Here at Live Bait, we’ve finished up with our second run of A Closer Walk With Patsy Cline, heard some great music from Garnet Rogers and celebrated the arrival of summer with our 2nd Annual Solstice Dinner and Silent Auction.

Now we’re diving further into our 2011 summer season with the upcoming production of Paul Ledoux and David Young’s musical, FIRE. Inspired by the lives of Jerry Lee Lewis and Reverend Jimmy Swaggert, FIRE  traces the rise and fall of Cale and Herchel Blackwell, the sons of a Southern preacher. It features lots of classic 50′s rock hits and gospel tunes that will keep your feet tapping. Here are a few rehearsal pictures to give you a sneak peak at the show:

The talented cast of this show includes Lewis Wynne-Jones as Cale Blackwell, Andrew Chandler as Herchel Blackwell and Ian Gilmore as their father, J.D. Blackwell, as well as several other characters. The cast is rounded out by Lise Cormier playing the boys’ love interest, Molly King, and Gordon White, playing her opportunistic father, Truman King.

The show starts this Thursday, July 14 and runs until Sunday, the 17th and again from the 19-24. Shows begin at 8 p.m., with the doors opening at 7:30 p.m, with the exception of Sunday nights. There are also matinées on the Saturdays and Sundays, starting at 2 p.m. with the doors opening at 1:30 p.m. Tickets for the evening shows are $27 regular and $24 for students and seniors and a general price of $12 for the matinées.

I’ve been lucky enough to sit in on a few rehearsals in the past week and believe me, it’s a show you don’t want to miss. Hope to see you there!

Opening for Gordie is Nudie of Nudie and the Turks.  Here’s a sample of his music:

Come check them out live on Friday night at the theatre.  It’s only ten bucks if you get your ticket ahead of time!  Can’t beat it.

Other than you can come and get one at Live Bait Theatre this Friday, March 4. And how did this come about, you may ask?

Live Bait Theatre has a fantastic, creative, very busy Special Events Committee. This committee meets every Tuesday morning and plans events to raise money for the company. These are events outside our normal programming, that is, outside the plays and dinner theatres that are our major productions each year.

These events include things like concerts, auctions, dinners, dances and anything else these amazing people have the time, energy and inclination to make happen.

About a year ago, someone had the idea to open the theatre once a month Fridays after work and encourage people to drop by and have a drink and hear some music. We did this a few times last year and sometimes had six people and sometimes had forty people. For entertainment we had a pianist, a singer, a stand up comic, sometimes canned music. We wanted people to feel like the theatre was a place where they could socialize and hang out and feel comfortable.

This was a great idea and one that didn’t take a lot of time. We just had to let people know it was happening. Free admission, cash bar. It was pretty good.

Then in January someone on the committee suggested that we amp up the Fridays on Tap (as they were called) and turn them into Spuds ‘n’ Suds. This meant we’d have baked potatoes with assorted toppings (“spuds”) in addition to the bar being open (“suds”, but you CAN have something other than beer). We promoted it and had great little posters hand drawn by Meredith and waited to see what would happen. The morning of February 8, we had 13 potatoes reserved. Okay, not bad. Then that evening we were amazed by the turnout! It was a great time. Sixty-five potatoes were consumed, Tricia Black sang and played guitar and $500 was raised for the company. Wonderful! The buzz in the room was fantastic with lots of people saying they’re coming back and bringing their friends.

So we’re doing it again this Friday, from 5-7 p.m. and we’re preparing for lots more people. If you’re in the Sackville area, please join us. Give us a call at 506 536 2248 to reserve your potato so we have some idea how many to expect. But if you decide to come at the last minute, please do! You don’t NEED a reserved spud. We’ll have extra. And we’d love to see you.

We’re going to do this again on April 8 if you miss it this time.

We’re also planning to serve some kind of food on May 6 and June 3, but probably not baked potatoes. Those are kind of winter-y, delicious as they are. So the committee is wondering what they should serve instead? Lobster rolls have been mentioned. Yum… We’d welcome any suggestions so please comment. We want something that’s pretty easy to prepare, somewhat seasonal and generally well liked by people.

So bottom line: if you’re in Sackville this Friday come by for a cheap, delicious supper! Bring your friends and enjoy some live music courtesy of pianist Jerry Hannah. Then stick around for an amazing concert by Gordie MacKeeman and His Rhythm Boys at 7:30 p.m. (Sorry, while Spuds ‘n’ Suds is free admission, tickets to Gordie are $10 in advance and $12 at the door, but well worth the price!)

And if you’re not in the Sackville area, consider doing this as a fundraiser for your organization…any leftovers make delicious hashbrowns!

So here’s a plug for Jason’s blog, which I was reading earlier this evening.  He writes very entertaining entries about mundane stuff and here’s the link if you want to check him out: http://theexcitablemundane.wordpress.com/

This will be a short entry because it’s getting late and I need to get some sleep.  On a side note, I went to donate blood tonight and fainted, so I think I need to rest a little more.  The fainting happened after the donation was completed, so that’s a good thing.  However, the head nurse has told me that my reaction was so extreme that I can’t donate any more.  My body is telling me it doesn’t like donating blood, which is disappointing because it’s such a good thing to do.  I want to encourage everyone to donate if you are able.  Here’s the link for that:http://www.blood.ca/centreapps/internet/uw_v502_mainengine.nsf/page/Registry%20Background?OpenDocument.  In the meantime, I’ll be recovering from the embarrassment of fainting at the Blood Donor Clinic tonight.

Okay, so this blog is supposed to be about Live Bait Theatre and the behind the scenes stuff.  And it will be short tonight.

We started rehearsals today for “Angel’s River”, a new play by Andrea Boyd.  Andrea is a Fredericton born playwright who now teaches at the University of Alberta.  The play is amazing.  I feel so lucky to get to direct it.  I am so happy with the cast — Burgandy Code, Drew O’Hara, Breanna Moore and Alexandra Rhindress — none of whom knew each other before today.  One of the things I like best about my job at Live Bait Theatre is getting to put together teams for shows, and I’m really happy with everyone who’s come together to work on “Angel’s River”.  And — very exciting for all of us — Andrea is coming from Alberta in early October to work with us!  Can’t wait.

Okay, that’s it for tonight.  Must get some sleep.   Will write more soon about how the rehearsal process is going!  And there are photos in the Live Bait Theatre group on Facebook if you’re interested.

Happy autumn, everyone!

But wait, here comes Harvest!

As you can imagine, there is never a dull moment at Live Bait. The preparations have already begun for the next production of the Summer 2010 Season! It is a mainstage play called Harvest. It begins on August 12 and runs until the August 22.

The actors have been in rehearsals since mid-July and the installation of the set has also just recently begun this week.

With some help, we were able to put up the pipes for the lighting as seen in the photos below:

The first crosspipe!

Hammering the clamps!

Harvest should be a great show with dynamic lights, sounds and hilarious comedy! We hope to see you there!

Over the past two weeks, we have been producing our summer dinner theatre of A Closer Walk with Patsy Cline. For those who attended, we hope you enjoyed your night or for those who have not come yet, we can’t wait to host you here at the Theatre!

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Today’s post is all about one of our favourite things here at the Theatre: food! In general, food is one of those things that brings people together, whether to celebrate an occasion or simply to escape from the everyday routine.  It can create conversation or partner with entertainment,  like here at Live Bait Theatre with the dinner theatre productions.

At the Theatre, with actors, servers and staff always floating around, the leftovers from our dinner theatre shows always disappear in the blink of an eye! As well as Francesca’s, the 2010 Campbell-Verduyn Theatre Intern, delicious chocolate vegan cupcakes..YUM!!

The dessert featured in our dinner theatre menu is so good and definitely my favourite choice as an after-show treat! It’s a homemade blueberry upside-down cake with hot lemon sauce.. can you hear your stomach rumbling yet?

Our catering each night is provided by Mr. James Kelly, a caterer from Rexton, NB. The response has been great and we are very appreciative of the feedback from all audience members.

Bon Appétit!

Here at the Theatre, we are busy preparing for A Closer Walk with Patsy Cline, our upcoming dinner theatre production!

I’ve been receiving many calls to our box office looking for information and tickets, it’s gonna be a great show! Feel free to call the office and book your table for a fun night of good food and awesome entertainment!

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It’s been a busy week here at Live Bait as the band arrived at the beginning of this week. They have been working hard, along with the cast and production crew in rehearsals, to perfect the details of the dinner theatre.

Everything’s starting to come together with costumes, the beginning of set building and the tickets starting to pick up momentum as well !

I’m a university student hired to be the Box Office Assistant for the summer. Feel free to call the box office (I’ll be here!) to answer any questions you may have about the upcoming season or to purchase tickets! I will most likely be posting a few blogs here and then, so you will most likely be hearing from me again soon.

Hope to see you at one of the upcoming performances of A Closer Walk with Patsy Cline!

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In the past few weeks, the Theatre has been going through some exciting changes! Justin and Jocelyn have been busy painting, cleaning and organizing the facility to prepare for our upcoming summer season. The entry way, both bathrooms as well as the theatre ceiling all received a face lift in order to prepare for the summer.

The bathrooms have been updated with fresh paint! Check out Jocelyn and Justin working hard!

Which brings me to the reason for this post. Speaking of the menu, I just had to post this image I found on the internet.

Patsy Cline drawn in tomato sauce. I can’t decide if it’s cool or weird. Maybe both.

There are lots of amazing images drawn in all kinds of materials on this website: http://www.suspectandfugitive.com/2008_07_01_archive.html. Check it out. I want to give the artist credit.

Anyway, back to the point of this post. We’ve finalized our menu for the summer dinner theatre and here it is:

MENU

Chicken breasts with traditional stuffing
Mashed potatoes
Fresh vegetables
Baked vegetarian pasta
Green salad
Coleslaw
Three bean salad
Homemade dinner rolls
Blueberry upside down cake with hot lemon sauce

Mmmm. Yummy.

So what do you think? Sound good? What have been your favourite meals at the theatre? (I suspect those of you who attended the Summer Solstice Fundraising Dinner on June 21 will say that meal! It was amazing!! Look for photos and recipes in an upcoming post.)
What meals have had at other dinner theatres — good and bad? You don’t have to name names. I’d love to hear from you.

(Hahaha. I couldn’t resist. I was reminded of what my brothers used to call people when they were 12 years old.)

Even though we’ve been getting some snow here in Sackville this weekend, the calendar says spring and several people have mentioned that they’ve been spring cleaning. Which got me thinking about things we could use here at the theatre. Like this:

And this:

And this:

And any of these:

And even these, too:

So while you’re doing your spring cleaning, think of Live Bait Theatre. Especially if you live in the central Maritime region. We’d be happy to take any of these things off your hands (provided they’re in reasonably good condition, of course) and will come and collect them from you or you can call us to arrange a drop off. It’s for a good cause and it’s good for the planet.

P.S. Check out our full wish list on our website at http://www.livebaittheatre.com/supportTheTheatre.html

Happy spring, everyone! And don’t put away those snow shovels yet.