Author Archives: robbucher

ON CUE
The electronic newsletter of the Association of Community Theatres of Greater Cincinnati

Another season of theatre has begun and as in past years, it will be a great one. There are so many shows to see, that it is difficult to see them all. You are urged to support local community theatre. Get out and see the shows and see the great theatre that happens in this area.

ACT saw the demise of two theatre groups this past season, Stagecrafters and Milford Theatre Guilde. However, it added 3 new groups, INNOVtheatre, Inspiring Arts and Merit Theatre. Show your support for all of the groups that make up ACT of Greater Cincinnati.

The OCTA conference took place over Labor Day weekend in Perrysburg, OH and our region was well represented. We had 4 groups plus our alternate in attendance.

These were:

• Innovatheatre-Ordinary Days
• The Drama Workshop-Love, Loss and What I Wore
• Mariemont Players-Out Of Sterno
• The Village Players-The Last Days of Judas Iscariot
• Footlighters-First Date

These are the awards presented to the various shows:

LOVE, LOSS AND WHAT I WORE

• Rose Vanden Eynden – Merit in Directing
• The Cast – Excellence in Ensemble
• Kristy Rucker – Excellence in Acting as Geralyn
• Linda Callahan – Excellence in Acting as Gingy
• Holly Sauerbrunn – Outstanding in Acting as Nora
• Rose Vanden Eynden & Jason Cox – Outstanding in Sound Design

THE LAST DAYS OF JUDAS ISCARIOT

• Elena Sokoloski – Excellence in Light Design
• Dan Maloney – Excellence in Directing
• The Cast – Excellence in Ensemble
• Amy Sullivan – Excellence in a Featured Role as Sister Glenna
• Rose Vanden Eynden – Excellence in Acting as Mother Teresa
• Chris Payne – Excellence in Acting as Simon the Zealot
• Michael Ireland – Excellence in Acting as Satan
• Scott Unes – Outstanding in Acting as El Fayoumy
• Michael Ireland – Outstanding Use of the Sense of Smell as Satan

OUT OF STERNO

• Dan Maloney – Merit in Sound Design
• Peggy Stouffer – Excellence in Costumes
• Dan Dermody – Excellence in Set Design
• Dan Maloney – Excellence in Directing
• Patricia Mullins – Excellence in Acting as Dotty
• Julia Hedges – Excellence in Acting as Zena
• Patrick Kramer – Outstanding in Acting as Dan

ORDINARY DAYS

• Eric Bardes – Merit in Light Design
• Jacqlyn Schott – Excellence in Directing
• The Cast – Excellence in Ensemble
• Alex Ross – Excellence in Musical Theater Performance as Jason

FIRST DATE

• Amanda Marasch – Excellence in Costumes
• Alan Masters – Excellence in Musical Directing
• Xan Waddell Jeffrey – Excellence in Vocal Directing
• Jerry Wiesenhahn – Excellence in Directing
• Gregory K. Shaffer – Excellence in Musical Theater Performance as Man #1
• The Cast – Outstanding in Ensemble

As you can see, all of these shows displayed the quality of the theatre we create here. Congratulations to all of the shows.

Other awards were given at the conference:

• Ray Lebowski was presented with the Dick Beale Outstanding Regional Representative award. This is given to the regional representative who demonstrates the qualities of leadership necessary to be an effective representative.
• Norma Niinemets was inducted into the OCTA Hall of Fame this year. This is such a great honor and it recognizes the years of service by the individual to their theatre and to OCTA as well.

We congratulate them as well.

Attendance at this year’s OCTA state conference was down from previous years.  For years, people have asked that the excerpts be presented in a legitimate theater. This was done for the first time this past September. Because the events were held in 2 places, it meant that the cost of attending this year was increased. Was this the reason for the low turnout? Was it the location and having to navigate between locations? Was it because people were not involved in any excerpt, so therefore chose not to attend? Whatever the reason was, it created a budget deficit for OCTA. If this holds true for the 2020 conference, then there will have to be some decisions made.  An organization cannot continue to lose money and exist.

Now, mark your calendar for Labor Day Weekend 2020. The conference will be here in our region. Dan Maloney is the conference chair, and he has already put together a great support group to help organize the event. Again this year, all excerpts will be held in a THEATER! This has been requested over the years and it finally took place at this past conference. Yes, there were some problems this past year with the logistics, but it is hoped that these will be worked out for 2020. The theme this year is Roaring 20S and as always it will be the best. There will be lots of fun and games for everyone. Southwest Region rocks conferences.

ACT held their annual elections in May and the following is a list of officers for the 2019-2020 season.

• President-Dan Maloney
• 1^st VP-Amanda Emmons-Shumate
• 2^nd VP-Fred Hunt
• Secretary-Micheal Kiser
• Treasurer-Amelia Burke
• Awards Chair-Dennis Murphy
• Scholarship Chair-Melissa Smith
• Long Range Judging Standing Committee Chair-Laureen Caitlin
• Membership Standing Committee Chair-John Wesseling
• Publicity Chair/Website-Chuck Ingram
• Pre-Registration-Joy Sharp
• Librarian/Historian/Newsletter-Linda Roll

In other ACT news, there is a committee looking at updating the By-Laws of the organization. This has not been done for several years and there are areas that need updating. One such area is the need for a code of conduct. Is this something that individual theatre groups have in their by-laws? Is it necessary for ACT itself to have one if groups have it?

The issue of how to raise funds is always on the table. There have been basket raffles, a raffle ticket for a trip/money (which has NEVER been very profitable).

One thing that is currently being discussed is fund raisers in conjunction with various restaurants. Groups are already doing that, so how would that work for ACT? Lots of things to consider.

Be sure to check out our website http://www.actcincinnati.org. Chuck Ingram is doing a great job in updating the site. Send him notices of your auditions and shows and he will make sure they get placed on the website. Email is Actweb@fioptics.com.

While you are at it, send these to Rob Bucher who also publishes auditions and shows on his site . You can locate him at Behind the Curtain Cincinnati. Find him at robbucher@me.com

The final place for you to make any announcements or search for something for your production is the Wesseling One List at wesseling@yahoogroups.com. Let’s keep information flowing.

Any errors, mistakes or omissions are not intentional.

Thanks to all of you for being a part of Greater Cincinnati theatre.