Well, we’re at our closing weekend for Additional Particulars at Williamston Theatre.

It’s been a good run. A critical success, the show also got overwhelmingly positive response from audiences, which was very nice. Being a new company, however, we’re still working to build our audience.

I had this fantasy – build it, put as many seats in as possible (which right now is 86), and open a show. Then 86 people a night would come and see the show.

Well, of course that didn’t happen. And I knew it wouldn’t, but we’re all allowed our fantasies, right? (I mean, I’ve got this one about Amanda Tapping from Stargate that…well, nevermind.)

Still, people came. People who wanted to see a play. People who wanted to see our play, in our theatre. And we made enough money to pay the actors and crew – we had enough people come and pay that we’re still in business! In today’s world, in Michigans worst-in-the-country economy, I think that’s saying something.

Like most theatres, Friday night and Saturday night were big sellers. Then, for us, Thursday night (it’s the cheapest ticket) was the next on the list in terms of attendance. Saturday and Sunday matinees were, surprisingly, the poorest sellers. So, it looks like that’s where we’ll be focusing our group sales efforts for the next couple of shows.

We’ve announced our 2006/2007 Season! Some very funny, very warm comedies. Well, except for Every Christmas Story Ever Told, which has some warmth but more silliness than anything!

I’ll be directing most of the season, because we can’t really afford to pay another director yet! Still, there’s no way I can do all of them (for my own sanity, and I don’t think it’s a good idea for the company.) Ideally in the future I’ll direct about 1/2 of our season, and have guest directors do the rest. We do have a guest director coming in for Music From A Sparkling Planet, which is one of the scripts that I love. SO, it was interesting, in my first year as Artistic Director, to take a script that I love and give it to somebody else! A good reminder of how this job works. A wonderful actor/director/person named Suzi Regan is currently slated to direct that show. (There’s a chance that schedules may change and prevent this from happening, we’re hoping not. We’ll see!)

So – we close this show on Sunday. It’s been a good couple of months. Preliminary work has begun already on the next one, Rounding Third, and we’ll launch into Production Meetings next week. We’ll spend this little bit of down time doing some fundraising, working on the building and resources, and gearing up for the non-stop adventure that will be our first full season!

Our first Full Season!

I can’t wait!