Date : June 28, 2023
Board members present:
| x | Alex Night | Jered Biard | |
| x | Brad Story | x | Robby Burt |
| x | Julie Ulmer | x | Ann Glenn |
| Bill Hays | x | Jessica Kropp | |
| x | Linda G. Johnson | x | Robert Canterbury |
| x | Lamar Austin | Rudi Timmerman | |
| Amanda Baker | X | Gini Burt |
Guests: April Burt
Meeting called to order at 5:30 PM by President Alex Night.
Secretary’s Report: Minutes from previous meetings had previously been sent out on email. Jessica moved we dispense with formal reading and accept as submitted. Lamar seconded the motion and minutes were approved by voice acclamation.
Treasurer’s Report: Alex gave the report in Bill’s absence.
Arvest (general fund) $2521.00
Union Bank (Building) 14,874.87
First Financial (concessions) $1255.99
3. Office Report – Alex
- office being cleaned by Alex. A few new and renewed memberships added.
- Alex has created a spreadsheet for businesses that are not commercial memberships yet and is checking with them for membership possibility. Alex is also reaching out to people who need to renew.
- Receiving good verbal response from Little Shop attendees.
- Results from survey on publicity on file. Some surprises, lots of visiting out of town folks. Consider adding additional questions. A discussion about adding a drawing at intermission to entice people to turn in their surveys, maybe resulting in free popcorn and soft drink. Decided to omit family and friends from sources on the survey due to redundancy.
- Judy encouraged us as board members that we need to invite people to come to shows ourselves, and also make attending shows, functions, and board meetings a priority.
- Linda suggested possibly having handbills or food placemats at businesses advertising current shows available.
4. Artistic Director Report—Judy
- Fantasticks is going great. Psalm Wistrand is doing costumes (HS Student) pianist is Rebecca Fugle. April getting ushers. Box Office needs to be filled asap. Ann volunteered for Sundays. Alex will talk to Amanda and Makayla to see who is in charge of box office. Concessions people also need to decided before next meeting.
- Posters for Fantasticks were handed out with some changes in places to post. If you were absent, get them at the office ASAP!
- Fantasticks dates: July 28,29,30 & August 4,5, 6.
- Clue dates – Oct.20,21,22,28,29,30. Jered wants to use Jocelyn Biard as assistant director.
- Gift of the Magi Readers Theatre will perform Dec. 7 & 8. 7:00 PM at Ouachita Roasters in back room. Room for 50 people who can be served at tables. Owner Derek Campbell will put curtains up to keep it quieter in there. He will provide bar stools for performers. We will pre-sell $10 tickets on website and sell at door if there are still openings. Ouachita Roasters will design and use the same poster for this and future performances and add the show details as needed. Maybe use the O. R. as a place to “tease” performances for rest of season. Be careful of royalty violations if we choose to do this. Check with Judy beforehand.
5. House—Brad –
- Fire extinguishers are recertified. (once a year.) New guy charged us $42 to do all the work, 10% of what it cost before. Logan next door will get his own extinguisher.
- Look into fire alarms that theaters buy.
- The leak repaired over the marquee is working well. Brad replaced the tiles in the office. James Earl Turner is going to check underneath, still waiting for him to show.
- The green room exterior has been repaired, just need final painting steps.
- Brad has been labeling memorabilia in the theater for the show name and year. Thank you, Brad!! If you have anything that would add for major shows that are missing memorabilia, see Brad.
6. Play Selection—Lamar –
- Alex laid out an outline of potential shows: Last Lifeboat is postponed.
- options: Feb. “The Play that Goes Wrong” (Jocelyn Biard wants to direct, probably Junior Version) Script needs to be read by Play Selection committee.
- April 8th (Eclipse weekend) Brad wants to direct a comedy with a small cast 4-6 people, bring it in for a couple of weekends. That would allow February play to rehearse without interruption.
- Alex wants to do “Bonnie and Clyde the Musical” (rated R) in May. That script will also need to be read by committee before approval.
- April Burt wants to direct “The Little Mermaid” in early August (Jr. Edition) Script will need to be formally approved.
- Sarah Lewis is considering directing “The Diary of Ann Frank” in October 2024. Script has been read and approved.
7. IT Report—Jered
Alex reported in his absence. Let them know anything they need to update or remove from website.
8. Box office—Amanda
Alex will talk to her about Box Office.
9. Publicity—Julie –
- The Pulse and Star gave us great coverage for the Benson awards. The photos they printed in the Star were taken off the internet at their discretion; I submitted the one of Bill. Julie spent a lot of time making phone calls and sending emails to deal with the problems we had with the Pulse and the “What’s Happening” segment. We finally settled with them, and they let us break our verbal contract and apparently they did not charge us after the first month. We are no longer part of the program; it was very disappointing. Hopefully we still have a good relationship with the Pulse, at least they gave us a full page for the Bensons after I cancelled our agreement, so I am hopeful all is well.
- There is an upcoming article slated for both papers for Fantasticks and also Chamber Tracks. Facebook and Instagram posts are getting good traffic.
10. Readers Theater – Ann
- presentation at Green House Cottages of Homewood on July 19 2:00 PM. Featuring lots of famous and fun readings for the residents.
- Ann is coming up with other ideas for participants.
Judy motioned for adjournment, Brad seconded, and the meeting was adjourned around 7:00 PM.