Catching up!

Friends, please forgive my absence. I didn't realize that it was in January when I last blogged. Since then, Christa and I have been busy planning for our 2009/10 season, recruiting new board members, hiring summer teaching artist staff and interns and dreaming up performance opportunities. I'm happy to report that a lot has been accomplished.

• Virginia just finished a successful 1-week comedy Spring Break camp with 11 academy students! The students learned the ancient art form of comedia dell arte and peformed a play For the Love of Three Oranges.
• This summer, we will 3 new Teaching Artists joining us for the summer Drama Academy Camps: Jenny Guy (MFA - Acting from UA and currently acting professionally in Ohio - she played Chester in TheatreSquared's production of Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse and Sher Kahn in Jungalbook), Kris Stoker (MFA - Acting from UA and currently acting professionally at Ohio Shakespeare - acted in T2's productions: Jungalbook & My Father's War) and Jason Suel (MA-Acting - recently moved from England where he was teaching & acting for art centers)
• We will have summer college interns! I'll introduce these lovely folks in my next blog.
• We're producing A Lion, A Witch and a Wardrobe in June - a 2 person show acted by Jenny, Kris, Jason and one other actress. We will run the show at the Trike and then take it out into the schools in 09/10.
• We are an AIE Rostered Artist with the state of Arkansas - which means that schools, non-profit organizations can write grants to have us teach workshops with their students.
• We will be developing a new touring play for students 3rd-5th grade based on Arkansas History. Commissioned by Walton Arts Center, the piece will tour into a couple of schools next year and be available for public school tours in 2010/11.
• We're planning an end-of-the-year celebration with all of our Trikesters - honoring our Founding Families (donated over $1000 this year) and corporate/small business sponsors as well as giving folks a peek at the Lion/Witch/Wardrobe performance.
• Christa and I just got back from a national Theatre for Youth symposium in Indianapolis where we saw a bunch of new plays for youth and I lead a workshop in creating theatre for the very young (under 5). I'll write more about this path for Trike in the future. Needless to say - there will be a few "playdates" with our national friends where we will gather educators, child development specialists and artists and figure out a performance that sparks the interest of 3-5 yr olds.
• Learning, learning, learning.

I'm teaching at the University of Notre Dame this week and will be back in full force on Monday. I hope your week is going well. Make sure to come out and see our reading of A Laura Ingals Wilder Christmas - this Friday, April 3 7pm. Pay-what-you-can. It's written by a professional playwright and good friend of mine Laurie Brooks. I think it will be a moving production for December '09 - more info about that soon.