THIS WEEK WITH MCP...
NEXT ON STAGE...
Join us for the first show of our 50th Anniversary season, Puffs! March 10th, 11th, 16th, 17th, 18th at 8:00 PM and March 12th at 2:00 PM in the Mason Community Playhouse.
Get your tickets HERE!
IN THE NEAR FUTURE...
The Dining Room Read-Thru
January 31 at 7:00 PM
at The Playhouse
MCP Trivia Team
February 2nd at 7:00 PM
James Third Base, Mason
MCP Board Meeting
February 8th at 7:30 PM
at The Playhouse
Save the Date to CELEBRATE in 2023!
MCP Announces Auditions for
Escanaba in da Moonlight
Mason Community Players is holding auditions for Escanaba in da Moonlight. Performance dates are: September 8, 9, 14, 15 & 16 at 8pm and September 10 at 2pm. Performances will be at the Mason Community Playhouse. Director Ray Lebowski, Producer Laureen Catlin, and Stage Manager Dana Davis encourage you to come and audition for the show!
Auditions will be held Sunday, February 5th from 2:00 to 5:00pm and Tuesday, February 7th from 7:00 to 9:30pm at the Mason Community Playhouse, 5529 Mason Road in Mason.
The audition will consist of cold readings from the script.
You can download an audition form, fill it out, and bring it with you to auditions. To download the form, click here. Attaching a full resume is appreciated, as is a headshot. If you do not have one or both of those, please do not let that keep you from auditions. A completed form will suffice.
E-mail Director Ray Lebowski, if you have any questions.
Escanaba in da Moonlight is a snapshot into the lives of the Soady men. Retreating to their "home away from home" in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan they can spend time together doing their two favorite things ... drinking and bagging bucks. At 35, though, Reuben Soady is in danger of being the oldest family member in history without a buck to call his own. Laughs abound as you get a glimpse into this traditional male rite of passage as lived out in the unique "Yooper" way.
For a list of characters and a description of each, click here!
Come join us in the UP!
MCPost is continuing to highlight each of the twelve cast members of the first show of 2023, Puffs. This week we turn our attention to Emily Tilling who will be portraying Susie Bones. Even though she is new to our stage she has been in the spotlight in other theatres with a few MCP members. In May 2022 she was in Mission: Possible as Kitty Galore with Loveland Stage Company. In October 2022, she served in multiple roles in The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later with CenterStage Players. We are excited to have Emily bring her talents with accents and characters to the Playhouse.
For the list of the entire cast and their roles, visit our web site for all the details HERE. Puffs will be performed March 10, 11, 16, 17, 18 at 8:00 PM and March 12 at 2:00 PM in the Mason Community Playhouse. Expecto parody!
Director Gail Rudolph and Producer Susan Berger are excited to welcome ten performers to the cast of The Dining Room. Each of these talented individuals will be called upon to portray multiple roles of varying ages. Gracing the stage this Spring will be Trisha Cooper, Michelle Deremo, Jay Fultz, Lara Gonzalez, Linda Geering, Tim Geering, Joel Lind, Sonya Neff, Julie Poux, and Mary Beth Benken-Riesenberg.
Robert Terry is the Assistant Director for the show and Cori Bauer its Stage Manager. The show will be performed May 4, 6, 11, 12, and 13 at 8pm and May 7 at 2pm at the Playhouse. Tickets are available now!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY...
SEND GOOD THOUGHTS...
Please keep praying for BJ Heling
and Carol Wright, in their continuing health struggles.
If you know someone that is hurting who could use good thoughts or prayers, please let the McPost Staff know and we will share it here.
SEASON TICKETS ON SALE ...
Season tickets for 2023, our 50th Anniversary Season are on sale!
Please consider purchasing a ticket for yourself or as a gift. They will continue to be on sale until the close of Puffs. Someone who attends Puffs can have the cost of that ticket deducted from the Season price, if they want to become a subscriber after the first show.
Warren County's Oldest
Continuously Operating
Community Theatre ...
One Year on Mason Road,
50 Years in Mason
2022 Recipient of the
Terry Family Founders Award
Lara Gonzalez was the 2022 recipient of Terry Family Founders Award. Lara’s contributions to the group over the last year were significant, however when presenting this award, the area most considered is the area of administration.
Over the last year Lara has led or been a part of many of the committees that oversee so many of the important functions of the group. She is the chair of the Renovation Committee, co-chair of Facilities Committee, and a member of Communications Committee and Liaison Committee. She also attends Finance Committee as often as possible, since the budget for renovation is so closely tied to the overall budget.
Lara not only shares her skills and talents on committees; she serves on the Board of Directors as its President, and has done so in two of the most critical years in the group's history. Lara is one of the Construction Managers for the renovation of the Playhouse, and has attended nearly every work session that has been called this year. As a part of that role, she has become the point of contact for the City of Mason Building Department, Grace Baptist Church, and potential renters. She has taken the lead in organizing and training the rental liaisons for the Playhouse, as well.
Lara was one of two supervisors for the parking fundraiser at the Western and Southern Tennis Tournament. Additionally, she has also led MCP’s board into our 50th Anniversary season.
Though giving just about everything she has to MCP this year, including performing onstage, playing in the orchestra, and participating in set construction, Lara will continue to lead MCP as president and to serve in other areas throughout 2023.
Playhouse Has New
Wall of Honor
Every year at the banquet, Awards Chair Becca McLaughlin raises lovely plaques that have the names of all of the recipients of particular MCP Awards. For most of the past 37 years, she would take them home and put them in a safe place to be updated and shown the following year. For four brief years, they were placed in Theatre 42, so that they could be shared with fellow MCP members, audience members, and the community in general.
Then came 2020, and you know how that changed MCP's world. Well, now that we are firmly settled in our new home, it was time to give the plaques their due honor once again.
On the short wall between the Main Lobby and the Concessions Lobby you will find five plaques. On the top left is the plaque that lists all of those who have served as the President of the group, since the Board was officially instituted. Beneath it is the plaque naming all those who have received the Dallas and Helen Bowyer Award, which was instituted in 1996.
In the middle, at the top is the list of those MCP members who have been honored with awards from ACT Cincinnati or OCTA. Those include Art Rouse, Roger Grooms, Rising Star, and Spirit of Community Theatre. Beneath it is a plaque naming all of the Silver Stars - those who have served at least 25 years in MCP.
Finally, to the right is the list of all of the Grace Campbell Award recipients since its inception in 1986.
In January of 2024, the wall will display two more plaques, since two are now full. There will be another Silver Star plaque beginning with members reaching 25 years next year and another for Grace Campbell recipients.
Be sure to stop and review the new wall of honor when next you are in the Playhouse!
MCP's 50 for 50 campaign needs your support!
It cannot be successful without every member helping to promote it. The campaign's goal is to raise $50,000 by December 31st of our 50th year.
You can donate now!
Just click here!
Not a fan of making an online donation? That's okay. You can write a check. Make out a check to Mason Community Players for the amount you would like to donate. Be sure to write "50 for 50" on the memo line. You can hand the check to Treasurer Susan Berger or mail it to P.O. Box 300, Mason, OH 45040.
This is not just a fundraiser designed to solicit donations from members. Ask your family and friends to donate. Ask a local business. Remember that we are a 501c3 corporation and the gifts are tax deductible.
This is the YEAR to make the goal! Let's do this!
COMMITTEES SEEK
NEW MEMBERS
As we enter into 2023, three MCP committees are hoping to increase their membership to help with the responsibilities of their area.
Communications Committee is looking for individuals who are good at project management. They always welcome those who like to design and promote, but they could use folks adept at managing. If you would like to join Communications, contact one of the chairs -
Phil Catlin
or Julie Poux.
Facilities Committee would love to have more members to help with the management of the upkeep, cleaning, and supplying of the Playhouse. If you would be willing to spend some time helping Facilities, please contact their chair,
Susan Berger.
And Liaison Committee seeks more members to help in maintaining MCP's relationship with the City of Mason, MADE Chamber, the surrounding community, OCTA and ACT. If this is your cup of tea, contact their chair,
Gail Rudolph.
Committees generally meet once a month.
There were 20 MCP members present on January 9, 2023 as the Mason City Council passed a resolution that commemorates our 50 years of service to Mason and the surrounding area. The plaque stating the resolution is shown above. It will be proudly displayed in the Playhouse.
Pronounced in the resolution are many of the collaborative opportunities between MCP and the City of Mason including Bicycle Days, Heritage Festival, Christmas in Mason, Red, Rhythm & Boom, and Haunted Hayride. Also mentioned was the presentation of Imagine, Mason! , the original musical produced by MCP that depicted the life of Mason's founder William Mason. to honor Mason's bicentennial year in 2015.
Following the resolution, Linda Geering, one of the founders of MCP, expressed a formal thank-you to the City. She expressed gratitude to the members of the 1973 Council who designated the thousand dollars in funding to allow the group to produce its inaugural show, The Music Man. She expressed MCP's appreciation for the many fundraising opportunities that the City has provided over the years and the collaborative events that have occurred to date.
MCP gifted each Council Member with a pair of season tickets for the 2023 slate of shows that will be a part of our 50th anniversary season.
A photo was taken of MCP members who were present surrounding the resolution plaque along with the Council Members in attendance.
The Council Meeting airs on ICRC. If you have access to that channel, you may wish to watch the portion of the meeting which involved MCP.
The fun has begun! Let's continue to celebrate MCP throughout the year. Get ready for the Trivia Night on February 11th at the Playhouse. Come try your hand at trivia about MCP.
The list of props needed for our first show in 2023 is extensive. There are items which are not in MCP's inventory. If you own one of the props below and are willing to lend it for the rehearsals and performances of the show, please contact Gail Rudolph. She would be very grateful.
Needed are:
Two Baby Dolls
Nintendo Game Boy and Cartridge
Harry Potter Sorting Hat
Hockey Stick
Lightsaber
Rubic Cube
Scooter
Four Bike Helmets
Three keyboards - of the musical variety, smaller, but not kid version
Some MCP members might remember that Mary Beringer loves to write plays. Her works have been performed at Know Theatre, Cincinnati Lab Theatre, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and the University of Dayton's Studio Theatre. on occasion, she hsubmits some of her original works to play writing competitions.
Recently, Mary's play, Synapse , has been selected for a staged reading at the Fifth Third Theater in the Aronoff Center as a part of the Cincinnati Playwright Initiative's New Voices series. Synapse will be performed on Tuesday, March 14 at 7:30pm. Tickets are $10. Mary would love for members of her MCP family to be present. There is limited availability, so purchase your ticket soon to be assured of a seat.
Tickets can be purchased here!
Expressing Gratitude...
THANK YOU TO...
... Mary Beth Benken-Riesenberg, Laureen Catlin, Mary Stan Fizer, Becca McLaughlin, Sonya Neff,
and Gaylene May Schumacher
who helped with painting and organizing tasks at the Playhouse this week. A few items in the kitchen and restroom off the Concessions Lobby have had their first coat and the plaques with the major award recipients are now hanging in the lobby.
McPost will be featuring a very special series throughout 2023. Laureen and Robert are calling it 50 Stories For 50 Years. The series will not include 25 stories each of THEM has written, but stories that YOU submit. They are hoping that 50 different people share a personal story of an experience with MCP. The story is yours to tell. It can be a tale of the first time you came to the group, your favorite moment on stage, your funniest experience, your most heart-warming encounter. It can be from on stage, back stage, at a meeting, at a gathering. It can be from 50 years ago or from yesterday. The sky's the limit with the exception that nothing will be published that is hurtful to any member past or present (stories can be funny without causing pain), or that does not keep cursing to a minimum (we are online, folks). The stories will not be published in chronological order. They will be published in the order in which they are submitted. The series will end with the December 17th issue. There will be a shortened issue for December 24th with a wrap up. December 31st will be Issue One of Volume III to kick off 2024. It would be super fun to have a contest to choose the favorite story. It could happen. Do not make Laureen or Robert have to write the next story! Get ready, get set, write! Submit your MCP story via this e-mail!
ATTENTION!
- by Jim Cronin
It was thirteen years ago this week that I got the cast of A Few Good Men together for their 'bonding event' before blocking rehearsals started. I had cast the show in December of 2010 and we had a couple of table read-throughs so the cast had met each other, and many of them had worked together before this show. However, I like to have a bonding event with my casts early in the rehearsal process so they can get familiar with each other.
When you're going to be acting together on stage for almost 3 hours the better you know your scene partners the better the show is going to be. If possible I also like the bonding events to be thematically relevant to the show; help the actors find their character and how their character interacts with others and the world around them. Well, for a show about Marines who are fanatical about being Marines, what better bonding event than Boot Camp.
There we were, 17 community theater actors, their director and producer, being instructed on common drill commands. Our instructor was an ex-Marine Corp officer, who for a time was a drill sergeant. We learned how to march, salute, turn left and right while marching, stand at attention, and at ease. Half of the actors were going to need to maintain these precise movements whenever they were on stage; the other half were going to have to show that these movements had been baked into their bones over many years in the service. It was a good time, and I didn’t think we did half bad. At the end of the exercises we had a Simon Says competition lead by our instructor. And wouldn’t you know it, in the final is was down to Dan Docherty who played our Lt. Kaffee and Jerry Wiesenhahn who played our Lt Col Jessep. It was a great way to spend a Saturday and get to know each other better before we all started rehearsals.
The funny thing was when I found out that the show was going to be presented in Mason High School’s Black Box theater I then came up with the novel idea to put this drill work to great use. Why not keep the cast ‘on stage’ even when they weren’t in the scene. They could be just out of the light, but still seen by the audience. Most of the cast didn’t have a costume change and having the ‘Marines’ and ‘Naval personnel’ witnessing the events of the trial gave the audience the impression that the soldiers were always watching. It made for a very thrilling show.
This newsletter will be sent to you each Sunday evening. It is the hope of the leadership of MCP that this will be an easy communication for you to refer to throughout that week and that you will not have as many messages from the group in your inbox over the course of the week. You can always reach out to us at any time with suggestions.
513-398-7804
newsletter@masonplayers.org
www.masonplayers.org
The Mason Community Post is edited by Laureen Catlin with support from Assistant Editor Robert Terry and IT Technician Phil Catlin.