December updates

Arrr! G’bye mateys!
The Treasure Island/Dooby Dooby Moo set is gone.   It is in little bitty pieces in the big dumpster in our driveway — except for the 800 pound telephone poles (ship masts) which have been wrestled into storage by the mighty Ian (heroically assisted by Barney Chin, Travis Zywica and our intern Chris Scholtens.   It is always strange to see the theater swept clean, but soon it will be filled with new adventures.

Expanded floorspace in our shop!
Ian has redesigned the shop layout and Barney has used our brand new welder to create off-the-floor hanging storage racks for all our lumber.  The acreage this has created downstairs is incredible!  We can now stretch out and paint an entire stage drop instead of a section at a time! And there’s still room to build — and we look so clean!  Go team!

Restructured and reorganized costume storage!
Erica and intern Meghan Earhart are slaying their way thru costume storage in a reorganization effort that makes me mist up every time I walk by.  We had put up plastic shelving for shoe storage but the gals nearly got buried in a shoe avalanche when the cheap pieces of… plastic… broke!  We have decided to reconsider shoe storage.   Ian and Barney came up out of the basement and consulted on the project and we’ll soon have permanent shoe storage, as sturdy as those new lumber racks downstairs.

Spanish lessons!
Lea, Erica, Dorothy and Meghan have been taking Spanish lessons once a week with box office associate/former caballero/sometime pirate/former LL shuttle driver Eduardo Garcia.  Our first test is this coming Tuesday.  When we’re a little better, Allison is going to join our little class as well (because she’s already ahead of us on the basics).   Soon we’ll have bilingual customer service!  Well, not soon perhaps. But eventually.  That is the dream!

Intern news
We are sad to say goodbye to Meghan who came to us thru the Chicago Semester program.   She has been of invaluable assistance for the term she spent with us.   She was costume crew and blood maker for Treasure Island.  She worked box office, participated in our education program and was instrumental in the accomplishment of countless projects.  We will miss her!  Our shop intern stays with us for now.  Chris Scholtens comes to us from Triton College (where Ian also teaches).  He is assisting with set construction and shop reorganizing with Ian, as well as working with Erica on box office and facilities projects.   We are glad we get to keep Chris thru the spring!

Dorothy Milne
Artistic Director