OCTA
204 N. Robinson Avenue,
Suite 1950
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
73102-3082
Phone: 405-236-0788
Email: oktheatre@sbcglobal.net
Contents
OCTAFEST 2008
SHOW PICTURES
HOW TO CUT A PLAY
NEW YORK TRIP
MEET YOUR BOARD
OFFICE GOINGS ON
HISTORY OF THE OCTA AWARDS
DIRECTOR NEEDS A TRANSPLANT
COMMUNITY THEATRE ORIGINS
WEB SITE FUN FACTS
MR. TOAD STUDENT REVIEW
WEB SITE INFORMATION
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PAST PRODUCTIONS
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(above)
Emily Frances Brown as Rose of Sharon and Law McMeans as Connie Rivers in Oklahoma Shakespeare in the Park’s centennial production of “Grapes of Wrath.”
(Photo by Barry Burris) |
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| (above) Theatre Tulsa
presents it's first show of the season "Lion in Winter" to rave reviews by the Tulsa World.
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| (above) Heller Theatre
presents "Rocket Man", directed by Julie Tattershall, as their 2nd show of the season.
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The musical, “Quilters” has been a great play for Oklahoma’s Centennial.
Broken Arrow Community Players
produced the show as did Shawnee Little Theatre.
The latter got a promotional boost with their recent production when a local quilter’s guild—the Spinning Spools—made an exquisite legacy quilt. It was used as a fund-raiser, netting the theatre $1116. |
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(above: Go to
www.bacptheatre.com for more pics) |
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(Shawnee: courtesy of the Shawnee News-Star, Ed Blochowiak, Photographer.) Left, Director Janet Coggins and one of the quilters display the beautiful quilt. |
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Ponca Playhouse’s centennial production of “Annie Get Your Gun’ featured Brett Smith as Frank Butler, Toby Threlkeld as Pawnee Bill, Megan Parman as Mrs. Adams,Royce Caldron as Mr. Adams and City Lyon as Dolly Tate. |
| (below) Sooner Theatre just completed a highly successful run of “Little Shop of Horrors” directed by Lisa Fox. One couple –self proclaimed Little-Shop-groupies who have traveled as far as San Antonio to see productions of the show—thought the show at the Sooner was the best they’d seen! |
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| (above) “Urchins” left to right: Michael Dalke, Michael Hartwick; Adrianna Hicks, Pallavi Sastry, Aubrey Adams.
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The Grove Playmakers presented their first one-person show in September, “Bad Dates,” by Theresa Rebeck. Shonna Hodge, a single mom herself, took on this major task to great applause! |
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OFFICE GOINGS ON
Darrelyn Hoffman
Another busy month with tidying up the library. All scripts are now listed on our website so feel free to check it out when you’re planning your next season of productions!
The Production/Audition Reminder Emails have been reinstated. Approximately one week before the event, emails based on our calendar postings will be sent out to our statewide membership to remind them of what’s ‘coming up’ in their area. Be sure and get any production/audition dates to the office so those can be posted on our website calendar !
Membership reminders are sent out monthly and then followed up by a reminder. The OCTA directory (on our website www.oktheatre.org) has the month of expiration included in the member’s information.
Some of our members do not have email, so any new newsletter is copied and then mailed to those members.
Festival planning will be starting soon!! Get your ‘organization’ gloves on and notify the office if you have some free time to help!
Welcome aboard to our newest members Sand Springs Community Theatre and Sandra D. Williams!!
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History of the
OCTA Awards
For those of us who weren’t part of OCTA some twenty years ago, it is helpful to be able to call on those who were for an understanding of OCTA’s history and progress. In an effort to get this “institutional memory” out of heads and onto paper, so to speak, Jimmy Vaughn, Past President of OCTA and now on the Advisory Board, has contributed his recollections of how the Awards began and who their namesakes were or are. For his description of the history of the awards in general, see the OCTA web page. We reprint here one of the awards.
THE BILL CRAWFORD MEMORIAL AWARD
This award was introduced in 1989 in memory of Bill Crawford, Lawton, OK and on the Twentieth Anniversary of the founding of the Oklahoma Community Theatre Association. OCTA had not previously recognized the contributions made by Mr. Crawford as one of the Founders except through the publication, OCTAGON. This award commemorates not only his memory, but his sincere devotion and his efforts to organize, perpetuate and to advance community theatre not only in Oklahoma, but the Region and Nationally.
This award is to be given to OCTA members in recognition of their accomplishments, services, and devotion to OCTA in past years.
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BACP Director Needs Transplant – You Can Help
He’s been a BACP board member and he brought us “Everybody Loves Opal,” “South Pacific,” “Night Watch,” “No Time for Sergeants,” “Getting Away with Murder,” and “Copacabana.” Now he needs a liver transplant so he can come back in the spring to direct “Lucky Stiff.”
Rick Hildebrant is leaving for Florida at the end of October to get ready for a liver transplant. The trip, the surgery and the recovery will cost a LOT of money, money Rick isn’t asking for, but money his friends are trying to help him raise.
The BACP presented a benefit IDR performance of its current production, “Hide and Shriek,” on Oct. 18. Now, donation containers will be available at the box office before every show and at the concession stand during intermissions.
All funds collected will be deposited in the “Rick Hildebrant Transplant Fund” which has been set up at Oklahoma Central Credit Union for those who want to donate at any of the following Tulsa locations:
Eastside, 11335 E. 41st St. (41st & Garnett);
Brookside, 5350 S. Peoria Ave. (53rd & Peoria );
Downtown, 515 S. Peoria Ave. (5th & Peoria);
Port of Catoosa, 5220 N. Hwy 167; Broken Arrow, 2211 S. Aspen Ave.
(91st & 145th E. Ave.);
and MidSouth, 4132 E. 51st St.
Donations are tax deductible.
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WEBSITE STATISTICS
We can all use free publicity. Here is a very simple way to get some basic free press with just a small amount of effort.
USE THE WEB !!!
The wonderful thing about the World Wide Web is that, for the moment, it is still basically free for all to use and has unlimited opportunity for growth. At any one time there could be anywhere from two people looking at your site to several thousand.
Fun Fact
www.oktheatre.org had 80,000 hits last month alone. The most popular day of the week was Sunday with 16,000 hits and the busiest time of day was from 11 am to noon and 5pm to 6pm with about 5,000 hits each.
Busiest pages were:
Library=7000
Calendar=4400
Newsletter=2000
Links=253
Best Referring Websites were www.theatretulsa.org, www.tacta.net, www.hellertheatre.com, Yahoo Search, Google, and MSN.
Take a minute to visit our Web Page at
www.oktheatre.org
where you will find lots of interesting stuff such as information on membership and programs.
All programs and services of the Oklahoma Community Theatre Association are funded in part through the generosity of the Oklahoma Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts.
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The Pollard Theatre in Guthrie becomes the
“Official Home of the
2008 Oklahoma Community Theatre Festival!"
Downtown Guthrie’s historic Pollard Theatre will be the host stage for the 2008 Oklahoma Community Theatre Association Festival, July 24-27, 2008. The OCTA Festival co-chairs, Mary Patterson and Sharon Burum are putting the final touches on the agreement with Donald L. Coffin, Guthrie Arts & Humanities Council president and Katie King of the Pollard Theatre, home to Oklahoma’s year-round resident professional theatre company.
This is the first time the Oklahoma Community Theatre Festival will take place in Guthrie . “We are proud to bring OCTAFest to a thriving, tourism destination city which has steadfastly promoted the arts for more than a quarter century.” said Mary Patterson of the Cynthia Poteet Theatre, Oklahoma City.
“Hosting the state community theatre festival is a major coup for Guthrie,” Coffin said. “This is the signature event of Oklahoma community theatre. We are also proud and pleased about our affiliation with the state community theatre association, one of the most decorated in the nation.” “Those who attend in 2008 are assured of seeing another display of the nation’s finest community theatre offerings.”
More information will follow in special emails and newsletters. Carovilli Communications will be responsible for securing sponsors for the event. Volunteers are needed for the numerous committees that must organize the Festival. Call the OCTA office if you have a little or a lot of time to help (405-236-0788).
See Tom Cowley’s article elsewhere in this newsletter, and start planning your theatre entry now. See the AACT Rules under “guidelines & forms” on the OCTA Webpage.
“How do you cut a play anyhow?"
By Tom Cowley
OK gang, here it is. We are once again approaching OCTAfest season. With this comes the question, “What are we going to do this year?” This is followed by the question, “Can we cut something so it will fit into the 60 minute time limit?” Which leads to the “How do you cut a play anyhow?” question.
I have been asked to express my opinion on this because I allegedly have a lot of festival experience (read- This is an old guy.). Anyhow, what follows are my opinions. They are just that, opinions. Take them for what they are worth.
Opinion 1- DON’T DO IT
Cutting is tricky and fraught with potential problems. It is better to find a good one act or to do parts of a play. There are lots of good one acts. We just are not as familiar with them as we are with the longer stuff we tend to put in our seasons. Get your reading committee busy.
Multi-part plays, such as “All in the Timing”, offer opportunities. You can select several of the self-consistent parts and put together a nice vehicle to demonstrate the acting and directing abilities of your company.
Now I am going to feel like the parent giving the sex lecture to his teenager. You know the “Don’t do it. But if you must-------”.
Don’t cut. But if you must---
Opinion 2 – BE SURE IT IS LEGAL
Get permission before you even start. Some authors forbid cutting their work. Some will allow it only after you talk with them. Most publishing houses have at least some restrictions. Know what is required and do it. The legality of your cutting at the time of festival is an issue with AACT
Opinion 3- BE SURE THE WORK IS CUTTABLE
Many plays do not lend themselves to cutting. It would be foolish to take say “Long Days Journey into Night” (Not that you are allowed to cut an O’Neill play anyhow.) and try to reduce it to less than an hour. The play is just too long.
Plays with many side plots or convoluted sub-text are also poor candidates.
Opinion 4- HAVE A NEUTRAL PERSON DO THE CUTTING
People who have acted or directed a particular show are usually biased toward some scenes or characters. I once had a woman who had played Amanda cut “Glass Menagerie” for me. Her first draft looked like a one-woman show.
If you are dealing with a show you have done, let the cutter go off to some mountaintop where they are free from the “Don’t cut my scenes.” lobby.
Opinion 5- CUT SHORT
When cutting a well-written play (and why bother with a poorly written one.), you will be cutting “good stuff” all the time. There is a tendency to try to keep as much as you can. This can severely pressure the time constraint. I recommend cutting for a run time of 50-55 minutes no matter how much it pains you to discard material.
Opinion 6- CUT ON THE ARC
By this I mean be sure to tell the same story the author intended and to be sure the development, crisis and resolution are all in place. I recently saw a technically magnificent production of “Sweeny Todd” but the cutting was such that if you didn’t know the story ahead of time, you couldn’t follow what they were doing. They favored the music over the plot. The adjudicators were not impressed.
Finally, a short story.
I once did a cutting that I thought was brilliant. The story was intact. The whole thing built and resolved properly. I felt good about it. True, I had eliminated a potential homosexual relationship and a serious husband/wife conflict. But I thought “What the heck, I’ve kept the arc.”
Wrong, wrong. At festival, one of the adjudicators pounded me for the cutting (At least I felt pounded.) After the festival was over, I approached this adjudicator and asked what I should have done? After all the show ran at 59 minutes. There was no way I could have included any sub-plots and stay under the time limit. The advice given was: “Don’t do that show.” Point taken. Hence, Opinion 1 above.
2008 New York City Theatre Tour
As the Drama Instructor at The University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma in Chickasha for 28 years, Roger Drummond led a yearly drama trip to New York City. Over the years, many OCTA members have traveled with him and become regulars year after year.
The 2008 trip is from May 20 – 25, 2008 and only costs $1674 each for two in a room. The tour is open to anyone who would like to join the trip and includes: round-trip airfare, OKC to New York (airfare from other cities is available); round trip transportation between the airport and the hotel; accommodations for five nights at the Edison Hotel in the Heart of the Theatre District at 47th and Broadway; tickets to two major Broadway plays chosen by the group leader (one of which is tickets to "Young Frankenstein"!! The "Young Frankenstein" tickets are full price orchestra tickets for Wed. eve. May 21, 2007 ; an introductory seminar about New York which will include tips on what additional shows to see, how to get half-price tickets to plays and art events, and advice as to subways, tipping, and sightseeing, as well as a New York Guidebook with lots of trip specific information.
In addition to the basic tour, there will be a Theatre add on package and an Art/Museum package. With the Theatre package you can add one, two, or three additional plays chosen by Roger Drummond. The Art package will consist of visits to the Museum of Modern Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and a gallery tour led by USAO Art Professor, Jackie Knapp.
There will be plenty of free time to see more plays and/or museums and for individual shopping, sightseeing, and other adventures. USAO Independent Study credit is available for students, but not required.
To join the tour, or for a lot more specific information, please contact: Roger Drummond, Tour Leader at (405) 361-2554. (email - facdrummondr@usao.edu ) or Jackie Knapp (405) 574-1303 (email - facknappj@usao.edu ). The USAO mailing address is 1727 W. Alabama Ave., Chickasha, OK, 73018. Or, visit the USAO website: http://www.usao.edu. Click on News and then on New York 2008 under Trips and Tours for more information.
Take advantage of this great opportunity and join this New York trip. Space is limited, so sign up soon. Give Your Regards to Broadway, Remember me to Harold Square.
Meet Your Board
Merrisue Lucardeaux
That’s right, a June Taylor Dancer. That’s what I truly wanted to be when I was a very little girl. Who wouldn’t want to do all of those glorious dance numbers and top it off each week with a dance number comprised of lying on the stage in a circle and moving your arms and legs to resemble views from your own toy kaleidoscope. Of course my dance skills were obvious when my mom and dad weren’t around, and I put The Sound of Music on the stereo full blast singing I am Sixteen, You are Seventeen while leaping from chair to chair to sofa to chair around the living room. Before I totally disappointed myself by growing to the imposing size of 5’ 3” and never having had a dance lesson, I had other aspirations. I do however very vaguely remember my mother taking my sister and me to an audition at the local television affiliate when we lived in Tulsa. I was no older than three years old. A very dark room, only a few bright lights on, and giant grownup faces in my face trying to get me to talk.
I have always had the desire to perform, but when reality hit me at eight or nine (with the help of an extremely pragmatic father), I redirected my goals and deposited my aspirations into the fantasy category. When the chance arose to enroll in a drama class in high school, I heard my father’s voice say, “That might be fun, but you would be better off taking accounting. If you’re good at it, you could work towards becoming a CPA. The message was loud and clear. Anyway, I did well in school, earned my bachelor’s degree in Speech and Language Pathology and master’s degree in Audiology.
Apparently, when I felt that I was “grown up enough” and my career as an audiologist was established, I was safe to ease into the uncharted territory of theatre. Community theatre, to be exact. My daughter, Emma, showed interest and eagerness in this direction as well. Since she was only four years old and always with me, our first production was Annie. She was too young to be cast as Molly, but the director wanted her to be the youngest orphan, she would call “Little Em”. It became a family affair. My husband, an architect and artist, designed the set, and I was in charge of props. We had a tremendous amount of fun and met so many new friends. Well that was the beginning of many years of enjoyment, hard work, and memories at Town and Gown Theatre in Stillwater. While I started out doing many jobs back stage, I was, on my own, going to as many acting workshops, classes and seminars as I could manage. Many of these were OCTA workshops. I was so hungry to learn as much as I could about stage acting.
Through the theatre I had met a friend and long time OCTA Board member and actor/writer/director, Sondra Williams, who I think could tell how excited I was to become involved. She suggested one day that I might think about becoming a “regional representative” for OCTA. That sounded quite interesting. One thing led to another, and in a year or so I was asked to be on the OCTA Board of Directors. Agreeing to do this has been one of the best decisions of my life.
At about the same time all of this was going on, Emma and I found ourselves signed with a modeling agent in Tulsa. This agent thought we were better suited to acting (5’ 3”, remember), so he sent us to Dallas with names of three agencies. Amazingly enough, we were both signed by the first one we visited. As you might expect, at that point I was in disbelief over all of it, but I was enjoying every opportunity. Over the next few years, Emma and I had so much fun going to Dallas for auditions and the occasional jobs. Mostly we did commercial work and print work. Few people knew we were doing this because we didn’t talk about it much. Over the years, when the trips to Dallas became too much, we decided to sign with an agent in Okla. City.
Meanwhile, we consistently stayed involved with community theatre and OCTA. Emma was an attendee at the first several OCTA youth workshops, and spent many hours helping us in the OCTA library. We continued to attend as many acting/performing workshops as possible, many of those through OCTA, to learn as much as we could. Thanks to OCTA, I was introduced to one of my passions, improvisation, by attending a workshop taught by Chicago improv master, Errol McClendon. I was fortunate to be in two Town and Gown Theatre OCTAFest productions. In OCTAFest ’93, our production was a co-winner at the state festival and went on to the regional festival. Our production in OCTAFest ’95 was also a state co-winner and won second place at Southwest Regional Festival where, I was honored with a best actor award. I have continued to assist in each OCTAFest as the official timekeeper, a job which doesn’t win me any popularity contests, but one in which I might be thought of as a fixture. I have to say I don’t think there is a group of more wonderful interesting and fun loving people than those I’ve come to know and love in community theatre and OCTA.
I also became active in Southwest Theatre Association with my very good friend Sharon Burum, from Duncan, who joined the OCTA Board at the same time I did. We have had so much fun through these years at all of the theatre events. I was Chair of the Professional Theatre Division of SWTA for a short time. Sharon is currently Vice President in charge of Conferences of the organization, now called Southwest Theatre and Film Association.
Since we moved to Okla. City several years ago, I have been spending a little more time as an audiologist, which I love, but I have remained active in community theatre, having performed at ACTS Warehouse with Duty Free Productions, Synchronicity Theatre, Oklahoma City Theatre Company, 2 X 4 Productions, and Carpenter Square Theatre. Most of my actor friends are also directing productions. They are braver than I. I will stick to trying my hand on stage. Oh yes, you might like to know that when I started acting, a few years before my father died, he let me know how very proud he was of me…. a little surprised probably, but deeply proud. It was my original aspiration and I know, always will be my desire.
(Editor’s Note: Merrisue didn’t mention that she was given the Bill Crawford award at OCTAFest in 2006, in recognition of her accomplishments, services, and devotion to OCTA in past years.)
Community Theatre Origins—Perry, OK.
By Bill Bullock with the invaluable help of Marjorie Martin
"When the pistols popped off out on the plains, and the land run began out over the verdant hills of Perry, Oklahoma in 1893 who would have figured that not only a town would be born, but a theatrical tradition that has continued from those early days of the "grand opera house" in 1895 until now -- in 2007-- a hundred ten + years later !!
In 1975, Perry, Oklahoma built a 1000-seat high-school auditorium and theatre, and invited the Stagecoach Community Theatre to present the first production there. In the spring of 1975, under the guidance of Jeanne Adams Wray, professor of drama at OSU and Steve Smallwood, high school drama coach at Perry High School, Stagecoach presented the musical "Oklahoma.” More than a hundred people, cast and crew, worked to make the show a success -- fitting, but not without peril.
When the show opened, a ferocious thunderstorm came roaring through -- (ask Gary England about this one), the roof leaked, and the storm washed in through the front door. The audience was about to rush away home when the cast stopped dancing and simply started singing songs from the show. The electricity went on and off and on & off and finally went out completely. For the rest of the night, while the storm passed by audience and cast and crew kept singing the songs from the show by candlelight, flashlight and lightning, until the storm had passed.
The next night, everyone in town was invited to come see the show for free. That Saturday night, over 750 people came back for that roaring revival of "Oklahoma.”
S.C.T. came to be among the first of Oklahoma's incorporated community theatres.
Borne on the wings of an Oklahoma thunderstorm, Stagecoach Community Theatre will celebrate their 100th consecutive production in April, 2008.
With the generous support of Ed Malzahn and the Charles Machine Works, a state of the art theatre was built in Perry in 2000,revitalized on the south-east corner of downtown from the original blacksmith shop where ditch-witch began !
Mr. Toad
One of the young cast members, Tara Moses, who plays Mr. Toad’s housekeeper wrote this review of the play. It was posted online at Live Journal, Tulsa Times section. The cast can be seen answering questions in character on YouTube.
“The Mad Adventures of Mr. Toad”
It’s fun! You’ll laugh, we’ll dance for your enjoyment AND there’s a toad in a dress!
The Broken Arrow Community Playhouse is presenting “The Mad Adventures of Mr. Toad”. It’s a stellar play that can be enjoyed by all, and it’s...
Okay, who wants to read about a play (that’s awesome by the way) and be bored out of your mind? Not me!
So, there’s a play going on at the BACP, and it’s an upbeat, hysterically funny production put on by children. (Oh yes, youth theatre rocks) And lets just say, if you are not laughing uncontrollably, you are going to be in a shocking state of awe from the astonishing performances of these youth whom you would never imagine could sing AND dance all at the same time! I never knew I could, and I’m in the play!
(Yeah, we worked hard, so you should come and see it because we devoted so much tedious labor into putting on this play and you should be grateful) (Just kidding! But, we did work very hard)
“The Mad Adventures of Mr. Toad” is a more enjoyable version of Kenneth Grahame’s play Wind in the Willows. I’m not saying his was boring, but ours is just awesome because it is directed by the ever-amazing Byn Always. It’s about Mr. Toad, played by Kainan Always, who has crazies that just so happen to be a danger to mankind. (Oops) And his main obsession for the time being is motorcars. Even though his caring and concerned friends Rat, Badger, and Mole, played by Abby Messner, Piper Pearson, and Abyni Always, try to help him, he, being arrogant as he is, does not listen, not even when the Judge, Caleb Mohr, sentences him to prison. (Yeah, I told you he was arrogant). Not to mention the diabolical Captain Jack Weasel, Ryan Bourque, and his evil (and some stupid) minion weasels are going to do everything in their power to make sure chaos is occurring to Mr. Toad, the Wild Wood, and everyone who lives there. (They aren’t very nice) Does Mr. Toad learn his lesson? Will he finally stop raising havoc in the Wild Wood? Does Captain Jack Weasel get his revenge? I don’t know you’ll just have to come and see it! (Well, I do know, but I’m not telling you!)
Performing in youth theatre really is an experience. It gives children something to do. So they aren’t sitting on the couch all day annoying their parents. (As my mother says Thank Goodness!) Every time someone comes to a youth performance, the child actor just gets an adrenalin rush and can not wait to get out on stage and amaze the audience. At least that is how I feel whenever I’m about to perform. So, come on out and support your youth theatre!
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