INSIDE THIS ISSUE

1   IT’S A HIT!

1   CHAIRMAN’S LETTER

3   SETTING THE STAGE

3   SOLILIQUEY

4   CAST YOUR VOTE

5   REMEMBERING SCOTTY COX

5   COMING SOON

5   MEETING SCHEDULE

5   ANNOUNCEMENTS

6   MEETING MINUTES

6   NOTES FROM THE EDITOR 

"Although one may fail to find happiness in theatrical life, one never wishes to give it up after having once tasted its fruits."

Anna Pavola 

It’s a Hit!

By Deb Smith    

                                                                                    

Our new production, MAYBE-MAYBE NOT, written by TLP veteran Lloyd Lowery, is a comical yet romantic look at a newly divorced man trying to break into the dating scene again. Unfortunately, his wild older brother gives him some bad advice and his first date turns into a disaster. But, through it all, our hero remains true to himself and his own value system becomes the advice he finally heeds, getting him the girl and the respect he deserves. Bill Simpson is our hero- you may remember him from THE SECOND TIME AROUND last season. Bill definitely has the “neurotic” about him, making him perfect for Douglas. His sleazy ex-wife is joyfully played by newcomer (to the stage, not the playhouse), Denise Jones. The teenage daughter, Mickey, is played by newcomer Kelsea Jacobs. Kelsea appears very comfortable on stage and will hopefully continue auditioning for the playhouse. Our other newcomer, Aimee Hankins, plays Douglas’ new girlfriend, Tiffany, with gusto and heart. Again, we hope to see her at future auditions! The wild older brother is played by W.W. McElrath (who better?) and he’s about as wild as we care to see on our little stage! Douglas’ mother, Sue Howe, is a real treat- she has the nag down to a T. If you didn’t get a chance to see it, this is the last weekend (closes April 13^th). Come and tell all your friends! It’s funny and I guarantee you’ll get a laugh or two.

 

Letter from Your Chairman

By Anne Johnson-Loftis

WEB SITES

Used properly, the 'Net is a great place to market our theater, even locally. After all, nearly every newspaper, radio station and television station has a web page these days... with links to events and organizations in their area. Chambers of Commerce are big on having local theater and arts organizations listed on their websites, because it makes the local area attractive to business. The same goes for local, county and state-wide development organizations.

Additionally, more and more people are turning to the web to help them make entertainment plans. Our local movie theaters are selling advance tickets online. It's time our theater was out there.

What about design?

If we have someone with a background in designing for the web, we use them... otherwise, if our designer leaves us ;-) we might need to see if a local designer might donate some work on templates and design in return for some program ads. Or talk to the high school or vo-tech to see if they are looking for projects for their web and graphic design courses.

One thing to keep in mind, no matter which way we go on design... make sure the site is easy to update and stays updated. There's no point to putting up a website and promoting it if it lists last year’s shows.

What should be on the site?

As a minimum, we should include a list of the current season with show dates, audition notices, information on membership, tickets and any season or patron ticket program, directions and an email address for more information, making sure the current season information is very prominent.

If possible, it would be great if patrons can arrange to purchase tickets online, with a credit card through a secure server if possible, but otherwise by an email contact, allowing a follow up call from your ticketing operation.

A more ambitious website will include a history of the organization, photos, cast lists, information on the board of directors or trustees, perhaps even some "how do we do it" type pieces to entice new members.

One other thing: make sure the site is easy to read. Keep the contrast between background colors or graphics and foreground text as high as possible. There's nothing worse than arriving at a website and being unable to read the information because someone decided to put blue text on a black background.

Are there any good sites out there we should look at?

Another subjective subject, but yes. I've put together a list of community theater sites that do the job very effectively. This is by no means a complete list.

• Marshalltown Community Theatre - aside from the fades from page to page, I like this site... plenty of good information in a very readable design.  If you like fades use 'em.
• Haddonfield Plays and Players - all the information you need, right up front. Nice use of frames.
• Orange Park Community Theater
• RCT (Repertory Company Theatre)
• Tallahassee Little Theatre
• Walpole Footlighters
• Theatre 7 - all the essentials and then some, right up front. All they need now is their own URL. Nice design, too.

Some Final Thoughts

Remember, the website is selling our group and our shows... make it fun and exciting and easy to use. Don't focus too hard on administration or membership information... you should have that, but don't put it on the front page... use the front page to sell your next show.

The best part of the World Wide Web is its immediacy... if you keep your website up-to-date, you're pretty much guaranteed repeat traffic, and repeat traffic builds loyal patrons.

Be sure that the email link goes to an address that's checked regularly. You aren't going to be able to cover all the information people want, no matter how good a website you have. Email is another marketing tool, provided you use it wisely. Don't collect email addresses and spam people, but use email to answer questions and encourage people to come to the theater. Keep it personal.

 

Setting the Stage

By John Eberhard

Learning Lines       

There are two general guidelines pertaining to learning lines for a play:  1) learn them as quickly as possible, and 2) learn them as written, as nearly exactly as possible.

Let us explore "as quickly as possible." The goal for many novice actors is to have their lines by performance. The experienced actor knows that you cannot fully act with a book in your hand; performance is not the time to begin fully acting.

Holding a book in hand interferes with your ability to gain familiarity with both small and large props. With a book in your hand, you cannot do something as simple as put your hand in your pocket. You can’t easily hold a glass in one hand and pour from a bottle with the other. Not only does the book interfere with your use of props, but it negatively impacts the timing of your business.

If you are observing the action on stage rather than peering into a script, not only can you interact and react better, but you can also create from what you see happening on stage: you can function within the "world of illusion." Being "bookless" enables you to establish looks, gestures, touches, business, familiarity with props and set pieces. Compare a one armed-man with a two-armed man; consider how much more, and with how much ease, the two-armed man can accomplish.

Why should we learn the lines as close to as written as possible, instead of just getting the gist of them and ad- libbing? You must remember that your lines are the cues for your fellow actors. You don’t know what specific word in your line will be used as the trigger for the next line by your contemporary. Further, some people regard a play as a work of art; changing the words is tantamount to drawing a moustache on the Mona Lisa. As Edward Albee states in the preface of A Delicate Balance, "In the event any changes are made in the Play from the scripts made available, the production license shall become null and void, and any presentation of the Play by the licensee containing any variation from the scripts furnished for the presentation of the Play hereunder shall constitute an infringement of the copyright of the Play."

Your Director will set a time for books down. That is not the date for you to put your books down for the first time and to stumble through your lines. Books down date should be when you have your lines cold, if not sooner. Remember: you cannot begin to polish a show before books are down.  Get rid of your crutch!

Next Newsletter we will move from the "when" and the "why" of line memorization to the "how."

Soliloquy

By Dave Beauchamp

Remembrance and Respect

As we are all now aware, the curtain has closed on Mary Jane McVea. The loss of this venerable mainstay is an event that has affected us all in varying degrees and will be felt for quite some time.  We all have our Mary Jane stories, many of which we shared at the memorial that was held for her last month. As I listened to the tributes which described this feisty and fiery five foot tall giant’s life, I also heard the lessons she strove to impart to all of those she touched.

Hard work, discipline, and dedication to the task at hand were principles that Mary Jane exemplified. She understood that just because a word might be harsh it did not mean that it was untrue. This lesson is one that we can all continue to learn. We, the membership, are very proud of what we have accomplished over the years, as we should be. However, this does not mean that we should be content to rest on our laurels. We can still do more and do better. If complacency is allowed to take hold with respect to how we manage any aspect of what we do (be it slate selection, the function of any committee, performing, etc.) then I fear that we will not make it another thirty-five years. We can raise the bar, demand more from ourselves, and strive for greater accomplishments. I suspect that we will be able to realize greater things in the future and continue to grow and give back to the community that has supported us over the years. But I also think that, in order to achieve these goals, we are going to have to evolve beyond the fears of doing the occasional show that offend with its material. We need to continue to actively recruit younger members into our fold.

Mary Jane was a good friend and a great mentor. She always wanted to see the best possible achievements for the Playhouse. For those of us who considered her a friend, the best that we can do to honor her memory is to ensure that TLP continues to put forth the highest quality productions and never settles for the easy path. Thanks MJ.

Take it easy,

Dave

 

Cast Your Vote            

Following is an excerpt from an email sent to me by one of our members. It is directed toward women’s rights and their struggle to obtain the vote but it should inspire everyone who reads it that it is a necessary and dutiful right and privilege to cast your vote in the November elections.           

“We tend to forget the horror of the women's suffrage movement as we move into the future, especially the young, who may never have been exposed to the history. But we must never forget the violence women had to endure to obtain the basic right to vote and the toll it took. One woman not mentioned that died for the cause was Inez Milholland Boissevain.  Her picture hangs on my wall, a constant reminder of the sacrifice.  

A short history lesson on the privilege of voting... The women were innocent and defenseless. And by the end of the night, they were barely alive. Forty prison guards wielding clubs and their warden's blessing went on a rampage against the 33 women wrongly convicted of "obstructing sidewalk traffic." They beat Lucy Burn, chained her hands to the cell bars above her head and left her hanging for the night, bleeding and gasping for air. They hurled Dora Lewis into a dark cell, smashed her head against an iron bed and knocked her out cold. Her cellmate, Alice Cosu, thought Lewis was dead and suffered a heart attack. Additional affidavits describe the guards grabbing, dragging, beating, choking, slamming, pinching, twisting and kicking the women. Thus unfolded the "Night of Terror" on Nov. 15, 1917, when the warden at the Occoquan Workhouse in Virginia ordered his guards to teach a lesson to the suffragists imprisoned there because they dared to picket Woodrow Wilson's White House for the right to vote. For weeks, the women's only water came from an open pail. Their food--all of it colorless slop--was infested with worms. When one of the leaders, Alice Paul, embarked on a hunger strike, they tied her to a chair, forced a tube down her throat and poured liquid into her until she vomited. She was tortured like this for weeks until word was smuggled out to the press. So, refresh my memory. Some women won't vote this year because--why, exactly? We have carpool duties? We have to get to work? Our vote doesn't matter? It's raining?

Last week, I went to a sparsely attended screening of HBO's movie "Iron Jawed Angels."  It is a graphic depiction of the battle these women waged so that I could pull the curtain at the polling booth and have my say. I am ashamed to say I needed the reminder. All these years later, voter registration is still my passion. But the actual act of voting had become less personal for me, more rote. Frankly, voting often felt more like an obligation than a privilege. Sometimes it was inconvenient. My friend Wendy, who is my age and studied women's history, saw the HBO movie, too. When she stopped by my desk to talk about it, she looked angry.  She was--with herself. "One thought kept coming back to me as I watched that movie," she said. "What would those women think of the way I use--or don't use--my right to vote? All of us take it for granted now, not just younger women, but those of us who did seek to learn." The right to vote, she said, had become valuable to her "all over again." HBO will run the movie periodically before releasing it on video and DVD. I wish all history, social studies and government teachers would include the movie in their curriculum. I want it shown on Bunko night, too, and anywhere else women gather. I realize this isn't our usual idea of socializing, but we are not voting in the numbers that we should be, and I think a little shock therapy is in order. It is jarring to watch Woodrow Wilson and his cronies try to persuade a psychiatrist to declare Alice Paul insane so that she could be permanently institutionalized. And it is inspiring to watch the doctor refuse.  Alice Paul was strong, he said, and brave. That didn't make her crazy. The doctor admonished the men: "Courage in women is often mistaken for insanity." We need to get out and vote and use this right that was fought so hard for by these very courageous women.”                                                                                                                    

Remembering Scotty Cox

By Marjorie Rock

 

Scotty Cox was in the play “Walking On the Moon” in 2002 or 2003. He played a crazy psychiatrist in the show and he was perfect. I think we all fell in love with him then. He was having trouble remembering his lines as the psychiatrist and so we gave him a paper with the lines on it and he would put it on his lap and try to read it.  Even then it was hard for him and somehow the audience (and the cast) loved it!! He loved the Twin Lakes Playhouse and was quite active. He appeared in some other shows, as well, always displaying the twinkle in his eye, and his zest for being on stage. He was always active, wanting to help where he could. He and his friend Bobby would go around to nursing homes and entertain.  Scotty also arranged to have some money brought into the Playhouse through a telephone fund raiser.  Scotty had a great heart and will be missed.

 

                  

 

 

WIT, directed by Marge Rock, with co-director Jill Chandler, will open May 29^th and run Thursday – Sunday and closing June 15^th. The cast includes: Rose Mary Sullivan as Vivian Bearing, Ph.D; Lloyd Lowery as Dr. Harvey Kelekian and Mr. Bearing; Ryan Kelley as Jason Posner, MD Clinical Fellow; Patty Brown as Susie Monahan, BSN RN; Bonnie Mae Tucker as Professor EM Ashford (Debby Stanuch will understudy this role); Dillion Mincey, Kelsea Jacobs, Erica Nicole Trigg, and Cheyenne Griffin will be Technicians, Code Team, Students and Clinicians. Lighting Design will be done by W.W. McElrath and Dillion Mincey and Lighting by W.W. McElrath; and Cindy Young will support during rehearsals.