At 8:10am Wednesday morning, two happy awake men greeted me as "Sir" and Thomas Thorspecken as "Mr Thorspecken" as we walked into the Orlando Shakes lobby for Arts in Your Backyard, "Where Newcomers Meet the Arts," put on by United Arts in one of the two lobbies inside Orlando Shakes. This event is done rarely and gives a stage for one person from a handful of arts orgs they fund (six today) to stand in front of an audience and describe their org to varying depths. They usually have a projector and screen, but today they used good old stapled paper.
The mostly blue-haired audience seemed interested. I liked watching them win raffle prizes. Someone said, when the first of about ten prizes were handed out, "The first one of the day! That's real luck!"
Shannon Lacek from Orlando Shakes spoke about her recent trip to the Shakespeare Theatre Associaton Conference where she stood on the Globe Theatre stage on her non-Polio-addled feet, as well as her amazement that the actors in her shows memorize two shows (Hamlet and Alls Well That Ends Well) in rep. I am amazed as well, as many of the shows are performed at 10am for children. Too bad they don't offer tickets for those performances.
Cory Warren, Events Coordinator for United Arts and for ArtsFest said 17% of the genre-crossing, free ArtsFest events require reservations and 10% of all tickets at every event are held for walk-ups i.e.: people like me who can't plan ahead.
Henry Maldonado from Enzian Theatre gave away two tickets to any movie to everyone in the audience. John Thiesen from United Arts spoke about his project FilmSlam, the indie short hour-long viewing, he produces for Enzian. Love it. Go there. Susan Bright from Orlando Philharmonic shared that they rehearse in the Orlando Shakes building and broke into tears while talking about Izak Pearlman dragging his Polio-addled body across the stage. Scott Evans from Orange County Arts Education Center shared a pro-arts study and Autumn Ames showed a print out of her RedChairProject.com, comforting us with the fact that the real website is prettier.
Listen to related interviews:
Orlando Philharmonic Conductor
FilmSlam producer John Thiesen
Red Chair Project's Autumn Ames
The mostly blue-haired audience seemed interested. I liked watching them win raffle prizes. Someone said, when the first of about ten prizes were handed out, "The first one of the day! That's real luck!"
Shannon Lacek from Orlando Shakes spoke about her recent trip to the Shakespeare Theatre Associaton Conference where she stood on the Globe Theatre stage on her non-Polio-addled feet, as well as her amazement that the actors in her shows memorize two shows (Hamlet and Alls Well That Ends Well) in rep. I am amazed as well, as many of the shows are performed at 10am for children. Too bad they don't offer tickets for those performances.
Cory Warren, Events Coordinator for United Arts and for ArtsFest said 17% of the genre-crossing, free ArtsFest events require reservations and 10% of all tickets at every event are held for walk-ups i.e.: people like me who can't plan ahead.
Henry Maldonado from Enzian Theatre gave away two tickets to any movie to everyone in the audience. John Thiesen from United Arts spoke about his project FilmSlam, the indie short hour-long viewing, he produces for Enzian. Love it. Go there. Susan Bright from Orlando Philharmonic shared that they rehearse in the Orlando Shakes building and broke into tears while talking about Izak Pearlman dragging his Polio-addled body across the stage. Scott Evans from Orange County Arts Education Center shared a pro-arts study and Autumn Ames showed a print out of her RedChairProject.com, comforting us with the fact that the real website is prettier.
Listen to related interviews:
Orlando Philharmonic Conductor
FilmSlam producer John Thiesen
Red Chair Project's Autumn Ames