Start!

This Facilitator's Note appeared in the program for the show on April 25, 2024.

It is commonly thought that our lives pass through “seasons” and, if this is so, tonight’s show is about springtime, renewal, starting something new. We have three cast members performing with us for the first time tonight - Josh and Noah Ray and Stephanie Keats – at the same time that we celebrate the longest standing members – Ryan Smith, Jordan Peck, and Fraser Collins – who were present at the first meeting of Able Theatre back in February of 2016. At the suggestion of someone in the troupe, we opened a “Hall of Fame” this winter on our website (www.abletheatre.com) with these men as the inaugural inductees!

Starting new things is sometimes difficult. We talked about that in discussions during our workshops while putting this show together. But the cast admitted that starting something new is often exciting and fun, too. Though the familiar can be comforting (you’ll still see the Ketchup Kid putting ketchup on the food of people in the county), new things can also lead to discoveries, revealing parts of ourselves we might have left unattended.

In this show, we bring a new twist to classic improv games such as “park bench” and “dating game” brought to us by our volunteer this session from OSS. Delia won’t be with us tonight as she is performing in her school’s production of Mary Poppins, so we’ll miss her. The show includes other improv games – machine, zip-zap-zop, boss and workers, and our go-to: story. It also features scenes chosen by our troupe – a song from High School Musical, a song from Grease, another from The Lion King. We also perform an Able Theatre first - a heavy metal number (Crazy Train) selected by another cast member.

Meanwhile, we have been busy exploring our theme, asking “How do we start each day?” and “What have we been doing lately that is new?” During workshops, some of us came up with ideas that didn’t quite fit the theme or would have made the show too long. We’ll get to those ideas next time! As usual, we’re very thankful that you’re here. Our motto is – “there’s no show without an audience”. So, whether you’re here for the first time trying something different or a veteran audience member deserving to be in our Hall of Fame, we hope you enjoy our show.

- Stephen Pinney