If you haven't been to the official Town & Gown website lately, prepare to be pleasantly surprised when you visit in the near future. Our President, Jared Cranke, has recently done a complete redesign and update to the site and will continue to add new content and update it on a regular basis from here on out. The Town & Gown Board of Directors would like to send a special thanks to Kevin Worley for creating our first website and maintaining it for almost an entire decade. His website has helped us reach out over the World Wide Web and find new patrons, volunteers, members and, most of all, friends.

The new website has a lot of the same features you may be familiar with, but the layout is more streamlined and user-friendly. A simple menu to the left gives you all the options for the major pages on the site. The website now offers informational pages suc as News & Events where you can see a list of all upcoming events and meetings, Membership where you can refer friends to join our theatre family, Newsletter with a copy of this and all future newsletters preserved online for quick reference, Committees so you can find out how to get more involved, and Board Meetings where you can follow the Board of Directors progress on all the behind the scenes activities of the theatre. Check out the screen shot below for a preview of what to expect.

The new home page has a lot of information right at your fingertips such as our current season, upcoming events and auditions. Many of the newer pages are just starting to be filled with information, but more will be added each month. Currently many of the photos on the former website are unavailable but will be added as time permits. The History page is one worth mentioning in this topic. Currently, there is an alphabetical listing of every show we have done in almost 60 seasons plus there is a listing by season. Eventually, there will be a page for every show with show dates, a downloadable program and photos (if available). This will take quite a bit of time to do but it should be very worthwhile in the long run.  

The new website will also have pages reserved for the Cueless Improv Troupe and Playin' Around Play Reading Group with current information as it becomes available.

One of the best aspects of the new website is the connectivity to out hard-working volunteers that make Town & Gown Theatre so successful. For instance, if you are curious about how you can help the Social & Hospitality Committee with their next planned event, you can easily find a contact email on the Committees page and send them a quick note to find out how you can help. It's just that easy!

So check out the new website and let Jared know what you think of it. You can send him an email at jared@searchingforred.com. Enjoy our new virtual home!

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Even though the theatre was dark for quite a while between the closing of "Inherit the Wind" in mid-November and the recent opening of "Tuesdays with Morrie," there has been lots going on behind the scenes.

Lots of organization has been occurring as well, starting with the script library. T&G President Jared Cranke and T&G member Megan Lantz have alphabetized, categorized and cataloged all of our current scripts that are available for members to check out and review. Below is a photo of most of their efforts. A copy of the catalog will be added to the T&G website at a later date and a hard copy of the list is in the first cabinet of the library. There is also a new check out form in there as well, so if you borrow a script, please write down what it is and when you take it. That will help us keep track of everything.

Along with that organizational task, Board Member Lucy Robinson, and members Jim Gray and Debbie Sutton took on a task of their own -- organizing the old programs from each past production. There are now a handful of copies of each program in our archives, sorted by year of production, and will soon be one of each program in binders sorted alphabetically and available in the script library. These are a great reference tool for our history and worth a glance if you'd like to check them out. Please do not take any programs out of the theatre, though. We are also working to have a PDF of each program available for download through the website in the future.

The last bit of organization has not officially started but will be soon. The theatre recently purchased a 53' storage container that is currently parked behind the building to the west. It is basically a huge train car! Granted, it needs a few minor repairs and a paint job, but this will be a great alternative to furniture and oversized prop storage in the future. The attic desperately needs to be cleaned out so there will more than likely be a work day scheduled soon to start this project. Stay tuned for more details about this.

The theatre also recently purchased some new lighting equipment to replace the failed dimmer pack that startled some of our volunteers during the production of "The Hound of the Baskervilles" in September. Before we had 24 dimmers, which controlled our lighting system. The new purchase included 6 six-channel digital dimmer packs and two wall-mounted racks to hold them. This will not only update our system to a digital format, which is more precise and safer, but also expands our capabilities from 24 dimmers to 36! Thanks to Paul Weber for finding and brokering this deal which will bring our theatre one step closer to the 21st century. Paul has also been working hard to clean out and organize the light booth with the new additions. If you get a chance, I highly recommend a brief field trip upstairs to check out all the work he has done..

It was a busy holiday season for some T&G members. Please don't forget to thank these members for their efforts.  We hope you get involved this year and have a great 2010 with us!

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