May 13, 2015

Poppins People Post
Emi Hensel
Choreographer

As soon as I first heard that MHT was doing Mary Poppins, I was thrilled – I knew I wanted to be a part of it right away! I grew up watching Mary and Bert usher Jane and Michael through all of their whimsical adventures. To be able to bring those adventures to life through choreography is truly an honor. This is my third musical to choreograph for Market House, and each experience is always a blast. This show in particular has grown and stretched me as an artist in ways that I haven’t been before. Translating an idea into real-life movement is so much more than figuring out fancy footwork and cool tricks. I’ve really had to step back and look at every musical number as a transformation into a different world; whether that be a magical stroll in a seemingly gloomy park, a supercalifragilistic store front, or up on the rooftops of London.


Every scene brings something different, and because of that, we have to create a unique kind of movement and picture in each scene. Director Michael Cochran has helped me tremendously teaching me how to not only use my dance vocabulary, but to also create that over-all picture that brings it all together seamlessly. The final product is going to be stunning! Of course one of the biggest honors (and the most fun) is working with all of the amazing talent the cast brings to the table. I hope I have helped them grow and stretch as artists as well. They have been up for everything I’ve thrown at them so far! When asked to do something outside of their comfort zone, they always give it their best shot and practice until they get it. A choreographer couldn’t ask anything more out of her performers and I couldn’t be more proud of everything we have achieved so far.

One of my favorite parts of setting choreography is when we run a number with music for the first time after the cast learns the choreography. The song begins, and then all of the sudden, the room is filled with these beautiful harmonies sung by the cast. It takes me by surprise every time that these people cannot only dance but are incredible vocalists as well! As a dancer, we usually leave the vocals to somebody else while performing but musical theatre is a whole different animal! It takes true talent to dance and sound that good at the same time.
The end product is worth every ounce of energy, every hour spent up in the skylight classroom before rehearsals moving invisible people around on an imaginary set, and every run through and re-run through. Sitting in the back of the theatre, watching and listening to the audience cheer and applaud something that I had a hand in creating will always make me come back for more. The show is so much fun to watch already, and we’re still in basic skeleton form. Add in lights, set, costumes, and more musicians?  We’ll all be transported to the world of Mary and Bert and usher Jane and Michael through their adventures right along with them. It’s truly going to be magic.

Monday, May 11, 2015

Poppins People Post:
Maurie McGarvey

Like so many of us, I vividly remember as a young girl the experience of watching Mary Poppins make her slow descent onto Cherry Tree Lane, the extraordinary colors of Bert's sidewalk paintings and the joyous dancing of Michael, Jane and the chimney sweeps! Who knows how many times my mother took me to the theater to see it! Never in my wildest imaginations would I have anticipated the experience I am having now, 50 years later!!

"Miss Andrews" -- played by Maurie McGarvey -- sings about "Brimstone and Treacle" to the Banks children Jane and Michael (Hope Hodges and Lucas Bohannon). 

Our treasured community theatre, The Market House Theatre, will bring all the characters to glorious life in just four weeks! As it always goes at MHT, Director Michael Cochran and Musical Director Cindy Miller have invested their many gifts to ensure that the volunteer actors, the staging and the choreography create a unique and unrivaled experience for our community. There is one character who was featured in the Broadway adaptation of the show who was not in the movie . . . Miss Andrew. Ah, Miss Andrew, the stern, tyrannical, bullying "Holy Terror" of a nanny responsible for the upbringing of Mr. George Banks. Poor George, and his poor wife and children . . . Miss Andrew's ability to intimidate and cause fear have had a lasting impact on them through the years. Thank goodness Mary Poppins arrives to help them save themselves from this evil woman! And who gets to play this menacing creature in MHT's production?! Why . . . me!! What an amazing honor it is to get to be a part of this Market House production and to play a character who has such an important impact on the lives of these people . . . even though that impact is not at all a positive one!!

Miss Andrew (Maurie McGarvey) and Mary Poppins (Mary Bowden) rehearse a scene from Mary Poppins.

More than 35 of your friends and neighbors have been working diligently to share this beloved story with our region. Join us the first three weekends in June for a "jolly" experience you will remember for many years to come!

April 21, 2015
Michelle Hellinger, "Robbie the Camera Chick"
The Kitchen Witches

I am so excited to be making my stage debut here at Market House Theater. I’ve wanted to get into theater for years, but I’d been too chicken to audition. One of my New Year’s Resolutions this year was to begin going to auditions. Then somehow the stars aligned and provided me with The Kitchen Witches which had the perfect role for me to ease into theater. Val and Renie (the show's co-directors) were kind enough to take a chance on me and it’s been an amazing experience.

Though I didn’t have much trouble memorizing my one line for the show, I got more than I bargained for in the props department. With at least 100 props (I haven’t officially counted), and many of those including real food that must be replaced and re-plated every day, it has been a challenge that I have really enjoyed. I’ve also enjoyed watching the veteran actors go through the process from reading their lines to stumbling through their lines with no script to becoming their characters on stage. I can’t wait to do this again!

If you haven’t seen The Kitchen Witches yet, you don’t want to miss it!

April 15, 2015
Renie Barger
Co-Director of The Kitchen Witches

Whenever I begin working on a play I think about how much it is like putting a giant jigsaw puzzle together.  You begin with a bunch of puzzle pieces and an idea for the "Big Picture."  The actors add their pieces as their characters evolve during the rehearsal process.  Then the set, props, costumes, lights and sound pieces are added.  After weeks of putting the pieces together through their time and hard work the cast and crew of The Kitchen Witches have assembled all the pieces except one - the audience.  I hope that you will join us as the final piece of our puzzle.  I think you will enjoy your time with this wonderful cast - I know I have!

(Renie Barger giving the cast of The Kitchen Witches notes after a rehearsal last week)

April 14, 2015
Sue Fletcher
"Dolly Biddle" —cast of The Kitchen Witches

Well, the time has arrived—"Witch #2" reporting! 

Play practice for The Kitchen Witches has been a blast, but also hard work. Sally and I have many verbal encounters, and it has taken a lot of practice to get it right! I love the small cast; there are only four of us. We get along so well, and there's been no "drama," pardon my pun!! 

Dolly has been so much fun to portray. She and Izzy (Sally's character) are definitely different, but have lots of similarities. Dolly has such a big heart. She truly has a love for cooking and people. But trying to get along  with her nemesis, Izzy Lomax, after several years of avoiding each other, is testing her patience to the max! The zingers and the food flies! The play is entertaining and of course there is a plot twist!  

Come see the play at MHT April 16-26. I don't think you'll be disappointed, and I know you'll be laughing almost the entire show! For a carefree night out, this is the way to go! 

See you in a "witchy minute!" 
Love, Dolly!

April 9, 2015
Joshua Morehead
"Stephen" -- cast of The Kitchen Witches

I’m excited to be back on the main stage at Market House Theatre in this fun comedy about "cooking and dishing some dirt." Being able to share the stage with the actual "Kitchen Witches" has been such a fun experience! You will really believe that Sue Fletcher and Sally Carter are best friends from way back—friends who had a major falling out, and are forced to share a cooking show together just to save their careers. The constant bickering, comedic phrases, and their ability to drive my character "Stephen" crazy will have you laughing in your seats! 

This show is unique, in part due to the small cast, but also the prop list is outrageously long and every item has a purpose. With a four-member cast, and only three of us carrying all but one line of the dialogue throughout, there is little room for error. Most of the show is very conversational, reciting one-liners like, "Well...," and, "Uh…," means that your response to the other actors has to be very quick so that the show moves along and the audience remains involved. This show—within a show for most of the play—is very engaging and allows us many opportunities to connect with the audience.

As an actor, and a lover of live theatre, I enjoy the fact that playwrights are making use of the audience; utilizing them in aspects that help create a unique theatre experience. If you had an opportunity to see Becky’s New Car then you already know what I mean. The Kitchen Witches allows us to involve the audience several times throughout. There is a particular scene where we will utilize a member of the audience in our kitchen and what ensues at that moment in the show will have everyone—including our special guest—laughing! 

The idea of a more immersive theatre experience is now sweeping many of Broadway’s current shows, and I’m glad to see Market House Theatre embracing that culture. You can experience that for yourself when all of you theatre goers flock to MHT for The Kitchen Witches, opening on Thursday, April 16. Until curtain!

A grand experiment

April 2, 2015

by April Cochran

Market House Theatre Education Director 

Footlights had their performances this weekend...three shows put on by Early Elementary, Upper Elementary and Middle school troupes (we really MUST come up with zippier names for them...I’m open to suggestions!) This year was a grand experiment...for the first time, we opened our Footlights enrollment to kindergarten students.  

Katie and I realized we had created a disconnect between preschool PlayShops and Footlights (which formerly was open to grades 1 and up).  I had previously taken a few outgoing kindergarten kids on a case by case basis- but this year we formally added that grade to Early Elementary.  Which worked fairly well - until we hit the performance session.  It’s a huge challenge to rehearse a show when a good third of the actors can’t read, tire easily and reaaaaaaalllly are not fans of rehearsing the same bits over and over as one does when perfecting a performance! I learned to switch things up a lot! But the biggest challenge - learning their cues!  

The kids really did a super job of learning their lines...but knowing when to say them was beyond many of them.  Heck - that’s a hard thing for many adults to grasp, much less a 5 year old!  Thus - I added three of my wonderful teaching assistants into the show.  The beauty of the script we used (“Once Upon a Shoe’) is that everyone is onstage virtually all the time.  It was fairly simple to insert three large “kids” into the mix - spread out among the group.  Those three TAs (Hadley Pierce, Martha McHaney and Kathryn Johnston) had approximately 1/3 of the cast as their responsibility.  They memorized which one of their charges had a hard time remembering when to speak and would simply reach over and either touch, nod or nudge the young actor to remind them it was their turn.  Eventually - most of the young actors learned their cues without the reminders, but their backups were in place in case of distractions. And being in a show on a large stage with bright lights and a packed audience is definitely a BIG distraction!

Show time!  Excitement!  Nerves! 

“I can’t do this!”  

“I have to go to the bathroom” 

“My costume’s not where I put it”  

Eyes shiny with unshed tears, bouncing kids in their backstage chairs....

I was about as nervous as they were.  Dress rehearsals had gone very well, and if the kids could just ignore the audience they would be awesome.  But could they restrain their urge to shade their eyes and peer out in search of moms and dads?  Would they glance out - see the hundreds in attendance and freeze up?

They...were....awesome!  Their performance Saturday afternoon was nothing short of magical.  Virtually every voice rang out with confidence and clarity!  We had worked hard on projection and gesturing...and we had both in abundance.  I was so proud of those young actors who gave it their all!  And not a single “Hi mom!” in sight!

All three of the FOOTLIGHTS troupes did a super job.  I am very proud of each and every one of them!  But I am especially proud of the 35 kindergarten through 3rd graders who entertained their friends and families with such confidence and spirit!  I hope to see ALL of our Footlighters back for our next session which starts April 11.