Winding down another season, we look back wistfully on some really good and very diverse shows.  From Steel Magnolias, through The Producers and Dracula, our troupe has once againbrought you a variety of shows in a variety of venues.  Gypsies still, we continue searching for a place to call home.  Despite this, there is a robust schedule of four very different and challenging productions in Tater Patch’s 2010 future.  Come, celebrate Christmas, or the solstice, or whatever you call that dark-of-the-year holiday, with us on December 11 at our annual Wassail.  Let’s all wish for a wonderful next season and a place to call our own, while we sing and laugh together.  Many thanks go out from all of us to all of our members, fans, and friends.  We couldn’t do it without our Tater Patch family!

THE PRODUCERS, JULY 2009

CLICK HERE TO SEE  PHOTOS OF THE PRODUCERS PERFORMANCE

March 28, 2009 – An article on community theater by Tater Patch Players president Robert Countryman

Show by Show – How Community Theater Gets By
(as published in the May 28 Pickens County Progress)

Thanks to Tater Patch Players’ audience for the outstanding and supportive crowds at Steel Magnolias. After the show several people asked if Tater Patch had gotten a lot closer to its fund-raising goals because it put on a successful show. Just to make it clearer for friends and fans of Tater Patch, the “business” end of Community Theater doesn’t work that way. We put on shows and expect that each show will pay for itself and the start-up costs for the next show. We are not in the business of raising money. That’s why the current fundraising campaign had been mentioned so often in the news and on our website (www. taterpatchplayers.org). Fundraising for a building is a separate part of the group’s operations. As a matter of fact, the troupe is a Not For Profit organization – what is known as a 501 (c) (3) under IRS rules. So it is not trying to make a profit from its shows. We just want to be a part of the community by putting on good shows and hopefully, providing other benefits. And that is why, when the decision to make a major expenditure is made, a special fundraising effort has to happen, and the funds raised have to be set aside specially until the goal is reached. That is what is happening in Tater Patch’s drive to buy a performance space.

Every production by any community theater involves some pretty standard things that must be paid for. Royalties are fees paid to who ever owns the rights to the play, music, musical or whatever the troupe performs. Often, for big musicals, the scripts and scores are not sold, but must be rented. For “regular” plays, scripts are bought. Sometimes, in the case of a Shakespearean play, or something written and donated by a supporter, all the cost is in the photocopying. But this is the exception, not the rule.

As it now stands with Tater Patch, a location must be obtained for each performance. Once there is a permanent home, that facility will still require some ongoing payments for the normal things we all pay – mortgage loan perhaps, insurance, property taxes, utilities. The attraction of a permanent home is that we will be able to schedule as much rehearsal time on the actual stage we perform on, and decide our own available performance dates. Right now, a lot of the rehearsals are done in offices, stores, borrowed space, and barns – wherever generous friends welcome the Tater Patchers. As a rule, though, the more rehearsal that happens on the actual set, the better the show will be. Tater Patch aims to bring the best shows possible to its audiences. The locations where we perform are never free. There is always a rent amount to be paid for the venue. And often, there is a limit to the amount of rehearsal time that is available in that venue. In some locations, the stage must literally be built from the ground up. The lights and other equipment must be hung. Scenery, makeup mirrors, costume racks, props, and sometimes even chairs must all be brought in and put in place. And after the last show, usually that same day, it must all be taken down, hauled away, and put away or returned to whoever loaned it. And Tater Patch Players have been doing this for 32 years while still bringing quality performances to their fans and supporters.

This article is not meant to be a litany of complaints, just of an explanation of some “business as usual” for community theater groups. Tater Patch does a masterful job of finding venues it can afford and that will be suitable, to one degree or another, for a performance. We spend an enormous amount of time juggling schedules and planning to make this work. But available and suitable performance spaces are becoming scarcer and will continue to be more expensive to rent. But we keep on because the performers and crew love theater and love putting on shows for you.

The Board of Directors and many Tater Patch members are committed to bringing both quality shows and other entertaining and beneficial programs to our community. There has been a desire for more activities for kids and we want to expand our youth program. There have been requests for dinner theater, which was attempted and faced many cost- and venue-related issues. The group still wants to address this request. Members have expressed an interest in having classic movie festivals, Renaissance-festival events, teaching film-making and theatrical makeup; the list goes on and on. We are, first and foremost, a creative bunch.

This is the goal of your Tater Patch Players. Part of our mission statement reads: “We will promote and foster drama, live theater, and the performing arts in Pickens County. We will entertain and enrich our audiences. We will promote a creative environment”. And that, in a nutshell, is what our drive to have four permanent walls around us, is about. This will not come from the revenues of plays. Before they are even received, those are already committed to putting on the next play, and the one after that. Our home will come from the support of Tater Patch’s community and people who care about the quality of life that a strong performing arts group can contribute.

May 27,2009 — THE PRODUCERS       –  Nan’s update

Dance rehearsals and singing rehearsals are well underway.  Above are some pictures of the first run through of the opening dance number.  ChoreographerDenver Clark puts the ensemble through a variety of steps.  The  people of Shubert Alley are waiting to hear from the King of Broadway!

The Producers has won more Tony Awards than any other Broadway musical.  The first community theater production of the show was last fall so we’re proud to be one of the leaders in community theater by bringing the show to Pickens County on July 10, 11, 12, 16, 17, 18 at the PHS Auditorium.  Show times are 7:30 PM  except for July 12 which is a 2:00 PM matinee.

March 25, 2009 – BOARD OF DIRECTORS UPDATES

Tater Patch Players welcomes new Board of Directors member Jan O’Kelley.  Jan appeared in our last Bistro production, The Booger Holler Opry,  in the jug band.  She is a fine singer and guitarist.  During the current fundraising campaign she has been a well-spring of ideas and effort.  I couldn’t have put together the Auction Gala without her encouragement, help and support.  So welcome aboard the Board!

Also,  current Board member Mike Robertson steps into the recently vacated position of Vice-President.  We’ve already given him a huge list of “to-do” items and he’s hard at work for Tater Patch.

The Play Selection Committee is busily reading its assigned plays and writing synopses and recommendations.  We hope, when we get our new home, to present a large and varied assortment of shows to you, our audience.