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Anniversary ideas

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Topic: Anniversary ideas

Posted By: Guests
Subject: Anniversary ideas
Date Posted: 1/29/04 at 8:12pm

We are approaching our theatre's anniversary year. Any suggestions on suitable productions?

Replies:

Posted By: Chris Polo
Date Posted: 1/30/04 at 12:27pm

I've got two ideas that we've done, but they depend on how long your theater's been around. For our 40th anniversary in 1993, the first play of the season was the first play we'd ever done, the next one of the best from the 60's, the next from the 70's, and the third from the 80's. The last (5th) was a new one, symbolic of looking forward. (A lot of us felt we should have saved this idea for the 50th, but in 1993, that seemed a long way away!) For our 50th season (this year), we're doing "The Bst Plays We've Never Done," all shows that we'd wanted to do but had never attempted for one reason or another: "Nunsense II" (1st musical in 20 years), "Sylvia," "Breaking Legs," and "Noises Off." The last was supposed to be "Harvey," but amateur rights have been withdrawn for that, so we're still looking. In conjunction with the anniversaries, we've hosted open houses for our patrons with a cocktail buffet and bar in the lobby and skits and monologues for entertainment in the theater, and when we did the 1st play we'd ever done ("Light Up the Sky"), we tracked down as many of the original actors as we could from the 1953 production (located 4, I think), who attended opening night and were introduced to the audience before we started. We also took a publicity shot of our 1993 cast that was staged the same as the first publicity shot from the 1953 production, and sent both to the local papers. We also provided many long-time members for interviews with the press, which resulted in some nice newspaper stories about the history of our group.

Posted By: brenda
Date Posted: 8/08/04 at 6:01pm

I agree, it depends on what year anniversary you are having. For our 10th year we had what we called our "encore season". We had a committee within our organization to narrow down our past productions. We let our patrons and general membership vote on the repeat shows they would like to see. That turned out to be one of our strongest seasons. I really wouldn't want to do a "whole" season like that again, but to do one or two shows in that season would be fine. Our last show of last season was "Steel Magnolias". A record 1198 people saw our production. Our new season starts August 19th with "The Wizard of Oz". We anticipate a huge following for this show also (lots of kids, and family that want to see their kids onstage). Hope you pick a winning show. Take care, Brenda

Posted By: dougb
Date Posted: 8/09/04 at 12:25pm

A nearby theater did a "Night of 1,000 Stars" on their aniversary - they reprised songs and scenes from many of the most memorable plays thay had done. There was no problem with the songs as long as they were not done in a theatrical manner - no sets or costumes. They paid royalties on the scenes - some relatively expensive for a 5 or 10 minute cutting.

They also had a narrated slide show of all the plays they have done.

They ran the show for two nights and it was well received.

Posted By: Linda
Date Posted: 8/10/04 at 8:53am

We are doing a show like Doug described for our 20th anniversary. We open in two weeks! We are bringing back as many of the original performers as we can. We have 26 musical numbers and a cast of 21. We have people flying clear across the country to be part of this show. Only 3 performers are doing numbers that they weren't in originally. I have to say that the three ladies who are doing "The Three Little Maids" from the Mikado are hysterical. They are all grandmothers now! There is only one problem in doing this kind of show. Everyone's memory is a little different about what was done in the original performance. That aside, it has been a wonderful experience even if we don't sell a single ticket! It is like going back in time. And isn't technology wonderful? We have collected photos and posters of all the shows and will have a syncronized (I love computers!) slide presentation on two screens either side of the proscenium.

We have learned an important lesson in putting this show together. Save everything! Write everything down! You think you won't forget, but you do.

Good luck with your anniversary show.

Linda