I'm Big On The Pig

Hey, what can I say? The T-Shirt pretty much says it all. I decided to move the annual Gallagher/Sweigart BBQ earlier in the summer so that all my Endstation family could come!
Like everything Endstation does, it was quite a production.

I woke up at 4:30 to put the pig on...

...and with my trusty assistant Carly we put on 80 pounds of pork!

After making sauce, and sides it was time to kick back, relax and celebrate Endstation's opening weekend. We even had some alumni drive 8 hours to be there!

Here, Resident Horticulturist Josh Mikel discusses the finer points of gardening.

A good time was had, but there are LOTS of leftovers: so hit me up!

Resident LD: Dan Gallagher

OPENING NIGHT

Opening night tonight of Complete Wrks of Shakespeare (Abridged) was amazing, we had a lot of familiar faces in the audience as well as some new folks. It was great to see the all the hard work, time, and effort that the guys have put into this show really pay off, as the audience had a really good time. We were completely sold out, and the energy was high as Walter, Michael, and Derek took the stage! From the first few lines throughout the entire show, everyone was spot on and performed at top notch level. I know I can speak for the company when I say we were very, very proud of the guys and this production in general.

Don't just take my word for it, chat with anyone that was there, I am confident that they would agree that this was a fast-paced, action-packed, high energy, really fun show.


So I guess that leaves one question really......have you gotten your tickets yet? Like I said we were sold out this evening, and we are sold out for tomorrow night too, so you better jump in while you can. Still 5 performances left between tomorrow night, Sunday, and next Fri, Sat, and Sun. Visit www.lynchburgtickets.com or e-mail reservations to boxoffice@endstationtheatre.org. Believe me when I say, this is one show you will not want to miss!!


Cheers,
MAH
Company Manager

News and Advance Complete Wrks Story

Check it out by clicking here!

A Day In The Life Of Me

Dan changing burned out gel

The board I'd never heard of or seen before

Partial hang for "Alice"

The awesome pipe we hung above the apron for "Alice"

Buckle your seatbelts because the excitement of my blog entry is just beginning. I know, I know, it’s difficult to contain yourselves, but try. I’m going to give you a run down of a day in the life of me, in Sweet Briar with Endstation Theatre Co.

An average day starts at 8:30 and goes until 5pm or a little after. We’ve done work on all three shows. Hung a few things for “Alice,” taken measurements and worked a little at the barn for “Hamlet,” and I’ve had the opportunity to design “Complete Wrks,” see rehearsals and write cues to prepare to head into tech.

Designing “Complete Wrks” at the Renaissance Theatre has been an interesting adventure. The space is better than I had originally anticipated, and it’s jam packed with fun little quirks. It’s the first space I’ve ever been in that has no grid or organized system of hanging. Basically if you want an instrument here, you screw in a phalange and there ya go. Which initially was a little odd, but really kinda worked out in our favor.

Because Dan is a rock star, we got the show hung and focused quick enough to give us time to do a few things on the other shows. And you all know how nice it is to switch things up a bit. The board wasn’t as difficult to learn as I thought it would be and once I figured out how to write my chase scene I was pretty darn proud of myself. Not to brag, but I pretty much made magic happen.

Tech rehearsal today went fairly smooth. There were only a few changes here and there and an extra cue or two for the insane amounts of applause that will ensue at the shows’ end. Michael, Derek and Walter have done a phenomenal job with “Complete Wrks’ and tomorrow night will pretty much be amazing, no joke.

The show opens tomorrow night, and while I’m super excited to see what I’ve created work with what the rest of the team has done, I’m just as excited to get started on “Alice” and “Hamlet.” I’m going to have the opportunity to work on things that are exciting and new and if real life were a musical, it would be at this point that I’d break out into a song and dance number, but nothing too flashy. Maybe the ‘before intermission’ number.

It doesn’t need to be said how amazing the people here are, but since I just typed it, you’ll have to read it. Even though the group knows each other really well, they do an amazing job of making sure the new kids feel just as welcomed. It’s always hard to find your niche in a new group, but Endstation is just like another family. It’s pretty stellar, just sayin’. So that’s what I’ve been up to. And best part is, we’re just getting started. (Now you can do the Finale song and dance number)

Claire Phelps

Lighting Intern

Our show

Tonight was an exciting night with Hamlet. Walt had a pretty great break through. It is wonderful to be at the barn now. It is amazing how much it opens the exploration of the play up.

It is so important to me for us to own this play. We need to find this play for ourselves, our particular circumstances, and for the world we are creating. Walt began to find HIS Hamlet tonight. I really can't wait for you all to see this.

Geoffrey Kershner

Artistic Director

A reminder......

I know that I am constantly saying that I am amazed, however I am truly stunned that in a mere short two days from today we will arrive at our first official opening night of the 2010 Blue Ridge Summer Theatre Festival.

This coming Friday (June 4th) the Complete Wrks of William Shakespeare (Abridged) will open at the Renaissance Theatre in downtown Lynchburg. So......have you got your tickets yet....visit www.lynchburgtickets.com or e-mail boxoffice@endstationtheatre.org

The guys have worked tirelessly in order to prepare for opening night, and they will continue to work almost right up until opening, implementing all the various costume, script, movement, tech, and other elements that are a part of this show. Walter, Derek, and Michael have come through a marathon rehearsal process, constant changes, adapting to new playing spaces, performed for high school students, began rehearsing for Hamlet (July 14-25th...get your tickets now....), and kept up with all the other festival goings on. Hard to believe we began this process just 24 days ago.

There has been a lot that has happened since those first few shots were taken at the very first rehearsal of the 2010 BRSTF ..... costumes, props, character development.....let's take a look:

What's that you say? You want to see the pictures with costumes and lights and so on and so on....you want me to show you those and give everything away?!! HECK NO!! You have to come and see for yourself......besides pictures would not do it justice.

Have you reserved your tickets yet (www.lynchburgtickets.com or e-mail boxoffice@endstationtheatre.org), seats are going like hot cakes and you don't want to miss out on seeing,

this guy

or this guy

or this guy

who all together make up these guys

So what are you waiting for? Go, go, go! Get your tickets (www.lynchburgtickets.com or e-mail boxoffice@endstationtheatre.org) and I will see you this Friday or some other time during the run of the show!!

Till next time~

Cheers,
MAH
Company Manager

ENDSTATION PROFILES: Joshua Mikel

:to be read in the dialect of a dixie man:

Born January 27th in the year of 1984 in the small Georgian township of Dekalb. A true-to-nature, water-carryin' Aquarius. A man still recoverin' from the 'baseball bat to the face' incident of 1991. A dreamer, (sometimes, with my help) a doer, a grandparent enthusiast, and an all-american vagabond. Internets... come round and meet Joshua Lee Mikel.

As Resident Playwright for the Playwrights' Initiative in conjunction with the Endstation Theatre Company, Joshua is usually glued to my side parts for the lion's share of the summer. It can be a real pain in my neck, but typically, we are joyful in each other's company. Ever read On The Road? He wrote it. And he brags to high heaven about it in the little smirk on his face and sag in his step. Whilst mooching off the generosity of our founders, Mister Geoffrey Kershner and Missus Krista Franco, he typically creates some astoundin' work (for a back-woods Georgian boy) and we all is proud to have him on our staff.

F'example, in the summer last, he wrote the southern gothic stunner, My Brother's Knife: A Madison Heights Odyssey for the Blue Ridge Summer Theatre Festival. You may have seen it (or you maybe you didn't.) But it was a spectacle and true-to-form of the talent and capability squeezed into his strange, gangly, slender frame like a fat marmut in a prairie dog hole. He really has a stranglehold on what some Yankee elites like to call an 'aesthetic'. He knows the story he wants to be tellin', and he knows how to scribble it down like a regular Dorothy Allison. He somehow convinced Playscripts Publishers to pick up three of his plays and print 'em on the press (Quentin G; Good Good Trouble On Bad Bad Island; Monster Hunters). He's even been accepted into the New York International Fringe Festival with the second one. I'm producin' that one and the two of us are journeying into the eye of the devil himself (Manhattan) in the latter days of this comin' August . Don't go tellin' him I told you, but... well, he's a gem. A gem, you listenin'?

On top of all them trophies, he acts the socks off of people who should know better than to wear socks around him and he's a graphic/fine artist, to boot. He has so much goin' on in his little world, it makes a small boy like myself want to cry because I'll never be President of the Confederacy but he'll probably be the next Ralph Nader. If I were more progressive, I'd take him as my spouse, but since I'm a Dixie man through and through, I settle for the glue that keeps our side parts cemented to the other.

And, as every man who's drunk a bottle of small-batch, kentucky bourbon alongside him has said, 'Glory to God, that boy is fine and may the Lord above, keep him mine.'

m.

--

Michael Stablein, Jr.

Head of Playwrights' Initiative