Hey Everyone!
Welcome to week 5 of We're Off to See the Wizard! This week I sat down with the office staff of Asheville Community Theatre. The folks who work hard to make sure that we have everything we need to put on a great show.
One person that I did not get a chance to sit down and get on video this week is Executive Director of ACT, Susan Harper. While I wasn't able to sit down with her, I was able to ask her some questions about the past, present, and future of ACT.
Question: What is your job title and what does your job entail?
Susan: My title is Executive Director and I am ultimately responsible for operations of Asheville Community Theatre. I report to a 15 member Board of Directors.
Question: What is your background that led you to this position?
Susan: I have an undergraduate degree in art education and a masters degree in supervision and administration. I taught visual art and arts management before running arts organizations for 29 years. I've been at ACT for 14 years.
Question: Can you tell us a little history of ACT and its connection with the city of Asheville?
Susan: Asheville Community Theatre was founded in 1946 by community members who wanted to put on plays. For many years, ACT was a vagabond theatre performing in a variety of places around Asheville. In 1972, leadership raised the funds to buy the property and building the theatre where ACT is currently located. In 2017, ACT completely renovated the Mainstage and backstage areas and brought all our technology into the 21st century.
Question: What is an interesting fact about the theatre that some people may not know?
Susan: People are surprised to know that all the actors on our stage are volunteers. We're lucky to operate in a town with so many talented actors, singers and dancers. We pay the artistic team members who guide the process but everyone else on stage and back stage are volunteers.
Question: What does the future of Asheville Community Theatre look like?
Susan: The future of ACT is very bright. ACT is a strong, well managed arts organization that earns 85% of it's total one million dollar budget. We're in Phase 2 of a capital campaign which will add 13,500 square feet of new space and renovate 4,500 square feet of existing space to allow for program growth. Demand for our programming out paces our facility. In 2017-18, 6,200 children participated at ACT but 3,200 sat on wait lists. With our expansion, we will go from 2 programming spaces to 6.
Thank you for answering those questions for me Susan. There were a couple office staff folks who I was not able to get to because of their busy schedules, but this whole staff works tirelessly to make sure that we have the best product on the stage and that we are a great partner with the city of Asheville.
As for what happened on stage this week, we just keep plugging along with music, choreography, and blocking as we get closer and closer to the show. We are starting to get into the meat of our rehearsals as we get prepared to do full run-thrus for our designers and really start seeing the show take shape. We are starting to get to the part of rehearsals that I really love! We've laid the foundation and started building the studs of the walls, now we start putting in insulation and sheet rock and start seeing what the house is going to look like.
Join us next week as I start taking you behind the scenes of the making of the show.
As always, if you have any questions for me or anyone else with the show, comment on the blog, YouTube video, Facebook, or if you’re on Instagram or Twitter, send questions to me @theonejohno #AskTheWizard#AskTheWizard.
Until next time...