Vacation...

...is approaching! One of the perks about working for a children's theatre is that when the schools go on break, so do we (for the most part). Of course, throughout the next ten days or so, members of the staff will be stopping in to take care of things around the office, to return phone calls and faxes, to send out invoices, collect data, make plans, etc.

Our holiday party last Friday was a great time. We all went to Ambience, where the entire staff got manicures and pedicures--including all the guys who have never had anyone touch their toes, let alone everything else that comes with a pedicure. We brought our own food and were sure to share all our goodies with the Ambience staff, who had a good time as well.

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The name of the game right now at TCTC: Reflect and Prepare.

We're looking back on the year in these final days of 2009, which was (truth be told) not the best year for us financially. Thanks to our generous supporters and donors, we were able to stay in the black, but as we make plans for 2010, we are exploring new methods of publicizing, selling, and creating our shows. It's all about making everything better in the new year.

This does not mean the year was all negative--far from it. We had a successful STAR program in the summer, with one of the largest and most talented "senior" classes in years. Beauty and the Beast, Jr., was a huge smash hit, and Holiday Follies did much better than anyone anticipated, with an original script and ambitious production goals. (How many shows include a bus that splits open down the middle? or Santa's sleigh careening in front of said bus during a snowstorm? or Frosty the Snowman talking into a cell phone?)

As we look forward to the second half of our 2009-2010 season, we feel excitement for Jack and the Beanstalk, which is currently leading all four shows as the best-selling, and Tom Sawyer, perhaps the most literary show we've done in a while. Playwright Kelly G. has adapted the old TCTC Sawyer script for this updated version, which retains Mark Twain's original narration and dialogue.

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That's it for now. Happy holidays from TCTC, and we'll see you again in the New Year!

In the New Year...

...here is what's on our calendar for January (a busy, busy month):

- Jan. 5 - ArtReach returns to rehearsals for Harriet Tubman and the Train to Freedom and Hansel & Gretel, which tour from Jan. 25 - May 30, 2010. If you are interested in booking an ArtReach show to come to your school, community center or theatre, please contact Jen Scott, Business Manager for ArtReach, at 513.569.8080 x21 or Jen.Scott@thechildrenstheatre.com.

- Jan. 23 - STAR auditions for the 2010 summer program, training kids 9-18 in singing, dance and acting. If you would like to schedule an audition for your child, please contact Chris Stewart at 513.569.8080 x23 or Chris.Stewart@thechildrenstheatre.com.

- Jan. 25 - Jack and the Beanstalk rehearsals begin. This is currently the best-selling show of the 2009-2010 TCTC season, and seats are going fast! Please click on the link to purchase tickets for the public shows, and to find out how to bring a class to our school shows, please take a look at our discounts for school matinees.

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Holiday Follies wrapped up nicely with an eventful Sunday matinee. "Eventful," because of the hilarious prank pulled just before the finale by our Artistic Director, Jack Louiso.

During that scene, Bob Herzog (as publicist and idea man Ted Tastic) gave a pre-show speech mostly comprised of shout-outs to our sponsors, ad libs, and spoofs of Jack's pre-show speeches. Jack is of course well-known for saying before every TCTC performance:

"Children, let's use these--" he points to his ears "--not this--" he points to his mouth. "These, not this. Please don't whoop and holler. This is not a circus or a sporting event. This is the theatre. Your neighbors didn't come to hear you talk, they came to hear us talk. If you want to come up here with us, you can come to our auditions in August."

What Bob added to the end of that speech every time he parodied it was, "You know what? Forget about that. Go crazy everyone, enjoy the show!"

The prank: Jack waited just behind the curtain while Bob did the talk. Jack was dressed in the costume of yours truly, a black tux with red bow tie and silver sequin vest. And when Bob got to the line about using these but not this, Jack came out of the curtain, right behind Bob, who continued talking for a good half-minute before realizing he had a visitor. The cast watched on the backstage monitors as Bob saw Jack and stopped talking, frozen in shock. We could only imagine what was going through Bob's mind, but we can say for sure that the effect--not to mention the look on Bob's face--was priceless.

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That's a little bit of feel-good holiday fun from The Children's Theatre. With our holiday party coming up this weekend, we're all gearing up for even more fun times, soon to come.

Happy holidays, everyone!

STAR Auditions...

...will be held on January 23, 2010, a Saturday. Times are from 10:00am until 4:00pm. Of a total 110 slots or so, already 63 have been taken--and I say "already" because I only started taking reservations on Monday.

So: Parents and potential STARs, please give me a call at 513.569.8080 x23, or email me at chris.stewart@thechildrenstheatre.com, to schedule an appointment. Times are going fast. There are more slots open in the afternoon than in the morning, so check your schedules!

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I thought it would be a cool bit of market research if I tallied up some statistics and put them online for the world to see. I was curious as to how many STAR kids want to come back for another year, and how many new folks are we attracting? So I took a close look at my spreadsheet and here are the figures I found:

63 time slots are taken.

34 have done STAR before.

29 have never done STAR.

Of those who are returnees, 22 are girls, and 12 are boys.

Of those who are new, 21 are girls, and 8 are boys.

Most of the returnees are between ages 9-13, and the same is true of the new folks.

Of new kids and returnees, there are only 12 total who are 14 or older.

Now, this research tells me a number of things. First, not everyone has signed up for a slot yet. Second, the reason most of the children who are already signed up are younger is that their parents are scheduling it, and parents tend to be more proactive about this sort of thing than, say, teenagers (who stereotypically want to do things on their own but who also tend to procrastinate). Third, almost a dozen older STAR kids from the 2009 summer will graduate in 2010, leaving them ineligible for STAR enrollment; in other words, we're losing a lot of STAR veterans, opening the door for the younger children to step up.

Further, I am told there is a list of families for whom we have only phone numbers, and no email addresses. This nugget of information got me curious about another aspect of this process, and that is: Are more people emailing to schedule, or are they calling?

48 parents emailed.

23 parents called.

2 teenagers emailed.

There seems to be a discrepancy, right? If 63 slots are taken, how come the numbers come out to 73 appointments? Well, a lot of parents called and then emailed (or vice versa) to ensure their child got a chance to audition. Also, some of the parents who emailed simply asked if their 4-year-old or 8-year-old is eligible for the program; sadly, they are not. STAR kids must be 9 years old by the start of the program in July.

The modified numbers, then, are:

43 parents emailed.

18 parents called.

2 teenagers emailed.

So what have we learned? Essentially, two-thirds of parents will email rather than call to make an appointment, and I expect over the next few days to receive the same ratio of emails to phone calls. If and when I get requests from teenagers themselves, I expect most of them will be in electronic (rather than phonic) form, too.

One final note, by way of encouragement: Tickets are still available for Holiday Follies, which opens tomorrow, and the Breakfast with Santa ($40 for the meal and the show)!

And one final statistic about STAR auditions, too:

30 slots left.

Thanksgiving Break...

...is this week! We only have two more nights of rehearsal before we break for the four-day vacation. As we make our travel plans, looking forward to seeing family members and eating family meals, we realize with excitement (or slight nervousness?) that we are suddenly very close to Opening Day.

Holiday Follies opens on Dec. 4. We move into the Taft Theatre on the previous Monday and Tuesday, starting in one week. That's not much time.

As always, we'll be ready in time. The big mystery with every production is how we will get there.

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I imagine most of the children in the show are just happy to have a long break from school. I know I was, when I was their age. Thanksgiving Break was always a thing to look forward to, a chance to catch up--not just on homework or hobbies, but to catch up with family and friends, too--and relax, almost a full week of playing outside while the weather was still warm enough that you could get away with wearing a jacket; of raking, piling, and demolishing a mound of scratchy (but somehow very soft) ground-colored leaves; of relishing this first taste of the longer, winter vacation to come...the freedom, the food, the fun. It was the signal to begin thinking about the holiday season.

Now, as a grown-up actor working for a children's theatre, I find myself drifting in waves of nostalgia, more and more every day. One of the most observed perks of working with and for children is that you can remain in-touch with that "inner child," and it is a connection we are all happy to have.

I think of folks like Leo, who plays our Santa Claus, how he's always chuckling and playing at rehearsal. Or Bob, who plays the idea-crazy Ted Tastic in Holiday Follies, who does something different and hilarious at every rehearsal. Or Leslie, who plays the Stage Mother, who is always seen giving gifts or sharing home-prepared snacks. With people like this, it's no wonder The Children's Theatre is able to employ the same actors over and over, year after year, show upon show.

There are some good folks that work here. I'm proud to be a part of such a fun, and fun-loving, group.

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Before I finish this post, I want to re-invite all you readers to buy tickets to our shows. Tickets for Follies continue to sell, and we are grateful for your support. Please consider also the Breakfast with Santa on Dec. 12, where we will be serving breakfast/brunch, raffling off wonderful gift options, and having a fun holiday celebration!

Thank you again for your patronage of The Children's Theatre of Cincinnati, and have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Props...

...are beginning to appear in Holiday Follies rehearsals. As a result, the dance numbers are coming together nicely. We have all the paddles for the "Twelve Days of Christmas" number (these paddles, by the way, are crucial for a bit of audience participation) and nearly all the cell phones for the cell phone number (an original song by the incomparable Steve Goers).

It's very exciting.

Especially when rehearsing original plays like Follies, it takes longer for the cast to get a "feel" for the flow of the show--that is, we have to rehearse for more time before we realize just what story it is we are telling. With a pre-existing show, like Beauty and the Beast, a quick watch of the animated movie can give you a pretty good idea of what the show will be like. But when no one has ever done the play before, the only way to get that idea in your head is to rehearse. And rehearse. And, you guessed it, rehearse.

So when costume pieces and props come into the picture, it makes everything more real, concrete. It's the difference between walking in a dark room pretending to have a flashlight and actually having a flashlight.

--

As for me personally, these props are a welcome addition. I'm one of those actors who needs to physicalize my character--in other words, I commit much of my performance to muscle memory--and going through the motions of dialing a cell phone, or throwing a scarf, or signing clipboards, presents a new kind of challenge. Precision meets with gesture, actions meet with words.

So, in a weird trend that is hard to explain, as props and costumes can make things more complicated, at the same time, things get simpler, too.

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I'm on the flip side of things for another holiday show, The Fantastic Toy Shoppe, which will tour throughout December as our ArtReach traveling show. You can read about the ArtReach actors on their regular blog.

For this show, directed by Roderick Justice, I am one of the co-playwrights (along with ArtReach Artistic Director Kelly Germain) as well as the properties master. I'm in charge of making the props look the way they should, and getting them to the actors so they can rehearse and perform with good props. I also did many of the props for Anne Frank and Henny Penny, which toured earlier this fall.

Hopefully, by the end of today, I will have all of the props either pulled from the shop, or bought. Among other things on my list of things to find are an attractive set of paintbrushes and a beautifully-wrapped gift box. As someone who always has trouble wrapping even the simplest of boxes, I'm setting aside extra time to give the gift box extra attention.

Watching these ArtReach rehearsals have been a leisurely revelation for me--fun and informative. It's a great learning experience to see one's script come to life. I've already learned quite a bit about how to make each character sound different. The main lesson I'm taking away so far is that I need to work on giving each scene specific purpose and action; in other words, each character has to change in some way in every scene they are in, so that each scene is necessary to the overall story. It's easy to write dialogue between two people who are just sitting around, but audiences find that boring to watch. It's much harder to create dialogue that shows how each character feels, what they want, and how they are changing.

In children's theatre, as in all things, people are constantly changing, learning something new every day. Plays should reflect that.

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As a final note at the end of a lengthy post (sorry!), I want to encourage you once again to buy tickets to our Breakfast with Santa as well as our holiday show Holiday Follies, which opens Dec. 4. Come see us!

Festivities...

...are quickly approaching as the end of the year draws near! Please buy tickets to the following Children's Theatre-sponsored events:

- Holiday Follies. Our winter show opens on Friday, Dec. 4th, with a public 7:30pm show. Other public shows are on the two following weekends (Dec. 5-6 & 12-13), Saturdays at 2pm and 5pm, Sundays at 2pm. Price for Children: $7.

- Breakfast with Santa. The kids will be sure to enjoy a holiday-themed, fun-filled breakfast, at 11:30am on Saturday, Dec. 12, just before the matinee of Holiday Follies. In addition to some classic holiday decorations, we will provide activities and food, as well as a special visit from the jovial man in red himself! Price for Breakfast & the Show: $40; for Breakfast Only: $25.

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We continue our rehearsals of Holiday Follies. Among other wonderful surprises, Jack Louiso's creative choreography brings to life such holiday classics as "Winter Wonderland," "The Twelve Days of Christmas," and "Hanukkah, Oh, Hanukkah." The arrangements, by the talented Steve Goers, are beautiful renditions of the songs we all know and love.

Also, we will include a brand-new Kwanzaa song, written specially for this show by our very own Deondra Kamau Means!

The show revolves around the cast of the touring show Holiday Follies as they try to make it back home to Cincinnati for their final show of the season. But the fly-by of a magical sleigh disrupts the trip, and the tour bus gets stuck in the show. With only hours to spare, the cast finds itself trying to stay cheerful--and warm--as their curmudgeonly stage manager tries to get help...

This collection of inspiring songs and an uplifting story should be on everyone's event list this holiday season! Don't miss this one-of-a-kind show!

Holiday...

...spirit is in the air as we move into the second week of rehearsals for Holiday Follies! We've managed to start blocking after several rewrites of the script. And after a productive Saturday rehearsal in which we learned most of Steve Goers' new arrangements of holiday medleys, songs and interludes, I'd say we're in pretty decent shape, one week in.

This is going to be a stunning musical spectacle, for sure. With beautiful music underscoring a charming story--about a cast and crew wrapping up their holiday tour of a show coincidentally called Holiday Follies, when suddenly a mysterious flying sleigh gets their bus stuck in a snowdrift, leaving them stranded in the snow a full hour away from their destination, the Queen City itself--we are excited to make this a glorious, glowing tribute to the winter holidays.

There are obstacles, however. A lingering sickness--not the notorious flu, thank goodness--is making its way through the entire cast, and so everyone is pumping the hand sanitizer and plugging the antibodies. And because frequent rewrites at the beginning of the process made it difficult to hit the ground running, we are doing our best to go with the changes and make them work, without losing what we have gained already. Not that the rewrites have been total rewrites, or even terribly extensive ones; it's just that any show, no matter the season or the content, requires of its actors and creators just a little bit more than the last one. It's always a complicated process, putting on a show, but we're going to get through it, to the best of our ability. Again, we are fortunate to have an industrious staff and a strong team of inspired (and inspiring) directors and designers.

And, of course, a sensational cast.

So here it is: Monday, with more blocking and choreography coming up tonight. I believe that by the end of this week, we will all at least know where we are going, and when, and why. It's going to be a wonderful holiday spectacular!

I'm going to mention ticket sales again, only because we want to make sure everyone gets a chance to see the show. And while I do, please also consider that on Saturday, Dec. 12 at 11:30am is our Breakfast with Santa event, which is priced at $40/person for the breakfast and a ticket to Holiday Follies immediately following, or just $25/person for the breakfast only.

You can order tickets to Breakfast with Santa under Step 4 on our Public Order Form. Or, of course, by calling The Children's Theatre of Cincinnati offices at 513.569.8080, and speaking to Pam Young (ext. 13).

Closing...

...Night of Disney's Beauty and the Beast, Jr., came upon us this past Saturday. After a lengthy load-out, fraught with health emergencies and a larger-than-life collection of set pieces and costumes, we are still in the process of putting everything away. The downstairs hallway of our offices currently has several costume racks on either side, filled with dresses, shirts, trousers, etc., that will make it into storage at some point today.

The run went well. We had wonderfully responsive audiences at our public shows on the weekends, and the school shows sold very well (or so I am told). We hope to do even better for Holiday Follies, which goes into rehearsal this evening.

The cast will include many of the same actors who were in Beauty, including myself, Bob Herzog, and Leo Northart, along with other members of TCTC staff and a plethora of children, as well. It will surely be a fantastic holiday spectacle, full of music and joy!

Opening...

...Weekend for Disney's Beauty and the Beast, Jr., was a success! As of today (a welcome day-off), we have performed six times for audiences: three on Friday, two on Saturday, and one yesterday. The Gala was also this weekend, where a fun time was had by all. From what I hear, we met or nearly met our attendance goals, so thank you to all our fans who came to see us in the last few days.

As I said to one cast member backstage on Friday, which was our opening day, "It's so nice to get laughs at jokes we've known are funny for weeks."

The audiences, indeed, have been appreciative. During the transformation of the Beast into the Prince (spoiler alert!), those who purchased a glow-in-the-dark rose are encouraged to wave them in the air to heighten the magical mood. It's a rush to glance into the crowd and see all those waving little red roses. A true rush.

So what lies in store for the show? Well, we have a day off today, as I mentioned before. Tomorrow, we resume our morning performances for school audiences, though our next public show is not until Saturday, Oct. 24. We perform twice on our final day of Beauty and the Beast, a show we will definitely miss and remember for a long time.

Please come see the show! To purchase tickets, click here.

Production Week...

...is finally here! We have rehearsed for four weeks now in the basement of the new office building, and this week we move into the Taft Theatre in downtown Cincinnati!

We are a bit farther away from the Taft than we've been in years past. While on paper this makes the transition more hectic, in reality we may actually be more prepared for the new space than in previous shows. The reason is that the new rehearsal space is closer to the dimensions of the Taft stage than the old space. So, in terms of blocking and stage position, the adjustment is smaller for us performers.

Today, however, is not about the performers. It's the performers' "dark day" this week, a day when the performers do not rehearse. However, the technicians, led by our stage manager Jenn Picone, have set aside the entire day for some intense work of their own: to load the set from the scene shop into the truck, to hang and focus lights, to move the set into the space, to transfer costumes from our rehearsal and costume rooms to the appropriate areas at the Taft,--and on and on, so that when the performers return tomorrow, everything will be set for our tech rehearsal.

Our thoughts and utmost gratitude to the technicians, designers, operators, directors and crews. We could not possibly do what we do if it were not for them doing what they do.

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The first performance of Disney's Beauty and the Beast, Jr., is this Friday, October 16, at 9:30 AM. We have to more shows that day as well, at 12:oo PM and 7:30 PM.

Saturday, October 17, is the date for the GALA, which will feature certain cast members in costume, milling about, posing for photos, etc. Some children from the STAR program this summer will help to cater the event.

For more information about tickets, shows, and the GALA, please visit our website.

Rehearsals...

...for Beauty and the Beast, Jr., are well under way. We finished blocking the show on Saturday, which means that we have (basically) an idea of where we go and when for each scene. Now, the real "rehearsal" process begins in its strictest sense--we need to start getting it into our bodies, memorizing our lines as well as music and movement, fine-tuning our character choices and fitting all the pieces together. The show has been outlined, in other words, and now it's time to write the essay, revising and rewriting as we move along.

We're ready for a lot of changes in the next few weeks.

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The publicity photo shoot was also on Saturday, held after the daylong rehearsal. The shoot was run by Phil Groshong (a. k. a. Photo Phil), and everything went very well. It was the first time a lot of us got into full--or close to full--costume, which gave us a more realistic idea of how we would look and move in the show.

For actors, a photo shoot can be an incredibly revealing experience. We can learn a lot just from getting into our characters' clothes and walking around, trying to bend over to pick things up, squeezing through doorways, etc. It also creates a giddy atmosphere, full of laughing and giggling at the seemingly simplest of things--the way a different-colored wig can completely change someone's appearance, how hot or cold it feels inside a particular costume, or what kinds of funny poses we can create with our bodies. In the most literal sense, it's our grown-up version of make-believe and dress-up.

There's a reason they call what we do Playing.

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From a business perspective, we have several things we would like to broadcast: ad sales, ticket sales, and the Gala. These are great ways to support TCTC, both financially and literally. Please click on the links to find out how.

And as far as ArtReach (our touring division) is concerned, they are on Day One of their first straight week away from Cincinnati. For the first half of the week, they are touring to schools in the Portsmouth, OH, area, and by the end of the week they will also have performed in Greenville, OH, for two days. In the beginning of the main stage season, it may be easy for us to forget about ArtReach, which is one of our major breadwinners, and we'd like to give them a shout-out: Thank you, ArtReach!

So for now, from all of us at The Children's Theatre, we say thank you for your support (and for reading), enjoy the fresh autumn sunshine, and let fun take center-stage in your life!

Welcome...

...to the official blog of The Children's Theatre of Cincinnati! We plan to use this page to provide updates about auditions, rehearsals, workshops, and shows--and much, much more!--in a forum where fans can read up on (and respond to) what's going on "behind the scenes." This blog is a part of our effort to spread the word about what it is we do at TCTC, one of the nation's most well-respected arts organizations, providing quality entertainment for children and families in the tri-state region.

My name is Chris Stewart, and I will be the main author of this blog. I'm an actor and arts integration specialist for TCTC, and the tour coordinator for ArtReach, a Division of TCTC. When Krista Katona Pille, our marketing and PR director, approached me and asked if I would start a blog for the company, I thought it would be a wonderful opportunity. I blog anyway; why not write about work, too? (I began one for ArtReach, our touring company, a few months ago while I was still an actor for the tour. That blog is now in the hands of one of the new actors in the group, and you can read it here.)

I hope to provide readers with a unique perspective on the process of making theatre--and specifically, children's theatre. To that end, I'll post about rehearsals and productions, with occasional shout-outs to our generous sponsors, supportive fans, and of course, our talented cast, crew, and staff.

Our hope is that in addition to showing off the vast network of people who have helped us attain and sustain our resplendent reputation, this blog will also create a sense of community. Theatres cannot survive without the help, support, and patronage people like you, folks who love the arts, folks who know that "good art" refers to quality rather than quantity, folks who understand that the performing arts are just as important to communities as they are to children. We firmly believe that any child who experiences a show at TCTC--be it as a singer, dancer, actor, or spectator--is better off for it. It's why we do what we do. It's why this organization exists.

Perhaps all of this is better expressed in our Mission Statement:

The Children's Theatre provides an opportunity to introduce young audiences in Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana, to the performing arts, through professionally staged productions, which appeal to parents and educators, while teaching morals and values.

The Children's Theatre develops opportunities for employment for theatre professionals and provides all its employees an understanding of aspects associated with a production, from administration to the final staging.

The Children's Theatre allows community advocates to participate in the education of children in the performing arts.

Yup. I think that pretty much sums it up.