and we are back....

Okay Kids!

We have had one heck of a summer break. Many MANY changes! All will be revealed in time and the first show of our 5th season has been cast and is about to start rehearsals!! Very exciting!!

But the biggest news that will be affecting us is that we will NOT be returning to the Coolidge Corner Theatre this season. They have decided not to have us back. Yes, we are very sad about this.... loosing our home for the past 4 years and the friends and audience that we have developed. All things change, and we are forging ahead!!

We have booked new spaces and we are in the process of searching out a new permanant home for Makeshift! So keep tuneing in for all the exciting news coming down the pike. For all our old Coolidge fans we hope you can make the trip north of the city to Arlingtion and Winchester to see our shows this season and we will continue to try and bring our shows to you!

More soon. I promise, I am back on the job!!

~Nero

VOYE FOR US!!

Check us out!

We've been nominated for Best Theater or Theatre Group for Kids in Nickelodeon's Parents' Picks Awards! We need your help to win! You can vote for us once a day, every day, from now until July 15 at http://gocitykids.parentsconnect.com/parents-picks! Thanks for your support!

Click the link below to vote!

For Theatre Group for Kids
in Boston

another extended absense...

Sorry folks, we have been so very busy getting ready for THE THREE MUSKETEERS that I have been so off my game.

But now I have just one thing to say, ALL FOR ONE AND ONE OR ALL!!!!

we open this saturday!!

Q & A for H & G

Hell all!!

We are half way through our run of Hansle and Gretel!! We have had some great houses. This time around we bring you a brief Q&A with Hansel and Gretel Director Caitlin Stewart-Swift.

Q & A with Director Caitlin Stewart-Swift

There’s no one better to tell you about this production than our fantastic director, Caitlin Stewart-Swift. We sat down with Caitlin and asked her a few questions about Hansel & Gretel and theatre in general.


Q: For Makeshift's production of the classic fairy tale Hansel and Gretel, we're using another wonderful adaptation from local playwright Jack Neary. What is different about this version of the play than what people are used to?

Well I would have to say that Jack does not back away from the dark side of this fairy tale which I feel is keeping very true to the original. But I really enjoy how Jack balances out the dark side of this story with a crazy Granny (aka the Witch!) and her equally zany henchmen Rollo and Stench!


Q: What made you want to direct this particular show?

I really fell in love with the darker side of this play and how well it was balanced by the crazy and colorful bad guys. It also, to me, had qualities very similar to that of British Panto and that peaked my imagination and made me want to stage it.


Q: Children's theatre requires a lot of energy. What are you and the cast doing to keep energy up at rehearsals and to keep it fun?

Well the cast and I are making sure we always start rehearsals off on a fun note, lots of high energy warm ups and some laughter! We are also really playing up Granny, Rollo and Stench, to balance out the scary circumstances that the children and father are facing in the play. We are also keeping the pacing of the show up! This is not a show that drags so hold onto your hats, folks!


Q: What's your favorite thing about doing children's theatre and about working with Makeshift?

My favorite thing about doing children's theatre is two fold: firstly I love bringing fantastical characters to life. It is so much fun to play with these characters who are truly characters, and yet are also old friends from our childhood stories and fairy tales. Secondly, I love introducing young audiences to theatre and how magical and engaging it is. And when it comes to Makeshift I don't think you can beat the great groups of people and artist who make up this super duper awesome community of artists.

Q: You've been an actor, dancer, choreographer and director. What keeps you coming back to working in the theatre?

Theatre, all aspects of it, are my passion. Whether it is acting, dancing, choreographing, or directing I love it plain and simple, and I am happiest when I am working on something theatrical and artistic. I was once told by a very wise teacher, "that work in this field is hard to come by, so if you’re lucky enough to get work, work as hard as you can and give it 100%." This has come to be my motto, slightly corny I know, but I find it to be pretty spot on.

Q: Can you share a funny story about something that has happened to you in the theatre, either working on this show or another one?

Well since you ask... There was this one time I was doing "Li'll Abner- The musical" and three other characters and I were ready to make our entrance, and the guy on stage completely goes up on his lines and jumps to our next entrance, which is on the other side of the stage! So we dash to the other side to enter for the next scene, and he regains his lines and flips back to our original entrance, back where we came from! We were dashing about like ping pong balls in a tournament of really skilled ping-pong players! No one in the audience knew but "boy oh boy" were our heads spinning by the time we finally made it on stage....

This show does have its funny moments, but I wouldn't want to spoil it for our audience...

------------------------------------------

We hope to see you at the show!!

~Nero!

Did I leave some bread crumbs lying around here?

Once again art work done by the amazing Kristen Boucher!!

We want to welcome Ms. Meghan Coonan to the Makeshift Family as a production and marketing associate!!!

Also, I feel the need to mention that it is STILL SNOWING!!!

A new year, a new server... and a new guild?!?!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! what does 2009 have in store for you!!!

Well we at Makehift have been getting in touch with our nerdy roots for the new year!!! YES, we are back on World of Warcraft!!! Bring on the hot pockets!!

You can find us on the Khadgar server under the names:
(FOR THE HORDE!!!!!)
Reph
Glokk
Callmenero
Wineinabox
Inkido

Mr. Vinnie is trying to start a guild... ask for Reph!

Also we start rehearsals for Hansel and Gretel tonight!!! The season is moving right along... We are starting to look for shows for next year, so if there a fairy tale that we have not done yet that you would like to see let us know and we will start looking for scripts!!!

Wishing you a Happy and prosperous new year, may your loot be epic and powerful!

~Nero
Callmenero
17lv rogue
khadgar
undercity

Ho Ho HO... and all that jazz!!

Before you settle in for your long winter nap.... we at makeshift wanted to give you a little holiday note.

We wrapped up our prime time show for this season, FIRST NIGHT, and what a wonderful show it was. We want to thank all the folks who cam out that last weekend in spite of the back to back snow storms. It was CRAZY! A little over 2 feet on snow before it was done. Mr. Rhodes even got towed, thanks Cambridge, he was my RIDE!!! Some time you just get smited by the weather gods.

HANSEL & GRETEL is next up this season, and the casting is complete!!! Auditions were 2 weeks ago and I usually post it ASAP, but we were in the middle of FIRST NIGHT... and now I am gonna leave you hanging a bit longer and post the casting after the holidays. hahahaha

As for me... my Mom is making some hotchoclate and I am settling in for some holiday game playing, I am hoping for Gears of War from Santa!!! My XBOX 360 is my best friend. You can find me online at XBOX live as Call Me Nero!!

In the mean time we here in the Makeshift Offices are playing with the office wii and drinking the last of the Nog, and wishing you a very...

MERRY CHRISTMAS & HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!
From the cast and crew of Makeshift Theatre Co.!

and here is a little gem to get you through to the new year!!

let it snow....

Sad news here tonight folks, we are expecting a foot of snow before the night si over so we have cancelled tonight's performance of FIRST NIGHT!

Once again, tonights performance of FIRST NIGHT is cancelled due to a freaking boat load of fluffly white stuff. :(

That leave us with just 2 more performances and we really want audiences in the double didgets!!! So join us tomorrow and sunday!!!

In the mena time build a fire and grab some coco, and bundle up with someone you find cozy and enjoy the first storm of the winter!!

Happy Life day!!!

~Nero

Holidays!!!!

I hope every one is a fabu Holiday season!! We at Makeshift types are trimming the tree drinking the nog and getting ready for our holiday offering!!! If you can't take any more Scrooge and the Nut Cracker is driving you nuts then we have something just a little different for you!!! Our own little holiday show!! Come celebrate the holidays and romance with our production of FIRST NIGHT, written & directed by Jack Neary. Heck, Mr. Rhodes is even in this one... and Maggie Nicholas is awesome. So if you need a night away from shopping come spend an evening with us! We promise you will not regret it, and at 15 dollars you won't find a better deal this side of black Friday!!

Also we I would like to know what your favorite holiday movie is... so reply to this or you can email me at nero@makeshifttheatre.com and let me know. I will post the results before Christmas and we will announce them at the show!!!

I personally have a video game list a MILE long for Santa Clause this year!!! Odd thing is most of the games have "death" in the title, which does not go very well with the idea of peace on earth good will to men.....?? Hmmm... Don't judge me Mr. Claus.

See you all at the show!!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!!!

NERO

Moving right along...

Hi there friends and neighbors and Makehift addicts!!!

Your trusty intern NERO here today. I have 2 bits of news for you on the Makeshift front, but first I have to say that Fallout 3 is the most addictive thing ever. I played the first 2 pc games and had a blast, but now Mr. Rhodes has a 360 and he showed me Fallout 3 on that system. Now I had my doubts, but those were blown out of the water... I have to go out and get this, so Mr. rhodes will stop kicking me out of his house late at night... all my WoW friends have been womdering where I ahve been... Wandering the capitol wastes my friends. Also the WoW expansion pack is out now... so much nerdage, so little time.

Okay, Makeshift news. First: The FIRST NIGHT poster is off the drawing board and making the rounds!!! Another great showing by K. Boucher!!! Take a look bellow!

Second: I know we are still weeks away for FIRST NIGHT, but we have already announced audition for HANSEL & GRETEL!! It will be directed by Caitlin Stewart-Swift, who assisted on ALICE IN WOMDERLAND! This is a first for us as we will be auditioning kids for the title roles!!! I bought some mace, so bring on the stage moms! See the announcemnet bellow!!

HANSEL & GRETEL

By Jack Neary.

Directed by Caitlin Stewart-Swift

Auditions will be held on December 15th & 16th from 7-10pm.
Performance dates: Feb: 7, 14, 15, 21, 28 / Mar: 7

Hansel: This part can either be played by a child, or a young looking adult. Hansel is strong, optimistic, smart and positive. The big brother. He is a rock for his sister, possible a younger and slightly more intelligent version of his father. Hansel is the classic strong, intelligent young hero.
Gretel: Gretel will be either played by a child, or young looking actor. Although she is the little sister and going through a scary situation, Gretel finds comfort and strength from the love of her brother and the trust she places in him. Gretel is the classic sweet little girl of fairy tales.

Father: Loving family man. A bit beaten down by life and life's current circumstances, but still positive and loving, determined to prevail, completely unselfish (the opposite of his sister "Aunt").

Aunt: A witch in the making. Very self centered, extremely different from her brother(the father) no sense of family and family love, hates sharing her brother with his family. This woman is really all business and cold.

Witch/Granny: The villain, a witch in granny's clothing. Very intelligent, slight temper, the brains of the operation in regards to the pie making business.

Stench & Rollo: A comedic duo, or bumbling fools and foolery, and unreliable henchmen for granny. Opportunity for physical humor and moments of great comedic timing.

The auditions will consist of cold readings from the script.

To schedule a time please submit a head shot and resume to Vin Morreale, Company Manager at Vinnie@makeshifttheatre.com

PRIME TIME BABY!

I know dear readers, I know... I promised you pictures, but Vix the photog Vixen is still working on them to make them the best they can be. I will send along a few soon as they are ready and NOT before!!! You can not rush an artist like the vixen.

BIG NEWS!

We are into our first week of rehearsals for FIRST NIGHT! There is a flurry of activity in the Makeshift Offices for this show that the Boston Globe called "a riff of magic..." We are excited that Jack Neary is directing!! Everybody should come and see if Mr. Rhodes can still act. There is a pool going around to see of he drops lines like they are hot!!!

Thanks to all of you who came out for PUSS in BOOTS! We will have auditions for Hansel & Gretel coming in December, that information will be posted around by the end of this week or early next!!!
ROCK! makeshift in full effect!

Vacation

Hey everybody!

I took an extended vacation and I am sorry for the late notice. My mother just told me to grab a bag and go, i didn't even pack my PSP.

But Now I am back on the job just in time for Halloween!!! WWWWooooooOOOooooo SPOOKY!!

Speaking of PUSS IN BOOT is Currently playing at the Coolidge Corner Theatre and our 4th Annual Halloween costume contest will be this Saturday!!! Can you feel the excitement!!! There will be fun and prizes to give away, so grab a spooky costume and head on down, it the last weekend for PUSS IN BOOTS!!!

We also have auditions for our winter Prim Time show coming up!! FIRST NIGHT by Jack Neary. The big new is that Mr. Neary will be directing this production!!!! How cool is that!!

They are looking for the role of Meridith and the auditions will notices will be coming out soon!!

In the mean time I better go start putting things away and straighting out the filing system, since Mr. Rhodes got that xbox for his birthday, nothing gets done.

See you all soon! I will have costume contest pics next week!!!

~Nero (Back on the job!)

yup, AUDITIONS

Makeshift Theatre Co Announces auditions for the first show of it's 08/09 season

PUSS IN BOOTS

Written by Noah Smith

Driected by Jonathan Ovebry

Audition will be August 25 & 26 @ 7PM

725 Comm. Ave on the BU Campus

Audition will consist of cold reading form the script. Please bring a resume, head shot and/or current picture.

As always for our family shows we are looking for a bigger/faster/funnier style of humor. Marx Brothers meets Mel Brooks.

Performances will be Saturday mornings in October at The Coolidge Corner Theatre in Brookline @ 10:30am Contact Artistic Director Andrew Rhodes (andrew@makeshifttheatre.com) to schedule an audition time.

When young Guy discovers that his inheritance consists only of a cat and a pair of boots, he is highly distressed, until he gets to know the cat. Saucy and one-if-a-kind, Boots the cat vows to help Guy achieve his goal of marrying the beautiful princess from next door. Boots also helps free the town from the clutches of Ugolin, an evil ogre who has magical powers to turn himself or others into any animal he chooses. Guy and Boots trick the king and queen into thinking Guy is the "Marquis of Carabas" and also trick the ogre into turning himself into an insect who meets an abrupt end, courtesy of Boot's boot. Boy gets girl, the town is freed, magical spells are broken, and much fun is had along the way.

CHARACTERS:King - Male, 20's - ?, genuinely misguided, slow on the uptake, very sweet and sincere, likes to laugh
Queen – Female, 20's -?, quicker than her husband but still a little dense, very sure of herself, persistent, sincerely wrong in thinking she always knows what's going on.

Boots – Pussycat, Female, 20's - ?, fast talker, fast thinker, light on her feet, narrates the story, looks for the good in people, motivator, earnest, HIGH ENGERGY

Guy, - pronounced "Ghee", 20's - ?, Genuine, sincere, eager, tries hard, brave but not boastfully so, full of self doubt

Genevieve – Princess, 18 - ?, Sweet, kind, determined to protect her parents, fiercely loyal, follows her heart without neglecting her responsibilities

Ugolin – ageless, Ogre, villain, greedy, malicious, prideful, thinks he is above consequence

3 Townsfolk – ageless, 3 people, male or female, take on a variety of roles, main task is to create the "scenery" of the story and involve the audience, looking for big characters

MAKESHIFTTHEATRE.COM

We celebrated shakespeare in the rain

We were once again performing at Celebrate Shakespeare Day on Boston Common. This year the talented Stephen Libby directed his own work and it was great.

When the rain came we stuck it out and performed for everyone who stayed. Mr. Rhodes we were troopers.. old school style. Hardcore tacticle theatrical commandos!

Here are some highlights!!

YEA!!! Next season!

Big special thank to Mr. Stephen Libby

Dude...

Mr. Rhodes is old. He is sooooooo old.

Today is his birthday. 34, he really is the old man in charge. hahaha

Happy birthday Mr. Rhodes, I hope to be more like you!

~Nero

Why are you not seeing this show... TWICE!

"Laundry & Bourbon" and"Lone Star"
Reviewed by Larry Stark
This pair of plays explain each other, document the difficulties of marriage, and the claustrophobic life of small towns like Maynard, Texas (West of Dallas, on the edge of the desert). And it is heartbreaking to watch a solid, solidly directed cast try to do this honest double-show, which depends heavily on "the laughter of recognition", before a scattered, insubstantial audience. There IS a sort of "critical mass" of audience necessary that makes theatrical comedy work, and The Makeshift Theatre Company is working on perhaps the worst week-end of the year: July 3, 5 and 6. If ever a show needed YOU this week-end, this one does.
So, if you love brilliant theate:GO!
Love,===Anon.( a k a larry stark)

SEE THE FULL REVIEW HERE!
http://www.theatermirror.com/LSlonestar.htm

Shows and wiffle ball

Hi folks, we have been going crazy with L&B and LS opening THIS FRIDAY!!!! You heard me right we are opening THIS FRIDAY! I am so impressed with this show. The set, the lights, the performances. Everyone better come out and see this great work of story telling!!! Here are some teaser pictures!!

Dude! Our second prime time show ever!!!

We also had our first wiffle ball game of the season in humid 105 degree weather. Which means every lasted about 4 innings. Mr. Rhodes was ready to go the distance, but the majority of the crowd was clamering ofr hot BBQ and cold beer. So we retired back to the house. Here are the highlights:

We were supposed to play again this weekend but I think we will all be way to pooped after tech week and opening night. Sometimes the wiffle spirit is willing, but the body is a no show.

We also want to say a BIG CONGRATULATIONS to Mrs. Anna Waldron and Stephen Libby who ties the knot this past weekend. Although I was not personally envited Mr. Overby and Ms. Em said it was beautiful. YEA!!!!! Enjoy your honey moon kids and we will see you when you get back!

WE LOVE YOU!!

~NERO

Maynard Texas means Good Times

We are into rehearsal for LB & LS!!! And it is looking fantastic! We should promo pictures by the end of next week, so keep an eye out.

We would also like to welcome John sanzi back into the Makeshift fold. The Sanz is our business manager and works as our box office manager for our prime time shows. John had to take a leave of absence for personal reasons, and now we are happy to have him back in the thick of things, YEA SANZ! He was at the Makeshift Offices this weekend doing some planning with Mr. Rhodes and then Ms. EM and Overby came in and we watched SERENITY in surround sound... awesome. After much begging they let me stay and watch as well, I just had to fetch them drinks the whole time.

This coming weekend is WIFFLE BALL WEEKEND (take II) Our first opening day was rained out so this is our make up game, and I hope mother nature works with us this time. It has finally warmed up here in New England, and it's about dern time. We hope to see you there, and if not there will be some video for sure!

The show, The Sanz, Wiffle Ball..... I think there was something else I needed to cover... OH YEAH! we will once again be participating for the Citi Performing Arts Center's CELEBRATE SHAKESPEARE DAY on Boston Common. We will be doing some short skit and will have a booth set up with information about next season and the company. The closer we get to the date I will pass along more information. I like to think of it as out official announcement of next season.

Whew... that's all.... now I am gonna see if Mr. Rhodes will let me play with his new speaker system.... wish me luck.

~The ever lovin' NERO

The folks of Maynard, Texas

The casting is done and we even had our first readthrough for Laundry & Bourbon and Lone Star!!!! i could not attend this one so we are sans pictures, but we have a lot of new people yet again to help fill out our Makeshift Family!!! See official list bellow!

LONE STAR

Roy -- Dave Sanfacon

Ray -- Daniel Schuettinger

Cletius -- Jonathan Overby

LAUNDRY & BOURBON

Elizabeth -- Rachel Dyer

Hattie -- Alexandra Smith

Amy Lee -- Aimee Parkhurst