WCT News

A Tuna Christmas -Update

Online tickets are now available for the next WCT production, A Tuna Christmas. Tickets can be purchased using a PayPal account or credit/debit card. Tickets will be available locally through the Winfield Chamber of Commerce, 123 East 9th Ave in Winfield and McIntire Tax Center, 119 West 5th Ave on Ark City or at the door with cash or check.

A Tuna Christmas will be presented December 11th and 12th at 7:30pm and 13th at 2:30pm. Directed by David Schmielder, the cast is Ron Jordan as Thurston, David Andreas as Arlyn, and Jake Giger as Ronnie. Each actor will also play several other Tuna, Tx residents.

Love Letters

Winfield Community Theatre's fall production, Love Letters, opens this weekend. It is the story of two life long friends told through their letters. Unique to this production is the use of two casts, one for each weekend.

This weekend October 16th and 17th, the roles of Melissa and Andy will be played by Wilma and Arlan Anglemyer. Next weekend October 23th and 24th, Stefanie Johnson and Warren Andreas will be performing Melissa and Andy. Curtain time both weekends is 7:30pm.

Staged in the Winfield Community Theatre in Meyer Hall at Baden Square,  show tickets are $8 per person. They can be purchased by cash or check through Winfield Chamber of Commerce 205 East 9th in Winfield (620) 221-2420 or McIntire Income Tax Center, at 119 West 5th Ave in Ark City (620) 442-6227 or at the door.  Tickets can also be purchased online via PayPal (Credit cards accepted) on the theatre’s web site; http://www.winfieldcommtheatre.com/onlinetickets.html. Cutoff for online tickets is noon on Friday for that weekend's performances.

Love Letters Cast

Winfield Community Theatre and director Trish McIntire is pleased to announce the casts for the second production of it’s 2009-2010 season;  A.R. Gurney’s  Love Letters.

The unique format of the script has allowed the double casting of this production. The first weekend, October 16 and 17, Wilma Anglemyer will portray Melissa Gardner and Arlan Anglemyer is cast as Andrew Makepeace Ladd III. For the production’s  second weekend, October 23 and 24, the roles will be covered by Stefanie Johnson as Melissa and Warren Andreas as Andy. Love Letters has often been produced with frequently changing casts. The off-broadway production ran for 64 weeks with a different set of actors each weekend.


 “Love Letters” will be presented on October 16, 17, 23, and 24 at 7:30pm. Tickets are $8.00 will be available at the Winfield Chamber of Commerce in Winfield,  McIntire Tax Center in Ark City, online at www.winfieldcommtheatre.com/tickets.html and at the door.

Facebook Involvement

WCT has a Facebook page and we would love to have more people get involved on the page (and in the theatre, of course). Under the Boxes tab, there are opportunities for dicussion of WCT shows and the theatre in general. We have started one for suggestion of show you would like to see us do. But feel free to start another discussion. Or post fan pictures. They can be from rehearsals, auditions or anthing theatre related.

If you aren't a fan, please join us.

Auditions for Love Letters

Auditions for the fall WCT production have been set for Monday September 21 at 7pm and Thursday September 24th at 7pm. They will be held at the Winfield Community Theatre in Meyer Hall on Baden Square (1500 East 8th, Winfield) This is a read script and lines will not have to be memorized and there will be limited rehearsals.

Performances are October 16, 17, 23, and 24 at 7:30pm. If you have questions or need to schedule a different audition time, please contact the director, Trish McIntire, at 620-442-6227 during business hours or e-mail at wct@winfieldcommtheatre.com

Comment Spam

WCT News is getting hit with comment spam again. There were 12 this morning alone. So, if your comment doesn't get posted, it isn't that we don't want to hear from you. If may have been deleted by accident. Please try again or post on our Facebook page. Comments for this post are closed. over 75 spams in 3 days.

The Realities of Play Production

Usually this blog just deals with facts and dates of WCT shows but a post on another blog needed a response and this is a good place to do that. A little public education in the economics of theatre.

Seth Godin is a marketing guru and proposes an interesting idea for theatres in his post, Organizing Customers. The short synopsis is a local high school group did a production of Grease and paid $3000 for the royalties. Surprised at the high price tag, Mr. Godin suggests that theatres form a cartel to negotiate for significantly lower royalties. Interesting idea but first lets get some theatre facts involved.

1. While Grease first opened in the 70's. it had a recent Broadway revival which increases its desirability for production. It has always been a very popular show and so the royalties will be higher for this show than for a less well known musical. And a producer will sell more tickets because the audience knows and wants to see Grease.
2. The was no mention of the number of performances for this production but that was a factor in charging the $3000 royalties. The royalties for WCT's next show, Love Letters, are $75 a performance. Musicals are higher.
3. Also a factor is the size of the theatre used for the production. The larger the theatre the higher the royalty.
4. That $3000 probably includes script rental. Unlike plays where the scripts are bought and kept by the theatre/cast, musicals are generally used and returned. So for Love Letters, about $45 was spent on scripts. This can be a huge cost with a large cast since you have to have a script for each cast member.
5. How much of that $3000 did the school get back when the scripts were returned. Part of the rental fee is a refundable deposit. For a recent musical, WCT received back @ $400 of the royalties when the scripts were all returned.

Mr Godin suggest theatres joining together to negotiate for lower royalties.

Imagine contacting 3,000 high schools and finding 500 willing to join together and agree to act as a buying cartel. Now, the organizer can poll the directors at these schools and find thirty plays they'd be willing to put on next year. Go to the rights holders of these plays and say, "We're going to pick six of these plays. Each of the six will get a huge number of customers as a result, perhaps twenty times as many as you usually get. But to be among the six, you need to lower your price by a factor of ten."

For this to work, the cartel will have to choose shows that are not getting produced often. No publisher is going to cut the royalty of the top seller. There is a reason they aren't getting produced as often, lack of interest. Directors aren't interested in presenting or the audience isn't interested in seeing. Choosing a season is hard enough without having to choose from a reduced set of shows. And everyone in the cartel will be choosing from the same set of shows. Two theatres in the same area choosing the same shows is not good for either theatre or the potential audience.

Are royalties high and could theatre's band together to reduce them. Yes.  The national organizations could work out discount deals with publishers for royalty reductions. Much like AAA has negotiated discounts with hotels for their members. But the savings will not be the 90% Mr. Godin suggests. However, I think most theatres would go for even a 5-10% reduction.

Hambone for A Funny...Forum

Congratulations to Keith Anglemyer for winning the Hambone award for A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. The Hambone is given for most shows to recognized an actor's contribution to a production both onstage and backstage. Congratulations Keith!

Auditions for Love Letters

A quick heads up about the auditions for Love Letters, the next WCT production.

Usually, auditions for the next show are scheduled for right after the previous show closes. Most directors want 6 or more weeks to rehearse. But Love Letters requires a much shorter rehearsal period. So, auditions will not be held mid-September. Notices will be posted here and on Facebook and Twitter.

Good-Bye Norman

It is with a sad heart that Winfield Community Theatre says good-bye to Norman Callison. He passed away August 5, 2009. Norman was highly active in Winfield theatre. He was a founding board member of WCT while teaching drama at Southwestern College. He also founded Horsefeathers and Applesauce Dinner Theatre. Norman was inducted into WCT's Hall of Fame as part of the 40th Anniversary Reunion. 

A memorial service has been set for Sunday, August 16th at 2:30pm. The curtain for the matinee for A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum has been moved back to 4:30pm.