The Plowshares Theatre Company is in Detroit. They’re dedicated to African-American Theatre, and do good work.

Sadly, there was a fire a couple of days ago that just decimated their holdings – 90% of props, furniture, costumes and the like were destroyed.

For a not-for-profit theatre company, this can be devastating. www.plowshares.org is their website, if you’d like to go and investigate. Feel free to send a small donation, it would be greatly appreciated.

Try this!

You are Deep Space Nine. You goth, you.

What Star Trek are you?
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I can live with that!

So I’m playing the bachelor again until Thursday, when the family comes home.

Between now and then is an action-packed couple of days, though;
Mowing the lawn, meeting some EMU students for a project, a Williamston Theatre Project meeting, getting flights for Jeanne and I to go to NYC, teeth cleaning appointment, casting/scheduling the short show WTP is putting up in July, playing Xbox live with some friends, preparing for WTP event in Williamston on Saturday, and then Thursday going to Columbus OH to see the sneak peek of the movie SERENITY!

Yep, Jeanne and I are going to NYC for a visit and to see a couple of shows. Looking forward to it, haven’t been there in a while. Staying at a nice B&B, looking forward to a nice few days with my lovely wife! AND the kids are looking forward to a few days with Grandpa and Grandma, so it all works out!

The Williamston Theatre Project got a very nice donation of Lighting Equipment from a fantastic source!

Not sure how much I’m allowed to talk about it yet – but it’s freakin’ fabulous, and going to help us immensely!

Hooray!!

Many, many thanks to those who made it happen and who, for right now, shall remain anonymous!

“It is not enough to move through the world, you must change it to suit your expectation.” – Baz Luhrmann

How come nobody introduced me to Nikka Costa’s music before?! Dammit! This rocks! Now I’m gonna have to buy her other album, too!

This is interesting:
American Poll on Attitudes About Movies

As someone who is preparing to open a theatre where we’ll have a much smaller target audience, how closely do we take these results and apply them to live theatre? (By ‘smaller target audience’ I mean the percentage of Americans who attend live theatre -vs- the percentage that attend or rent movies, coupled with the obvious fact that our play is done in one place, not cineplexes all over the country.)

One of the most important questions for me is this:

What is your favorite type of movie to watch? Would you say..
_Comedy, 27 percent
_Drama, 19 percent
_Action/adventure, 17 percent
_Family, 9 percent
_Science Fiction, 6 percent
_Westerns, 5 percent
_Musicals, 4 percent
_Horror, 3 percent
_War movies, 2 percent
_Something else, 7 percent
_Not sure, 1 percent

(Now, the answers are clearly different for live theatre, since Musicals would rank much higher, and the amount of Sci-Fi plays that get done is sadly small! I’ve not yet found a recent poll for live theatre, anyone seen one?)

However, it surely seems like comedy leads the pack in films, with drama 8 percentage points behind. In Live Theatre, Musicals, one would suppose, would be in the top 3? So it would seem that a nice mix of comedy, drama and musicals SHOULD be an appealing draw. In a 5 show season, 2 Comedies, 1 Fun Musical, 2 Dramas? Possibly a nice mix for an established company with a 5 show season. However, if you’re attempting to build an audience? Hmmm…the rules change, I think. I think you need to get butts in seats and get people to trust you, to feel a part of the place, to want to make coming to your theatre a habit. I think you lean more heavily on Comedy, Warm Comedy with heart (Heart, IE: an emotional connection with the audience, enough to move them, but not so angst ridden or pervasive in the script that it overpowers the comedy). Then, when your audiences TRUST you, I think you mix in the heavier stuff, and you do it without preaching or teaching, you do it to MOVE them, and if you give them something to think about on the way home, or to talk about at the bar afterward, I think you’ve done your job.

Oh, there’s much more to be discussed on this point. But that’s it for now.
Anybody out there got any thoughts?

Good morning. Jeanne and the kids are on vacation for a couple of days, so the house is uncomfortably quiet again.
I never sleep well when they’re not home – is that weird?
They’ll be home tomorrow, though, and I’ll get the big hugs and kisses!
Some yard work to be done while they’re gone, mowing…I love the smell of our lawn when it’s been mowed.
Sitting with the smell of freshly cut grass, the leaves blowing in our many big trees, very relaxing, and fulfilling.
There’s something very comforting about looking around at a yard I’ve just mowed, smelling the grass, seeing the uniform lines,
it’s a very homey, Dad-ish, providing, routine thing that, in many ways, helps me to come back to what’s important.
Seems silly, somehow, when we’re all struggling to keep the bills paid and manage life, but trust me,
walking through a lawn you’ve just cut is a tonic for what ails ‘ya!

Okay, I’m having a hard time making my first LJ Poll work properly…let’s try this again!
EDIT ADDED LATER IN THE DAY: OKAY, I FOUND OUT THE PROBLEM PEOPLE WERE HAVING – TO VOTE, YOU MUST BE LOGGED IN, WHICH MEANS THOSE OF YOU WITHOUT LIVEJOURNAL ACCOUNTS SHOULD SIGN UP FOR A FREE ONE, AND LOG IN TO VOTE. DO THIS ANYWAY, THEN WE CAN ALL KEEP TRACK OF WHO’S COMMENTING WHAT! SOON, IT MAY BE IMPOSSIBLE TO COMMENT WITHOUT LOGGING IN. SO, SIGN UP, LOG IN AND VOTE/COMMENT YOUR HEARTS OUT! START YOUR OWN JOURNAL!!

With Michael Jackson being found innocent of all charges, I’m wondering what everyone thinks…

Our First Reading in Williamston! Click Here for more information!