THEATRIX

The Pen Inside the Inkwell Rests

The story is not over. 

The novel is not done.The race has not been finished.
There is no setting sun.


The chapter is a blessed one
Filled with love and life
But like all chapters, it must end
For the next one to begin.


This book as many pages and many left to write 
With your pen and your experience
Where you bring the script to life
So celebrate the chapter and close it with a smile
It's part of your story that shall go on for miles


The gifts that you have given in this chapter now complete
Is more than anyone can know; 
is more than anyone can show
Embedded in the Victor's throne
invaluable gems, precious stones.


There is no time to sit and wait
Looking back upon a swinging gate
The harvest will come back to you
From the seeds you planted when
You gave the timid child his voice
When he thought he had no choice
But to stand alone in the unsung wings
Until you coaxed that voice to sing
And sing he did out brave and strong
Until he knew that he belonged
To something bigger than himself
Something he placed upon the shelf
Of every room inside his heart
He knew that he had played his part
A part that he could only do
Because of you.


The parchment is waiting on the desk
The pen inside the inkwell rests
For you with blue stain hands to hold ... 
The next script waiting to be told.


                             Steve Hammond


Dedicated to Rocco and Kathi-lee Wilson in recognition for their transformative work in the lives of young actors at Saint Patrick Catholic School, Norfolk, Virginia

• Isolated Environment: Great interest can be generated by an ad when relaxed, entertained people look through a program without the distractions of home or office. Also, there is limited interference from other advertising means this allows the theatre patron to focus on the playbill in hand.
  
• Reader Interaction: Every patron will receive a playbill as they are seated. Patrons must read the playbill for information pertinent to the performance attended, ensuring a high readership of the advertisements. Also, the playbill and its ads are commonly the point of conversation between patrons at the theatre - creating excellent word-of-mouth advertising endorsements from friend to friend!
  
• Variety: Theatrix Productions, Inc. gives your business the opportunity to reach a diverse audience drawn from the “Seven Cities” of Virginia Beach, Norfolk, Chesapeake, Suffolk, Hampton, Newport News and Williamsburg.
  
• Support the Arts: A critical component of your branding strategy should be to associate your organization, product or service with the things your clients' value most. Create a commonality between your business and theatre patrons as both of you support the arts.
  
• Image: Theatrix Productions, Inc. is a first class and top-ranked Family Community Theatre in the regional spectrum. Your advertisement communicates the message that your company stands in favor of quality, excellence and culture.
  
• Demographics: The Arts attract an upscale market in terms of education and income. Patrons of the arts are active in their communities and often set community trends.
  
• Service: Our playbill staff works with advertisers to determine the most effective market to target and to create a unique advertising package for your business. In addition, our creative playbill team can help you create an ad tailored to your business.
  
• Quality and Convenience: The advertising options are presented to you in one creative package, in a professional manner that eliminates confusion and nurtures community spirit.
  
• Low Cost: The cost-per-thousand is unbeatable for such highly sought demographics! Your cost is less than 25 cents per contact. This is less than the cost of a stamp - not to mention the cost of printing. When you do the math, it is easy to discover why playbill advertising is an efficient buy.

• Loyalty: Patrons of Theatrix Productions, Inc. have a track record of supporting businesses that support Theatrix Productions, Inc.
  
  

“Seven Reasons Live Theatre is Best in Person”

By Matthew Calhoun

Although live theatre is no longer a quintessential mode of entertainment, it still has its merits. It offers us a unique experience where we get to come together as a community and see a live performance. If you’re still wondering whether live theatre is best experienced in person, here are seven reasons why you should go see your next play in a live setting.

Live theatre lives and dies the night that it is performed. The show that played on Monday can be slightly different on Thursday. Why? Because it is all happening live. There are no redoes, no second chances. If a mistake is made, an actor must roll with it. If a prop is missing, a showrunner must improvise. The circumstances making it a live performance help the show be different from night to night. An audience can change the effectiveness of the play drastically. Moreover, actors can find new ways to express a character or more effective emotions for an audience. Unlike film, live theater requires that actors adapt on the fly because they never know what could go right or wrong. This makes a show authentic, even after multiple views. It’s one of many reasons live theatre can be better than movies.

One of the best parts about live theatre is the ability of an actor to use the crowd’s energy. This can make an otherwise dull character truly come alive. When an audience and an actor get in sync, comedic timing and dramatic effect work very well to sell a scene. In the end, it’s just an actor standing on stage, but the emotion, laughter, and ambiance are palpable. Whether it’s Peter Pan or Waiting for Godot, an audience’s actions can make or break a play. 

Even though you’re not acting on stage, live theatre holds an incredible opportunity to make you part of the show. The actors get to feed off your energy and in turn, the show becomes better for it. Sometimes live theatre has intentionally interactive moments with the audience. This is why it is so important to go to live theater at least once. It’s an experience unlike any other that you can’t get in a movie theater. It feels as if a community is coming together under one roof.

Unlike movies, live theatre can’t hide things with a green screen. Practical sets, props, and effects are built from scratch. There is no CGI to compensate for a character not existing in real life. If you’re a fan of practical effects then you need to see live theatre. More importantly, if you’re a fan of practical makeup artistry then you should definitely go see a show. People are always surprised when they seek makeup artists to flaunt their skills in a creative way. If you are looking for creative stagecraft, shows like The Lion King is revolutionary in set and stage design.

If you want to test your skills as an actor, you don’t go to Hollywood, you go to live theatre. Live theatre gives you only one take to get the emotion and scene structure correct. You don’t have multiple takes to work up your emotions as you do in a film. It’s one shot to get it correct or nothing at all. If you want to see some truly amazing performers who can consistently evoke emotion then look to live theatre.

Live theatre has been innovating since its inception. The stage has stayed the same, but incorporating technology has vastly improved the theatre-going experience. People are making stages move, having people disappear, and creating magic, all with simple tools. You don’t have to go see the biggest blockbuster to see something that makes you go “Wow!”

Live theatre spans back thousands of years. It has always been used as a tool to contemplate society and our role within it. Theatre has a lot to offer because of that personal touch and being in the moment with that story. By going to a night of theatre, you’re doing the same thing people did thousands of years ago. There is a lot of history connected to those stages. Why not be a part of that history?

Article originally published at docklinemagazine.com on July 17 2020