From the warehouse to the stage

Tonight marks the last night of tech week, the cast and orchestra has been working extremely hard to make this production of the Mikado one to remember. For those of us who have been involved in the production from the beginning, this is both a joyful occasion (we finally get to see the finished product and share it with all our friends and family) and a sad occasion (we have all had so much fun that it will be hard to leave the show behind). Before we hit opening night I thought it might be fun to look back at the process and see some statistics of what it really takes to create the final staged production.

Time

We started talking about The Mikado in February; planning for auditions and discussing the artistic vision, creating the set design and costume design, discussing lighting and makeup, and finally hosting auditions and casting the show. April saw the beginning of cast rehearsals and while I can't even begin to give you an accurate number of hours put into those rehearsals, the basic break down is;

10 weeks X 4 days a week X 2.5 hour rehearsals = 100 hours of pure rehearsal time, now multiply that by the varying number of cast members and production staff called each day and the time spent in rehearsals raises exponentially.

In terms of shop hours, we have on record 110.5 hours spent in the set and costume shop. Some of our cast spent upwards of 15 hours in the shop.

People

I often remark that given the number of people involved in a production that it is a miracle any theater company can survive. While this is of course a slight joke (we all do this because we love it and wouldn't think about not putting in the time and effort), the amount of people involved is still a staggering number







The Mikado has;
10 production staff
1 stage manager and 2 assistant stage managers
26 cast members
30 orchestra members
4 rehearsal pianists
4 super-title operators
3 house managers
3 orchestra managers
2 videographers
2 photographers
16 board members
6 marketing committee members
plus a small army of ushers and other administrative help for a total of approximately 125 people (some of the positions listed above are performed by the same people)

Passion

The final statistic is one that is impossible to quantify; the passion that all our volunteers have put into this production. From day 1, the cast has been extremely enthusiastic about the show (we would often see them stay "in character" while passing each other in the hallways). The orchestra has once again come into rehearsals with a professional level of respect for the music and put their very best into the production. The entire production staff, cast, and orchestra have all put up with long

hours and occasional difficulties with grace and patience always keeping the love of G&S as the most important factor. I am sure you will all see in their production all the things I have mentioned and we can't wait for you to see what we have been working on all this time.





Don't miss your opportunity to see the show www.lyrictheatre.org/tickets

As always you can keep in touch with us on Facebook, Twitter, and our website

Marketing for a Community Theater Production – It takes a Village

Today we hear from Ewa Nowicka, our Publicist for The Mikado and learn about the many key elements of Marketing that she has collected during this production.


Be an Organized Creative

The reality of working with a community theater is that the budget is small, very small. So an organized marketing plan will be crucial to getting the most out of your budget. The first thing that I did when I started working on this production was to talk to the director about his vision for the show, the next thing I did was write out a list of tasks I wanted to complete. I figured out the help I needed to complete those tasks and what I would need to finish them, including all the contacts and setup info Laurie Hupman had collected over the years, and the dates I expected to finish everything. As the rehearsals moved along, I would frequently go back to this list to make sure everything was on track. Being organized is vital to achieving what you set out to do—don’t underestimate the value of a good spreadsheet!

The small budget you have to work with should be looked upon as a chance to do things you always wanted to do. I really wanted to start an event specific to introducing live theater to children with this show. So with a tiny budget and a lot of creative volunteers, we are making Art Start a reality. Please come to the event on June 22nd (check out our website for more information)! Listen to folks who have suggestions and take the time to investigate them. I knew that I had a small amount of cash to use, so I looked for free marketing that also allowed for our cast to get out in the community. Friend of Lyric Marc Kenig sent me a note with the idea to sing at the San Jose Giants game, which I thought was a fabulous idea. So I booked the gig, made sure everyone was branded with Lyric Theatre T-shirts, and we sang our hearts out at a baseball game in San Jose. This gig cost us nothing, but got our brand out to our local community at a sporting event and exposed our talent to many potential ticket purchasers.

Build new Relationships with Old Vendors
Lyric Theatre has been a vibrant part of the community for over 40 years. So there have been many staff members who have worked with local newspaper and radio groups to advertise previous shows. Thanks to the pre-existing relationships with these vendors it was relatively easy for me to set up our ads on KDFC and with San Jose Mercury News. However, this was the first time that these vendors had worked with me. The great thing about this situation was that they knew what we wanted, but they were eager to make a new relationship with me. Don’t be scared to tell your vendors what your real budget is, and it is always worth a try to ask for a lower cost. You might not get exactly what you were looking for, but what you get might be better than you expected. You never know when a vendor will upgrade your ad to free color, or give you 15 free mentions on their radio station. Remember to say thank you, and hope that this will happen again! Always be grateful. You are building another block on a healthy relationship with another part of your community.

Don’t give up on these older types of marketing. Just because I don’t read the newspaper doesn’t mean that there aren’t many potential ticket purchasers who might not hear about our show otherwise. Plus, having a presence in a large local newspaper reminds your community that you are around, and you want them to be a part of your production.

Be Social and Be Consistent
The key to making social media work for you is to create a story that people will be interested in following, and give them a reason to care throughout that journey. Your followers will lose interest in you if you aren't consistent in your posting of your story. For The Mikado we made a conscious effort to beef up our social media presence. I have started managing our Twitter account (follow us @LyricTheatreSJ) and we now have 58% more followers than we did two months ago. We've documented the fun we've been having singing at the San Jose Giants game, performing at the Eastridge Mall Barnes and Noble, showing off our amazing flats painted by Connie Kleinjans, and candid shots of our cast rehearsing on Facebook, and we have received a lot of positive feedback on that outlet because of those posts. One of my favorite series of posts was the Meet the Cast series, which allowed our followers to see the lives of our cast offstage. As a community theater group, this series gave our audience on Facebook a chance to see what our cast cares about, and all of the great work they do in our community in addition to their volunteering with Lyric Theatre. This blog that Justin has created is another extremely effective way to engage with your online community to allow for engaging storytelling, which will hopefully encourage more folks to come in and buy a ticket. Just be consistent in whatever social media strategy you use, and always link back to your website so those reading know how to get tickets to your show!

It takes a Village
Word of mouth is an invaluable marketing tool and every single person involved in this show will need to promote the production within their own networks. We've asked every single board member, every cast member, and production staff member to spread the word by sharing photos and fliers, and emailing out information on the production. Hopefully those of you reading this have seen our fliers in your community and maybe an email got forwarded to you!

Our directors being interviewed for KDFC's
State of the Arts

Ask for help. There have been times when I was very busy and couldn’t manage to take care of a few things I planned and I had to reach out for help, and got it from the rest of marketing team. And be there to help as well—I’ve proofread a lot of emails, and been to a few more events than I planned, and it was worth it. For all of the help I've given I've received a lot more in return— the extra postings on community sites by Lindsay Ip, the new ticket discount codes created by Chris Frye, endless flier sharing by Cheryl Blalock, and multiple times our graphic designer Jennifer Mederios had to update the Art Start flier have all been invaluable!

We hope you’ve enjoyed seeing how we put together The Mikado, and we hope you come to see what our talented cast, production staff, orchestra and volunteers have been working on! Come see The Mikado at the Montgomery Theatre from June 21-29th! www.lyrictheatre.org/tickets

Ewa Nowicka is a performer, arts advocate, new Board Member at Lyric Theatre, and social media lover residing in the Bay Area. She will be performing a staged concert in San Jose on November 14th and 16th, and hopes to see you there! Learn more at www.EwaNow.com and on twitter @Ewa_Now

As always you can keep in touch with us on Facebook, Twitter, and our website

Spotlight: Stage Manager

We're back again with another spotlight! This time we examine one of the most crucial roles in a theatrical production, the stage manager. Once again we will be hearing from a guest writer, Sarah Terman who has been a stage manager with several of Lyric's shows.

We beg your indulgence for the use of
an often overused meme, but it seemed
appropriate

Hi, I'm Sarah Terman, and Justin's letting me sneak on here and talk about my favorite job in theater: stage management.  Stage management is hard to describe adequately because the exact responsibilities of a stage manager vary a lot from company to company.  However, everywhere I've worked, the stage manager's primary mission is the same: to facilitate the rehearsal process and the performances of the show, taking pressure off the directors, the designers, and the performers so they can work their creative magic without getting bogged down in mundane details.  To this end, the stage manager usually is in charge of a large array of diverse tasks.  Here's a rundown of some of the more interesting ones.

During the rehearsal period, I attend every staging rehearsal.  It's my job to write down all the blocking as the director gives it to the actors.  This has three purposes: first, it allows the director to get into a the flow of the scene, without having to stop their artistic process frequently to write down what they've decided.  Most directors do come in to a rehearsal knowing what they want a scene to look like, but they may change their mind when they see it staged, or they may decide to incorporate something cool that the actors came up with on the spot.  I write all that down, so that later, when they're trying to remember what got changed, there's a written record to look at.  Second, if an actor can't attend one of the rehearsals, they can always come to see me to get the notes for the material they missed.  And finally, if an actor finds that their own notes are confusing, they come to me for clarification.  It's thus my goal to have detailed descriptions of where every person is standing and what they are doing at all times.  With 30+ people on the stage in large chorus scenes, this can be quite a handful!  I draw a lot of little diagrams to help keep everything straight.

The other big task I have during rehearsals is the rehearsal notes.  After every staging rehearsal, I write up an email report for the production staff, which contains anything that came up during the rehearsal that people need to know about.  For example, if a set piece breaks during rehearsal - and yes, it happens! - I'll include a note explaining what broke and how.  That way, our build crew knows to come fix it, and hopefully, they'll also find a way to keep it from happening again.  Or if the director decides that a character should pull a notebook from his pocket, I'll of course need to let the props manager know we need a notebook.  I will also need to let the costume shop know that actor will need a pocket to keep the notebook in.  Every part of the show is connected, and even small changes may affect multiple departments.  Keeping everyone informed of all developments is a big part of what I do.

Once we move into the theater, my job changes.  Again, I have a lot of things to handle, but two of the most important are coordinating everyone's preparations for opening curtain, and actually calling the show.  Before each performance, I track which actors have arrived at the theater, and once it gets past a certain time, I or my assistants call the stragglers to make sure they're en route and that they will arrive before they have to go on stage. (There have been some close calls in the past.) I also periodically remind the actors how long it is until curtain - there are relatively few clocks in our dressing room area, and knowing how long they have helps the actors time their preparations.  When there is a little more than half an hour left before curtain, I consult with the run crew, the light board operator, and the supertitles operator, making sure all of them are prepared for the audience to enter the theater.  Then, ideally at exactly half an hour before curtain, I let the house manager know that he or she can open the lobby doors and let the audience be seated.  Once the house manager tells me that they have stopped seating, I start the show.

During the performance itself, I coordinate all the technical aspects - this is known as "calling the show.".  This is probably my favorite part of the job.  From my vantage point in the lighting booth, I watch the performance and cue the crew over the headset.  I tell the lights when to change, I tell the curtain when to open and close, and I sometimes tell the set crew when to shift the scene, if it's something that needs to be carefully timed.  There's also occasionally troubleshooting to be done - if an actor misses an entrance, I send my assistants to find them, or if a prop doesn't make it onstage when it's supposed to, I'll try to find a way for another actor to bring it out before it's needed.  I also monitor the costumes for signs of imminent malfunction, and pass word backstage when safety pins might be urgently needed in the wings.  But mostly I get to enjoy the show like everyone else on the audience side of the curtain.

Stage management is not for everyone.  It's less creative than most of the other positions in the production, and sometimes it can feel a little overwhelming.  But I've found that it brings me into contact with every aspect of the production like no other job I've tried.  It's a great way to watch the entire artistic process unfold, and a great way to meet a lot of very cool people.  I find stage management to be a very rewarding job, and I'm immensely proud of all the shows that I have helped along.

*As a personal note from the producer; we owe a great deal of thanks to our stage managers, they do an outstanding job and many a production would fall off rail very quickly without the tireless work of our stage managers*

Be sure to get your tickets to the Mikado now www.lyrictheatre.org/tickets

As always you can keep in touch with us on Facebook, Twitter, and our website

Spotlight: The Make Up Designer

We would like to apologize for the lack of blog posts recently, as you can imagine, things have been pretty busy around here and we are looking forward to seeing all our hard work make it to the stage!

Today we wanted to offer you a view behind the curtain of a member of the production staff who is occasionally overlooked, but vitally important to our productions, the make up designer. Our make up designer for "The Mikado" is David Kirby, a long time designer both at Lyric and other theater companies in the Bay Area. I asked him to give a short description of what a make up designer does and here is what he wrote.

In designing makeup for a show, the first thing required is to find out what is wanted. In some theatre companies, the makeup designer reports directly to the director; in others, he is subordinate to the costume designer. Whichever the case, the makeup designer confers with the appropriate person to find out the overview of the desired makeup for the show. In many Gilbert & Sullivan productions, the makeup is fairly standardized, "plain vanilla," especially for the chorus. In others, there are departures from the norm, such as the stylized eye treatment in The Mikado or the ghosts in Ruddigore. (In Lyric Theatre's "Bollywood" version of The Sorcerer, for example, two dancers had to be painted gray to look like stone statues, a definite departure). The director, of course, has the final say on the makeup requirements.

The next step is the physical preparation of the makeup. The makeup designer makes sure the required makeup is on hand. For theatre companies that provide makeup to the actors, this means that the company kit, as well as the makeup artist's personal kit, are well provided. In some companies, the makeup designer is also the single handed makeup artist; in other companies, there is a makeup crew. The designer recruits the crew and makes sure they are all aware of the makeup requirements. Also included in this process is the cleaning of the makeup brushes, tidying of the company kit, and laying in supplies of sponges, tissues, and baby wipes for makeup removal.

Next, the makeup designer orients and informs the cast about what is required of them. Makeup design sketches are useful in this event, showing what colors of makeup go where (this is especially helpful to first-time actors). It also helps to provide information to the cast, in the case that the company does not provide makeup to the cast, about what sort of makeup they need to buy and where they can go to get it.

Finally, the show opens and the makeup is applied. The makeup designer needs to be on hand to supervise the makeup and make sure the design sketches are followed, to assist beginning actors who have little or no experience in applying makeup, and, if the designer is also the sole makeup artist, to do any needed character or specialty makeups. He also needs to be prepared to do damage control during each performance, in case some makeup runs, a painted-on tattoo is smeared, or a mustache comes loose.

As always you can keep in touch with us on Facebook, Twitter, and our Website. Be sure to pick up your tickets to see the show!

Special Report: Photo Shoot

Today we got our 3 Little Maids together for a photo shoot at the Japanese Friendship Gardens in Kelly Park. We all met at the warehouse at 11 am where our makeup designer, David Kirby, got the ladies all painted up. Our costume designer, Lisa Claybaugh, helped them into their costumes and wigs and we all set off for the park. Please enjoy the behind the scene's photos and be on the look out for the finished photos coming soon!

As always you can keep in touch with us on Facebook, Twitter, and our website.

*photos courtesy of Tim Converse and Sandra Linehan

Left, right, and center: blocking begins

The first two weeks of our Mikado rehearsals are over, the cast has had lots of time to work with our music director learning and perfecting the songs in the show and now it is time to turn them over to our stage director for blocking, but what is blocking? In simplest terms, blocking is the process by which directors arrange actors on the stage. Popular understanding states that the term blocking originated in the 19th century when directors and librettists like Gilbert would use actual blocks to depict the actors and move them around a mock stage to get an idea of what the show will look like. There are several factors that go into blocking a show; dramatic presence, sight lines to the audience, as well as set and lighting design.

As these shows are primarily visual pieces, it is important to consider how a scene will look when blocking. If your two main love interests are singing a duet, it would be better to place them in a secluded corner together rather than on opposite ends of the stage, or if you have a powerful king making a grand entrance it make sense to stage him on a raised platform while the rest of the cast looks up at him in reverence. Sight lines are simple enough to explain, they are what the audience can see. Each stage has it's own peculiarities to where the audience can see and what is considered "off stage" and it is crucial for a director to know where those lines are. Set and light design also play a role in blocking, as mentioned before if you have a grand entrance and the set incorporates a raised platform, the natural choice is to block the actor there. On the flip side, it is important to know where the lighting designer will be aiming the stage lights as an actor in the dark is an unseen actor.

There is one important member of the production staff we have not talked about yet, the stage manager. The stage manager is really the one responsible for making sure a show runs smoothly. They attend every rehearsal and take detailed notes about blocking and entrances. When a show begins its run, it is not uncommon for the director to remove themselves from the production, they may still be present and will offer notes on the performance, but at this point, the stage manager is in charge of calling entrances and making sure the blocking is carried out in the manner the director laid out.

A note about terminology; you may have heard the term stage right or stage left and wondered what they mean. The reason behind using terms like stage left and stage right is to avoid confusion. When the director is staging, he/she will be viewing the scene from the point of view of the audience. Obviously, the actors view it from the opposite point of view. If a director were to say "move left" the actor would have to question "his left or my left". To alleviate this, theater companies have adopted the use of stage left, stage right, up stage, and down stage. Up stage refers to the back of the stage (a term derived from a type of stage that rises away from the audience), down stage is the opposite (the side closest to the audience), left and right stage are from the actors point of view, and the term house left or house right may be used to indicate the stage from the audiences point of view.

Got it? There will be a test.

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Inspiration! The origins of The Mikado

The year was 1884, Princess Ida is nearing the end of it's run and Richard D'Oyly Carte realized that for the first time since 1877, no new Gilbert and Sullivan production would be ready by the time Ida closed. In March of that year, D'Oyly Carte sent contractual notice to Gilbert and Sullivan that a new play would be required. Gilbert immediately began working on a script that involved falling in love against their will use of a magic lozenge. Sullivan was less enthusiastic about the opportunity, having seen a close friend suffer from a stroke and contemplating his own failing health in addition to a desire to devote his time to more "serious" music, Sullivan wrote back that it would be impossible to work on another collaboration with Gilbert. Gilbert was surprised to hear that Sullivan was not interested in another collaboration and asked him to reconsider. Sullivan responded that he would prefer a plot which allowed him to write music that complemented both humorous and serious plots and that the "magic lozenge" plot was too improbable as well as too similar to a previous show by the duo, The Sorcerer.

A photo of the Japanese Village
taken by W. S. Gilbert

It seemed that this may be the end of the Gilbert and Sullivan collaboration, however in May of 1884, Gilbert wrote to Sullivan again asking if he would reconsider should Gilbert write a plot with no supernatural elements and with "a consistent plot, free from anachronisms, constructed in perfect good faith & to the best of my ability". Sullivan agreed, and Gilbert began thinking of a new plot, the plot which would become The Mikado. The story of how The Mikado came to Gilbert states that he was walking in his study one day when an ancient Japanese sword fell off the wall. Gilbert picked it up and placed it back in it's place and as he did so realized that an exotic locale like Japan would make a good setting for his new plot. In the 1850's Japan had been opened to western trade and influence and by the 60's and 70's a massive interest in  Japanese culture had swept through Britain, this culminated in the Japanese Village exhibit in Knightsbridge, specifically at Humphrey's Hall a few miles from Gilbert's house. It is widely believed that this was the inspiration for the show, however that may not be accurate; for example, Gilbert began working on the plot in May of 1884 and the Japanese Village opened in January of 1885. However, Gilbert may have known about the exhibit coming to Kinghtsbridge and it is clear that he used the exhibit to build interest for his plot as well as to accurately depict the Japanese style going so far as to hire members of the exhibit to teach the cast traditional Japanese movements and attitudes.

The rest of the story is history, in March of 1885, the show opened at the Savoy theater and became the longest running Gilbert and Sullivan production closing in January of 1887 a staggering 672 shows. Since then, it has become one of the most often performed pieces in musical theater history. It has been translated into multiple languages and is a popular choice for school, amateur, and professional companies alike. Not to be left out of the fun, John  Philip Sousa published a march based on the themes of The Mikado it premiered the same year as The Mikado and can be found here played by the US Marine Band.

All background information taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mikado

As always, you can keep in touch with us on Facebook, Twitter, and our website.