People always ask me if I am happy to have my evenings back following one of these productions.  The answer is always the same.  No...   It's always difficult to say good bye to something that you have spent so much time with.  It is also difficult to say good bye to the other cast members.   Not that we won't see each other again, and soon, but simply because we won't be seeing each other multiple times a week.  At least not until we are all part of another production that is underway.

This show followed the similar pattern.  We were anxious to get started, had fun getting it ready,  were ready for and needed the audience, tremendously enjoyed sharing our work with you, and now are sad to see it go.   I wouldn't have it any other way.

The cast pictures are now ready online for you to view.  Click here to see the pictoral of the show.

In the meantime... here's what has ended up being our official logo and cast picture.  Thanks to Cary Kann for his talented art skills for the graphic, and to Verna Lenth for her tireless work on the set.

Your chance to get in on this hilarious show is fast waning.   Stop in tonight or tomorrow.  Tickets are still available.

That said, the show obviously isn't offensive, just plain funny.  Well, okay... it's not plain funny.  It's ridiculously situationally double entendre funny.

We had people from all over who had seen this show before.  One person made a comment that they had seen the show in London, and our set and our theater setting was much more impressive.

Naturally, we are feeling very good about this show.  There are plenty of good seats left for all remaining performances.  When we hear people afterwards (and we *always* do) saying "I'm sorry I missed that one, I heard it was great." - that little snicker you hear will be us laughing over what you missed.  Don't be one of those people!  The phones started ringing at 8am for tickets this morning.  (Not that *you* need to call that early.)  See you at the theater!

That's okay however, we don't mind. <grin>  This show will take you away for a couple of hours and leave you breathless with laughter by the end.  Ticket sales are steady, but there are plenty of good seats left for all performances.  Be sure to get yours soon, so you don't miss out on this opportunity to lift your spirits out of the winter blahs and into a joyous spring!

We're down to crunch time.  All the final details need to come together this week.  We are all very excited to have an audience come and see the results of our work on this tremendously funny show.  Get your tickets now, and tell them Bobby sent you!

I warn you, you *will* want to see this one, and very possibly, more than once.  It has to be seen to be believed, and not only that, but realize as well, that there is a sequel to this show that is already on our future show calendar.  Both shows work well alone, but you'll want to see them both.

We took time for a cast photo op' tonight.  As you can see, there is a bit more work to be done on the set.  Our most gracious thanks to Verna Lenth who has been slaving away day by day getting us ready for the show.  Next week will be here before you know it.  Good seats are still available, especially for the opening weekend.

I must inform you up front, this show is so funny that you *will* miss items on the first viewing.  We could be a truly good cast and wait for the laughs to totally die down, but I absolutely guarantee you, that would have us all there till midnight!

My best advice, enjoy!  (Just come early so you can return to catch what you missed the first time before the show closes.)

The pictures were more for a progress update on the set itself.  Although, they are now out of date as we spent quite a bit of time today on set, working on paint, the couch, the doors, and the phones.  I'm anxious to see the changes put into action tomorrow night at rehearsal.

I'm pleased that we continue to grow in this show, and that we still have almost three weeks to grow in.  Lots of lines to nail down solid yet, but the lines are there, someplace, they just need to learn when to come out.  

This Sunday will be our first full run through of the show, always an interesting event for the cast.  It's good to see the show in it's entirety so that we can put each portion in place and check on length and pace.  As you know, that's an OHP trademark, we never want to give the audience time to think about what time it is, or when the show will be over.  If your mind wanders, we haven't done our job.  There is nothing more assuring than hearing people say, "my gosh!  is it over already?"

Now is a good time to touch on one aspect of this show that we'll need to return to once in a while.  The show takes place in two apartments (flats) simultaneously.  From the beginning of the show on, there are activities that are occurring on stage that overlap each other.  While many authors opt to try to create two different sets and put them side by side, or on a rotating set, this playwright decided it would be more fun to have them "share" the same physical space.

The set is therefore painted and decorated half and half to give you the understanding that this is indeed two different apartments, however... the entire set is used for both apartments.  This can lead to some originally confusing, yet often hilarious results.  Phone conversations take place between two people sitting on the same couch who can't see each other.   People will even occasionally walk directly in front of someone (who is in the other apartment) without any notice or recognition.   It is easy to understand, and actually adds to the humor of the production, once you see it happening.  Just another one of the many reasons you need to see this show to believe all the wonderful things you are going to hear about it.  Tickets are on sale, and sales are steady.  We are running this show our entire normal 5 night run, so there are plenty of great seats left.  Make your plans now for Run For Your Wife.

This set is an interesting one, and since you are reading this here, when you come to the show, nudge your seatmate and share the story.  The set is actually two apartments (or "flats" as they are called in Britain).  The interesting part is that throughout the show, there is often action that is occurring in both places at the same time.  Obviously, the people in one flat are oblivious to the other people who happen to be in the other flat at the time.  It's very easy to understand as you watch the play, but it is fun to do onstage.  A unique and fun way to show action taking place in two places at the same time.

That leaves it up to us on stage to do the same thing with the accent.  We need to add a slight flavor of the accent, without making it so thick that you have to concentrate to understand what is being said.  Believe me, I've been at shows where the accent is so authentic that it takes the first act to get into the practice of understanding what is being said.  We don't want to do that.  So if you notice that our accents are not quite fully on the "up and up", not quite "tip top eh?", there is a reason.  We want you to enjoy the action from beginning to end, all the while enjoying the flavor of British comedy.

Because of this, we are able to work around conflicts in the cast much better.  While major fall musicals require a commitment by all involved, these spring shows allow people who may often feel their schedule would not allow involvement, to get involved in local theater and share in the joy that putting on one of these shows can bring.  My point is, if you have always said you could not be involved, watch for these smaller productions, and come be part of community theater.

On another interesting note; we often make ourselves recordings to help learn lines.  Some people learn by reading, others by hearing, for those of us in the latter category, a tape or CD of the lines is invaluable.  We did a recording of a read through for just that purpose.  As I edited the tape to remove any long pauses, it became more and more apparent that what I was cutting out was our own laughter, snorts, and giggles.  We have some work to do yet before we can get through this production ourselves without breaking up.  Be sure to save time on your calendar to come and find out what all the hilarity is about.

I love being part of shows that have that problem.  It becomes a close knit group of actors truly enjoying their craft.  This will be one of those shows.  We plan on making this something that will be talked about for some time.   Just to give you some visual updates as well, I took a few photos at yesterday's rehearsal.  You can click here to see some of us in action.

We began the blocking last night for the first act, and got through a majority of it.  The pace and movement are intricate and involved.  The stage is actually used as two different homes simultaneously.  The action that takes place in one is obvioiusly not seen by those in the other.  That requires a synchronicity that will have to be acquired as rehearsals continue. 

As is almost standard for British humor, the show has an enormous amount of double meanings that are of course, taken the wrong way most of the time.  I won't attempt to describe the plot twists, they have to be seen to be believed.  We plan on starting some set work this weekend, or at least the preparation for set work.  Lots of things to accomplish, but as long as the weather cooperates, or at least gets no worse than last night, we'll have plenty of time to get this show up to our usual OHP standards.

Ticket calls have already begun.  We "officially" begin ticket sales next week, but if you are a faithful web reader, you can make your call now.  We've got things ready to go.  Pick your night, get great seats, but make it one of the first shows.  You may definitely want to come back and see it again, just to see what you may have missed.  Certainly, there will be several people you'll want to drag to the show while frequently repeating.. "you just HAVE to see this one!"

You'll have to be sure to see the show, so that we can let the production staff know if you feel that I'm getting these roles just to make this a better web site.  We wouldn't want to have people think there was nepotism in any form happening here.  Of course, that will require an appropriately sized sample.  Shall we say, the better part of a full house each night?  

Plan on setting aside an evening for some belly laughs (as well as the above semi-scientific polling.)  Run For Your Wife starts rehearsals this Sunday, and opens March 26, 2004! 

Makeup tryouts are now scheduled for Sunday night (January 25th) at 7pm in the Elkader Opera House.  If you contacted us about the original tryouts and couldn't make it, you should have received an email or a call from us already.   If you simply couldn't make it and thought you were now out of the running, here's your chance to be part of an all-star cast for a great show.  People have been requesting tickets to this show from the moment it was announced that we were doing it.

People who have seen it before an other locations, want to see it again, and they want to bring friends!  It is one of those shows that you remember.

Tryouts will be Thursday January 22nd at 7pm in the Elkader Opera House.  As is usual, if you can not make this date and time, please let us know and we will do what we can to make arrangements as necessary.  

There are 8 cast members for this spring production, six men, and two women.   We hope to see a good number at tryouts.  Many people are very excited about working on stage in the newly remodeled Opera House.   Considering that we have been getting requests for ticket sales since before Christmas, we can safely say that the theater going public is interested as well!   I will announce as soon as ticket sales begin. 

The situations will have you laughing from beginning to end.  Comedy at its best!