Backstage Pass Becomes Something More

If you've been paying attention lately (or if you are on our mailing list), then you you've heard that we've launched a podcast called Backstage Pass. By we, I mean my brother John and I are doing it on behalf of Maurer Productions OnStage. Backstage Pass is a podcast about all things community theatre in Central New Jersey. It's an interview show that typically runs from 15 to 30 minutes on topics like upcoming productions, how to get into community theatre, profiles of people working in local theatre. Stuff like that.

Okay, yes, I have to admit that I originally thought of the idea of doing a single episode podcast as a promotional tool to drum up some attention for our production of Brighton Beach Memoirs. But after talking about it with John, he quickly made me realize that it was a lot more affective -- and a lot more fun -- if we made it into a real show and opened it up by doing episodes about all things community theatre and covered what the other theatre companies were doing in Central New Jersey. And thus, Backstage Pass was born.

I'm glad we took this direction. We already have four episodes online with a fifth scheduled and more on the drawing board. On the selfish note, they are a lot of fun to create and they help raise awareness for our theatre company. But when you look at the bigger picture, Backstage Pass is helping to promote community theatre in general . My favorite episode is one I hosted featuring Kyrus Westcott, Kitty Getlik, and John Maurer talking about the Perry Awards. John did another himself with the folks from Yardley Players' about Moon Over Buffalo.

Upcoming episodes will include one John is working about the production of Skin of Our Teeth, which Brian Bara is directing at the College of New Jersey, and an episode I'll be putting together talking about children in community theatre. I don't know if this podcast are any good. I only know that like them and they're fun to produce and fun for the people who participate in the interviews. If you've had a chance to listen to any of them, I hope you'll offer us your feedback through this blog. We're always looking for ways to make it better.

Also, if you have an idea for an episode of Backstage Pass, please email us at info@mponstage.com.

Coming Next Season to Kelsey Theatre

In case you haven't heard Maurer Productions OnStage (http://www.mponstage.com/) has settled on it's shows for next season. After staging another puppet-filled production in August called A Winnie the Pooh Birthday Tail (directed by Diana Maurer), we'll launch into next season. We'll be producing Brighton Beach Memoirs (directed by Alycia Cantor). This comedy drama written by Neil Simon is the first in his auto biographical series. Then we'll be mounting our production of the Broadway classic Man of La Mancha, directed by John Maurer.

Here now is the entire 2008-2009 Kelsey Season...

Through Our Eyes – Sept 12-14
Moon Over Buffalo – Sept. 19-21, 26-28
Brighton Beach Memoirs (MP OnStage) - Oct. 3-5, 10-12
Dames At Sea – Oct. 17-19, 24-26
Parade – Oct. 31-Nov. 2, Nov. 7-9
The King and I – Nov. 14-16, 21-23
Twas – Dec. 5-7
The Nutcracker – Dec. 13-15
Possible show TBA – Jan. 9-11, 16-18
Rumplestiltskin – Jan. 23-25
Princeton Montessori and Russian Am. Kids Circus – Jan. 28-31
Man of La Mancha (MP OnStage) Feb. 6-8, 13-15
Sunshine Boys Feb. 20-22, 27-29
The Wiz – Mar. 6-8, 13-15
Strike Up The Band – Mar. 21
Godspell – Mar. 27-29, Apr. 3-5
Peer Gynt – Apr. 17-19, 24-26
High School Musical – May 1-3, 8-10
Mercer Dance Ensemble May 16-17
Pierrot show – May 29-31, Jun. 5-7
Perf Arts High & C & E Jun. 11-13
James Tolin – Jun. 19-21

Daisy Journal: Time for Publicity Photos

Things couldn't be going better with Driving Miss Daisy. We've had our read-through and a week of rehearsals and things are coming together very nicely. The cast is a collection of great people who just happend to be wonderfully talented actors: Eve Connolly as Daisy, Lynn Baskin as Hoke and Lonnie McCullough as Boolie. From day one I could see a chemistry beginning to form. Rehearsals are a lot of fun because all three actors share a common skill-- they listen to their fellow actors. It's amazing how great an impact that trait has on the quality of the acting.

Next week we've scheduled a publicity photo shoot. My brother John, one of Daisy's Producers, will take the pictures. He's already taken pictures of a classic Cadellac and pictures of the house at Sayen Gardens. The shoot was arranged with the help of Jeff Cantor, our Master Builder, who just happens to be a member of an antique car club. After shooting the actors in front of a green screen, John will marry the actors' images with the images of the car and it will look like he did the shoot on location with the car in the middle of the summer. Even as snow powders the landscape outside my window. Pretty neat, huh.

Contributing to the photo shoot will be Erin Penney, the production's make-up specialist, and Diana Gilman Maurer, the production's stage manager, costumer and one of its producers. Over the next week they'll pull together the period costumes, wigs and make-up for the shoot, which is set in 1958. I'll keep you posted on how it goes.

The Community in Community Theatre

I know, it's a corny title for a blog post, but I couldn't find anything more appropriate. It really does speak to the point of what I had in mind. I'm referring to the collaborative, supportive, collegial atmosphere amoung people who work in local theatre. At the Kelsey, every one of our shows seems to have a great family atmosphere. Everyone's helping everyone else, they're all part of a team. I think that's one of the reasons my daughter Caroline likes doing theatre. As an only child, she's always been very atuned to "family", and every time she does a show, she feels like she gets to add to her "theatre family". I'm sure it's the same way in other theatre companies. In fact, I can't even say it's unique to the Kelsey Theatre, though that feeling is very strong there.strong there. No, It seems to be pretty wide spread characteristic among people working in the theatre. Theatre people just want to help other theatre people succeed. The suit of armor story is a great example.

As we started pre-production for Emperor, Alycia said early on that she needed a statue or a suit of armor for one of the scenes. It only appears briefly, but it's important to establishing the setting and forwarding the purpose of the scene. She did a lot of research herself looking for a source of the needed stage dressing. But everything she found seemed to cost too much money. There was even discussion of purchasing or making a real suit of armor that we could use in a future production. That way the investment could immediately be spread across multiple shows. But it just wasn't happening. Then I offered to ask the folks at NJACT.

NJACT (New Jersey Association of Community Theatres) is a group of theatres around the state, many non-profit, that produce theatre for their local communities. They are also known as the people who do "the Perry's". The Perry Awards are sort of the Tony Awards of NJ community theatre. I happend to have an email mailing list containing most of the participating theatre companies, so I volunteered to send out a note asking them for help.

When I sent the email, I really didn't expect much response. But I was wrong. I ended up receiving more than 20 emails with ideas, suggestion, and even offers from people willing to loan us their suit of armor for nothing more than a mention in the program -- friendly and free! One of the first to raise her hand was Nancy Russell over at Playful Theatre, another was Jan Topoleski at the Strand Theatre down in Lakewood. Because is worked a little better for the production we ended up using Jan's suit of armor. OnStage does this type of thing itself by loaning props and lighting equipment to other groups who ask. Our starlight curtain has served several groups well since John created it for our production of You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown.

My point? It's simple: there seems to be an underlying theme in local theatre, at least between theatre groups -- when one of us succeeds, we all succeed. I find that refeshing.

Back in the Saddle

Glub, glub, glub, cough, cough! That's the sound of me coming up for air. After late nights and weekends crammed with theatre doings -- some backstage and some onstage -- I can finally come up for air and start posting to this blog again. That's right. I'm back in the saddle.

John and I and the rest of the OnStage team have been completely swamped since going into auditions for Emperor. Producing three shows in a season is a lot more work than I expected. Granted, we've brought this on ourselves, but still, we had no clue it would be another full-time job. Anyway, here's a quick recap since my last post.

1) We held a marathon weekend auditioning for and casting Emperor. About 70 people come out and audition on Saturday and Sunday, a great turn out. Then came the casting meeting, which started on Monday night at Buzz Herman's house and lasted until the wee hours of the morning on Tuesday. That's a story in itself, one that I'll save for another day.

2) Meanwhile, my brother John and I have been working on setting up the marketing for this season. That includes giant lobby posters for all three shows (in case you've been living in a cave the last few months, we're producing The Emperor's New Clothes, Driving Miss Daisy, and Singin' in the Rain); a large postcard featuring our three-show season which we'll use as a hand-out in various libraries, community centers and coffee shops; separate buckslips for each show (those are the promotional pieces you find in your Kelsey Theatre ticket envelope); and a large postcard promoting Emperor to school teachers (gotta beef up those school sales up).

3) While that was happening, John and I and Emperor director Alycia Bach-Cantor were working on a Short Play Festival produced and hosted by Arts YOUniversity. (The show was performed September 8 to a full-house). Alycia appeared in a piece called The Mystery at Twicknam Vicarage and did a wonderful job. John appeared in Twicknam as well and also directed a piece called Judgement Day. Meanwhile, I wrote and directed an original short play for the festival called The Road Not Taken, and also performed in Judgement Day. On top of writing, acting and directing, I did a little stage managing (everyone did) and played chief cook and bottle washer. No kidding, The Road Not Taken was set in a restaurant. There were real dishes to wash.

4) While that was happening, our production of Winnie the Pooh was nominated for two Perry Awards (yeah us!) -- one for Best Set Design (John), and one for Best Lighting Design (Kitty Geltik). What's more, John and I have been asked to be presenters at the Perry Awards Dinner. We'll be presenting the award for Best Costume Design for a Musical. With that going on, we wanted to be sure all our friends sat at the same table. Let me tell you, trying to pin down 10 busy theatre people to confirm a dinner date is hard enough, but to get them to cough up $60 per ticket was even tougher. It was a lot like herding cats. But it got done and we'll be going to the Perry's on September 16.

5) And if all that wasn't enough, John and I were working nearly every night and weekend for the past few months building a new website for the company. This blog is just a small part of it. The site itself probably has close to a hundred pages including photos, casts lists, feature articles, and tons of stuff on our new shows and most of our old shows. We have lots more in store for the website. By the time we're done (sometime next year?) the site will likely grow to several hundred pages. The goal has been to turn it into a resource for local actors, theatre patrons and potential volunteers -- and of course to sell as many tickets as possible.

Allrighty, then. The new website has been launched, the Short Play Festival is over, our Perry reservations are set, and Emperor rehearsals are rolling along smoothly with Alycia at the helm. That left me with a few minutes to bring you up to speed, and so I have.