calling back over 100 to interview and audition further. We've got offers out now to quite a few folks and are playing the waiting game.

Following the conference we headed to Florida for a breif vacation with my wife's family and had a great time. Two days of beautiful weather and one day of so so weather so we can't complain. But it was great to hang out with everyone and enjoy being around super nephew Joey. I've posted some pictures of that trip in the photo section if you want to check them out. Hopefully you will.

There's a lot of tablet new lately and I'll post some more about that here soon. Hopefully I'll get back into the rhythm of things soon.

Ok, we are half way through the first day of UPTA's in Memphis. We'll see around 1000 actors and interview and work with about 200 of those in trying to cast the season. The morning started slow and now I'm waiting to start callbacks in a half hour or so. We'll see what turns up. Good to see many colleagues and intriguingly a lot of new faces on the producer side of the table.