O-K-L-A-H-O-M-A Oklahoma! Yeeow!
Any hint of what is playing at the Strand this Friday night? Correct! We are showing the 1955 classic Oklahoma! This stars Gordon MacRae and Shirley Jones in the movie adaptation of the wildly popular Rodgers and Hammerstein musical. We are showing this in conjunction with our friends at Shelby Senior Services. Their annual Strawberry Festival is on Friday at the Public Square. If you visit the Strawberry Festival, you will receive a coupon for $1.00 off the movie admission price. You won’t want to miss the yummy strawberries or this classic film.
As all our Strand family knows, we have no secrets. Oklahoma! is being shown with quite a bit of hoop jumping taking place by our volunteers this past week. Last year when Shelby Senior Services held their membership kick-off concert at the Strand, we discussed something for the Strawberry Festival. Unfortunately for the Strand, everything we tried to book had to cancel. We were left with 2 weeks before the festival, and nothing at the theatre. One of our volunteers suggested we show Oklahoma! (the exclamation point is part of the title in case you were wondering). Our board discussed it and thought it was a great idea. Easy to say, not so easy to do.
First we had to find out who owned the rights to the film. We checked with one of our film distributors…they couldn’t get it. We tried some of the studios we have contracts with…it wasn’t in their catalog. Finally out of desperation we call the Rodgers and Hammerstein Organization in New York City. This is the group that handles all the performance rights for the Rodgers and Hammerstein catalog (and a few others). They were extremely helpful and put us into contact with the Samuel Goldwyn Company in Los Angeles. Our contact at the Samuel Goldwyn Company put is in contact with IDP Films in New York City. IDP Films is the company that handles the rights for 4 films….Oklahoma!, South Pacific, The King and I and The Flower Drum Song. They were very helpful and with a few short emails we had the rights to show Oklahoma! this Friday (the really big check helped too). So that is how you are able to see this Hollywood classic at the Strand.
Oklahoma! was originally shot in CinemaScope. You might recall the original CinemaScope screen was installed in the Strand during the 1954 renovation, just in time for Oklahoma! Please support Shelby Senior Services and the Strand this Friday, you’ll be glad you did.
The Shelby County Players held auditions for the upcoming musical And Then There Were None this week at the Strand. The production will occur on August 5, 6, 7 & 8th at the Strand. We are looking forward to the SCP production. This production is directed by Tiffany Wilson. This isn’t the first time that a production that she has directed is being presented at the theatre. She has directed a Christmas musical the past two years in December with Hope’s Point Church. We know you will enjoy the production. This will be the first of four plays scheduled at the Strand by the Shelby County Players for their 2010-2011 Season.
Lots of projects are in the works, with seemingly little progress on all. Outwardly their doesn’t seem much forward progress, but each of the projects is slowly getting done. The preparation work is sometimes more time consuming than the actual project work. We are patient and looking forward to the systematic completion of our project list. Speaking of project list, something else has floated its way onto the page.
Transoms. Out of sight, out of mind. That was the though before our recent facade work took place. Now as you approach from the east, you can see the brown painted transom windows (half covered by the marquee). We never did notice those windows, but they are now the only thing left to paint. Gordon H. will be working his magic on those windows. Next time you are stopped at the light westbound on Broadway St, take a look at those boarded brown panels. You will see what we mean. Soon they will be the same stone color as the rest of the detail elements of the facade.
From here to the end of the month we have a busy schedule:
June 18 6:30pm The Godfather – Dinner and a Movie
June 20 2:00pm Shelby Community Band Summer Concert – FREE
June 23 6:00pm Blue River Community Foundation Annual Meeting
June 26 7:00pm Shelby Idol 1st Round
Before we say goodbye this week, we would like to share a few numbers with you (warning, statistics ahead). The Strand believes that we need to constantly measure our performance and strive to attain our goals. As of January 1 to June 1, 2010 the Strand has an audience attendance of 949 patrons more than the same period in 2009. Our goal for 2010 was to increase the average audience size. So far we have met this goal for the first half of the year. We are 3 events greater in 2010 than the same period in 2009. Our next goal was to maintain the same pace as the previous year. As you can see we have met that goal too. In order for the Strand to be successful, we must continually define our own expectation, then hold our organization to those standards. This might not always be possible, but hopefully it will never be for lack of effort. But for now, so far, so good! We will (hopefully) have another very exciting statistic to share with you next week. Our scale is getting ready to tip, not yet, but almost.
Thank you for your support. We have a great community with many talented people. We hope the Strand in some small way helps reinforce our belief that we deserve a high self-esteem for our County’s citizens. The Strand is proof.
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