From the Inside Out

The grand opening celebration for the AT&T Performing Arts Center in Dallas’ Arts District has been in full swing all week and will culminate with an “open house” festival on Sunday, Oct. 18 from 11 am - 8 pm.

Free and open to the public, the day will include family-friendly activities, venue tours, and indoor and outdoor “spotlight” performances by the Center’s resident companies and national, regional and local talent spanning dance, music and theatre. It will also feature free admission to exhibitions at Arts District museums and other venues, giving access to special programming they created just for this occasion. The grand finale will be a fireworks show at 7:45 pm.

If you are in the area and have an interest in the arts, it’s a great opportunity to get a sampling of what’s to come at the new PAC…best of all, it’s entirely free. So join in the excitement and check it out on Sunday. For more info, visit: attpac.org/grandopening.

We filmed three videos for Saturday Night Life today — a commercial, digital short, and the opening cast video. It was a long day, but I’m very pleased with the footage we obtained. We captured some funny moments…can’t wait to see the first edit!

If you want to see the finished product, be sure to join us for the show on Oct. 9 and 10 at 7:30 pm. It’ll be great!

For a few “behind the scenes” pictures from the video shoot today, check out the following:

Killing time in between tapings

Infomercial shoot

Getting prepped

Fun with zombies

Wait…look behind you!

Hanging with the zombies waiting for the next take

RAWWRRRR!

Pooped!

We held our second writer’s meeting for Saturday Night Live tonight. The writers came armed with their ideas, outlines, and scripts. Then for the next few hours, we worked together to determine which sketches would actually make it into the show.

At the end of the night, we were left with 13 sketches and 5 videos. We’ll be bringing back favorite characters from past shows, retiring others, and delivering fresh new material. There’s at least one controversial sketch which has me worried. I think the writers delight in creating that one idea that makes me nervous, but it always seems to turn out fine in the end.

With a total of 18 performances plus musical guest spots, we have a full agenda. It will probably clock in around 2 hours with intermission. But, that’s two-hours stocked full of great laughs and fun-filled family entertainment — for free! It doesn’t get any better than that.

Friday and Saturday, October 9-10 at 7:30 pm. Put it on your calendar now. You won’t be disappointed!

Carol Burnett used to end her shows with a song that said:

I’m so glad we had this time together,
Just to have a laugh or sing a song.
Seems we just got started and before you know it
Comes the time we have to say, ‘So long.’

That’s exactly how I feel right now. Hartburn Hotel at McKinney Repertory Theatre ended today. We had a fabulous time, met lots of people, and made many new friends. The ending is bittersweet. I’m glad that rehearsals are over, but I’ll miss everyone — and I’ll miss performing.

I’m taking many fond memories of this fantastic experience with me. I wish the cast, crew, director, and producer the best of luck in their future endeavors. Many are already auditioning for other shows. It’s the same for me and Gary. We’re already working on our next show, Saturday Night Life at ALC. We’re all moving on, but hopefully we’ll get the chance to work together again in other shows.

Our last performance of Hartburn Hotel was a 2 pm matinee. We had a decent crowd in the audience, especially for a Sunday afternoon. They were a bit quieter than our evening audiences, but they still had fun and got involved in the show.

After today’s performance, we had a brief TalkBack session with the playwright and cast. Once that was over, we changed out of costume and began to strike the set. We tore everything down in a couple of hours and loaded it into the MRT storage space. Then, came the fun! The director invited everyone over to his house for a final cast party. It was a nice evening and a fitting end to this great experience. I can’t wait to do it again in the future!

Until then, it’s time to say, “so long.”

Tonight’s blog will be a short one. It’s late, and I need to get some sleep. Hartburn Hotel is quickly coming to an end. We performed our last 8 pm show tonight and have only one remaining performance, a 2 pm matinee tomorrow.

The crowd tonight was awesome. We had about 150 in the house, and they were quite rambunctious. The playwright also attended tonight’s show, and we went to dinner with him afterwards. It was great to learn more about the play and what transpired when it was being written.

Below are a few additional pictures from the show…goodnight all!

The stage is set and we’re almost ready to begin

Ma and Pa get the bad news

Sahara’s back in town

Ivory complains about Sahara

Mrs Spoffingford-Sykes asks Ivory to summon the owner

Prettyfoot, the Sheriff and Ivory

The Sheriff meets Sahara

The last scene — Rod has an announcement