Busy January

The first event at NCTC for the year is usually our Season Ticket Holder Gala. This is an annual event where we provide a free evening of entertainment for our Season Ticket Holders. We often highlight the past year's shows and the new season.

This year, Scott Pollak walked us through music through the 20s to 90s. Mandy Mitchell, a friend of Paul Conroy's from Massachusetts, sang a selection from Cabaret. Paul has recently moved to Atlanta and he'll be directing two shows at NCTC this year. The first is Cabaret, followed by Dog Meets God in the fall. Mandy will be moving to Georgia in a few months, but unfortunately not in time to audition for Cabaret. She has a wonderful voice and I hope she'll eventually grace the NCTC stage again.

Fun dance acts included Hollie Schmidt performing a jazz routine from Chicago to When You're Good to Mama and KC Pollak and Caren Comeans performing the Shim Sham. JohnPaul Phillips and Darren Mathews gave us a preview of improv comedy with a couple of skits. The evening ended with a wonderful tune by Sam Gentry.

It was a great evening of entertainment and reminded me why I love coming to the theatre. Everyone also got to sit in our new, comfortable seats! We are so grateful to Jason Schmidt and his volunteers (Drew Smith, Sam Wall, McKenna Schmidt, Jake Azarowicz, Chad Davies, Nathan Azarowic, and Lane Azarowicz) for all the hard work they put in over the holidays. They had to extend the seating platforms on each side to accomodate aisles and re-build walls. The pre-work took more time than the actual seat installation!

For those who are wondering why we no longer have a center aisle - well, here's why. Our new seats are larger than our old seats and take up more room. In order to be able to have approximately the same number of seats on the main stage as we had before, we had to do without a center aisle. Financially we really couldn't do with less seats.

After the gala, Lenny Lees was able to to really get to work on his set for What The Butler Saw. I love the bright colors, which is very-British like. Just watch a few home decorating shows from Britain and you'll see how many British homes have paint colors that make us Americans cringe. You can see a bit of the set yourself and meet the show's characters in this preview video!



This is Lenny's first time directing at NCTC. He's appeared on stage many times though. What The Butler Saw opens on January 29th and runs for three weekends. The show, by Joe Orton, is a very fun British comedy, that doesn't actually include a butler. Imagine that.

Last night I enjoyed a wonderful show called Improvisational Experiment. This is where improv actors take skits, themes, and throw in audience participation to create a show. Each evening is different as they don't know where the improv or audience will take them. Very fun and original. They'll perform again tonight. Don't despair though if you can't catch be there - Improvisational Experiment will be back later this year.

Next weekend - wedged in between this weekend's shows and the opening of What The Butler Saw, we'll have our first Community Night. Join us on January 22nd from 7 to 11. We'll provide the popcorn, games, and ambiance. Bring along a friend, snacks, drinks, ang hang out at the theatre. Get to know your theatre family better and relax. See you at the theatre!