The Mail Order Bride

I got to watch a stumble through of this play on Sunday. It brought tears to my eyes and they are still a couple of weeks out. A definite must see! Written by local playwright Robert Clinton, this play premiered in Edmonton in 1988 and hasn't been seen here since. It has played across Canada in a variety of theatre, including the Blythe Festival last summer.

Busy Sunday for Me and Walterdale

Today I am heading into the theatre for a sneak peek at The Mail Order Bride. They are in good shape from what I hear, so I am looking forward to seeing where it's at. I may not stay to watch the whole thing. I did that with Beautiful Thing. I wanted to see where they were at, but I wanted to save something for Opening Night. We shall see how today goes!

Later in the evening I have the second read-through of Uncle Robert's Funeral which will be read at From Cradle to Stage. The Playwright has a new draft and we will read through that a few times (and some smaller sections perhaps more than that) and see where we are at. I am looking forward to hearing the changes and seeing where the story has moved.

I have had quite a few new requests for Best Little Whorehouse in Texas auditions this week. They are filling up faster the closer we get to the actual dates! Yee haw!

Rights are pretty much in hand for next year's season. We have the contract for the last show, but there is one error in the contract that we need to get fixed (it refers to a different play by the same playwright) and then we are off. We are working on the media materials and hoping to get things out by mid May.

Tidbits...

Robert Clinton stopped by to watch a stumble through of The Mail Order Bride the other day. I wonder if it made everyone nervous to have the playwright in the house? I will stop by to see how things are going next weekend.

From Cradle to Stage - Due to an unforeseeable conflict, Hannah Spear had to drop out of Kiss Within a Kiss. We wish her luck on her Improv Tour and hope to see her back next season. Stepping in to play Kathy is Stephanie Wigston. We are excited to welcome Stephanie to Walterdale!

Auditions for The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas are 3 weeks away. There are 45 people signed up, but we would still like to see more. There's a part for everyone in this show and it will be a fun show to work on! Contact me at adwalterdale2009@yahoo.ca for more information.

Overlap

Last night I attended a Production Meeting for From Cradle to Stage. As of this morning, all three one acts have had their first read through with Playwrights in attendance to hear their words. The Production Meeting went well and things are definitely rolling along. If you would like to be involved in the fabulous production, contact me at adwalterdale200@yahoo.ca and I will get your name to our Production Manager. There are still positions to fill (operators, ASMs, crew, etc...) and this is a great project that helps develop New Canadian Work!

On my way to the meeting I stopped by the theatre to pick up some scripts. I ran into Alex Hawkins, who is directing The Mail Order Bride. He says that things are cooking in rehearsal and invited me to watch a rehearsal on Sunday. This is such a lovely, complex, script and based on auditions I would say they have a nice strong cast. I am looking forward to the sneak peek.

I am also busy taking names for auditions for The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. Sunday is almost completely full. Contact me at adwalterdale2009@yahoo.ca for more information or to book your time. We will look into adding an audition day if the Monday fills up which it might do because we still have a month to go until the audition dates.

During all of this, I am working on getting the rights for our shows for next season. So far I have secured rights for two of the shows and am waiting on the remaining 2. Bill Shakespeare is free and clear for production so that saves me a little work on Much Ado About Nothing.

Production Meetings

This week I had a Production Meeting and a Rehearsal Team Meeting for The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. One thing is for sure, we are going to have a fun time! Everyone on the team is so positive and hardworking. We have a delightful, unexpected set design provided by Doug Verdin and the costumes are designed by Geri Dittrich, costumer extraordinaire! Brad Melrose is doing our Lighting Design and based at the number of times I confessed my love to him during our Sweeney Todd Q2Q, I am sure he will bring the works to the show!

I met yesterday with Sally Hunt (Music Director) and Barb Mah (Choreographer) to plan out rehearsal time. Sally has already assembled her pit band and Barb is so excited to choreograph this dance-heavy show! We laughed as much as planned and everyone can be sure the level of expertise on this show will reach anyone's expectations. I also have Stacey Lawrence on board as my assistant director. I have never worked with Stacey before, but I can tell already that she will be one that I can easily trust with anything I ask of her. Richard Hatfield is our illustrious Stage Manager - he has his work cut out for him with all these strong women! Leading the Production Team is Jim Draginda. His expertise is evident in that this is the 4th show in 2 seasons that he has PM'd. He knows what he is doing!

Recent additions to the team include Erin Foster-O'Riordan on Sound Design and Brendan Boyd on Props. We also have people coming forward for running crew, asm's and operators. All we need now are the actors!

Season Meeting

Last night was our season meeting for the 2010-2011 Season. I cannot announce anything yet, but things are decided and as soon as we finalize show dates we can proceed with acquiring the rights. I am excited, as I like this next season as much as I like the current one, but in different ways. I think that it will offer some things that weren't offered this season and will also fulfill the needs of many of our members and audiences.

Be advised, the season selection is taken very seriously, by myself and by the rest of the Board. I cannot guess at how many scripts I read and agonized over and the amount of time it took me to decide on the final configuration. As for the Board, they were quite rigorous with everything last night and that is good for Walterdale.

Stay tuned!