What happens in the shop

While the actors get all the applause, the unsung heros behind the scenes are the techies. These men and women build, paint, hammer, cut, sweep and do all manner of things to make our show look great. Here's a couple of behind the scenes photos of the crew building the set and writing the projection cues for Tower Stories- we're lucky to have such great people!

Radio interview for Tower Stories

We're heading into the radio station to be interviewed about Tower Stories. Elin Feldmann and Corbin Kottmann are both with me to read excerpts from monoluges- very excited to start our media blitz for this show!


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New year, new start!

We graduated a great group of students last year- students who have been in our theatre family a long time. While we'll miss them, we're welcoming a new crew to the theatre. I'm looking forward to seeing what new talent comes to join us (onstage and backstage) and to adding to the growing group of people who call ECC Theatre home. We have so many people come through these doors each year and each of them brings something unique to our stage. We're starting our season in about 3 weeks with Tower Stories- I hope to see all our friends, old and new, there!

Start of our season

The fabulously talented Tara Steffens put together the mockup poster for the beginning of our season- this show is going to be so moving and powerful. We'll be donating all of our proceeds to The Backstoppers and The Franklin County Gold Star Fund- please join us September 10th at 8pm and September 11th at 1pm for a tribute to the bravery, courage and heroism shown by the first responders and everyday New Yorkers.

MUNY tech rehearsal

Last night I attended midnight tech rehearsal for the MUNYs production of Bye Bye Birdie- it ran from 12:30 am-4am (I brought coffee!). I love watching other people work and as a director I rarely get to, so it was a really fun experience. It was a pretty general dress rehearsal- set pieces didn't get moved when they should have, costumes were not quite there, the run was stopped when things didn't work right... But it's all the magic of theatre. I was most interested in the fact that even though the MUNY is a huge theatre with a million dollar budget... Their tech/dress was run just like ours at ECC. We may be small... But we're good!


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Nerves

The first readthru for Tower Stories is Monday night, and I am both thrilled and nervous. I've never done this type of a reading before (hence the nerves) and we have a bunch of new actors (which is the thrilling part).
The readings make me feel lucky- hearing what people lived through is harrowing and heartbreaking. I can't wait to hear what each actor brings to their part.
Our season begins- and again- I have the best job in the world.


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Tower Stories- where were you?

This season, we're doing a different type of staged reading. While normally our readings are small cast plays, this year, in honor of 10 year anniversary of September 11, 2001 I decided to do a reading of a book I found called Tower Stories. The book is a series of interviews with paramedics, firefighters, police officers, volunteers, office workers and bystanders who all experienced September 11 and its aftermath up close.

When I first began to think of this project, I immediately knew I wanted to include people from the community who we might not necessarily see on our stage on a regular basis. As I asked more and more people to be a part of honoring this anniversary, I became more and more grateful for the enthusiasm I encountered. I am particularly grateful to Chief Hahn (WPD), who immediately agreed to find me a police officer to take part. I have also enlisted the services of Father Kevin (Borgia), Reverend Mike (Zion UCC), Mr. Carter (PHS Middle School), Greg Myer (Pacific), Dave Sutton, Cheryl Pecka, Tim Bucheit (Borgia), Tara Steffens and many others.

The show will be a multimedia performance- there will be video, audio and imagery from that terrible day that redefined our world. It is a hard show- but it is also a celebration of how far we've come.

I have never done a show like this before- I'm excited (and a bit scared) to do something so different. I'll keep you updated as we make choices about the reading.

Please join us for our tribute to September 11th...where were you?
Grace Austin
ECC Theatre