Latest / Backstage at The EPC's Podcast / Season 17 School Shows

Transcript

Season 17 School Shows · Backstage at The EPC's Podcast

• 0:09
  SPEAKER_01: Hello and welcome to Backstage at the EPC.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_01: Today I have Kim Willenberg who's joining us to talk to us about school shows for season 17.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_01: Hi, Kim.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_01: Hi, Haley.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_01: So, Kim, you are our like lead box office lady.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and you handle all all of our school shows.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_01: Um, talk to me a little bit about what's what makes it a school show.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, a school show is a show that is designed specifically for students.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: So it's held during the school day.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: It's on a school day and it's held at 10 o'clock in the morning.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: Usually runs about an hour, so it's the perfect time for a field trip.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we have a lot of schools who bring kids.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: They come in buses, they come in vans, they come in cars, designed to and it's they're also designed to go along with the curriculum that they might be teaching in school at any particular time.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: Also for our homeschool parents out there who are looking for a little something.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: A little something, an added curricular boost, or even as like a reward.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: We have some schools that use it as a behavior reward incentive.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_01: And we have some schools that um make it to every school show.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: We have some schools that come to every school show each year.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, we do.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_01: So typically in the past, we've had um anywhere from three to four school shows.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_01: Um this year we have five.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_01: We have five.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_01: Five to choose from.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_01: I'm so excited.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: We have a really good lineup this year.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_01: And so school shows kind of came about um from we would have have a show and they would offer to come in the day before um or the day of do a school show for our audience.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_01: Correct.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so we have three that will have regular shows, so you'll see those on our website as a show that you can just buy tickets to for you and your family.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_01: Correct.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and then there's two that are strictly school shows.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: Correct.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so five total this year, which is crazy.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but Kim here is the one that like she's the one that you contact.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_01: You um we have a reservation form.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, we have a reservation form that we can send you via email.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then once we get the reservation form back, I will invoice your school or people like our homeschool parents, a lot of them will call and pay directly over the phone, and then we just go from there.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so you don't actually need physical tickets.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: We do not issue physical tickets, no.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_01: Um like Kim mentioned, um, she will send an invoice.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_01: So it's seven dollars um for for all the seats.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: $7 per ticket, adult students, and then for every 15 tickets that are purchased, there's one complimentary ticket.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_01: So she gets that all figured out for you, um, makes it super easy.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_01: And then um, in order to kind of make things flow and um you know run smoothly the day of, because there's times where we have like um 1200 students students coming in all within um usually the first like 20 minutes before the show.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_01: Which is a lot.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but I will tell you the the parents of the homeschool, the teachers, um, all of them are so good at like keeping the kids organized, keeping them in line.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_01: Some of them have matching shirts so that they know which class they are.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but Kim here will go through all the reservation forms and she uh lays out a um map of like where each school is going to sit.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: Each school will get its own section in the auditorium.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: So basically I block out the number of seats that they have reserved, and I usually leave one or two seats free between groups just in case, because inevitably we'll have one parent who'll come and say, Oh, can I come too?
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: Or a student who's moved in and they get to come also.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: So, yes, so we like I said, we do not issue paper tickets, but instead we map out the auditorium and the ushers who are here the day of the school shows, they all have a copy of that map.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: And then we also have inside the auditorium itself, we will have the seats designated and labeled.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: So the ushers also get that kind of a visual prompt as to where the kids are supposed to go.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so it it makes it super easy to get through and navigate.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_01: Um, Sheila and I, we um go out to the buses and we help park buses, which is always kind of a process because again, you know, sometimes we have 30 buses and then we might have a hundred cars.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes we have buses where the name on the bus is not the school that's inside the bus, too.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, because some of the projects are we always trying and make sure that um we we know that all the schools are here before we start the show as well.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_01: Um so we kind of keep track of our list.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_01: And yeah, we um, you know, uh the buses are large, they're hard to park.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_01: Um so we try and and have that uh we try to make it as easy as possible.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: You two do an amazing job.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I'm always amazed because you see the list cold.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, they're out there drinking their you go this way, you go that way.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_01: We've definitely had some um crazy, crazy times with weather, but we it takes a village to put it all together, and um we really do have a great team.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_01: And yes, um like I said, we just try and make it as easy as possible because we know schools you want organization, there's so many kids.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: And some children, this is the only opportunity they'll ever have to come to a theater like this and sit in a nice seat and see an actual live play or live performance on a stage.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: So, yes, it's a really neat experience.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_01: It's special for them.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_01: So let's talk a little bit about these five shows.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_01: So the first one that we have is um Space Adventures Science Show, which is a Thursday, February 25th.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_01: So we we always schedule these shows in February and March.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_01: Um, we do have one in April this year.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_01: That way there's time for your school to kind of organize field trip and um get things in place.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_01: So our first one is Space Adventures.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: Space Adventures.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: It is a STEAM-based production.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: So science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: So it it's Professor WoW, and he takes you on a journey through space to uncover the wonders of the universe.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: I guess there's going to be an alien puppet along who wants to be a comedian back here on Earth.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my gosh.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: But the really nice thing, too, is you're gonna learn a little bit about Neil Armstrong and the crew of Apollo 11.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: That is which I lived through, but most of these children only read about it in history.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_01: And who doesn't love space?
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_01: Space, exactly.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: How many kids want to be an astronaut?
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: When I was little, they wanted to go to the moon.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: Now everybody wants to go to Mars.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_01: So Oh man, times do change.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_01: Times do change.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_01: They do.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_01: So that's our first show.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_01: And then we have Outrageous, which again, this is gonna be a regular show, but then we are also doing it as a school show on Friday, March 12th.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: And for all grandparents and parents out there, we really do not want children pulled out of school for parents and grandparents to bring children to the shows that are school shows, educational shows during the day when there is another show at evening.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: They are meant specifically for schools.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_00: So and we'd be we've had parents and grandparents call about that answer.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: It is a very good question.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: For sure.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: Because there's a real difference in price.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_00: But the evening shows, there's more to them also.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_00: So there's more depth to the performance and what there is on the school show.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_01: So this outrageous one is always looks really cool.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_01: Um, we had them, you know, a few years ago.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_01: And it's it's so neat.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_01: Um you know, they're they're doing art and creating masterpieces um right before your eyes, and you know art classes, um, along with, you know, some other extracurricular, they don't get necessarily the spotlight that some others do.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_01: So um and being creative is being creative is so important.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: And I think more and more they're finding that in the research.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: That the arts are so important, not just for children who aren't athletically minded, but for everybody.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: It develops a different side of your brain, yes, which is so important too.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_01: So if you're looking for um something in that avenue, Artrageous is definitely for you and your students.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_01: Um, the next one, the cat in the hat.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_01: The cat in the hat, everybody.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_01: Live on stage.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_01: The cat in the hat, thing one and thing two.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_01: Dr.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_01: Seuss, um, you know, that's it's just the highlight.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_01: I feel like every everybody knows it.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_01: Well ages.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: And March also, March 2nd is Read Across to America Day.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: So that's Dr.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_00: Seuss, Dr.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_00: Seuss's birthday.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_01: So this will be perfect because this is March 15th.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_01: It's on a Monday.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_01: We realize um 10 o'clock again.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_01: On a Monday.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, but that's it, that that's okay.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_01: So this is not a movie, this is live on stage.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_01: This is a play.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I have watched the preview video and it looks so entertaining.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_01: It should be fun.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_01: It should be fun.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_01: Another thing um, quick that we didn't touch on is we do list on our reservation forms um what grades we recommend for each show.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_01: So space adventures, we recommend this is for kindergarten through fifth grade.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_01: Um Artrageous is more for fifth through twelfth grade.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_01: Correct.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_01: And then the cat in the hat is pre-K through fourth.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_01: Through fourth grade.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so along kind of along the same lines, a little newer is uh Cat Kid Comic Club.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not as familiar with Cat Kid and Molly Polywog as what I am with some of the other children's literature.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_01: My kids' generation definitely is into that.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_01: Um again, this is along the same lines.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_01: It's like a live performance.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_01: Um, this one's for grades K through five.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_01: Um that is Tuesday, March 23rd.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_01: And then Puppy Pals.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_00: Puppy Pals.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know how many of the people watching this have been following America's Got Talent this year.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_00: But the finals were on last night as we record this, and there were two dog acts in the finals last night.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_00: So Puppy Pals is a dog act that had was on America's Got Talent many years ago.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: All of the animals are rescue animals.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: And I remember watching them on television.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_00: It was an amazing show.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: And who doesn't like dogs?
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: And they're gonna be all fluffed and buffed and clean and perky and so this one again is a regular show and a school show.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_01: And we're um this one's got a wider grade range because again, who doesn't love dogs?
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_01: So this one's um pre-K through eighth grade.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: The last time we had Puppy Pals here, which has been a couple of years ago, a lot of schools use this as their reward kind of celebration.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_01: Um a little later in the school year, it's April 19th.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_01: Correct, it's in April.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_01: But oh gosh, those dogs did the coolest things.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_01: Oh yes.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_01: They were so cute.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_01: We had to um make sure that Sheila in the office didn't like try and steal a dog.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, for sure, for sure.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_01: So um we have reservations are open for this.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_01: Um so reach out to Kim Willenberg and she can get you situated if you have any questions.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_00: Give me a call at the box office.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_00: Our box office hours are Tuesday through Friday from 10 to 2.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_00: Phone number is 217-540-2788.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_00: Or we have an email that is dedicated specifically to the educational series.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_00: And that's simply education at theepc.org.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_00: So very simple.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_01: Very simple.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_01: All right.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_01: Well, thank you so much, Kim, for joining.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: You're so welcome.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_01: Um, reach out about a school show.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, we love having the students here.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_00: It's so much fun to see them.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_00: They get so excited, their eyes just light up.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_00: They do, they do.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_00: So thank you so much.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_00: You're so welcome.