Northland Players, Inc.

President’s Letter

 

I am looking forward to the New Year and boy have we been busy! A lot of new ideas have come from our community and from the Board on how to make North-land Players more accessible to our members and how to get new people to join us. Our Board has discussed making a brochure which could showcase the arts in Cheboygan, how to get involved and new upcoming events. I think that sometimes people want to get involved, but are unsure how to go about it. Miranda Craw-ford is busily working on a proposed brochure and we hope to get that ready to have available to pass out at the Dinner Theaters this year.

Speaking of Dinner Theaters, Jack Barber will be presenting “A Tribute to Sinatra” on February 10th, 11th, 17th and 18th at Audies in Macki-naw City. The posters are ready to spread out around the community and smaller brochures will be available at local supermarkets. So get the word out. Who knows, this may be Jack’s Swan Song and what a great way to come out and support a great entertainer and our organization at the same time. The price remains at $25.00 for a delicious meal and a walk down memory lane. I think everyone will love the cozy, classy nightclub atmosphere and our Jack at his best

January 9, 2012 at 6:00 p.m. will be Auditions for “Everyone Loves Opal”, a very funny comedy for the March Dinner Theater. Berti Bur-meister will be the Director and it will be March 23rd, 24th, 30th and 31st. There are 4 men and 2 women roles. If you haven’t done a Dinner Theater-give it a try! The smaller stage, the connection with the audi-ence and the joy of making people laugh is plenty incentive. So get out there! If you know anyone who has ever had an interest in doing a

show, call them and tell them to come by the Theater Center Monday night!

New venues-I am very excited that we have been approached by the Cheboygan Eagles to put on a Murder Mystery at the Eagles Hall, possi-bly in May after our Dinner Theaters and after the Follies are over. One of our Board Members, Mary Schwartz, knows someone who writes Murder Mysteries and we are all very excited to add this new venue to Northland Players. Even the UAW at Black Lake has mentioned doing a Murder Mystery there. So keep an eye on our web page at www.nlplayers.org. There is tons of information there and when I find out more, we will keep you updated on our Facebook page and occa-sional emails to our members as well. So go check it out!

I have also been approached by Mackinaw City Chamber of Commerce of perhaps putting on the musical “Hats” about the Red Hat Society. Apparently, it has been a great success in Chicago. They are looking at the first of June when the Chamber will have a gathering of these fun loving ladies in Mackinaw City. I have sent an inquiry to Samuel French about the show, but am waiting for a response. We really want to get Northland Players out in the public eye and bring in more revenue. The Theater Center costs a lot to keep running. So we really want to expand from our slate of one Fall show, two Dinner Theaters, the Summer Youth Theater Program and our Noteables group to add new venues. It will really depend on how many of our members want to get involved. So think about the possibilities.

Also, we have a great need for Directors! The Board has talked about doing a Director’s Workshop with some of our very own stellar Direc-tors coming in and spread-ing wisdom to those who want to consider taking on the task. I really think that we have plenty of talented members and don’t need to have outside Directors come in. Perhaps 30-45 minute segments from 4 or 5 of our Directors, explain-ing what is expected and helpful hints is all we need to get the ball rolling. A little lunch?! If any of you 

experienced Directors would be interested let me know or I will be call-ing you!

We hope to have some parties at the Theater Center (February maybe). Katie and Brett Mallory have expressed that they would like to get to-gether and celebrate the Northland Players bringing them together. Northland Players, Follies and anyone in the community that would like to come. Post it in the Local Notes of the paper. Open House-put on a little entertainment, perhaps dancing. I will keep you informed.

Hope that this year is a great year for us. If you missed it, our Fall Musi-cal, “42nd Street” was wonderful. My ankles are so happy to be through tapping for awhile! We really got the word out about the show and word of mouth really helps. So please continue to help us spread the word about our shows. Even if you aren’t in it, we still need your sup-port. The radio station and newspaper have been very supportive this year and we are very grateful to them. We plan on starting in August to get advertising for our program once again. We will have a yearly adver-tising program and slip in a smaller insert with the current shows details. This way our advertisers will be in for the full season and all we have to do is run out the insert for each new show. So, if you would like to ad-vertise or know anyone who would like to be back in our programs, please let me know. I am checking for cost effective ways to do this and your input is appreciated. Several of our Board Members have been go-ing to other community theaters to find out their inner workings and also networking for possible sharing costumes, props and sets.

Hey-you should check out all cleaning that has been going in the Thea-ter Center. We really got a lot done and still have more to do. I will let you know when the next cleaning bee is. It is amazing what can be ac-complished when everyone works together! Thanks to all who give their time and efforts!

Don’t forget to keep an eye out on our website for new postings! If you need to reach me for anything, send an email to renee-pelon@yahoo.com or call me at (231) 420-0975 home (we went wire-less), cell phone (231) 818-1083 and emergencies only at work (231) 347-8708. Leave a message; I will get back to you.

Wow-I hope I haven’t missed anything. So much to do! Once again, Happy New Year!

 

Renee Pelon, President

Happy New Year

Date: 01/05/2012