Oliver Crumb Blog

Tonight is your last chance to see the original children’s musical, Oliver Crumb and the Key to Atlantis, in Bloomington. The show begins at 8 pm, though we highly recommend arriving at least a half hour early- an hour early if you wish to eat before the show.

For our friends in Owen County, our final performance is this weekend! The show is being hosted by the Owen County Public Library this Saturday, September 23rd at 1 pm.

Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has come out to the show. As much as we love/NEED to recruit new artists to MCCT, the most important ingredient in any show is the audience. We could NOT do this with out your support. THANK YOU!

FYI, there was a review of the show in today’s Herald Times. If you are a subscriber, you can see it here:

http://www.heraldtimesonline.com/stories/2006/09/19/scene.0919-HT-D2_MR017051.sto

The review was extremely positive. Yay!

It’s a little bittersweet. The run is almost over. That’s good, since many of us are worn out, but it’s also sad. I feel like that we’ve improved with each show. Sometimes when you’re in a show, you’re afraid the energy will start to fall off, especially with a longer run like this one. Read the rest of this entry »

We invite you to come and spend your evening with us at the Hilltop Restaurant on Highway 231/67, just minutes from Spencer. Kathy and her team are cooking up a fabulous dinner for you to enjoy and, naturally, we will be providing your evening’s entertainment.

We love to see families at the shows, so PLEASE tell your friends! A number of our young audience members were singing along with the ants and dancing to the Jum Jum song the last few nights. Cast members have had people of all ages laughing at their onstage antics.

The show starts at 7:15 pm but a buffet dinner will be served at 6 pm. Please call the Hilltop for reservations at 812.829.3891.

We hope to see you there!

We had a good performance (our strongest yet, I think) last night at the Hilltop Restaurant, which is located just outside of Spencer. I want to thank Kathy and her wonderful staff members once again for donating the space and enabling us do more shows in beautiful Owen County! I know it is very gratifying for Russell to be able to bring theater back this hometown.

Last night was the most enjoyable show for me thus far. Things certainly seemed less hectic than in the past, which is odd considering that the cast and crew were adapting to a new space. Perhaps it was the delicious meal we scarfed down before the show or the soothing aesthetics of the beautiful wood interior (the acoustics are much better than what we are used to working with!). On the other hand, it could be all of the organizing that Chase, Allie and Shiela did with the props and costumes.

In addition, I got to see a lot more of the show (though it would be great if we had the use of the risers). Sightlines were better because the tables were angled, instead of everyone sitting and facing the stage dead-on. Also starting a buffet an hour before the show began really cut down on distractions. I thought that the lighting was more effective too. I don’t know squat about techy things, but I’m assuming it was because we could set the lights higher and farther back at the Hilltop.

I had a wonderful time and from the comments I received after the show, it seems as though the audience really enjoyed themselves as well. Thanks to Cameron for (once again) lugging our set and props back and forth and thanks to everyone who came out and spent their evening with us!

There will be two more performances in Spencer. One will be at the Hilltop Restaurant next Monday, Sept. 18. The show starts at 7:30 but there is a buffet before hand. Please call for reservations at (812)829-3891. The final show in Owen County is being hosted by my fabulous librarian friends at Owen County Public Library on Saturday, Sept. 23 at 1 pm (reservations aren’t necessary). Be sure to tell your friends!

How is it that Russell and I have gone on and on about lights and sound and props and not our ingenious costumes?! Folks, this is certainly not a dig against the costumes, nor the artistic talent of our extremely dedicated costumer, Sheila Butler. I think we got a bit carried away in the new-to-the-Dinner-Theatre-Series aspects of the show, which have greatly increased our production value. In doing so, we completely took Sheila and her wonderful work on our costumes for granted. So here is a huge THANK YOU to Sheila for her vision and her dedication to the show.

Russell has worked with Sheila in the past, so he knew that she was a wiz at tackling more difficult projects requiring the costuming of various critters and beasts. MCCT received glowing remarks about Sheila’s work on Alice in Wonderland, which was produced in July. Russell had also collaborated with her on Peter Pan at the Bloomington Playwright’s Project, which was a great success. In addition to her artistic vision, she has an abundance of enthusiasm, a good work ethic and has a knack for getting everyone and everything organized. I appreciate all of the time she has put into this show- which is certainly not an easy thing. Ask anyone in this cast with a full-time day job and/or a family!

Recently, Sheila has caught the attention of a number of people in the Bloomington theater scene. Her work can also be seen in the BPP’s upcoming production, Border Lines directed by Richard Perez and Noe Montez.

First, I have to send out a big ol’ welcome to Chase Russell, who has come on board with us as stage manager. YAY! His duties will include: 1.) be a slave to director’s every whim; 2.) see number 1. Just kidding! … sort of.

Well, hopefully this hasn’t scared him off. He will be running the sound for us (which is GREAT for me- I get to conduct after all!) and making sure things are in relative order. He was at the tech rehearsal at the Irish Lion on Sunday, where he got a pretty good idea of what this show is about.

Another fabulous personality at the tech rehearsal- Lee, our brilliant light designer, who despite our technical difficulties, stayed cool and composed in the middle of chaos. We heart her.

Also props to Cameron for his… well, props. The centisaur looks great as do the set pieces. We heart him too.

Now that the light and sound elements have come together, this is really starting to look like a show! Prepare to be dazzled folks.

This character does not have a lot of stage time, but nonetheless, Lori has a constant presence throughout the play, even when the character is not on stage. The audience meets Lori in a dream sequence early in the play. She hurriedly enters and shares one final tender moment with her sleeping children, before fleeing into the night. She explains that she doesn’t want to leave them, but that she must do so in order to protect Oliver and Katie. One should be wondering at this point what on earth could drive a mother to leave her children.

Enter Maligna- although wait, where IS Maligna? Her name is whispered by the inhabitants of Atlantis in anxious, hushed voices and her agents are everywhere. Clearly, this is the evil character who our protagonists must defeat, but how do you defeat something that is only “present” in shadows? Maligna is the absent villain, just as Lori is the absent mother. This is one of many dichotomous pairings of characters that appear in the book/show. The characters are similar in many ways. Both Lori and Maligna are the characters who are exerting the profoundest influence in the Crumb children’s lives. Maligna surrounds herself in a veil of deceit, using illusion to manipulate others. Ironically, so does Lori. She appears to her children in a dream-like illusion and reveals that she has hidden herself away. Both Maligna and Lori manipulate other characters in this story, so where does the line fall between good and evil or, as Russell as portrayed it in the book and the musical, between the light and the darkness?

Readers who have been following the book are in store for a treat, because Tuesday’s chapter in the EveningWorld will offer the first glimpse at Atlantis. Now, I will not spoil anything for anyone but for me, this is where the story truly starts to get interesting – mind, I feel that some of the later characters like Kippy and Giest add so much more to flavor the book. I hope that everyone is enjoying the book thus far and I am very interested to hear feedback from anyone who has been following the story. Good or bad, your comments will only help me continue to grow as a writer.

The publicity for both the book and musical has been released to the press. I sent the release to all the usual suspects: The Indianapolis Star, HeraldTimes, Brown County Democrat, The Journal, Spencer Evening World, Express News, WFIU, WTIU, ECT. Joel Pierson has let Sara and I know that his article on the show will be in the HeraldTimes on Sunday the 3rd of September. In addition, Kristina at the HT said that she was going to contact her reviewers to see if she could have the show reviewed for us. Overall, this should give us a very good amount of press coverage leading up to the opening of the show. I just received a phone call mid-stroke on the keyboard from Steve at the Indianapolis Star. He had a few questions for me for listing the show in their calendar of events. Anyway, I hope this helps to encourage everyone involved with the show and excites anyone who may potentially be interested in seeing the musical.