Globe's Upcoming 2011 - 2012 Season

Dear Globe Members,

Globe’s board has unanimously decided to put on two shows in Milton’s new theatre next season. While we certainly intend to produce “All Shook Up”, the show we had scheduled for Nov. 2011 (it’s a great show and lots of fun!), we all felt that we need to start next season with a bang. Since we are opening in a market that is not as familiar with Globe, we needed a heavy hitter… a show with instant recognition, which can be both a money-maker and a crowd-pleaser. The obvious choice for this was "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat ", which had previously been recommended by Globe’s reading committee.

We have been able to obtain the rights to do Joseph Nov. 6 to 13, 2011. We will do four shows in Milton…Thursday, Friday, Sat and finishing on a Sunday matinee. We will do two school shows as well, offering tickets to both Georgetown and Milton schools. The exact days for the performances and school shows will be confirmed to you later.


While this may not appear to be as much fun for our members who enjoy doing a two week run, the primary reason is due to improve our finances and everyone agrees that this is a worthy goal. Since CtK does not allow us to do school shows, we simply have to go somewhere else. Since the Milton Theatre (which is slated to be finished this summer) has 500 seats, we will be able to sell more school tickets (1000 compared to the 500 we sell now), which guarantees that we will make more money.


We are also booked to do a Youth Company show in Milton May 6 to 13, 2012. We are also looking for a “big name show” for the Youth Group, and we will consider the reading committee’s, recommendation of Bye Bye Birdie in the mix. Again, we need a blockbuster for the first show, so the audience draw will be even more important than usual. Leann sent out a survey to parents and youth members after Seussical asking what shows they would like to see us do. We have the results and will be looking at them. Ironically, Joseph was the number two choice. Peter Pan was number one, but this one may be out, but since Milton has no flies (for newer members, these are the bars high above the stage, enabling scenery to be lowered onto the stage).

The Milton theatre manager, Rob McKay (who used to run Guelph’s River Run) is very friendly and accommodating and wants to do business with us. They have offered us free advertising in Milton's theatre brochure that is going to every household in Milton and we will be the only community theatre group in the first season. There are 70,000 people in Milton and it is the fastest growing town in Canada, with an expectation to grow to 90,000. Milton is a convenient and prosperous area with lots of potential for new audiences and members. In Milton, we will do business under the name "Globe Productions" (rather than Georgetown Globe Productions). This was also passed unanimously by the executive at our last meeting. Since they have no community musical theatre group at the present time, we hope to establish ourselves as the hometown group for Milton as well as Georgetown.


Globe needs to grow! We are getting 50 to 60% audiences at present. If we want to do more adventurous shows, continue to provide an honourarium to each of our artistic team members and orchestras and make improvements to the armoury, then we have to make more money. Choosing Milton over CtK is a "no brainer". When the JET reopens then we will decide whether (and if so how) we can take our shows to two locations. It is not ideal to do this, but again, financial survival is driving a lot of our decisions. The costs to do a show at the JET vs Milton costs are relatively the same, but the box office draw is bigger. We will make an effort to keep Georgetown as our "home" and priority. We will do all our rehearsing here at the Armoury and perform our first weekend in Gtown then travel with our show to Milton, for example. We will also do our cabaret style shows out of Georgetown as well.


Now that Jen Marshall has been able to secure the rights to Joseph (hurray!), we need to have our kids' show figured out ASAP so that we can get into Milton's brochure. We will be hiring the artistic team for Joseph in late April and holding auditions for Joseph in early June. If you are interested in applying, please email any executive member. Stay tuned for more news as we move along. Between putting on Jesus Christ Superstar (I went to rehearsal last week and it is AMAZING!), moving from Norval, starting phase 2 of the Armoury project (more on that another day) and starting up in Milton, we are run off our feet.


Lois Fraser