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NEWS & AUDITIONS
BOARD ELECTIONS –
MARCH GENERAL MEETING The March 15 General Meeting is the most important to the membership. It is the time you decide the direction the Heights Players will take for next season. It is the meeting where all eligible voting members select the Board of Directors for the 2010-11 season. If you are an eligible voting member and cannot attend the meeting, please fill out the proxy form and follow the directions carefully. HEIGHTS PLAYERS FEATURED ON BROOKLYN INDEPENDENT TELEVISION "From the humble beginnings with their first production Hasty Heart to today's critically acclaimed Take Me Out, the Heights Players have been producing high quality theater for 54 years," begins the feature on BIT's program, Neighborhood Beat. View the video below, courtesy of Brooklyn Independent Television, a community media program of BRIC Arts | Media | Brklyn. If you have trouble viewing the video below, you can also visit the BIT website.
TAKE ME OUT CAST PODCAST Olga Privman, the reviewer from ReviewFix.com, spent a little time after attending Take Me Out in January to interview cast members. Her interview is now online. Get a glimpse into the work behind the show by hearing Ugo Chukwu, Seth Grugle and Craig Peterson talk about their characters and the preparation that went into the making of the critically acclaimed Take Me Out. Click here to listen to the interview. JANUARY BOARD MEETING At the January Board meeting it was voted to establish a Technical Play-Reading committee. This committee will review the play lists of all eligible directors as to their feasibility/adaptability to our space – Gary VanderPutten was selected as chairman. All eligible directors are to submit their choices to the 2010-2011 elected Board, enabling them to select the 2010-2011 season to present to the membership at our May meeting. Gary's email address is garyvp@earthlink.net. Also at this meeting a Nominating Committee for the coming March elections was established, with Jim McNulty as Chairman. If you wish to be considered for an office on the Board, please contact Jim at 917-538-5434. TWO DECADES AT THE
HEIGHTS Twenty years ago, the only thing I knew about theater was that I enjoyed going to a Broadway show. Sure, I knew my share of actors and producers, but that was as far as it went. Then I met Tom Tyler, and the Heights Players was part of the package. After I had seen only a couple of HP productions with Tom, one of the Board members resigned due to illness. Knowing that public administration was my profession, the remaining Board asked me to complete the term of the former Secretary. For the next few months, I dutifully took the minutes of meetings and learned as much as I could about running a theater. At the next election, I ran for the position of Treasurer and received a baptism by fire when I assumed the post in May 1991. Upon receiving custody of the books, I found that the theater was bankrupt! We needed $1,600 to do the season mailing and we only had $600 in the bank. In addition, the By-Laws were unworkable and a number of governmental filings were not made. I loaned the theater the money necessary to mount the next season before the subscription revenues were received and went about trying to balance the budget and straighten out the corporate filings and documentation. For the next 18 elections, I have run unopposed for the Treasurer. I am happy to say that, today, the Heights Players is one of the most financially stable community theaters in the city. Yet, most of our members still know as little about the costs of running a not-for-profit theater as I did 20 years ago. Most wouldn't think that the largest expenses for any production are basic operations such as rent, electric and insurance. These account for 49% of a non-musical's budget and 39% for a musical. Few know that it costs us more for printing (programs and postcards) or postage or royalties than it does for costumes or sets. Nor do they realize that if we didn't have volunteers to do such thankless chores as building sets, making costumes, hanging lights, taking reservations, doing ticketing or keeping the books, we couldn't afford to produce our shows. But I also found that controlling expenses was only half of the equation; revenue was the other side. And here, I am still learning. If ticket sales had a formula that could be copied, every Broadway show would be a hit. No one, on Broadway or Off, has yet been able to predict what is going to sell. We have had our box office "hits" which have usually been musicals (which are more expensive to produce), but also such non-musicals as To Kill a Mockingbird and Lend Me a Tenor. We have had productions that were critically acclaimed and generally acknowledged as wonderful shows, but failed to attract an audience. So, I look forward to my third decade of working with the rest of the Heights Players in trying to produce shows that are artistically superior, well attended and affordable. Click here for news from our members or to read our latest audition notice.
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