Well - I have whole bunches of fun pics to share with you guys. The Wine Tasting was a humungo-normous success. Sure, that word is in the dictionary. Rich and Debbie and Ann did a spectacular job and Cindy and Margaret and Janice were a huge help with in the vittles department too. The theatre was PACKED. I mean jam packed. We had over 250 people in the building… it was fantastic and crazy and nuts and great. Like i told you before - a huge section of the auditorium was competely cleared out for the event -
so people were everywhere.
We had framed things around the auditorium explaining the Arts Initiative as well as the new logo I designed for the Opera House building…
and the renderings for the auditorium. And this was the first time people had been in there since we bought it really - so they hadn’t seen all the old seats out or the screen removed - it looks huge.
The guy from ‘Wine Time’ the company that was providing the wine, said they had never been to an event nearly so successful. And, to be honest, I think they were a little bit overwhelmed there, for a while. At the very end they ran out of wine… simply cuz I don’t think they really believed we had as many tickets sold as we did! They were really nice to work with…
THE HIGHS AND THE MERLOTS.
We learned a couple lessons for next time… with all those people we just needed to make sure there were several more food and wine stations. Even though we had munchies being passed by five servers and two food tables, traffic flow would have been helped probably if we’d also had food in the auditorium, not just the lobby.
We had two wine stations - but we probably could have used FIVE!
THE AUDITORIUM ALREADY HAS TWO NEW ‘WALLS’.
The food was just beautiful. I would say it was delicous too…but i was sequestered in the bar the whole time undergoing the most insane two hours of my life (we’ll get there in a minute!), so I never really got to taste much. But I heard everything was super-delicious. And please, with Ann and Debbie in the kitchen… how could it not be?? The presentation was also just fabulous. We had sooo much food. Like enough food that even Po would have been full!
Since Rich had to mingle and tell people about the project… all these people…
it was decided that I would tend the bar.
Now, since it was a wine tasting, and people were coming to taste THE WINE, Rich naturally figured there were be very little demand for the bar. So he was sure I’d be safe. I mean, maybe a couple of sodas, right? A beer or two? Sure. I can handle that. He gave me a crash course in the touch screen cash register thingy - and that was that.
HOWEVER…
Rich’s calculations were slightly off the mark. Like saying that Kirsty Alley has fallen slightly off her ideal weight. With just little old me and Janice trying to scoop me off the floor (there actually was a point where I thought I was going to pass out) we had the biggest bar night in the history of the theatre. In only three hours. There were some things I just couldn’t even begin to try and make (”Can you make a chocolate martini?” “Sorry, play again”.) and it took me half the time to FIND a bottle of anything… and where to punch it in on the screen (J and B is a different button than Jim Bean but they both say JB - fun, right?). If people were able to walk me through it I was able to make some stuff. The highlight of my evening was when a former nun taught me how to make a Manhattan…
HOW DO YOU SOLVE A PROBLEM LIKE MANHATTAN?
By the way - you’re saying to yourself… “Jo Jo… if you were so busy in the bar, how did you have time to take all these pictures. ELEMENTERY my dear Blog Buddy. I didn’t take them! Paul Siegfried was bouncing around like Peter Parker… apparently even hanging from the ceiling…
TASTY BITE VIEWED BY SATELLITE?
And Debbie and Rich and Ann thanked everyone for coming and supporting the event and gave a brief overview of our hopes for the Initiative and for the Opera House…
And, even though we won’t know the exact amount raised until our meeting this Wednesday, I’m pretty excited to let you know that we think the event met is goal! It looks like we raised enough money to pay for the new roof on definitely one and probably both of the Studio buildings… which is just spectacular. People were so supportive and excited not only about the Initiative but the event itself… so we figure it will become an annual event to look forward to.
there were also some great pictures posted on the Huntington Free Press which I’ve lifted to share with you…
A few short hours after the last person left the theatre that night, I had to jump on a plane to go to New York. I was directing a reading of the Nixon/Eisenhower play that I worked on a few years ago. This time we were invited to do a workshop of it at the Actor’s Studio (that organization where James Lipton does “Inside the Actor’s Studio”). I got to see two shows while I was there - A Little Night Music with Catherine Zeta Jones and Angela Lansbury (which was good… not amazing…but good. And I LOVE Lansbury). And I got to see my great friend Jake Speck on Broadway in Jersey Boys which was just a thrill. The morning my flight got in I was lucky enough to get a single ticket in the fourth row. Jake is the only person to ever understudy three of the four Jersey Boys… AND he also covers four other roles. So he never knows if he’ll be on or not - or what role he’ll be playing. But he was on the night i was there…and it was fantastic! I got to go backstage and stand on the set which was fun, too.
The day of the reading was fast and furious. We only rehearsed for three hours - because four of the cast members had done the previous reading - and I didn’t want to waste their time (one day readings, believe it or not, are usually unpaid - the playwright was kind enough to fly me down for the reading because he really likes me. The cast was great - including two time Tony Nominee Barbara Walsh and David Garrison (who most people know from Married With Children…but he’s been the Wizard in Wicked on Broadway a bunch of times)… plus the guy who played The Grinch on Broadway, Patrick Page (who is married to Paige Davis from “Trading Spaces”.) The cast was just wonderful… the reading was a big success and there was a talkback afterwards which was really interesting. I thought it might be rough going - because there were a lot of writers in the audience, but they were really positive. After the talk-back this very sophisticated lady in a fur hat came up to me and said what a wonderful job I had done… and how impressed she was. And then she said “My name is Tammy Grimes”. I nearly died. Tammy Grimes is the original Molly Brown from The Unsinkable Molly Brown - that’s her on the playbill cover:
- she was a huge Broadway star in the 60’s and had her own TV series etc etc. She was one of those fabulous actors that ended up on Murder She Wrote and Love Boat…and all those shows. She was so kind - and it was really cool that she like my work. Plus, for 83, she looks fantastic!
So that was a real boost to my week! The lovely lady who runs the Actors Studio, Patricia Bosworth, also wanted all my info so she could suggest me for other projects - which was great!
My trip was super fast - but great fun. And when I got home I discovered we had a new arrival in the family. Or rather, soon would. Rich, on ebay, had managed to snag a 26′ reach Genie lift. Which, miraculously, finally solves the ‘how the heck are we going to manage to get up to the auditorium ceiling to paint it?’ problem. This thing is going to be invaluable for so many aspects of the renovation and running the technical demands of the theatre. Rich and Janice went and picked it up with Larry’s trailer about 75 miles away. And then, right after my class got out, I got a call saying the Blazer had died and Grant had come to rescue them. So we managed to get all three vehicles (Grants, the Blazer, and our truck) back to the theatre. And then we had to figure out how to get this 4,000 pound (no, really) genie lift off the trailer and into the theatre. (The guy they bought it from had put it up there with a forklift).
The method by which this thing managed to reach street level was, from my layman’s point of view, scarier than Meg Ryan’s face. I mean I almost wet my pants. But, with Super Larry on deck, it was achieved using all kinds of MacGuyver amazingness. And then, after I was resuscitated, Larry was happily driving it towards the theatre… much to the amazement of the people inside the nearby storefronts.
Watchiing Larry drive this thing was hilarious. It’s like having a giant Droid.
SOME MEN COVET SPORTS CARS…
And watching him drive it through the front doors (with about an inch to spare on each side) was kind of like watching someone use a wii console to control a wrecking ball.
And before long it was sitting happily in its new home!
And it’s very fun making it go up and down. Rich just needs to learn the difference between the up/down button and the forward backward button - since he’s zoomed forward a couple of times unexpectedly. I’ll give him lessons (hee hee.)
We have to build a big metal rampy thing to keep it on a level working surface (for the slope of the auditorium). But this afternoon Rich had it down at the edge of the stage (which is pretty level) and got it to go all the way up to the ceiling which was really exciting. It’s a huge step. And as soon as I find an unlimited supply of valium… and the temperature warms up… I can start scraping paint!
And, by the way - we have named the Genie lift…
Barbara Eden.
xo
jojo
It’s been a week since I’ve been back in Hoosier land - so it’s about freakin’ time I get in touch with you folks. Things have been pretty busy (what else is new). The main, main focus on everybody’s mind is the Wine Tasting event we have coming up on Friday.
There was some discussion about the word vittles. There are two ways of spelling it - I’m accustomed to ‘victuals’ which I think is the more British spelling. So we had to do some research to make sure we weren’t making up a word! And let’s face it.
Debbie and Rich and Ann have been working overtime getting this great big event ready. We already have 200 people attending it. The main goal of the event is to raise enough money to put the new roof on the Opera House building. And since the interest has been so great, they think we’re going to meet our target. They’ve been meeting constantly planning this thing for months and everyone’s really excited. They have this great idea that is the core of every fundraising idea they have for the Arts Initiative. Rather than just do a run-of-the-mill fundraiser, we are going to work to make sure every event is, in itself, something people would like to go to (whether or not they cared about it being for a good cause). Each event, hopefully, will be a diversion and an entertainment in it’s own right. So that hopefully, before the building is even open, the Initiative will already be making a contribution to the social and cultural landscape of the area. It’s really nifty. And so this wine tasting is going to be really nice. Please - Debbie and Ann are making most of the food and they make Paula Dean look like the Swedish Chef. And Rich is making what Paul Sigfried dubbed ‘the best stuffed mushrooms ever’ - Margaret’s recipe of course  - Here he is at home makin’ a test batch for us this weekend:
There going to be sooo much yummy food. I’m excited and I don’t even drink wine! We’re also going to have the auditorium open for people to mingle for the first time… and let folks see what it looks like in there before we really dig in.
All the seats are out. And in order to prep for the wine tasting, and make space for us to begin construction the false plywood stage has been dismantled and removed…
And almost the entire auditorium has been completely cleared out. It’s unbelievable how spacious it seems without all that stuff in there.
So anyway - if you haven’t got tickets for this thing yet, please come. It’s going to be really lovely and Debbie and Ann and Rich can’t wait to tell people all about the plans for the building. Call 454-0449 (one of the trinity will answer) for tickets, orrrrr you can go online to the website - www.huntingtonartsinitiative.org It’s only 20 bucks (if you get the ticket before Friday) and normally wine tastings are at least twice as expensive… but we really wanted it to be an economical event and encourage as many people to come out and learn about the project and the Opera House. So - if you can’t make it, and you’d like to just make a donation to the Opera House roof - you can use that link too!
I’ve had my first week of classes at IPFW and I seem to be keeping my head above water. I had the class tell me the best lie they’ve ever gotten away with (the point is that acting is the same as lying… and it demystifies the process for people). Well, there were quite a few doozies, lemme tell ya. I’ve also gotten quite used to driving back and forth to Fort Wayne - and by the end of the semester my goal is to be able to find my way there and back without the use of the GPS. At present - I am no where near success. One of my students, as they were leaving the other day, said to another one “this is the funnest class ever”. So I’m a) glad she likes it; and b) glad I’m not teaching her English.
I’m going to New York to do a one day workshop of that Nixon/Eisenhower play that I worked on when we first came to Indiana. We have a lot of the same great actors returning, and I’m really excited that Barbara Walsh (who is a two-time Tony nominee) is gonna join us and play Pat Nixon opposite the incredible Patrick Page who was the Grinch on Broadway. We’ve also got David Garrison who played the Wizard in Wicked and was a regular on “Married With Children”. It’s gonna be a fun day. Plus, I’m treating myself and I’ve got a ticket to see the matinee of Little Night Music with Angela Lansbury and Catherine Zeta Jones. It’s one of my favorite shows, and my very favorite director. So it should be a real treat.
Like I said last time, I didn’t have hardly ANY pictures when I was in Bermuda - because they were all on the bigger camera which I didn’t pack. So here are some serious catch up shots of the past month-ish…
The week we were named Business of the Month, the Lieutenant Governor of Indiana, a really impressive lady named Becky Stillman, came to town for the ribbon cutting of The Huntington Main Street Program. She came by the theater for a reception and was so gracious and excited about what we were doing with the renovation and the shows…
Here’s a great pic of Nate churning out one arrangement after another…
I love this picture of the cast hanging out before the show… Nate has our old keyboard on the carpet taking them through some notes, and Po, of course, is supervising.
Gretchen’s sweet Sixteen. Didn’t it look cool?
We had all our presents under the Supper Club Christmas tree. Po got presents too.
Janice is tired of the brown and bronze ornaments for a while. So we’re giving them a rest and the day after Christmas the Najuch’s apparently stocked up on red and gold for next year.
While I was home… Dad managed to cut his head. Takes talent.
All the new windows are installed in the house… and apparently, as of today, the heat is working too. Which means hopefully we can get some work done over there. But Rich said the windows went really quickly. The first one took a couple hours - but after they figured out a system, they zipped through them all!
OUT WITH THE OLD…
IN WITH THE NEW!
And they’ve started insulating as well…
Rich’s favorite new investment is the rental of a dumpster which gets emptied twice a week. It eradicates most of those time-consuming (and costly) trips to the dump… and with so much stuff to get out of the auditorium it’s been invaluable. He’s gotten rid of tons and tons of junk already… including those old windows.
Po was using Rich as a recliner one day and it cracked me up. She manages to find positions which prevent you from doing anything constructive whatsoever. And then she attempts to look really comfy so you feel guilty moving her. I think it’s her way of forcing Rich to take a break every so often!
Okey dokey. That’s it for now. I’m in the middle of trying to cut down Treasure Island to an hour for a dramatic reading we’re hopefully doing for the teachers convention that’s coming into town in April. The full novel is 209 pages - and I’ve got it down to 66. But I’ve still got a ways to go for it to be the right length. It’s slow goin’ but hopefully it will be something that we’ll get to do for schools every so often, so it’s worth it.
Ok kids…
bye for now,
love Jo Jo.
I’m back. As much as I would like to have been blogging during the Christmas show, it was a pretty crazy time. The cast did a wonderful job with the show, and the audiences were delighted.
Behind the scenes, however, it often seemed like one thing after another…and I’m really proud of all of us that we managed to keep on trucking, and the shows stayed really great. The winter shows always seem to present more obstacles and more exhaustion…which is crazy considering that once the holiday show is open, we don’t have to rehearse anymore. But with an avalanche of annoying crap plopping down every day… I guess it gets to you. Now among the other fun things that were going on, on the last day of the Christmas show, my little camera (not the big expensive one…my cute one I carry around for the blog) somehow got placed on the lower area of the bar. Which, in the biz, as they say is a ‘wet zone’. And soon the camera was ALSO a wet zone. It ended up in a puddle… and so, all the pictures that I brought to Bermuda with me to put on the blog, are sadly lost. The camera, amazingly (yay nikon) has recovered fine. LCD screen which looked like a Jackson Pollock has dried out and is dandy…and it’s in perfect working order. But all the pictures that were on it are lost to the ether. Which means - not a whole lot of blog pics, I’m afraid. I’ll grab some from other peeps…and when I get back home to the big camera I’ll share more. (Some of the pictures are ripped from Erin’s facebook page - so thanks McCracken!).
If you’d like an example of the deluge of blerg that graced us… perhaps the finest illustration would be the morning we woke up and Rich discovered that the giant water heater for our apartment (housed in Rich’s office) had burst. Not leaked. Not dribbled. Just plain burst. And flooded his office. But ohhhhh noooo… that wasn’t the fun part. His office is directly above the only-a-few-months-old renovated Box Office. And apparently the floor in his office is made of some kind of colander material. Because when we clamored downstairs it was raining in the box office. Not like drizzling - amazon rainforest rain. The computer was in a puddle… the printer was swimming… the ceiling was bubbling. It was a grand old time. Rich looked about this happy…
The good news is that, other than the scuba diving printer, everything else was saved. But it was pretty much fun stuff like that all Christmas long. Things like somebody breaking a window over at the Opera House. Just cuz. If they had been trying to get into the Opera House to steal something at least that would have some discernable motivation. But since the Opera House’s contents currently consist of dust, mould and smooshy floorboards… I think they just broke the window cuz they were bored. Ah well. HO ho ho.
Doing the Christmas Carol again was really fun. Chris, our stage manager, had worked on a giant cast adaptation at The Actors Theater of Louisville (a fantastic regional theater), and he had really interesting comments on areas of the script. The tricky thing was, that I’d never done it two performances in a row. And I was fighting a really wicked cold at the time. I got through the first show fine, and most of the second. But suddenly right about five minutes towards the end my voice just disappeared. It made a fun frog noise and then it just suddenly started to say “Enough is enough”. It wasn’t cuz I was using my voice badly… It was cuz I was sick and had been talking for four hours straight AND had been manipulating it so much to do all those characters. Which is not something I do everyday anymore…
So suddenly it went from this…
To a little more like this:
EVERY ONE MAY GOD BLESS US.
So as I pretty much realized I had about three notes left in my vocal range that I could speak with…so I just kinda dragged myself through. A few weeks later the delectable Debbie Dyer arranged for me to do it again at the High School. For six hundred kids. Siiiixxxx hunddddredddddd. I was kind of terrified. Both Rich and I figured that I was gonna get eaten alive in some kind of paper airplane throwing, spit ball tornado. He instructed me “just keep going… no matter what…just keep going. Do not attempt to RETALIATE!”. But it went great. Other than my microphone turned itself off about thirty seconds in… and we had to fix that… but the kids were really polite (granted Ann Siegfried was sitting in the audience with a machete and a stun gun), and according to Gretchen (who I didn’t even realize was going to be in the audience), I did not entirely suck
Some of the challenges were a little more hilarious. On the last night of the show, when we were sold out to the gills, Erin’s parents (who had already been and loved the show) were planning on bringing Erin’s grandfather as a surprise to see the final performance. The day of the show we got an answering message from Erin’s Dad saying that there was a minor change of plans and that night there would be EIGHT of them… that’s a LOT of McCracken when you’re sold out. We had them on the stairs… we had them on bar stools…we had them hanging from the ceiling fan! But considering they all came from Oklahoma - it meant a lot that her parents thought the show was good enough to encourage a mass Indiana crusade.
THE MCCRACKEN’S ARE ATTACKIN’
So, it seems like everybody is pretty happy to see the back of 2009. The economy finally hit us when Rich lost his job with the Hedge Fund he’d been working with since before we moved here. It wasn’t a huge amount of money - but a steady, reliable income that really helped us keep progressing. So - that was a rough day. But when one door closes…
Soon after I got an email from the head of Theatre over at IPFW (basically a Purdue branch in Fort Wayne). I had written to them when we first arrived in Huntington about teaching positions - and they didn’t have anything available at the time. But, because one of their adjunct professors was taking a full-time job at the Dean’s office, they needed to have someone take over her classes.
It was a tricky decision. The classes available were G.E. courses - General Ed, for non-majors. And I’ve never taught outside of a conservatory environment where the people taking the class had auditioned to get into the program… So it would be a very new thing for me. It was a MWF class - which meant three days a week would pretty much be shot driving back and forth to Fort Wayne. But, Rich and I talked about it, and it seemed like a great opportunity at a really opportune time. So I took it. Everyone at the department seems really nice, and the facility is lovely. So - for the moment - I’m a professor again. Our mascot is the Mastadon… which I am referring to as Mr. Snuffleuppagus. (and by the way, I just attempted to spellcheck Snuffleuppagus… it is ASTOUNDINGLY not in the Dictionary.) But it’s nice, for once, to significantly be helping in the ‘bringing home the bacon’ department. And it allows me every so often to say to Rich “Nowwww that I’m the breadwinner” (and then run away as quickly as possible and hide). Of course, saying on a university teachers salary that I’m the breadwinner is also like saying that because Po pees on the grass she has invented a low-energy hydration system. But it’s something.
So - right at the end of ‘09 we did get some spectularific news. Something that we’ve been working on for months - but I didn’t wanna blog about it, cuz I was afraid we might jinx it or something. But we’ve signed the purchase agreement to buy the building next door to the theatre… currently know as the home of a lovely photography studio owned by Jolene. She actually owns two buildings next door to us. For a long time the next one over (two doors down from us) has been vacant. She had been trying to rent it since we’ve been in town without any luck. So Rich approached her about the idea of her moving next door to that building, and selling us the one which is adjacent to theatre.
Well it took a lot of consideration…Jolene would have to renovate that other building for her needs… but after thinking it over and agreeing that it was a great thing for everyone involved, we settled on a price, and we’re buying it!! Whoo hoo. The amazing thing is that the buildings share a wall… which means we can actually knock through and connect the two. So it will no longer be just a theater… the Huntington will actually be a theatre complex. Which is what we always were hoping for. The space will allow us to put in a full size kitchen to accomdate the dining needs in the main auditorium… new mens rooms (which are soooo badly needed… the current mens room is like the size of a, well, bathroom… and has such a low ceiling that unless you’re a cast member of “Little People Big World” you actually have to duck to use the urinal. No really. Duck)… and eventually a restaurant on the main floor (served by the same main kitchen). The other two floors will hold dressing rooms (which were always going to be a tight squeeze up above the stage on the sides) will now be a lot more plausable, along with a ‘green room’. Also offices and rehearsal rooms… There is actually already a fantastic big dance studio room which will be great for rehearsals.
Cool right? I mean the building needs a lot of love (Jolene had beautifully renovated the front two rooms of the first floor - but the rest of it was sort of unused space.) But hey - it wouldn’t be a Najuch purchase if it didn’t need a complete makeover!
It’s been a wacky wacky year. We’ve done NINE productions (New Years Day, The Tempest (which should count as eight itself), the Judy and Mickey, 3 summer, Sleepy Hollow, The Christmas Show, and Christmas Carol) . Renovated the box office… put in the new kitchen… started doing all the food in-house… bought a house, gutted the house, bought the opera house, started to gut the opera house, and bought the building next door. My goodness… when you look at it that way zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. I guess that’s why we’re both tired. Plus we’ve got the schematics for the auditorium ready to go.
While I’m sitting here in the pseudo-sun (it’s not quite as warm as you would enviously imagine…but it ain’t bad - actually we had Hurricane force winds last night), Rich and Janice and Bob have apparently installed all the new windows at the new house. And, considering that it was 30 degrees while they were installing the windows, they are quite pleased to have them all in now. They’ve also been doing a chunk of removal work in the auditorium - removing the plywood stage addition and a bunch of other junk. I’ve been doing advertising stuff and writing out my syllabus and class calendar and going through the text book. Which I actually really like. Who figured out you could charge students $100 for a hardback book the size of a James Patterson novel? I mean… it’s unbelievable. (mine is free…woot).
anyhoo…
Love you guys, glad to be back on the blog.
BTW about 450 tickets are already sold for the summer… so it’s clearly not something on which to procrastinate… New Years resolution number one, bloggies?? Season tickets!!!!
Me.
Yup - it’s that time… Rich and I have barely stopped hyperventilating over the stress of stuffed pork and Washington Irving’s run-on sentances, and now it’s time to make way for Santa. I’m really excited…but I’m also running behind on my work and I could use about a weeks worth of sleep. “What else is new, I hear you ask”.
Ohhhh - I have some fun news. With the new lobby expansion, this is the first time we’ve had to figure out exactly what to do with the Christmas tree now that there can be seats in the center area of the lobby. Because of that Rich was slightly nervous about the ticket numbers, so he capped off at 70. But he and Janice found a brand new spot for the tree (over where the keyboard used to be…. the keyboard will now be on the opposite side) and that means we have room for A FEW MORE SEATS. Sooooo all you people that were peeved when you found out that the shows were all sold out (we only had seats left on opening night)… there are now 2 or 3 extra seats released for EACH NIGHT. You’re the first to know. So if you want them… get them FAST. You’ve been warned Cuz it really is sold out to the gills.
This week has been quite the rough ride for us in some areas. There had been quite the panic about finding housing for the stage manager and the musical director. The second story of the actor’s house isn’t complete yet - and this is the first time we’ll be housing 6 out-of-towners. So we needed living quarters for two more people. Rich had arranged to rent an apartment…but at the end of October, during the shows, we were told that the tenants weren’t going to be moving out in time. So - we began a search for housing. Also our musical director has no car AND doesn’t have a drivers license - so he needed to be within walking distance of the theatre. We had a few days of panic as every single real-estate lead led to NOTHING. We tried hotel rooms… and even though Rich KNOWS for a fact that several of the hotels in the area had plenty of room, they wouldn’t negotiate on a long-term rate. So it was gettin’ hairy. In fact the last blog nearly contained a lengthy plea of desperation to see if any of you bloggies had any ideas, but then, right before Rich was about to post the blog he finally had success. He checked out like every rental listing the area - but people won’t rent short term (we only need two months)… so it was tough. But a really great guy who’s a teacher and who has two new adopted twins had a two bedroom available down by Marsh (the ex-supermarket). So - this weekend Janice and Bob brought a trailer from Ohio and, like some kind of episode of Trading Spaces, in about three hours they loaded all the furniture from Bob’s place in Atlanta into this apartment. And, of course, Janice steamed the carpets. Because otherwise it wouldn’t be Janice. And it looks fantastic. So - Christmas miracle number one.
Our new musical director Nate arrives tomorrow… it’s comin’ so quick. I’m so excited to work with him. He’s super talented, so nice, and his arrangements so far are just stunning. And it does make things a whole lot easier to be collaborating with someone who has the musical theatre lexicon in their vocab… we speak the same shorthand - so it makes things a lot easier. For instance, I have this idea of doing “We three Kings” like a song called “Meadowlark” - but if you’re not a musical theater freak, that reference gets very muddled to explain. One of the actors, Patrick, arrives the next day and then the other three descend by car and plane upon Huntington on Thursday. And the magic begins on Friday. By ‘magic’ I mean lack of sleep, stress and Po having more people to play with than she can handle.
Rich had told a bunch of our patrons that we would have plans for the auditorium that people could see by Christmas. Apparently at some point I agreed to this wholeheartedly. But that was before Sleepy Hollow changed into 273 sound cues and I lost two weeks into a black hole of smoke-rising-from-my-laptop late night sound cue creation. But the pack leader was gonna murder me if I didn’t live up to my delusional pledge…so, even though I haven’t had time to start the research for my show script (eeeeepppp), I got most of the program completed, and then yesterday holed myself up in the living room (while Team Najuch was setting up the apartment) and got some sketches DONE. It’s kind of incredibly annoying how much more effectively I work under a deadline. I’ve been terrified of trying to nail down what that room would look like… but since I HAD to get it done… somehow my brain is able to go “Ok kids, time to make a DECISION”. (I’m not sure who the kids are??? Brain cells??? Synapses??? Rods and cones???? Please advise). Anyway - I actually succeeded.
So you already saw those “NHT” panels. The proscenium is moved forward a bunch from the original position so we have room for backstage goo-ga. The silver molding around the arch is gonna be custom done by the pack leader on our sexy Compu Carve machine, and then silver leafed. I actually really like the continuation of the curvy lines from the ’show drop’ (which will be much less bulky and MUCH less expensive than a grand drape) which continue on to the proscenium arch. Anyhooo - it ain’t a bad start.
I’ve also been whacking through the program. I custom build about 90% of the ads, and this program is the biggest we’ve ever had… it’s 28 pages and like 35 ads. So that was a solid week of Jo Jo just trying to come up with 80 different ways to say “May the season bring you joy and peace. And Love. And peace or joy. Or peace”. But - it’s pretty much done, and at least that’s one thing I don’t have to try and get done while the kids are here.
This weekend in between apartment hunting and program building and foundation patching (oh yeah… Rich and Bob were doin’ THAT too!) we hosted the La Fontaine Arts Council Fashion Show, which is called Fashion for the Arts. Debbie and the committee do the most incredible job with their events… they are always so classy, and have amazing party favors and the auction items are spectacular. People just love the event, and Rich and I seem to have become the annual moderators of the fashion show… which seems to involve us saying goofy things about clothing names like “Zenergy Zebra” and “Ponte Poncho” and harrassing the models. The ladies seem to get a kick of it…
The clothes were from Chicos. And when I made a Chico and the Man reference, we had another five-year-age-difference between me and Rich moment where he had no idea what I was talking about. Luckily most of the ladies at the fashion show were a little older than Rich.
Thanks to Wikipedia I can elaborate:
Chico and the Man was an American sitcom which ran on NBC from September 13, 1974 to July 21, 1978, starring Jack Albertson as Ed Brown (The Man), the cantankerous owner of a run down garage in an East Los Angeles barrio, and Freddie Prinze as Chico Rodriguez, an upbeat, optimistic Chicano street kid who comes in looking for a job. It was the first U.S. television series set in a Mexican-American neighborhood.
Here are Chico, and the Man…
SAY CHICO… IS THAT A ECRU MOCK TURTLENECK YOUR WEARING?
Anyhoo…people love the silent auction stuff.
Which included these two fabulous items made by Ann’s hubby Paul Siegfried…
HE WEAVED THIS BASKET. LIKE HIMSELF. HE CAN WEAVE. A STRAIGHT MAN WHO WEAVES!!!!????
Incredible. I think Paul needs to make a million on ebay with wine baskets. Seriously.
Plus he also took these gorgeous photos of an ice storm last winter…
Ruth did a super nifty candy basket…
And the centerpieces were just gee-orgeous.
And I would like to draw your attention to the homemade purse cookies which were decorated to MATCH the purses… Amazing.
Anyhooo… I gotta start my research kids!
xooooo
Jo Jo.
Ok. So I made it… just barely. Sleepy Hollow was one heck of vocal load for one little Jo Jo who doesn’t do stuff like that every day. It should been training for a marathon like Derek Dyer, and instead I just started sprinting without having time to stretch. But - we got through it. And I’ll tell you about it… But first…
Ok. So - Sleepy Hollow came together in a whirlwind of last minute-ness. It wasn’t that we had put anything off - it just kept evolving and we only nailed down the right solution for it very late in the game. And that meant that as Rich and Janice were SLAMMED figuring out the insanity of the brand new in-house food situtation, I had the laptop duct-taped to my face desperately writing the 273 sound cues that we ended up with. By the last run-through I had most of them done… about 20 new ones by the invited final dress rehearsal, and then about 10 fresh new surprises for Rich on opening night. And there’s nothing he loves more than new cues on opening night.
I’M IN HELL.
One of our biggest challenges was that Rich was such an integral part OF the show… with him being torn in seventy different directions as always, and all the kitchen craziness, and set-up etc. it was all that much more for him to deal with. But, like a trooper, while I was upstairs churning out fifty different horse hoof sounds (like seriously!… so many of them ended up being my clicking my tongue because I had to have so many variations…) he wrote most of the light cues on the fly and then we put the whole thing together. While we were draped in Slankets…cuz it was chilly.
Andrew, our S.M. did great working really quickly - and we pretty much teched the whole thing over two days, going through each sound cue at a time… and then we managed to have time to run it twice through. My biggest problem was that the punctuation was so freakin’ bizarreeee… I had to score the thing and underline and put breath marks everywhere because the sentences go on forever AND the run-on sentences can just confuse the crap out of ya.
And as all this was going on… we were getting ready for the FOOD. One of the trickiest things was that the chef we wanted to hire, Sarah, wasn’t available for every night of this run…she can do the whole Christmas show. So we needed to co-ordinate between her and a relief pitcher as well. Plus the person she wanted as her helper, her sister, also couldn’t do every night. Which meant that sometimes we would need someone to cover plating duties etc. All of this had to be figured out at the same time we were figuring out how to do it in the first place.
Rich and Janice basically spent the week running around Fort Wayne price and quality comparing lettuce in sixty different stores… carrots… and pork…and ground beef…etc etc. And they had to figure out where it was all going to be STORED. The original refrigerator in the kitchen went downstairs….replaced by a large commercial refrigerator only unit. And in the basement below the kitchen there are two fridges and a freezer. If the Maytag repairman had a BatCave…it would look like this basement.
Another fun little monkey wrench was the dessert that Janice and Rich planned, Janice’s awesome chocolate trifle, was being served in martini glasses. And had to be refrigerated. 70 martini glasses. Which take up…y’know SPACE. So two fridges, each day, were instantly packed with the desserts…plus Janice and Rich were having to get up and make them every morning.
So - in the middle of all this craziness, we had committed ourself to doing an invited dress rehearsal for free for the Children’s Library. And - the night before… after finally getting over this evil death flu… my voice suddenly disappeared. I mean it was rough… I didn’t know what the heck I was gonna do. I just started gargling with salt water every hour an hoped I’d make it through.
AND I WILL NOW PERFORM SLEEPY HOLLOW IN MIME…
The kids were supposed to come in costume… eighty of them… and then have a sundae, and then see the show. The kids were supposed to be pre-teens… which I think is an easier crowd to impress. We ended up with a gigantic hoard of fourteen, fifteen year olds…and it was kind of a rough night. It was fine… but teenagers can be a tough crowd. I had specifically asked that we make sure all the styrofoam cups etc. were put in the trash before the show started… but somehow that didn’t happen, and so a few very helpful younguns decided to accompany the show with active spoon/cup percussion. But - considering the horror stories I’ve heard from folks about teenage audiences (Hamlet beginning ‘To Be…’ and the entire audience screaming back “Or not to Be!” for instance…) we coped pretty well.
We knew everything was going to taste good…all the recipes had been tested out and figured. Come opening night Rich and Janice hadn’t really slept for three days because they were so stressed out about how it was all going to come together. Sarah came in at 11:00 and started work and everything seemed to be working just dandy. But then, as the hour approached, she realized that there were a few logistical things that they hadn’t accounted for… and it all started to get a little nutty. The problem wasn’t getting the food cooked. It was where it would go ONCE it was cooked. They had planned out how and when everything would go in the ovens…but once things came out there was no longer ANY room to plate the seventy dishes for each course. And so… at around 6:30 (when salads are normally flying out of the kitchen) there were only twenty plated and ready to go. They looked gorgeous…and tasted great…but there were only twenty of them. And, then it kind of snowballed. And snowballed. The food was going out hot… and looking and tasting just dandy… but it was not a quick process. They had no assembly line planned out, AND there just wasn’t any where to lay the dishes down if there WAS an assembly line. The kitchen had been large enough to cook the food…but not to get the food TO the person eating it!! Blerg. It was so nutty that I even got recruited to help in the bar…
Rich started doing his fabulous job of going round to each table and being terribly charming… explaining it was our first day cooking the food in-house, and that things were taking longer than we would like. I was in the bar having a nervous breakdown.
LOOKING LIKE THIS GUY…
So - the show went up an hour past the normal time. I was freakin’. Luckily the food was hot, and everyone liked it… and people had yummy bread and the new two kinds of whipped butter to snack on. ALSO luckily the show was a short one. Sleepy Hollow only ran 55 minutes without an intermission… so our audience, used to a 2 hour show, didn’t have any baby sitter problems to contend with. (I’m always very concerned about people’s baby sitter schedule - which is pretty ironic considering that most of our patrons’ children are over 40).
Anyway - by the time we got the show up and running we were all pretty much wound tighter than a Swiss Clock…but it went well. The audience laughed a lot more than I expected (which is a good thing)… and my voice, which had been very, very shaky for the past two days, managed to hold out.
After the show, Rich in his infinite wisdom, got on the mic and told the audience that because of the delay, and because it was our first night and things were a little rocky, that we wanted to pick up everyone’s bar tab. He also, immediately added “ding ding ding… bar’s closed”. People really appreciated the gesture…and if there were any feathers ruffled earlier in the night - it seemed like everyone was now, quite delighted. And several people said it wasn’t even neccessary - but we felt it was.
Of course, a few days later we heard that a rumor was going around that the opening night had been such a nightmare that we had refunded everyone their ticket prices back. Yeah…nope. Ah… gossip.
That night we sat after the show and trouble shooted the whole process. Originally Sarah and Rich both thought we weren’t going to need warming trays - because we had the oven space… but that turned out to be a major key in why we didn’t have any way of plating. There was nowhere to get the stuff put once it came out of the oven to plate it. So - Fix-it solution number one… get five warming trays. The whole geography of the room was sorted out so that we knew exactly where each thing would be placed at what point in the night… Janice and Rich went the next morning and got two really long folding tables which could be used for plating plus a bunch of rolling metal shelf units where pots and pans etc. (the other nightmare) could be gotten out of the way.
And the next night the show started only fifteen minutes past the ‘ideal’ curtain time. A HUMONGOUS improvement. It was such a relief. And by mid week, even with Sarah out of commission for two days, they had a game plan and Nathan and Eva were able to do a great job filling in. The food was good. The portions were large. The rolls were hot. All was well.
The greatest thing about the whole week was how many people came in costume… it was kind of amazing. We expected some folks on Halloween night itself…but they came ALLLL week…
EMILY CAME AS A JIMMY BUFFET SONG… ACCOMPANIED BY…RIP TAYLOR??
SORRY SCARECROW…LOOKS LIKE THE GAL NEXT TO YOU GOT THE BRAIN FIRST.
THAT NUN LOOKS LIKE SHE’S READY FOR A LITTLE TOO MUCH FUN.
TERRY ADMIRES GEORGE’S SIZEABLE SPOUT. SADLY IT DOESN’T POUR COSMOS.
GLAD I’M NOT SITTING BEHIND HIM DURING THE SHOW.
AND MARGARET - TRYING TO HOLD US UP FOR MORE LONG ISLAND ICE TEAS.
My poor little voice made it through by the hair of it’s chinny chin chin. The real culprit was the last section - the scary chase sequence - which is just really intense…and it’s tough to even get a single breath at any point. By the end of the week, I was soooo glad to be able to rest. It’s a much more intense thing to do that the Christmas Carol for some reason - AND I only did the Christmas Carol one time last year. But by Saturday, doing the matinee and the evening show, I was toast. The day after that we had a literary dinner where I was supposed to do 10 minutes of A Christmas Carol and ten minutes of Sleepy Hollow (yes, I thought it was as odd of a request as you do. Kind of like, “And now, here is two pages of Moby Dick, followed by Danielle Steels Scruples”. What?????”. But by then I just had kind of stopped talking to anyone and hoping I’d be ok when the time came to stand and deliver.
Amongst the rest of the hilarity, a certain weiner dog managed to locate an entire BAG of Brach’s marshmellow Halloween Pumpkins. And eat the entire bag. It was right in the middle of the shows, and that night Po acted like she had…well…eaten an entire bag of sugar. There is absolutely no reason why MELLOW should be in the name of this food item. They shoud be called Marshcrazies. She was NUTS. Plus she started throwing up bright red marshmellow goo - which is NOT fun to clean up at 4:00am. And the next morning she started to pee bright orange for two days.
Great. Rich didn’t sleep all night for more than five minutes at a time because of it.
Post marshmellow she is now just dandy. In fact I managed to take some really cute pictures of her and the pack leader - so here ya go.
ANDDDD on Halloween day - we did the matinee… THEN before the evening show we had the Po’s annual Huntington Theatre Dog Costume Contest… We serve cider and dog treats - this year we upgraded to Pupperoni. Last year the only dog who would eat the milk bones was (three guesses) Po. And we bought them at Sams Club… she still snacks on them.
Po was dressed in a cross promotional Sleepy Hollow Headless Horseman outfit…
We had TWO wiener dogs dressed and bumble bees. Did Po not get the memo?
PLUS an IMPOSTER!!!!
PO KISSES THE WINNING ENTRY. THERE WAS QUITE A BUZZ. WAS THIS HER HONEY?
Love,
Jo Jo.
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