Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

I wished we had an old refurbished picture theatre, to work in. Instead of a refurbished community hall, which made a far better theatre, before they mucked it!

I see your a 'Paralegal' & would be able to grasp the Copyright nettle easy enough.

However these articles & links on your national AACT site may also help;-

http://www.aact.org/ascap/ - http://www.aact.org/ascap/

 

Over the years I have cobbled together 'revue' style shows, usually around a particular thread, in the form of the shows title on the Marque.

Allowing the collection of song/music items chosen to dictate the running of the show. Interspersed with skits & sketches to fill or pad out the production flow.

One thing I do is ensuring I have a significant full cast Openings & Finales for each Act. 

With one or two major number in the middle of each act, supported by the 2 or 3 sketches & a few oilio skits to cover large presets or scene changes.

Much the same as we did in Music Hall, not unlike the Vaudeville days.

If you can coin a good show title, the least words the better & allow it to evolve around what you got & those you can call on.

I didn't have time this year, but next, I'll be putting together the 'Phollies' [Phoenix (Theatre) Follies] revue, hopefully as a yearly event for my mob.

Utilising other local community performing arts groups, inviting them to participate. They put a presentation item of what they do, such as Ballet, dance, choral or whatever. In turn we bring them together to be part of the Opening & Finale numbers. So it would only be a minimal rehearsal period with the whole company. As they can rehearse their own contribution numbers & items, with only an overview input from our Director & production team.

We would pay of course the fees to APRA, listing all the copyright material used, much the same as with your ASCAP organisation requires over there. 

 

You're right, we're very lucky to have such a fabulous space.  The sound is unbelievable and we can't wait to do musical theater there.  Sadly we've lost the sloped floor because the building was uses as a retail store for many years but we do hope to one day reinstall the balcony and who knows, we're just one wealthy benefactor away from tearing out that "new" old floor and exposing the original.  (We have learned that it's still in place.)  Another thing that absent benefactor can help us with is building wings and a fly loft.  For Briar Rose we built castle walls to serve as wings and used a stationary backdrop.  But someday...

 

 We are also fortunate to have a wealth of talent in our community.  We have a lot going for us to be sure.  We just need to use it wisely. 

We use a Memorial Hall built by community volunteers after the WW1. It took them only 2 years from go to whoa!

However the City Fathers & mudders, allowed an Achetect to wreck it, as a performance space, at the cost of $4million dollars - & and it only took him %years, using modern machinery.

We now have a venue with crap acoustics, nothing works - oops I tell a lie! The security Alarm works very well, even during performances. However we can't use the Air Con, because the plant house was installed just above the stage & is far too noisy. Also there is a ceiling on the stage as well? Which of course this void is a perfect place to house air con. as we should know. every theatre should have a ceiling over the stage? That way we don't have to bother with Fly's or Borders & the like!

I have just gained a Government Grant to modify the refurbishment, into a workable theatre space. So I'd say you picture theatre makes you quids in, with or without a raked auditorium.

Archyteck [ours we have lovingly  nicked name - the 'Daffodil Man', which is rather apt, when considering it's botanical name!]

They seem to believe they can improve on theatre design, when the only thing they know, was gleaned from receiving a comp to a show once!

Please don't let them spoil what you have, especially with the acoustics.

 

 { I could go about Achytechs & there ilk! - but I won't - End of rant!

 

It seems like we're forever telling ourselves, "one day..."

 

Thanks for the suggestion on the musical.  We're now kicking around doing a love song review for Valentine's day.  We're thinking about having poetry contests with the winners being allowed to either read or have their work read between musical numbers.  We might also do short skits relating to the songs being performed.  We've discovered in our one year of operation that the more local involvement we have in the show, the better tickets sell.  We are very fortunate to have actual talent among us so we can do that and keep the performance quality high.