But we also had members of  the costume club, Somewhere in Time, Unlimited sitting in our house.    I love it when SITU visits our shows because they always bring so much color to our house.   These superbly decked out ladies and gentlemen arrived early for a tea party in our upper lobby.   I got to chat with them about Oscar Wilde over tea and cookies.   Then after  the show we gathered on the set with cast members, Nikki Visel and Anne Brady to admire their costumes up close.

Thanks so much to SITU for a fantastic evening!  I can’t wait for you guys to come back again:)

Sonja Lowe
Taproot Theatre Company

Less than two hours and all of our work will be on display for the world to see.  Sets, costumes, lobby displays, reception set up…only a couple more hours to make any last adjustments  before OPENING NIGHT!  So what happens in a theatre admin office before Opening Night?  Well, we have our own list of “last minutes”:

Tanya spent this morning hanging our new subscription banners.  Scott spent this afternoon putting up the sign that officially announces our expansion.  (Three cheers!)

Pam has the upper lobby beautifully decked out for the opening night reception.  The catering trays full of goodies are assembled in the offices below the theatre (ruthlessly guarded by our stage manager, Anne.  No one is aloud to sneak a bite!)

Heidi, our communications manager,  is behind me getting press packets assembled.  Tanya is editing fun rehearsal footage into an opening night Facebook post.

And me?  Well, I have it easy.   My dramaturg dispaly is assembled and tacked on within an inch of its life (I dare any of those pictures to try and fall down during the run).   I getting ready to send a greeting out on our blog, grab some dinner and prepare be dazzled by costumes and comedy:)

Here’s some quick memories from our rehearsal process.   If you think they are funny in the rehearsal room…just wait until you see them on stage!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AC4-AI5z2ag

Rehearsal Gags for "An Ideal Husband"

This summer, we have granted nearly $6,000 in scholarships.  This money has gone to aid 25 students who would otherwise not have been able to spend time with us, acting, playing, learning and growing.  25 kids who are learning to love the arts, possibly future actors and definitely future theatre aficionados. 

Taproot’s mission is to be a theatre of hope and we feel that the $6,000 we were able to offer in scholarships this year is a crucial piece of living our mission.  Being able to share something with a child who otherwise may not have the opportunity is cause for celebration and a vital part of who we are as a company.

The number 6,000 is also significant because this is almost the exact amount of money we have left to earn this summer to make our budgeted goal. We may not make our summer goal, but when we reported this in company meeting, the “6,000” that we all were amazed by was the $6,000 we’ve given away and not the $6,000 we need to earn. As a theatre, we are constantly trying to balance artistic risk with financial prudence, and in this case we know that the work we do with students is worth the risk. Taproot’s studio did something significant with our summer – 25 kids were allowed access to the arts, engaged with and cared for by fantastic teaching artists and Taproot staff.

Our blog is filled with stories of ways students have been impacted, but here is one more that we feel demonstrates our commitment to our mission. One of our scholarship recipients this summer last took a class at Taproot in January 2011. In the letter his mom wrote to us, she said “He really had such a positive experience at his class…every time we drive by the theatre he asks when he gets to return.” Imagine loving something so much that for 7 months all you think about is when you have the opportunity to do it again! Through our commitment to making discounted tuition available, he was able to return this summer. As his mom made clear in her letter, it’s not just about being on stage. She writes “it really gives him self-confidence and strengthens his sense of working with others.” This is the story we are writing in the lives of our students.

To hear more stories like this, please attend our 2011 Studio Fundraiser on August 28, 2011 at 5:00pm. This evening will present some of the best performances from our summer and give our parents and patrons the chance to hear about the myriad of ways the Acting Studio changes lives every day.

Sara K. Willy
Director of Education

I myself have always been infatuated with the idea of theatre being a family. When you collaborate with so many people for a common goal, working as hard as you can to put out a product that’s ultimate purpose is to make people feel good, you can’t help but grow closer with your partners. Interning at Taproot has given me faith that such a dream can be true and is true. As I continue on with my personal endeavors in musical theatre and this business in general, I’ll always hold this internship close. I’ve learned a ton and can’t wait to see where the rest of these weeks lead me!

~ Kip Brookbank

P.S. I’ve made some incredible friends along the way! All of my fellow interns are amazingly talented people and the staff just have a vast amount of information that they so graciously share! And one of the most talented people I’ve ever met is a mild mannered, Education and out reach associate named Suzanne Townsend. Many people don’t know this but she’s also the Office Wizard-Pirate, she protects the office daily from nasty/hazardous villains. So if you should see her in the hall give thanks. She takes care of a lot.

Something’s Afoot is certainly an unusual mix. I mean, how often does one get the opportunity to work on a musical mash-up, a spoof of an Agatha Christie murder mystery? But what drew me most to this production was not merely its characteristics, but its aim. Something’s Afoot is, at its heart, true entertainment. It’s a genuine crowd-pleaser, an comical musical romp that keeps audience members puzzling until the final moments of the play. In these difficult days, a production like this can be a true breath of fresh air, an escape from the mundane. It is truly remarkable to me that Misters McDonald, Vos, Gerlach, and Linderman are able to tackle perhaps one of the most nerve-wracking subjects in the human psyche—murder—and create such an enjoyable audience brainteaser. And they’ve created a production which is not only enjoyable to the audience, but to its own cast and crew as well. Taproot’s atmosphere breeds community, and day after day, despite setbacks and long hours, I saw the cast genuinely enjoying their time with each other.

I saw the crew genuinely enjoying the production, despite having seen it day after day after day. Each person who made this production possible was recognized and welcomed into the fold, setbacks and troubles were a shared burden, and everyone recognized the group of artists who came together to bring this production from the page and onto the stage. Each cast member has truly brought his or her character to life, each crew member has worked to create a fully-functioning world onstage, and the nuances, the details, the small habits which these figures have been endowed with will keep us laughing until the final blackout.

By Emily Rankin

Stylish Taproot T-Shirts

Upon arriving at camp at the beginning of the summer, interns were overjoyed when they were given their own tee shirts to keep. You might think they were happy because the shirts were very stylish and comfortable. They were, however, you will find that the excitement stemmed from the fact that the shirts cost nothing. Whether it is something super cool or an item that’s a touch more mediocre, to an intern, being given something for free is like a sugar high.

For example, the other day as Meg (teaching intern) was driving, she noticed a sofa on the side of the road with a sign that said “free.” This sofa was a sickening green color with a crater-sized hole in one of the cushions and an arm which looked like it had been used as a scratching post for a very angry cat.

Meg’s first thought upon seeing this couch was “FREE! Holy Cow! I love free! Do I need that? Would it complete my apartment’s living room ensemble? What a deal! It’s free, free, free!” Unfortunately, Meg didn’t take the sofa (only because it didn’t fit in her trunk). 

For many interns, being at Taproot is an exploration of their freedom as burgeoning professional theatre artists. That freedom can be scary, but if free stuff is involved, for an intern it is worth it!

“What’s a string worm?”  
“A worm made out of string.”

“All the food disappears but by the next morning I figured out the mystery and…wallah. I figured it out!”

“Melanie, if I put a melon on my knee I’d be saying your name.”

And…(every teacher’s personal favorite)

“I don’t want tomorrow to be our last day.”

For instance, give an intern the job of folding paper. Will they do it? Yes indeed, but you will not only get your paper folded – it will be professionally folded by a paper folder extraordinaire! Each page will be folded with the most exact corner-to-corner ratio humanly possible – a spitting image of a machine-folded paper.

You see for interns it is not just a simple job, it is a needed job. These little jobs make the staff’s days just a little harder, so this “little” contribution from an intern to help the staff really makes a difference.

Understanding that the little things are important, interns will eagerly get busy on that filing job!

What “little jobs” have you been assigned in your internship experiences?

Melanie Godsey, teaching intern

This past week, I worked with a wonderful group of 6-8 year olds on a play called “Forest Friends.” In the play, a self-conscious squirrel is convinced that the majestic queen, Aria Elephant, will never choose him as an assistant, because, as the strong baboons, the stylish bears, and the talented tigers remind him, he is just a dull, poorly dressed, weak squirrel. However, the queen sees through all of that and chooses him above all of the other flashier animals because he is wonderful just the way he is- kind, considerate, and a good friend. In the end, all of the animals travel to the queen’s castle together in the dance party conclusion. It was a wonderful play and the kids performed it magnificently.

In the two different camps that I’ve been lucky enough to intern in, it’s been clear on the first day that while some kids are more than happy to give their parent a quick hug and rush down the hall (“please, don’t run!” we beg) and get into crafts or games, some kids need a little more time to come out of their shells. Each week there’s been a period of time in the morning where participation is not quite even on all

Melanie with a group of Creative Dramatics kids

sides, and these shy campers seem to want to slink into their shells. However, the beautiful thing is that by lunch time on the first day, these kids are just as involved, if not more, than anyone else in their class. There’s something about pretending and creating that is irresistably fun to kids. They find common ground in their  stories (“You’re the pirate, and I’m you’re parrot!”) and find a safe place to creatively express all kinds of ideas and feelings. You haven’t seen enthusiasm until you witness a bunch of 7 year olds pretending to be wildcats.

I’m hoping to be involved in theatre professionally for the rest of my life, and seeing how it brings people together

Melanie and Sarah Ross (stage management intern) watch performances at camp and take notes.

reminds me why it’s so important. I know that every single child felt proud of the hard work they put in to their lines and their characters, that they learned a bit about stepping out of their comfort zones and that they ended the week with the knowledge that they are wonderful just the way they are- even if they’re not the strongest, most talented, or most fashionable (although, I must say, kids these days are stylish!). I am so thrilled to get to spend time with the future designers, actors, directors, or even patrons of tomorrow’s theater.

Interns in action!

Interns enjoy putting themselves in positions that they, in reality, are not quite capable of completing with professional skill. Nonetheless, they attack it with a tenacious spirit. This strange phenomenon could be attributed to three reasons.

A) An intern may accept a complicated task given to them by a superior due to the strong inward desire to impress. He/she may jump whole heartedly into the assignment without much forethought. Upon starting the task they realize it is something ten times more difficult than they previously thought. However, they will pretend they’ve got it under control and forge ahead.

B) An intern may face a task given to them by a superior out of the desire to learn, conquer the unknown, and grow as an artist. Completion of tasks infuses them with a mighty pride. “Yes, I did that. Yes, I can. Yes, I conquered that task.”

C) An intern may face a task given to them by a superior, simply because they are terrified of what others will say about them otherwise. Interns are that strange breed of people that feed off of the “I can do that… Oh crud” motto.

Whether interns attack a task motivated by reason one, two or three (or a combination of one and two, two and three, three and one; or one, two and three), they do it. Not only do they quickly volunteer, only to admonish themselves later, but they like it!

(Side note: This post was inspired by long hours of “What Interns Like” writers block.)