There will be more info on the website about this but just thought I’d do a shout out to our very talented group of scholarship winners for 2008:
Laura Sullivan Scholarship 1st place: Jamie Kluth
Laura Sullivan Scholarship 2nd place: Meghan Gray
Ray Abundis Technical Scholarship: Ethan Bernstein
All of us CSTOCK supporters are very proud of this group of young people. We’re happy to be able to help assist in their education!
It all started in 3rd grade. I played the part of Casper the Ghost in the school play. A few years later, I was Dick Martin in “Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In.” After a short respite to play flag football and flirt with the cheerleaders, I had two choices of high school - one that was just down the street, complete with all my pocket protector buddies and straight leg flood pants. The other high, clear across town, held tremendous promise. Know one knew me. I didn’t have to fulfill my longstanding roll of resident dipstick. I could be whatever I wanted to be.
In my freshman year, something possessed me, and I tried out for the school musical, “Carnival,” and was given the lead of Jaquot, the Puppeteer. From there, I played Cornelius Hackl in “Matchmaker,” the non-musical version of “Hello Dolly.” That Summer I did a couple of bit parts in Lil’ Abner, and later played the Scarecrow in “Wizard of Oz” and Sir Harry in “Once Upon a Mattress.” I played Harold Hill in the “Music Man’ and El Gallo in the a “Fantastiks.” My first community theatre was in a production of “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown” where I happily played the spoiled caninie, Snoopy.
In the back of my mind, I had always wanted to find the right time to re-enter the theater fray. And what better venue to do so than with C-STOCK! My first show was “1940’s Radio Hour.” What a truly gifted ensemble we had for that show. It was the perfect choice to bring me back into the fold.
Shortly thereafter, I was asked to participate as a Board Member, a role and responsibility that I take very seriously.
Additional roles thus far has been fairly small, but loads of fun. I was the Coach in “Footloose” and a mentally challlenged stage hand, and the Baseball Commissioner in “Damn Yankees!” I especially enjoy “Damn Yankees” because both of my youngest boys were in the cast as well. We all shared some very meaningful male bonding during rehearsals!
If you’ve never participated in Community Theater, I would implore you to do so. It’s any amazingly rich and satisfying experience, and the people are truly great to work with.
So whether actor, singer, set design, musician, costumes,, etc.. there’s just the perfect place for you!
Our current production of “Play On!” is in its 2nd week of performances. I was House Manager last night which affords me the opportunity to see the show and get feedback from our patrons.
As a Board, we made a decision a short while back to expand our theatrical offerings to include at least one ‘non-musical’ production in our season. After watching last night’s performance, that’s one decision that I’m thrilled we made!
What a wonderfully funny and engaging show! If you’re not familiar with the storyline, here is a brief overview:
“This is the hilarious story of a theater group trying desperately to put on a play in spite of maddening interference from a haughty authoress who keeps revising the script. Act I is a rehearsal of the dreadful show, Act II is the near disastrous dress rehearsal, and the final act is the actual performance in which anything that can go wrong does. When the authoress decides to give a speech on the state of the modern theatre during the curtain calls, the audience is treated to a madcap climax to a thoroughly hilarious romp. Even the sound effects reap their share of laughter. “
Rana Tan plays the part of the overbearing, flip-flopping playwright to perfection. Friedrich Schlott, in the role of Doctor Forbes, does an amazing job of intentionally ‘over-acting!’ As much as I enjoy the ‘full-blown’ experience of musicals, with large casts and orchestra, it’s a nice change of pace to watch a smaller, more intimate cast such as this. Comedies like “Play On!” require skilled timing and an ability for the actors to effectively jump back and forth between their stage persona and their ‘real-life’ characters. I especially enjoyed the ending. It will have you leaving the theater with a wonderfully satisfied smile on your face!
Rich Jacobson
We would like to thank all of our patrons for their patience as we work out the bugs with bringing our box office in-house. We appreciate that the mall was able to help us sell tickets for so many years, but are so excited for the new opportunities that his unexpected change will bring! Our amazing web designer, Mark Flanders, is typing his fingers to the bone as he researches options for us to utilize on-line ticket sales in time for our summer show, “Pirates of Penzance.”
In the mean time, you get to listen to my dulcet tones on our voice mail. I am also the volunteer checking the voice mail and returning calls. I’ve been trying to do this mostly on Thursdays and Fridays, then regularly throughout the weekend. Since this can be done remotely, I would be thrilled to get one or two other volunteers to help me.
We also could really use your feedback! How did this process work for you? Were you aware of it? Do you have suggestions? Would you like us to have regular box office hours? If so, would you be willing to volunteer?
We want to give the people what they want, so what is that? Thanks, in advance, for your valuable feedback!
Danielle Aldana Priest
This past weekend saw the opening of C-STOCK’s latest production, “Play On!,” the side-splitting story of a theater group frantically attempting to put together a show at the last minute, in spite of the crazed playwright who keeps changing the script!
The early buzz has been extremely positive. Hardcore thespian and regular C-STOCK contributor, Charles Platten, had this to say after Sunday’s performance:
“Holy Cow!!!!! I laughed so hard, I had a headache afterwards. I was exhausted. Talk about an incredibly funny show. What a great show!!!”
Even local Kitsap Sun Entertainment critic, Michael Moore, who is typically rather harsh and negative towards C-STOCK, had ’some’ positive things to say:
(so, according to Mr. Moore, even though “Play On!” is something of little value or importance, at least it’s funny!)
Historically, C-STOCK has a longstanding tradition of producing only musical shows. “Play On!” is our second attempt to expand our theatrical horizons by including at least one ‘non-musical’ show in our season line-up. This will hopefully help us to attract a wider audience, and allow the ‘non-singing’ members of our community the opportunity of participating in our productions.
Support our local arts and have a ’side-splitting’ night of fun at “Play On!” (Now showing May 2, 3, 4, 9, 10, 11, 16, 17, 18)
Wow! Is this cool or what? We’ve finally been able to get our new C-STOCK website up and running (a HUGE thanks to Mark Flanders of Olympic Northwest Mortgage).
One of the primary features of our new site is the C’s Talk blogging platform. This will allow us the opportunity to engage our patrons and the greater community-at-large in meaningful conversation about everything relating to local community theater.
As an avid blogger, both nationally and locally, I have come to appreciate the value of interactive dialogue that blogging offers. It makes the world a smaller, more intimate place to live. It connects us all and unites us in a common purpose.
We’ll be adding several veteran authors, as well as a few budding writers to our mix here. Needless to say, we’ll give you plenty of excuses to come back regularly for your fix on informative and entertaining articles from the world of C-STOCK.
Welcome again to C’s Talk - the CSTOCK Community Theater Blog!