Strength in numbers.

Twenty one. That's the official "man count" at last night's sold out performance of Menopause the Musical. Six hundred and ninety-nine women, and 21 guys.

Apparently all of our bathrooms became women's bathrooms.

People loved the show. We'll try to bring them back. Kudos to the Iowa Women's Foundation for making it happen this time.

We're off to be the Wizard...

Had a great meeting yesterday with David Kilpatrick from the Old Creamery Theatre and a handful of other Englertians to talk about this summer's production of The Wizard of Oz. This will be the first time we've worked with Old Creamery, after having done other Big Collaborations with City Circle/Iowa Children's Museum a couple of times (Seussical and Schoolhouse Rock).

Now, I'll be honest - I have never been a huge Wizard of Oz fan. Maybe it's because I had to sit through a hundred thousand endless rehearsals when my sister was a munchkin in a tedious high school production way back in the day. Or maybe it's because I always looked at the movie and thought the special effects weren't all that, well, special.

But I have to admit I'm excited about this collaboration. First, because I know it's going to be a good quality show with the peeps at Old Creamery on board. Secondly, because there are soooo many marketing opportunities, it has that side of my mind racing in overdrive.

But mostly, talking about auditions and performances and rehearsals and all that, it reminds me of how much fun I had doing community theater when I was a kid. Putting on a big show in one's spare time is unlike anything else I've experienced: getting a group of people for one purpose, for a short amount of time, having a lot of fun, working ridiculously hard on something, and then it's suddenly over. Incomparable.

Just for the record, Old Creamery is professional - not community - theater. But we are looking for a special someone in the community to be our Dorothy.

Which brings me to this: auditions. Not just for Dorothy, but for the whole show and in fact the entire Old Creamery season. This show will combine the best of our region's talent with professional actors to create a great experience for the audience. (btw - it's not necessary to be a member of Actor's Equity, but members are of course welcome)

This Saturday, January 31st
9 AM to noon - kids
1 PM to 5 PM - adults
Anyone ages 8 to 70+ are welcome to audition

What to bring:
- Two contrasting monologues
- If you sing, two short selections from contrasting songs (an accompaniest and CD player will be provided)
- Picture and resume, if you have them

So, think you or your kids are the next Judy Garland? Start your story here, on the Englert stage. Come on down, give it a shot.

190

I've found that people generally fall into one of two camps:

1) "Boy, it seems like the lights are always on down there at the Englert. There's always something going on."

- or -

2) "There's never anything going on at the Englert. You guys don't have enough events."


In 2008, we had 190 "event days."

The most obvious event day is a performance, but it can also mean a rehearsal day for a big event like The Nutcracker, or a private reception in the Gallery, or other random things. Some of these events are "Englert Series," meaning we book the performer, promote the show, assume all the risk, etc. The rest - the majority, actually - are community events (theater, etc.), rentals for private events, collaborations with other non-profits, etc.

Here's a look at how our event days have grown over the last three years:




Is this a lot or a little? Well, like most things, it depends on how you look at. We started off 2008 with the following assumptions and goals:

1) There are 365 calendar days in the year, but they're not all "bookable." Take away holidays, maintenance days and home football days (scheduling against the Hawkeyes - even after the game - hasn't worked yet in four years), and that takes it down to around 338.

2) We're Iowa City, not New York City. So out of those 338 available days, we have to account for the fact that we have a relatively small market, there are a lot of other things going on, and people just aren't going to go to the theater 5, 6 or 7 nights a week. We projected that on average, we could have 4 events per week. Some weeks less, some weeks more.

3) That brings us to 188 bookable days. Our actual goal was 160, with 188 being the "max" end of the range.

We did 190. Some of that was due to displaced organizations looking for performance space after the floods. Some of it was due to more Englert Series shows than ever before.

Is that enough events? Too few? What kind of impact did it have on our budget? What about our staff? What about fundraising?

Can we do more? If we just do more events, won't we eliminate the need for fundraising? For investments from sponsors and the City?

So many questions! Answers (or at least our point of view) to come...

Happy Holidays!

This video was something I originally put together for the Festival of Carols, but Mother Nature had other plans that night and we had to cancel it due to weather. Not wanting to see it go entirely to waste, I thought I'd post it up here. Sort of a "year in review" video, although it doesn't begin to capture all of the 160+ events that were in the Englert this year! Happy Holidays!

A-list at the E

Here are some pics from the night. We had a screening of Ashton's movie "Personal Effects." Seemed to be a decent movie from the little bit that I saw. There were a lot of adoring fans screaming as he took stage. Overall a good event for a good cause. Oh yeah, Ashton and Demi were very nice.

A different kind of Atmosphere...

We had our first big hip-hop show last night: Atmosphere. Tonight we have An Irish Homecoming. Last weekend we had Beauty and the Beast.

Diversity, anyone?

Good thing we're not doing an afternoon show for kids today, cuz it kinda smells like booze in here.

Atmosphere's crew brought in a sick subwoofer that shook my whole body when the bass notes were thumping. It also shook some of the plaster and paint off the walls, unfortunately. The more of these bass-heavy shows we do, the more we need to tuck away for capital maintenance.

Not much to say, other than that I thought it was a cool show. It was more than sold out a couple hours before the show - standing room only. Most everyone was standing anyway.

Oh - and just a reminder for everyone, to save you and us the trouble of dealing with it the night of a show:

Ya can't smoke in here. Anywhere. Anything. You stick out like a chimney, and when we find you, ya can't stay. Sorry - them's the rules.

Check out the pics, y'all.

Oh, the Horror.

I didn't see the Rocky Horror Picture show the last time it played at the Englert, ten years ago. In fact, I hadn't seen it all. Ever. I can count on one hand the number of people I know who can say the same thing.

After seeing - or rather, experiencing - it tonight at the Englert, I get what all the fuss is about:

It's a football game. A music festival. A political rally. It's a shared social experience. You have to be there to really get it and understand it. It's less about what's happening on screen, and more about what's happening around you.

Duh. This is surely not news for those who have seen it one or one hundred times, and it's what I had always heard. But still - seeing it? Yeah, I get it.

It's hard not to be impressed by the allegiance of the fans, their depth of knowledge about what and when to scream, and their willingness to give 30-year-ago Susan Sarandon and Tim Curry a run for their money in the campy sexpot department.

Around 400 people turned out. Everyone was cool, got into it, no problems, the Riff Raff guys did great, staff and Transylvanians alike threw down to clean up afterwards... I think one person puked, but other than that the cleanup was all dry goods.

I think it was a big success, and I hope we do it again.

Check out some pictures here.