May 9, 2008

Okay. Here I go again. I say that because I wrote a very long blog with all my hopes and dreams and feelings and all the answers to the universe… then yahoo blog thing lost it so I won’t be using them again.

I am placing this blog here so as to keep the three or four people interested in what we are doing up to date. :)

Some questions I asked myself (I know..wierd):

Who are you?

My name is Philip J Bedard. I am a graphic designer and sometime artist doing mostly cartoons these days. I have also been known to do a theater program or poster as well as prop building.

What the heck is with this crazy idea of starting a theater group, you have no experience or knowledge of theater?! Are you some kind of idiot??

Gosh. get hostile.. okay…
Seriously? I honestly have no theater experience. I skipped it in high school. Community college has no theater program. I never even went to plays until a few years ago when my kids tried out for Baker’s Wizard of Oz. I went to every rehearsal the kids were in, sat in the audience, and played snakes on my cell phone (occasionally ogling my future wife who was helping onstage). The kids had a great time but I was not drawn in. Some of the crew was surly and the director not overly friendly. The children were often yelled at but this is what they wanted to do so I was here. The production itself, when it finally happened, was pretty amazing. I watched about half of the shows and was impressed that a lot of these things could be done. Still not sold though.

A few years later (after marrying the girl I was ogling onstage) I was asked by my mother in law to produce a poster for 1776 which I did. It was not the most pleasant situation because of creative differences between the director and me as to design but it worked out and this was also a great show. Very fun but still not sold. I like watching them but had no need to become involved.

The next one I worked on was 12 dancing princesses. You who do not know me may not know this but I am an artistic diva. I may be wrong but I generally believe I know best. Oh wait..Im not wrong *L* SO the Director and I butted heads through the whole thing over the design and he ended up changing my design without consulting me. Theater sucks. Bad experience. NEVER AGAIN he says…

Then my daughter decides that she wants to do theater… and she is good… and she loves it… My wife who has always loved theater helps her out by doing hair and she is amazing at it. The first play I hung around for was the Curious Savage. I took some pictures backstage and noticed something different about this show then my previous experience. These kids were having a ball. They weren’t doing it as a fund raiser. They weren’t doing it for any reason except that it was fun. They were creating real friendships and it was showing me a different side of theater. I did graphics on almost every show since and wanted more. My wife wanted more.

There is a local theater group and they do some very grand productions. My experience has been that there are some very nice people and some very not nice people. It is a big group and very set in its ways. I have discovered, unfortunately, that no matter how many people try out for their shows (and I am not referring to me or my wife) it is almost always the same people in the main parts over and over again. Even when superior but new actors try out for things. Also, most of the plays performed are tired and safe. No big deal I thought, eventually things will change.

Our whole family is in a group called the SCA. It is a medieval recreation group and it has been my family for a long time but as any family, it started to be unfun. Most of the people drifted off with new things to do. People got lives I guess. Sad but true. Unfortunately this left a large hole in our leisure time and social lives. Another reason we threw ourselves into the High School Drama club but that doesn’t help the fact we want to be in or produce or direct plays.

Our friend Ray, a theater major from WSU and the GUY at the PAC has been kind of a sad panda lately. It is hard to find things to do here and the PAC is a huge job as well as the fact he teaches at the high school.

We started thinking maybe we should become more involved with the theater group here. The something happened that made me angry and showed that maybe there was a different motive in play. The high school kids did a production of the crucible and rented some very basic costumes from this group. They received a bill for $300!! An entire nights take. On top of that exorbitant price we were then jumped afterward and asked for more money to dry clean even through the receipt said it was included. Immediately after that the middle school kids were charged $400 for basic white shirts and some suits. What?? That’s not right. These kids are the local theaters future.

I started to think that maybe all these things were leading to something. Something new to do. We could do theater, and not just the same old things… maybe we could do original plays, funny plays… we could tour around to different places. We could do workshops or anything we wanted… I mentioned this to others and they were also interested. Theater could be fun! And for fun!!

And so. Here we are… does that answer my question? Rather long windedly I would say.

So. where are you now in this process?

Well we are smack in the middle of working on non-profit status (thanks to Sunshine). We are looking at plays to do and we have a board in place as well as a website. I have no idea what will happen but keep checking back to see what’s up

Oh..and we couldn’t be doing this without the people who have been working on it so far.

Shannon (I Love you), Ray, Ian, Allen, Sunshine, and more that I am sure I will hear about *L*

In Service

Philip J Bedard