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ALT is built on giving.  Our volunteers give generously of their time and talent.  Our patrons give their love and “treasure.”  We all regularly make sacrifices of some sort for the good of the organization.  That’s just one of the things that makes ALT such a special place.   Today, our leading lady for South Pacific, Jeni Roller, made a somewhat unusual sacrifice for the “team.”  She cut her hair!!!  As South Pacific takes place during World War II, we concluded that Jeni’s long hair would not be right for her character.  She had two choices: wear a wig or shorten her hair.  Since she also has to get her head wet in the famous “Wash That Man Outta My Hair” scene, she decided that cutting her hair was the better choice.   She came by to show me her really cute shorter cut this afternoon.  Fortunately, she really likes the new cut and so does her husband.  I’m glad.   Here’s a photo from earlier today as the “deed” was taking place.

We had a terrific opening weekend of A Feminine Ending. The shows were all really strong and audiences seemed to enjoy the show a lot.  Congratulations to Jeff and his cast and crew for their great work.  We also had a very stimulating discussion about the show at yesterday’s Hastings’ Ovation Series event.  About 20 people stayed after the show to discuss the themes and ideas of the production.  I love getting a chance to hear the thoughts of our audience members in this format.  We hope to have four sold-out performances this weekend, so if you haven’t seen the show make a reservation today.

Today was a hectic day at ALT as we opened registration for our fall Academy classes.  We had hundreds of moms, dads, grandmothers, grandfathers and kiddos lined up  for a good portion of the day to register for classes.  Our Academy program is growing at a very rapid pace.  It’s no surprise as we undoubtedly have one of the best groups of instructors in the entire area.  We have just recently posted bios for each of our dance and theatre instructors on our website.   If you would like to peruse these bios and see for yourself what a terrific group we have on our team, check it out here.  I am so proud of our Academy!  I believe it may be our greatest achievement during my tenure at ALT.

Tonight begins another week of rehearsals for South Pacific. We have finally arrived at one of my favorite periods of the rehearsal process when we have the show staged and begin to work on all the details of each character and scene.   We are just about four weeks from the opening of South Pacific. It is going to be spectacular.

Lots of great things are happening at ALT everyday.  Thanks for being a part of our success.

Allen Shankles

The 2010-11 season has officially begun with last night’s performance of  A Feminine Ending. We will now have a full weekend of performances with big houses…..it will be fun.  I hope that you have already made plans to attend one of the performances.  Also, don’t forget that we will be hosting our first of the Hastings’ Ovation Series events on Sunday, August 22 immediately following the performance.  We are so grateful to Hastings for their continued support of this very worthwhile project.

I have one more night of “blocking” and then all of South Pacific will be staged.  It is a big show.  I am excited to have the blocking finished as I can now really begin to work the details of every scene.  That is my favorite part of the process.

Behind the scenes, work on the set is coming along very nicely.  The tech crew is working hard to create an “island oasis” that will transport our audiences to the tropics of the 1940s.  We are also scouring to find the appropriate costumes for a massive cast of 34.  It is amazing what one can find in these days of the internet.  It’s hard to believe that South Pacific will open in just three and a half weeks.  We have a lot to do, but I am confident that we will be ready.

In the meantime, we’re going to have a great weekend of fun performances for A Feminine Ending.  I hope to see you there.

Allen Shankles

I apologize that it has been since August 3 that I made my last blog posting.  I returned from a 5 day trip to see our daughter, Alex, in San Francisco on August 10 and have barely had a minute to look up since that time.   We have begun the staging process for South Pacific and I have been spending a good part of each day preparing for each night’s rehearsal.  It can be daunting to move so many people around on the stage.  This show contains lots of material and it is going to take every minute we have to get it into performance shape.

Last night, (Sunday) I got my first look at our production of A Feminine Ending. Jeff Jarnagin and his cast have done a good job of getting this show ready for our audiences.  It promises to be a great time.  I am extremely proud of the set for this show as it is very unique and proves that a great design can be very simple.  Congratulations to Gregg and Tana and our crew for this success.  The show opens on Thursday.  If you haven’t made your reservations yet, you should do so today.

Finally, I want to report that ALT has been abundantly blessed in the past couple of weeks.  We always enjoy amazing support from our patrons, but we have recently received some extraordinary financial gifts.  On August 3, I received confirmation that my good friends and longtime ALT patrons, Mike and Ellen Brister, would be making a gift of $30,000 to be used to replace four air-conditioning and heating units in the ALT Mainstage auditorium.  These units will hopefully be installed and in use for the opening of South Pacific. I am sure that you will agree that this is an amazing act of generosity.  Thanks Mike and Ellen!

Today, out of the blue, we received a check in the amount of $10,000 from the estate of longtime ALT patron, the late Betty Burkhalter.  This is the second such check we have received from Ms. Burkhalter’s estate.  These funds will most likely go into our Endowment fund and could eventually be used to help with the construction of our proposed new Adventure Space facility.

While gifts such as these are truly extraordinary, I am constantly amazed by all of the generosity shown to ALT every day.  People give so much to this organization, not just in terms of their financial treasure, but also with their time, talent and knowledge.  This commitment to ALT keeps me inspired and makes me want to do my best every day.

Allen Shankles

We had our first music rehearsal for South Pacific last night.  It is always exciting to meet with a new cast for the first time and to “launch” into the rehearsal process.  I encouraged the cast to remember this night with all of us gathered around the piano on a bare stage.  In just about six weeks a magical transformation will take place and our show will come to life on stage!  There truly is “magic” in the theatre……plus a lot of hard work.

Our old friend, Mark Robertson Baker, is working on a documentary style TV commercial for South Pacific. In order to make this work, he must shoot video of every step of the production process.  He shot several hours of audition footage.  He was at last night’s first meeting and rehearsal and he will shoot portions of more rehearsals, set construction, production meetings, etc.  Along the way, we are going to use some of his footage to “tease” you with different views of the South Pacific process.  I am including a link to the video on YouTube.  In this 13 minute video, you can get a sort of synopsis of the entire audition process.  Enjoy.

We are also just a couple of weeks away from the opening of the ALT season.  A Feminine Ending promises to be a fun evening of entertainment.  This is a great new show that had a recent successful run at Playwright’s Horizon in New York.  Jeff Jarnagin is directing and he has a wonderfully talented cast.  I am also very excited about the set.  We have again created a totally new environment for this show with the audience sitting on two sides of the acting space.

We are once again “running at high speed” here at ALT.  I hope you will plan to come along for the ride.

Allen Shankles

It’s been a grueling week.  After seeing 80 wonderfully talented people during two days of auditions and spending several hours in discussions, we posted the cast list for South Pacific. If you want to see the cast list, you can check it out here on our website. It is an exciting group of very talented performers and I can’t wait to get started on the show.  Starting Monday, the cast will begin learning music.  We will begin staging the show on August 11.

Few people understand the struggle we go through when casting our productions.  We spend hours of time pondering all of the possibilities, looking at conflicts, discussing pros and cons of different choices.  In addition to needing to cast people who have the skills for specific roles, we want to find people who look and sound like our vision for the character.  We also must consider how each person will look in certain pairings or groups.  Ultimately, I trust my instinct on some of the most difficult choices.  Usually, I am successful, sometimes not as much.   Undoubtedly, making good choices in casting ensures that the show will be more successful.

I have been watching some of the final rehearsal for the Academy camp production which culminates two full weeks of camp.  This camp is comprised of over 40 teenagers.  I am blown away by the great talent and energy exhibited by these wonderful kids.  Our future looks so bright thanks to our Academy.  In fact, several of our Academy youth and graduates will be performing in South Pacific.
After this long and difficult week, I am ready to for the weekend.

Allen Shankles