Ring in the MTA New Year with the New Plays in America Festival!
The MTA will meet on January 25 at 5:30 pm in the Studio Theatre of the North Carolina
Blumenthal Performing Arts Center. The program for this meeting will be Mark Woods,
Executive Director of the Playwrights Project. To recoin a couple of phrases, "rumors
of my death have been greatly exaggerated,"and Mark is "alive and well and
living in Charlotte." Mark left Charlotte Repertory Theatre three years ago to found
the American Playwrights Project, (now, simply The Playwrights Project). This national
non-profit service organization is the only one of its type. Plays are the bread and
butter of all our organizations; come see what this visionary in theatre has to share with
MTA. The production will be The Old Settler by John H. Redwood and directed by John Love.
The play is a a May/December romance of a forlorn young man and a middle-aged spinster in
1940's Harlem. Examining the dissension between two sisters, the story leads to the
resolution of an earlier betrayal. The play begins at 7:30 pm. A Q & A session with
the Director and Playwright will follow the staged reading.
Special thanks to Keith Martin and Rebecca Cairns for hosting the wonderful MTA Holiday
party! Word has it that some of our theatre critics felt that the chance to chat with MTA
members in a "non-production" setting was quite nice!
The MTA Home Page on Charlotte's Web: (http://www.charweb.org/arts/mtapg.htm) has a new
more colorful look. Check us out. If your group is not listed, just get your info to Tom
Hollis and it will be included in the next iteration of our web site.
Do you want to know more about not-for-profit management? Directing? Costuming? Stage
combat? Legal aspects of theatre? Technical theatre on a budget? How about grant writing
made easy? Marketing your theatre and productions? Starting a summer Arts Ca mp or
developing a production partnership with another theatre? Do you want to know how to win
local business & government support? If these or any other topics interest you, then
let us know. In an eve-changing artistic, economic and political environment, as a
professional or volunteer, you must keep current. You can do just that at the North
Carolina Theatre Conference on November 7-9, 1996, at the Adam's Mark Hotel in
Winston-Salem,NC. Let us know what you want to learn more about! But, do it now. make
program suggestions by calling (704) 283-2804 or writing Ginger Heath, NCTC 1st Vice
President, 2755 Rolling Hills Drive, Monroe, NC 28110. Do you have a special area of
theatre expertise that you would be willing to share with others? Tell us!
Beth Sanders formerly of the The Little Theatre of Gastonia has joined the Blumenthal PAC
as night and week-end Box Office Manager. Steve Steiner has left the Newton-Conover Arts
Center. Michael Vance of the Vance Theatrical Organization has taken his act "on the
road". He is directing Barnum for the Fort Mill Community Theatre, The Rainmaker for
the Union County Players and a special production at The Park Hotel. Charlotte Rep's Keith
Martin has taken on a new hat or should we say taken up a new meg aphone. He's currently
coaching his daughter Sarah's cheerleading squad. Ginger Heath retired form the Union
County Players in December to spend more time with her new grandson, Heath and to become
an independent rep for Excel Telecommunications,Inc. Ro b Odom formerly Editor and arts
advocate at Break magazine is now Marketing Director at Children's Theatre of Charlotte.
Rob replaced Margot Rogers-Parrot who returned to Theatre Charlotte. Congratulations to
Mr. and Mrs. B. Douglas Robinson on their Dec ember marriage.
We were saddened to learn of the recent death of Keith Martin's mother. Our sympathy to the entire family. Memorials can be made to the Constance Welsh Scholarship Fund through Rupert Barber at Davidson College or through NCTC, P.O. Box 33343, Raleigh, NC 27636.
