Curtain Up!
Volume 2, Issue 2: December 2015
What are we up to in December?
- Caroling December 4th, 11th, 12th, and 18th around Uptown! (Details below)
- Monthly Board Meeting Monday, December 7th at 7 PM in Arts Council basement
- Uptown Shelby Input Meeting #2 December 8th at 6 PM at the Don Gibson Theatre
- Uptown Shelby Christmas Parade December 13th at 3 PM
- Story Time with Princess Special Guest December 19th at 10:30 AM CC Library Main
- Public Relations Committee Meeting December 19th at 2:00 PM in Arts Council basement
- Story Time with Elf Special Guest December 21st at 6:30 PM Mauney Library (KM)
- Story Time with Princess Special Guest December 22nd at 6:30 PM CC Library Main
- Anton in Show Business Rehearsals kick off! (Closed Event)
First Show of the Season, Graceland and Asleep on the Wind, is a Success!
Graceland and Asleep on the Wind by Ellen Byron are two one act plays that are sometimes performed independently of each other. When paired together, however, these two create a cohesive story. The first is the story of Bev and Rootie each vying to be the first into Elvis’s home, Graceland, as it’s opened to the public. The second is the story or Rootie and her favorite brother Beau the night before he joins the army to go fight in Vietnam.
Each story has a mix of comedy and heartbreak and the cast did a wonderful job with both. These shows represent a number of firsts for GSCT, they were the first show of GSCT’s 2015/2016 season, they were the first shows at which GSCT had the technology to accept debit and credit cards at the door, they were the first to have a performance translated into American sign language for the hearing impaired, and they were the first time director Melissa Scott came and worked with us at GSCT. Ms. Scott is one of the theater directors at Shelby High School, and it was great to have her share her talents with us.
This show turned out to be quite a collaboration between GSCT and Shelby High School, not only was our director a SHS teacher but so was one of our actors, Celeste Burkhardt who played Bev. Our Rootie , Anna Floyd, our stage manager, Madeline Spurling, and our entire tech. team were all SHS students. Rounding out our cast, with no connections to SHS, was the talented Kurt Hassler as Rootie’s caring, loving, restless big brother Beau. It was great to see such wonderful Shelby (the high school and the community) talent come together to create a beautifully heart-breaking story.
Join us for caroling all month long!
Greater Shelby Community Theatre is looking to spread the joy of holiday music to our neighbors in Uptown Shelby, and we'd love for you to join us! You don't need to be a classically trained musician (or even be able to read music!) to join in on the fun. We want this to be a relaxed and cheerful time for everyone!
There will be three weeks of performance opportunities. If you are interested in joining us for a night of caroling, we ask that you attend at least one rehearsal that week. Rehearsals will take place Tuesday and Thursday nights, to accommodate as many schedules as possible.
Rehearsals
(Held in basement of the Cleveland County Arts Council at 7:00 PM each night.)
Week One: Tuesday, December 1 & Thursday, December 3
Week Two: Tuesday, December 8 & Thursday, December 10
Week Three: Tuesday, December 15 & Thursday, December 17
Caroling
(We will always meet at the Arts Council to warm up and briefly rehearse before going out.)
Week One: Friday, December 4 - Meet at 6:00 PM (Living Christmas Market at CUMC)
Week Two: Friday, December 11 - Meet at 6:00 PM (Banker's House and more!)
Sunday, December 13 - Meet at 2:00 PM (Uptown Shelby Christmas Parade)
Week Three: Friday, December 18 - Meet at 6:00 PM (Banker's House and more!)
Tuesday, Dec 1, 2015, 06:00 PM
Cleveland County Arts Council, South Washington Street, Shelby, NC, United States
Watch Us Grow: Community Partners
For last season's Treasure Island, we donated over 300 tickets to the three libraries in our county. The response was so tremendous, we knew we had to pursue more ways to partner with the library! With Graceland and Asleep on the Wind, we donated more tickets and had displays of books and other materials related to the show.
We have also organized three storytimes for the month of December, two at the main branch of the Shelby library and one at Mauney in Kings Mountain. The evening storytimes will be pajama party style with a reading of the Polar Express, apple cider, and gingerbread cookies. We will have a special princess guest (hint: the cold doesn't bother her) join us in Shelby and a few of Santa's Elves in Kings Mountain. The Saturday morning storytime will also feature our princess pal and the Polar Express. We have more events in the works at both branches!
We are also thrilled to be partnering with the Foothills Farmers' Market and Power of Produce! Mark your calendars for May 7th, 2016 where we will help kick off the new program with GSCT's enthusiastic style. Also be on the lookout for a soon-to-be-announced event with Harvestworks! If you run a local organization, and want to know how we can work together to reach new audiences and engage people in exciting ways, please contact Jenni at president@gsct.org.
Meet Our Board: Laura Wheeler
Laura got her start in theatre at the age of 18 with Livestock Musical Theatre in Greensboro She says, "I had no idea what 'block" or "strike' meant. I didn't even know the story of the show! It was Funny Girl, and I was in the chorus but didn't know squat about singing either. On one song I was even told to just mouth the words. I got a part only because someone dropped out... BUT it must have been destiny because I've been involved since!"
Most of my Laura's experience is with Uwharrie Players in Albemarle, NC. She served on their board a few times but mostly adores acting and dancing. She will be making her choreographer debut with this season's production of Guys and Dolls!
Greater Shelby Community Theatre
Email: info@gsct.org
Website: www.gsct.org
Location: Cleveland County Arts Council, South Washington Street, Shelby, NC, United States
Phone: 704-480-8495
Facebook: facebook.com/gsctfan
Twitter: @gsctfan