The Case for Confidence

Posted by Bruce Miller
(This is a re-posting of a previously published blog entry.)

"At Barksdale and Theatre IV we remain cautious but confident." That's what I said at the end of the previous blog posting, and that's how Phil and I respond to queries from national arts leaders who bring up the bad news from Wisconsin. With the demise of great colleague theatres such as TheatreVirginia, Madison Rep, Mill Mountain Playhouse in Roanoke, and Charlotte Rep, we expect to entertain questions about our financial health.

The good news is this. For years, our Boards of Trustees have been working intelligently and strategically to ensure that Barksdale and Theatre IV will not follow in the footsteps of these now defunct nonprofit companies. We have engaged in prudent and responsible business planning.

What follows are the five cornerstones that support our confidence, particularly as it relates to the recent closing of Madison Repertory Theatre.

1. The Greater Richmond metro area population as of 2008 is 1,225,626--more than twice the 555,626 people who comprise the metro area population of Madison, WI. This means our population should be two times more able to sustain both the for-profit "Broadway" series co-produced by CenterStage and a nonprofit major professional theatre like Barksdale.

2. According to IRS forms 990 for the year 2008 (the most recent year available):

Barksdale and Theatre IV had combined annual revenue of $5,049,376; Madison Rep had annual revenue of $2,023,579.

74% of Barksdale and Theatre IV's annual revenue was earned through ticket sales and tour fees, and only 26% came in through contributions. Only 53% of Madison Rep's annual revenue was earned through ticket sales, and 47% was dependent upon contributions.

Barksdale and Theatre IV ended fiscal 2008 with a positive fund balance of $1,761,395; Madison Rep ended fiscal 2008 with a negative fund balance of -$424,688.

3. Theatre IV fully owns and is able to borrow against the multi-million dollar historic Empire Theatre.

4. Barksdale Theatre and Theatre IV have developed highly diverse revenue streams, earning significant funds from ticket sales at three major venues and extensive touring throughout Virginia and 32 surrounding states.

5. During all the years when Barksdale and Theatre IV were asked to assist with various efforts to develop Richmond CenterStage, the Richmond leaders of CenterStage pledged not to compete with Theatre IV with regard to our core business--story-based plays and musicals for children and their families. CenterStage pledged not to book in our competitors' productions of major titles in which Theatre IV has invested millions of dollars, the productions we regularly revive from our repertoire. These major titles include Annie, A Christmas Carol, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, Disney's Beauty and the Beast, Disney's High School Musical, Peter Pan, Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella, Seussical, The Sound of Music, and The Wizard of Oz.

Conversely, Barksdale and Theatre IV have acknowledged CenterStage's need to mount an annual "Broadway" series for adult audiences, and to book in non-competitive, television-based children's programs such as Sesame Street Live, Dora the Explorer, etc.

If CenterStage honors its promises, we believe that Barksdale Theatre, Theatre IV and CenterStage's "Broadway" series will all thrive in our mid-sized market. Surely that is the goal. If CenterStage's leaders are true to their word, we will have a win-win for the entire community.
As I said, we remain confident, but we are not throwing caution to the wind. We continue to do all we can to ensure the success of CenterStage, while working hard also to build up the financial health of Barksdale Theatre and Theatre IV, Richmond's major professional theatre.

--Bruce Miller

Chase Kniffen Named Artistic Associate

Posted by Bruce Miller
Beginning today (Monday, July 27), Chase Kniffen rejoins the staff at Barksdale Theatre and Theatre IV. His new position will be that of Artistic Associate. As such, he will provide leadership to various projects. Among other things, he will supervise our participation in the Grand Opening performance at CenterStage, and direct our Spring 2010 production of The Sound of Music.

Chase first worked at Theatre IV when he was 9 years old, appearing as a Munchkin in our second production of The Wizard of Oz. Since then, he has performed in numerous shows here, including Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Tuck Everlasting, The Secret Garden, Sing Down the Moon, and The Big Adventures of Stuart Little (all at Theatre IV), plus Olympus on My Mind, Annie Get Your Gun, Anything Goes, James Joyce's The Dead, and Mame (all at Barksdale).

Chase starred as John Darling in the Broadway production of Peter Pan, with Cathy Rigby. He later attended the professional musical theatre conservatory program at Broadway’s Circle in the Square. After leaving New York, Chase worked on our staff for several years, first as an intern and then as Special Projects Manager.

During that time, Chase began his professional directing career here with a workshop production of Godspell in the Little Theatre. He next directed our revival of You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown, followed by our two Greater Richmond High School All Star Musicals--summer productions of Grease and Disney's High School Musical, both coproduced by and performed at Steward School. He tried his hand at several tours, plus the Empire run of The True Story of Pocahontas. In 2007, he directed his last mainstage show with us, A Christmas Story, Theatre IV's holiday offering at the historic Empire Theatre.

Chase left Barksdale and Theatre IV in April 2008 to found Stage 1, the highly acclaimed theatre company that recently completed a successful season producing new American musicals. At Stage 1, he produced and directed tick, tick, ...BOOM, Children's Letters to God, Normal, and The Summer of '42. Throughout his year at Stage 1, Chase’s ties to Barksdale and Theatre IV have remained strong.

We are pleased to welcome Chase back to the team. As Richmond’s leading professional theatre, we believe it is our responsibility to provide professional opportunities to Greater Richmond’s best and brightest theatrical talents. We are glad that Chase’s artistic vision, energy and leadership abilities will help to shape the future of our nonprofit company.

--Bruce Miller

Hats Off to Barksdale's Mighty Volunteers

Posted by Bruce Miller
Volunteers come in all shapes and sizes, ages, races and creeds. God bless them every one.

About 120 of Barksdale and Theatre IV’s finest volunteers gathered last evening for our annual Volunteer Rally in our Willow Lawn lobby. Jean Hartley (our Volunteer Coordinator), her husband Dorman, Jennings Whiteway (our Events, Access and Food Service Manager), Jeanette Blaylock (volunteer chef extraordinaire), and Bob Albertia (our Group Sales Manager) provided the management, food and decoration for the event.

Steve Moore tickled the ivories beautifully throughout the evening. Speakers included Jean Hartley, Joy Ross (our Community Relations Manager), Bob Albertia, Phil Whiteway and me. Jeanette Blaylock’s famous artichoke dip, crab dip, fresh salsa and brownie bites complemented the crudités and ham biscuits provided by our friendly and generous downstairs neighbors, Padow’s Deli. From all appearances, a fun time was had by all.

Present in everyone’s hearts was Elizabeth Prevatt, one or our foremost and longest-serving volunteers, who died last month at age 82. Elizabeth was the elegant, prim, white-haired lady who for many years greeted audience members and took their tickets as they entered the lobby at the top of our stairs. With love and respect, our current production of The Clean House is dedicated to Elizabeth's memory.

Volunteers at Barksdale and Theatre IV work as ushers at our Willow Lawn, Hanover Tavern, and historic Empire theatres. They also assist with concessions, man the Will Call Window in our box office during some performances, assist with lunch service responsibilities during Bifocal’s matinees, and provide administrative support as needed.

Barksdale Theatre and Theatre IV would not survive without our able, talented and generous volunteers. If you would like to join our growing volunteer family, please call Jean Hartley at 355-3434.

See you at the theatre!

(Photo note: The youthful volunteers pictured above and to the left served on the all-volunteer crew for Barksdale and Steward School's co-production of Disney's High School Musical during the summer of 08.)

--Bruce Miller

What is the BTW? (Barksdale Theatre Workshop)

Posted by Bruce Miller
A respondent to the previous post about TenSpot tickets made a good comment. "Hi. I'm confused. I understand the high school ticket rate; that's great. But what is the Barksdale Theatre Workshop? Is it really some type of free workshop for high school students?? Thank you."

Great question. I'm posting the answer here rather than in the comment section so that it can be seen by more people.

The BTW (Barksdale Theatre Workshop) is our outreach program designed to improve our service to high school students who love theatre. Through the BTW, we create opportunities for young actors, directors and designers to become more interested in and more connected with Barksdale Theatre.

The word “workshop” has two definitions. Quoting Merriam-Webster, a workshop is:
· “a small establishment where manufacturing or handicrafts are carried on, and
· a usually brief intensive educational program for a relatively small group of people that focuses especially on techniques and skills in a particular field.”
To help us create the BTW, we turned to our best resource, the talented and committed high school teachers who direct the drama programs in schools throughout our community. In the fall of 2005, we invited these drama teachers to Barksdale Theatre at Willow Lawn to discuss what Barksdale should be doing to serve their programs and their students. They identified five areas where we could have a positive and much needed impact. These five areas are the five components of the BTW.

In priority order, the recommendations of the teachers were:

1. Stage a summer production in which our community’s best high school theatre students could perform with Richmond’s major professional theatre. The program should be open to high school actors from all programs and backgrounds. Students should be able to audition for and participate in the program without charge. Rehearsals should be at night so that those students who needed to hold down summer jobs could participate. No other program, at that time, was filling that need. In partnership with The Steward School, we filled it, with Grease in 2006 and Disney’s High School Musical in 2007 (pictured throughout this article).

2. Create a discount program that allows high school students to come to plays at Barksdale Theatre for $10 each. The BTW TenSpot program now fills this need.

3. Create an externship that allows students interested in the performing arts to meet in a small group with our community’s top theatre, music and dance professionals in an after-school program for academic credit, learning firsthand about careers in the performing arts. In partnership with the CenterStage Foundation we have created and now operate the SOAR program (Student Opportunities in the ARts) to fill this need.

4. Expand our website to create a place where high school students can post information about the productions they’re working on and share their theatre interest with other high school drama enthusiasts—a community-wide high school theatre bulletin board. If you go to the Students section on the Barksdale website, you’ll find the pages where we’re filling that need. We’ve also created an interactive FaceBook page that hundreds of high school drama students access and contribute to each week.

5. Create Master Classes led by Greater Richmond’s best actors, directors, designers etc. and make those classes available on tour to individual drama classrooms in Greater Richmond's high schools. Also, conduct Master Classes in our theatre facilities so that students can access them on their own. We’re planning for our Master Class program to be in place by the beginning of the 2008-09 school year. The Master Classes will be unique, not duplicative of other programs currently existing in the community, such as (in alpha order) Christian Youth Theatre, HATTheatre and/or SPARC—all of which we support.

If you or someone you know is a high school theatre lover, we hope you’ll make sure they know about the BTW (Barksdale Theatre Workshop). For more information, they can email or call Chase Kniffen, 783-1688 ext. 14.

--Bruce Miller

Everything's Coming Up Halenda

Posted by John Steils

Kathy Halenda, the wonderful Richmond-raised actress who starred in Barksdale’s recent productions of Mame and Disney’s High School Musical will be lighting up another stage about an hour down the road next week. Kathy is starring as Mama Rose in the national tour of Gypsy (see photo), stopping for one night at Charlottesville’s Paramount Theatre.

Her national reviews thus far have been unanimous raves:

“Gypsy has at least three things going for it -- the beautiful melodies of Jule Styne, Stephen Sondheim's witty lyrics, and American stage veteran Kathy Halenda, a woman big-voiced enough to sing the U.S. national anthem at Fenway Park, and bold enough to make us care about the original stage mommie dearest.” – London Free Press

“Great sets, great costumes and a great Rose!” – Binghamton Sun-Bulletin

“Everything’s Coming Up Rose!” – New Haven Advocate

“Halenda—taking charge the moment she arrives onstage—brings exuberance, energy and physical bravado to her character, making Rose larger than life. The other actors rarely show as much depth as she does, and rarely command such attention.” – Yale Daily News

Also appearing in the national tour of Gypsy is another Barksdale all-star. Rachel Abrams plays Mazeepa (the stripper with the helmet to the right of the photo). Rachel starred with Barksdale during each of the last two summers. She played Janis Joplin, Connie Francis and others in Beehive in 06, and the Baker’s Wife in Into the Woods in 07. In Gypsy, she’s also understudying Kathy as Mama Rose.

Called “the greatest of all American musicals” by the New York Times, Gypsy is the story of a quintessential stage mother, her dreams for her children, and the daughter who dared to live her own dream. From the first trumpet blast to the last hot spotlight, this classic Broadway show packs a powerful wallop, serving up one popular standard after another—songs like “Everything’s Coming Up Roses,” “Let Me Entertain You,” “You Gotta Have a Gimmick,” and “Together Wherever We Go.”

The Paramount performance will be Wednesday, November 7 at 8 pm. A group from the cast of Mame is planning on going up, and we hope lots of Richmonders will drive to C’ville to welcome Kathy back to her home state.

Gypsy was written by three virtuosos of American musical theater: Arthur Laurents (book), Jule Styne (music), and Stephen Sondheim (lyrics). The original production starring Ethel Merman and directed by Jerome Robbins was an instant hit when it opened at the Broadway Theatre in 1959. Subsequent revivals have garnered a total of three Tony Awards and featured such talents as Angela Lansbury, Tyne Daly and Bernadette Peters in the role of Rose.

Tickets are $58.50, $61.50, $64.50, and $69.50. (Barksdale's prices are starting to look pretty good, aren't they?) Half-price student rush seats and group discounts are also available. Tickets are currently on sale online and through the Paramount's box office at 434-979-1933. Also, as of this writing, Chase Kniffen has a couple or three great seats that he needs to sell. You can reach Chase at C.Kniffen@BarksdaleRichmond.org.

--John Steils

The Greater Richmond High School All Star Musical Gets Greater Every Year!

Posted by Bruce Miller

The company of Disney’s High School Musical celebrated after a joyous closing last night, having sold out every performance of its three-week, 15-show run! The Cramer Center seats 500 and additional portable seats were sold or comped at every show. All told, over 7,700 people enjoyed the show.

This tremendous success is due to the hard work and talent of every member of the company, from our able crew to our rockin’ pit band to our console operators to our fantastic box office staff and house volunteers to our top-of-their-game designers, director and choreographer. We’re All in This Together is not just the name of a song.

The success is due also, I know, to the fact that Disney’s High School Musical is a national, almost cultish phenomenon right now, and we’re riding that wave. High School Musical II opens on the Disney Channel on August 17, and if you don't already have that date marked on your calendar, then you must not be in upper elementary. If you were to ask the first 8-year-old girl you meet on the street to name an American musical, there’s a 95% chance that Disney’s High School Musical would be the show she’d name (she'd leave out the Disney, but by contract I'm not allowed to)—with Hairspray and Wicked probably being a close second and third. In my childhood, it would have been The Sound of Music and Mary Poppins. These are the shows that have taken their place. It will be hard, if not impossible, to replicate this box office success next summer.

But it's more than just that. I have to say that I saw the last 15 to 20 minutes of the show probably ten times, and it never failed to bring a tear to my eye. It’s very moving—there’s no other way for me to describe it—to see so many kids from so many different parts of our metro area all singing and dancing their hearts out together in perfect harmony. They come from 20 different high schools and home schools and 18 different zip codes. And from all I could tell, they couldn’t have become better friends or formed a more cohesive team.

Our annual Greater Richmond High School All Star Musical is a GREAT program. Thanks to our partner, The Steward School, our sponsor, McGeorge Mercedes, and everyone involved. I hope you all have a wonderful rest-of-the-summer!

--Bruce Miller

The Greater Richmond H S All Star Robe

Posted by Bruce Miller
What do the first two Greater Richmond High School All Star Musicals (Grease and Disney’s High School Musical) have in common? Well, lots of things. But even after noting the similarities in plot, characters and tone, one is struck by the central theme running through the final number of both shows.

“We go together,” the entire cast of Grease sings at show’s end, “Like rama lama lama ke ding a de ding a dong. Remembered forever, like shoo bop shoo wadda wadda yipitty boom de boom. Chang chang chang-it-ty chang shoo bop, That’s the way it should be!”

And from Disney’s High School Musical …

“Together, together, together everyone

Together, together, come on let’s have some fun

Together, we’re there for each other every time

Together, together, come on let’s do this right

Here and now its time for celebration

I finally figured it out

That all our dreams have no limitations

That's what it’s all about

Everyone is special in their own way

We make each other strong

We’re not the same

We’re different in a good way

Together's where we belong

We're all in this together

Once we know that we are
We're all stars and we see that

We're all in this together

And it shows when we stand hand in hand

Make our dreams come true”

Last summer, the company of Grease began a tradition at their closing night party to recognize the togetherness that existed among them, and to pass that spirit of unity on to the cast of the Greater Richmond High School All Star Musical 2007. They each wrote a signed message of best wishes onto a cardboard tag, and pinned them all onto the turquoise silk robe worn by Sarah Pruden in the show.

Each member of the company who had graduated and was leaving high school behind (Tyler Adams, Deejay Gray, Claire Harvey, Andy Nestor, Emily Perkins, Sarah Pruden, Steven Ralph, Robert Watkins and Chris Withers) put on the robe and circled the cast. Finally, a pink poodle representing Grease was sewn onto the robe before it was returned to costume storage for the long cold winter.

This year, on Opening Night of Disney’s High School Musical, the Robe, now aged in a year’s worth of love and good will (thereby earning the right to spell its name with a capital R), was presented to Suzanne Spicer, the actor in the ensemble who had reached the highest grade level and enjoyed the most experience in previous editions of the Greater Richmond High School All Star Musical. Suzanne put on the Robe, and, before the show, visited each company member throughout the theatre, inviting them to connect with the Robe (and the spirit it represents) for good luck. They all did. Dave Amadee buried his face in the darn thing.

OPENING NIGHT WAS A HUGE SUCCESS! Following the final performance of Disney’s High School Musical next Sunday, the entire company will be invited again to create personal expressions of best wishes and pin them onto the Robe as a gesture of support for next summer’s cast. A three-dimensional symbol of High School Musical will be sewn onto the Robe also, so that the Grease poodle won’t have to spend another winter alone.

Then, next July, another cast of talented High School All Stars will take their turn on the stage and in the Robe.

As Stephanie Carr, last summer’s Rizzo, wrote on her tag: “Appreciate this opportunity with all of your heart. You make one-of-a-kind friends and walk away with unforgettable memories. HAVE FUN. Break a leg.”

“We’re all in this together.” “That’s the way it should be.”

--Bruce Miller

Wallabies, Sing Along! Yeah, You Really Got It Goin' On!

Posted by Hannah Miller
Do a Google Image search for Wallabies, and most of what you’ll see are shoes. Oh yes, there also are the occasional musical group and rugby team. For whatever reason, the web celebrates Wallaby (or Wallabee) footwear, rockers and footballers (the Australian word for rugby players) a good deal more than it recognizes wallabies—the marsupial.

Don’t tell this to Ruby, the pet wallaby (miniature kangaroo) owned by Paul Newell and his family. Paul plays the basketball referee and other characters in Disney’s High School Musical, playing for one more week in the Cramer Center Theatre, co-produced by Barksdale Theatre and The Steward School. Ruby is a sensitive sole—ah, excuse me—soul, and we wouldn't want to hurt her feelings.

“When I was ten,” relates Paul, “my favorite animal was a kangaroo. And then one day I was playing around on line and discovered a farm in Missouri that bred wallabies, which are just like kangaroos only smaller. I started pleading with my parents to get one, and eventually they did.”

Didn’t buying a wallaby for a pet seem, well, odd to the Newells? “Not at all,” says Paul. “My mother always had a lot of exotic pets, so owning a wallaby seemed relatively normal.” Paul also is the proud owner of a cat and two flying squirrels. "Actually, the flying squirrels aren't squirrels," adds Paul. "They're sugar gliders, which are small gliding possums native to Australia. They're marsupials too."

Among this menagerie, Paul swears that Ruby is the shining light. “She’s smarter than the cat, because she knows her name and comes when she’s called. But she’s dumber than a dog, because you can’t teach her tricks.”

The Newells have been able to teach her some manageable personal hygiene habits however. “She’s paper trained,” continues Paul. “We haven’t had an accident yet. Which is more than I can say for the sugar gliders.”

Ruby is now in her teens in kangaroo years. If they choose to, the Newells could begin breeding Ruby in October. But for the time being, they seem content to allow Ruby to roam freely through their beautiful West End home.

One day during a break in rehearsals for Disney’s High School Musical, several of us stopped by Paul’s house to visit Ruby. She was shy, and hid under the dining room table. Since she stands less than 3 feet tall, that wasn’t too hard to do. But then we all noticed the telltale tail extending out between the legs of the dining room chairs.

“Better be careful,” warned Paul, as one courageous actor began to approach Ruby. “Like any kangaroo, she likes to kick and punch—but only in fun.”

We know that the basketball uniforms in our play say Wildcats, but after meeting Paul’s fascinating and unusual pet, we like to think of his Wallaby as being our alternative mascot.

Just so long as none of the Wallabies on the basketball team start to hide under the cafeteria tables, or forget to use their papers.

--Hannah Miller

In Memoriam: Paul R. Cramer Sr.

We are saddened to note the passing this week of Paul R. Cramer, namesake of the Paul R. Cramer Center for the Arts at Steward School, home of our current production of Disney’s High School Musical. The crew dimmed the lights on Friday evening in Mr. Cramer’s honor, and we will be dedicating The Member of the Wedding, our fall production at Barksdale Willow Lawn, to his memory.

We didn’t know Mr. Cramer well; we met him only once. When Barksdale Theatre and Steward School first revived the Greater Richmond High School All Star Musical last summer, Mr. Cramer attended our co-production of Grease. He told us how proud he was to see talented students from all over metro Richmond coming together to create a citywide musical in the theatre that bore his name.

Mr. Cramer came to Richmond and Steward School in 1975, leaving his Massachusetts home to dedicate the rest of his life to building and enriching the Steward School family and campus. When he arrived, Steward had one building and 203 students K – 10. After 19 years of Mr. Cramer’s exemplary leadership, Steward School is today a cornerstone of metro Richmond’s educational community, boasting an enrollment of 615 in grades K – 12, five academic buildings, a thriving athletic campus, and one of Virginia’s most impressive theatre facilities.

The first thing Mr. Cramer did when he came to Steward was to invigorate the curriculum by placing a new emphasis on the arts, music and theatre. It was in recognition of this visionary commitment that the magnificent theatre at the Cramer Center was built and named in Mr. Cramer’s honor.

Mr. Cramer’s legacy will live on at Steward for decades to come. Each summer, 30 to 50 high school theatre students from throughout Central Virginia will come together and benefit greatly from the arts programs that he fostered and sustained.

The student participants in the 2007 production of the Greater Richmond High School All Star Musical come from 20 different high schools and home school programs, and live in 18 different zip codes. Virtually all of them come from schools without theatre facilities that approach the Cramer Center’s level of professionalism. Mr. Cramer’s legacy will continue to benefit not only students like these, but also tens of thousands of cheering theatre fans, young and old, who come to see them perform.

With his family and friends, we at Barksdale Theatre mourn Mr. Cramer’s passing. We also celebrate with them the many great things that have been brought into being by Mr. Cramer’s dedication and hard work. His life has made, and will continue making, an undying contribution to the entire student body of all of Greater Richmond.

--Bruce Miller

Disney Dad Fights Global Warming in Iraq

Well, this is our 100th blog entry, and who would think that the 100th post on a theatre blog would once again take us to Iraq. But, as we all know, every person in the United States is connected with this war, including actors and other theatre artists. In case we needed more evidence of this, here’s the latest about Joe Amadee, father of Dave Amadee who plays leading man Troy in our production of Disney’s High School Musical. Dave is now a civilian, but he is nonetheless working for the Army in Iraq. The following is excerpted from Blackanthem Military News, Kuwait.

“Joe Amadee (pictured above and to the left) is not the kind of man you would expect to change the United States military. Amadee is a former Army officer, but at 52, he more resembles a biology professor than a general. He carries with him a loaded briefcase, not a charged M16 rifle. His concern is not with the newest tank model, but how much mileage that tank can get out of a gallon of gasoline.

On May 23, Amadee arrived in Kuwait from Fort Belvoir, Va., to run some experiments in several American military compounds in country. Amadee is the Army’s point man on reducing use of energy from fossil fuels, and he arrived with a mandate to reduce petrofuel dependence in the Army by 40 percent. He came with ideas that test the bounds of imagination.

One idea uses cooking grease from the dining facility, using a portable distillery, to convert the oil into biodiesel. The efficiency of the conversion process – a common criticism of ethanol made from corn – will make about 100 gallons of biofuel with 100 gallons of cooking oil, using just one gallon of jet fuel to power the process. The potential for clean power generation cooking oil could be enormous. One Camp Arifjan dining facility, Amadee learned, uses 180 gallons of cooking oil a week.

The REF team’s arrival came amidst a renewed effort by the Army’s Environmental Health Safety Program in Kuwait to clean up the Army’s environmental footprint in the country. Air conditioning was a particular concern. The Army wants to reduce the need for air conditioning, which would cut down on the need for energy, which would cut down on the need for fuel, which would reduce the need for convoys, which would save lives.

The need for greater energy efficiency was evident to Amadee during an earlier visit to an American compound in Djibouti, where he found that 10,000 gallons of diesel were being used every day. Of that sum, only 1,000 went into vehicles – the rest went into generators, primarily to air condition un-insolated tents. 'Air conditioning the desert,' Amadee jested.

Amadee and his team used tents at Camp Buehring and Camp Arifjan to test an insolating foam solution, which they use to cover the exterior, giving the tent the appearance of a winter wonderland. When the foam dries, it solidifies into a protective shell strong enough to walk on. The REF team predicts that the foam shell will reduce energy use by as much as of 85 percent. Amadee will be back later this month to insolate '30 to 40 tents' at one Baghdad compound, he said.

Amadee is also researching ways to increase efficiency of solar power, a process inhibited by the punishing desert sandstorms. The desert heat and sand make the batteries less efficient, something Amadee is looking to fight.

Nobody is taking their time in implementing these changes. As best-selling magazines publish weekly reminders of global warming, Amadee has sensed an Army ready to transform. 'The people here are working feverishly to do this and looking for all the help they can get,' the REF environmental chief said. 'I sense a very great sense of urgency.' "

All of us associated with Barksdale Theatre, Steward School and Disney’s High School Musical send Joe, Dave and the Amadee family our best thoughts and prayers.

--Bruce Miller

Barksdale and Friends

Barksdale recently joined Facebook to promote free programs on offer for students and to get their feedback. Maintaining the page is giving me an education in the ease of the latest social networking applications.

I’m a Generation Xer, born in 1970. I remember downloading short movie clips at 24kb and getting excited the next morning when one was finally on my Apple2e, and I could watch a minute of grainy mush. But these days, if there’s something the younger Gen Y can’t Google in a sec, Wikipedia will at least tell them what it is. Social networking sites like Facebook allow them (and anyone else who’s game) to create a page where friends can write and add photos, video, music and more, and where their content updates so fast that a blog with one post a day looks achingly slow by comparison.

150,000 members a day are joining Facebook, and hours after Barksdale joined, we were loaded with friends who've been associated with us through the Greater Richmond High School All-Star Musicals. I added a large album of Disney’s High School Musical photos for the cast, crew, parents and fans. I started to add an event listing for HSM at The Steward School, but the cast had already done it, and they had hundreds of confirmed RSVPs responding to an exponentially increasing number of invites; word of mouth spreads quickly.

But it’s not just High School Musical information on offer at our new Facebook home. Our blog posts are imported automatically, and more importantly I get a chance to promote Barksdale Theatre Workshop events. BTW is a community-wide initiative designed to establish new connections between Barksdale and high school theatre lovers. It began in 2005 when Bruce Miller and Chase Kniffen met with a group of area high school drama teachers to find out what they thought would be of use to them and to their students.

Current high school students can join BTW for free (by emailing Chase at c.kniffen@barksdalerichmond.org) and as members, they can purchase $10 tickets to special Saturday matinee performances. Members are also invited to attend Play On!, a discussion series featuring our leading professional theatre artists - and pizza - free of charge. Both the discounted matinees and Play On! Discussions were recommendations from area educators.

Facebook gives us an extra chance to introduce this program to students, and it’s also a great place to promote local high school productions (another teacher suggestion) like Chicago, opening at Godwin tonight! The students already created the event; all I had to do was click, and it posted itself on the Barksdale Facebook page… Things are so easy these days.

Barksdale’s Facebook page (a shortened page will be visible to those who are not yet friends)

Jessica Daugherty
Internet Services

"Into the Woods" Gives Back

As if doing a full length Sondheim weren’t enough, several of the rising young stars of Into the Woods, now playing on our Signature Season at Willow Lawn, are joining forces to produce and present a Musical Theatre Cabaret as a benefit for Richmond's Theatre Artist Fund.

Zak Resnick (one of our charming Princes, pictured to the left), Rita Markova (our lovely Cinderella) and Drew Seigla (Jack of “fee fi fo” fame) will be joined by Amy Hruska, Jackie Jones, Katrinah Lewis, Robyn O’Neill, Kim Reuter, Craig Smith and Hannah Zold as ten of Virginia’s finest theatre voices come together to present a harmonious evening of musical magic.

There will be two performances of the Cabaret on the lobby stage at Barksdale Willow Lawn. Performance dates and times are Saturday, August 4, 12 midnight (following the Saturday evening Into the Woods performance) and Tuesday, August 7, 8 pm. Patrons will sit at tables, cabaret style, and the house and cash bar will be open 30 minutes prior to curtain.

Tickets are $25 ($20 for Barksdale and Theatre IV subscribers and anyone holding Into the Woods tickets for August 4, $10 for our young company members from Disney’s High School Musical). All but $10 of each ticket price is tax deductible. Everybody who’s anybody in the theatre community will be there, and it’s going to be FUN. So call the Barksdale box office to make your reservations today – 282-2620.

All ticket proceeds will be donated to the Richmond Theatre Artists Fund, a program of the Richmond Alliance for Professional Theatres (RAPT) and the Community Foundation. The Richmond Theatre Artists Fund helps with the emergency needs of metro Richmond theatre artists who are confronted by insurmountable financial challenges due to major illness or some other tragedy beyond their control.

Prior to the establishment of the endowed fund, the theatre community raised emergency funds on a case by case basis. Over the past dozen or so years, theatre artists have raised tens of thousands of dollars to:
provide new housing for an actor with AIDS who lost his job and was thrown out onto the street when his condition was disclosed,

make mortgage payments for a lifelong theatre administrator who was about to lose her home as her husband (a theatre tech director) struggled for more than a year with brain cancer, and

pay for critical medications for a cherished actress fighting against terminal cancer.

So why not support a GREAT cause and enjoy a wonderful evening’s entertainment at the same time? Three cheers to Zak and company for this wonderful gift to our community. I hope to see you there.

--Bruce Miller

We're All in This Together

Posted by Bruce Miller
I just returned from Opening Night of Disney’s High School Musical and I'm proud as a peacock. I’m proud of Chase Kniffen (Director), K Strong (Choreographer) and Sherri Matthews (Music Director) who’ve done such a fantastic job assembling a talented cast of 38 actors from 20 different schools (and home schools) and turning them into such a cohesive ensemble.

I’m proud of my talented wife, Terrie Powers (set design), and my equally talented colleagues and friends Sarah Grady (costume design) and Lynne Hartman (light design). The show looks terrific, and moves without a hitch. OK, maybe there were two tiny hitches tonight, but who noticed? These three artists make the show look like a million bucks, on a budget less than 2% that size.

I’m proud of our unsung heroes, and let me first mention our amazing Tech Director, Bruce Rennie. And as I mention his name, I want to say the word “hero” three more times. In show after show, Bruce makes miracles happen behind the scenes. The company doesn’t provide him with nearly enough support staff or expertise. Still, somehow, he always gets the job done. If I didn’t know any better, I’d think there was magic involved. Theatre IV and Barksdale simply could not exist without Bruce Rennie.

The company may not provide Bruce with enough support staff, but the ones we have provided are exceptional in their commitment, talent and hard work. Derek Dumais (Sound Engineer), Adam Tiller (Electrician and Light Board Op), and Wendy Vandergrift (Assistant Tech Director) are invaluable members of the staff. Amy Gethins Sullivan, Kim Parkin, Tia James and Terrie Powers (Painters); Nathan Meadows, John Valerie, and T J Spensieri (Carpenters); and Joe Bock and Virginia Varland (Electricians) have worked tirelessly to create the eight to ten different locales that the show requires.

Most important, I’m proud of our talented kids. But more about them later. In this post, I offer my most heartfelt thanks to the amazing adult leaders noted above. Every cast and audience member owes you a standing ovation.

They’re flying; they’re soaring—and to quote a cliché, you are the wind beneath their wings.

I thank you all for a job well done.

--Bruce Miller

"High School Musical" Megamix

I know I’m beginning to wear out my welcome, if there ever was a welcome, with these endless blog entries about Disney’s High School Musical. It’s a big show, and it’s important to me to give every kid his or her due. So, with respect and appreciation, I’m going to zip through the final ten actors who make our “megamix” of a cast so mix-worthy.

T J Otey is a rising junior at New Kent H S—quite a few of these kids have been dealing with a loooooong commute to be a part of this show. T J is the one who gives a quiet and slightly tone deaf audition in the audition scene, prompting Ms. Darvus to admire his tennis shoes and suggest that he help out with costumes.

Amanda O’Toole is a rising junior at Atlee H S, and she studies dance at Shuffles Dance Studio. She appeared in Pippin with SPARC, and is rallying pep as one of our cheerleaders.

Johanna Reckenbeil is in the a cappella and show choir at Godwin, and she studies dance at Richmond Dance Center, but this is her first theatrical production. She plays one of our “brainiacs,” and adds persuasive hand motions to that section of Counting on You when they sing about Rosa Parks.

Kristin Ricca is back for a second summer, having played Cha Cha last summer in Grease. There’s a really great photo of Kristin dancing with Robert Watkins, last summer’s charming Danny Zuko, about six blog posts back. Kristin is a rising junior at Deep Run H S, and a proud alum of Christian Youth Theatre and the Latin Ballet of Virginia.

Zack Rogers is also a returnee from Grease, and a rising junior at Thomas Dale H S. He has two stand-out moments in the show. He gives an ear wrenching vocal performance in the audition scene, and he finds surprising depth in the movements of a worm.

Andrea Ross is our third Grease alum in a row. She is a rising sophomore at Henrico H S’s Center for the Arts. In the audition scene, she belts out the song like a soulful American Idol contestant.
Hali E. Russell just graduated from Varina H S, and is pleased to be in her first musical. She appears as the “brainiac” who loves hip-hop.

Ariel Spagnolo is a rising junior at Deep Run H S, where she recently played Audrey in Little Shop of Horrors. She’s one of our beautiful cheerleaders, and lends her acrobatic skills to several musical numbers.

Suzanne Spicer was the one that we wanted last summer, playing Sandy in Grease. She just graduated from Godwin H S, and credits much of her theatrical success to her twelve years as a student at HATTheatre.

Molly Underwood will soon be a senior in the Math and Science High School at Clover Hill. So of course she’s playing a skater babe in DHSM.

As Porky Pig would say at the end of a Looney Toons cartoon, “Th – th – th - that’s all folks!” Since I’m feeling pretty loony myself right about now, I’ll leave it at that. All of us at Barksdale and Steward are proud of everyone associated with Disney’s High School Musical. I hope you’ll make it a point to stop by in the next two weeks and take in their show.

--Bruce Miller

Another Ten Bop to the Top in "DHSM"

My daughter and I just returned from seeing SPARC’s summer production of Little Shop of Horrors at the Firehouse Theatre. A large group from Disney’s High School Musical went to today’s matinee and had a terrific time. SPARC has pulled together a GREAT cast—9 impressive actors with exceptional talent! Five are VCU students, two are current or recent students at Meadowbrook H S, and two are adults. These great actors deserve their own blog post, and I’ll try to write one in the next few days.

In this entry, let me continue recognizing the exceptional high school students who sing and dance their hearts out in Disney’s High School Musical.

Alex Godschalk just graduated from Steward, so in DHSM he has the home court advantage. He makes the most of it. Alex plays one of the "brainiacs," and he has a great moment when the character of Chad congratulates him with a high five, compelling Alex's character to transform from an up-tight academician to a hip-hop savvy homeboy. It’s one of the biggest laughs of the evening. Next fall Alex will be beginning his tenure as a theatre major at Elon.

Julia Greer is one of our wonderful cheerleaders. Chase, K and Sherri have done a great job creating a cheerleading unit that functions as a team, not as a group of individuals. So it’s hard for me to help you pick out Julia from the rest of her clique, all of whom pretty much dress, move and smile alike, just like they're supposed to. Julia is a rising freshman at Collegiate, and appeared with SPARC last summer in Dear Edwina.

B J Gruber is our heartthrob skater dude who secretly longs to play the cello. He participates in the drama program at Godwin H S, and is the only cast member to start the show off on wheels.

Christie Jackson just graduated from high school and is looking forward to beginning her theatre studies next fall at Madison. If you take note of the skilled acrobat with red hair, you’re noting Christie.

Charles Johnson is a rising senior at Highland Springs H S and received his vocal training with The Greater Richmond Children’s Choir. He’s on our basketball team in DHSM, and enjoying all that dribbling in Getcha Head in the Game.

Kouryn Lupino is a rising senior at Godwin H S, and attended the Center for the Arts at Henrico H S for two years in the musical theatre program. She’s pretty irresistible on stage, and you’ll recognize her as the one who wears a knit cap over her long dark hair.

Hannah Miller is a rising junior at Trinity H S and a returnee from our cast of Grease last summer. She recently appeared in The Wizard of Oz at Theatre IV, and takes dance at the Richmond Dance Center. You’ll spot her in DHSM as the one who is directed to “be the bear” in drama class, and has a beaming smile throughout the ensemble numbers.

Dylan Moon is a proud member of our second pair of siblings, a distinction he shares with his big brother Zac. Last summer, Dylan played the son, Nathan, in The Full Monty at Barksdale Willow Lawn. Last winter he was a floating head in Flowers for Algernon at Swift Creek Mill.

Na’imah Nelson spent her freshman year at the Center for the Arts at Henrico H S, and will soon be a sophomore at Hermitage H S. She received additional training from the Richmond City Dance Theatre, and is pleased to have joined the cheer squad in DHSM.

Paul Newell is a rising junior at Deep Run H S and is a proud alum of Christian Youth Theatre. You can identify Paul as the referee in the climactic basketball game at the end of our show.

And that brings me to the end of this entry. There’s more to come soon regarding the final ten talented teens in our High School Musical entourage. Each one is worth applauding, and we're blessed that all of them have agreed to be in the show.

--Bruce Miller

Meet More "High School Musical" All Stars

One of the interesting things about blogs is that when you write them, the most recent posting appears on top. So if you’re writing a series of six, and you post each part as soon as it’s finished, Part II will appear above Part I, and Part III will appear above Part II, etc. Readers who come along two days later will, most likely, start reading from the top and scroll their way down. So the reading experience can often feel like you’re starting at the back of the book and working your way forward.

Anyway, this is my fourth entry about last night’s triumphant opening of Disney’s High School Musical, and it makes a crazy sort of sense to read my ruminations in reverse order. After all, this is the post where I start boasting about the uber talented ensemble—the 29 gifted kids who aren’t playing the leads. In many ways, the ensemble is the star of the show.

One of our goals with the Greater Richmond High School All Star Musical is to give kids from throughout the Metro Richmond area a chance to work with and get to know each other. The 39 kids who started out in Disney’s High School Musical (we’re now down to 38 due to the departure of one actor who couldn’t make it to rehearsals on time) live in 19 different zip codes!

Our diverse talent pool includes (in alpha order):

Kristen Barney, a rising junior at Deep Run H S, is an accomplished veteran of Christian Youth Theatre and appeared with us last summer as Patty Simcox in Grease. When you see Disney’s High School Musical, Kristen is the beautiful blond who shows off her legit soprano, with exaggeration, in the audition number.

Emlyn Crenshaw, a rising freshman at Maggie Walker Governor’s School (keep your eyes open for this one, Grant), brilliantly played the role of Scout in Barksdale’s To Kill a Mockingbird. At Theatre IV, Emlyn appeared in A Christmas Carol, Honk!, Snow White and the …, and The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. Emlyn is the tiny one who’s accomplished dancing will catch your eye front-and-center with the cheerleaders.

Gray Crenshaw—the other half of one of our two sibling pairs—is a rising senior at Freeman H S, where she played Zaneeta in The Music Man and Little Red Riding Hood in Into the Woods. Last summer, Gray brought down the house with us as Frenchie in Grease. In DHSM, she’s the one girl who appears incognito as a boy in Getcha Head in the Game.

D J Cummings, a rising senior at Deep Run H S, is a vet of CYT and his high school drama department. Last summer he worked as a production assistant with a professional children’s theatre company in NYC. In the audition scene, he’s the third of the three bohemians, clad all in black. He gets his big laugh by spouting a garble of dolphin noises (or is it a nervous giggle?) for his vocal audition.

Dwayne A. Daniels II, a rising senior at Varina H S, is an active member of his school’s show choir. Dwayne has a stand-out moment during Getcha Head in the Game, sharing a duet with Andrew Schappacher, rapping “And Troy boy Troy be cuttin’ de net.” And on the title page of the script, Disney credits 13 people as lyricists.

Peter Davis is a rising sophomore at Godwin H S, where he knocked us dead as Wally in The 1940s Radio Hour and Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. If you want to identify Peter, he’s the skater dude who asks if you have to wear a costume to play the cello, and when he hears about the coat and tie, replies, “That’s uncalled for!” From off-stage, he also shouts “Come on, Wildcats,” the first line in the show.

Kelsey Donner is a rising sophomore at Westminster Academy. She just appeared at the Firehouse in RED, and is an alum of the training programs at Richmond Ballet and Bon Air Dance, and the summer theatre program at Luther Memorial. A petite blond dancer, Kelsey is one of our outstanding cheerleaders and a particularly limber gymnast in Stick to the Status Quo.

Rachel Dozier is about to begin her senior year at Godwin. She’s the second black-clad bohemian in the audition scene. Dylan Moon speak-sings “It’s hard to believe…” and Rachel continues that thought, speak-singing “…that I couldn’t see,” immediately followed by D J Cummings and his dolphin noises (or are they the blips that R2D2 would make when his hard drive is getting fried?)

Patrick Dunnevant just graduated from Godwin, and will be majoring in music composition next year at Belmont University in Nashville. In the show, he’s one of our basketball playing jocks, and during the Counting on You locker room scene, he shouts out the name of basketball legend “Thunderclap Hap Haddon.”

It’s a good thing that the magnificent Cramer Center at Steward School has such a large stage. We need it to accommodate our overwhelming overflow of talent. To learn more about the remaining twenty All Stars, scroll up!

--Bruce Miller

They're Not Called All Stars for Nothing

Needless to say, the most impressive people associated with Disney’s High School Musical, which opened this evening to a well-deserved standing ovation, are the 38 students and two adults who comprise the magnificent cast. We use the moniker Greater Richmond’s High School All Star Musical to describe this annual summertime initiative. These great kids have earned the right to be called “All Stars.” I thank them for their talent and commitment.

Dave Amadee and Nadia Harika head the terrific cast as Troy and Gabriella. Dave is a rising home-schooled senior who comes to us from extensive experience with Christian Youth Theatre—an exceptional training program. At CYT, Dave played The Beast in another Disney musical that I bet you can guess, and more recently Joseph in Joseph … Dreamcoat. Nadia is a rising junior at Deep Run H S, where she most recently performed as Ronnette in Little Shop of Horrors. She has also received training and experience at CYT, as well as SPARC and the Richmond Dance Center.

Ali Thibodeau and Chris Collins play the “second leads”—the Evans twins, Sharpay and Ryan. Ali is a rising junior at Lee-Davis H S, and a dance teacher and performer at Shuffles Dance Center. Ali’s last two shows have been Joseph … Dreamcoat at Swift Creek Mill Theatre and The True Story of Pocahontas at Theatre IV. Chris is a rising senior at Godwin H S, and he’s thrilled to be returning to the beautiful Steward stage this summer after playing Eugene with us last summer in Grease.

Filling our two major supporting roles are Eric D. Brown, Jr. as Troy’s best bud Chad, and Brittney Germaine Slater as Gabriela’s new pal Taylor. Eric comes from a very musical family, his mother being a singer and his father a drummer. He has played saxophone and percussion with the Varina H S Marching Blue Devils, sung with the Varina show choir, and performed with the Ebony Esquire Drum Corps. Brittney is a rising senior at Henrico H S, where she participates in the Honors Chorus and the Center for the Arts.

Rounding out our young featured players are Jessica Harika as Kelsi Nelson (the composer of the musical within the musical), Zac Moon as Jack Scott (the velvet-voiced master of morning announcements), and Andrew Schappacher as Zeke Baylor (the dude who loves to bake and would love even more to be Sharpay’s boyfriend). Jessica, Zac and Andrew all three appeared with us in Grease last summer.

Jessica just graduated from Deep Run H S and will be studying voice at VCU’s School of Music next fall. Zac just graduated from Collegiate and will be studying theatre next year at UNC-Chapel Hill. Andrew, one of our youngest cast members, is a rising freshman at Clover Hill’s Math and Science Center. Andrew has received excellent training at the Jessica Morgan School of Dance. When you see the show, look up on stage for the guy who’s dancing his socks off. That will be our Andrew.

Well, it’s getting to be 2 a.m., and I’m bushed. I hope the rest of the cast will forgive me if I now hit the sack and talk with you more tomorrow about the remaining All Stars who will be gracing our stage for the next three weeks in Disney’s High School Musical.

--Bruce Miller