Join course instructor Jennie Olson Six for a Zoom meeting to get all of your questions answered about our exciting upcoming devised theatre course and project!

We recently announced “Our Community”, and 8-week course on devised theatre where participants are going to create and perform an original work of theatre based on the people and stories that surround us every day. If that sounds like a lot, don’t worry, we’re here to answer questions!

Specifically, course instructor and project lead Jennie Olson Six will be on hand this Sunday, September 27th at 2:00 PM to answer questions via an open Zoom meeting for those who are interested:

If you haven’t used Zoom before, make sure to pre-install the Zoom client before the meeting! To do so, click on the link above, and click the link shown in the below image:

An original theatre work created by and about you, the community!

Have you ever wondered what goes into the genesis of a new play, either as a writer, director, tech person, or actor? Do you have a love of our community, and the people and stories that lie within it? Are you looking for a new way to connect with people from all walks of life, and create something new and original and communal? If any of these sound like you, then “Our Community” might be just what you have been looking for!

“Our Community” is a devised theatre class that ends with a piece of new original theatre created and performed by the participants! Over 8 weeks, class participants will be guided through a process of interviewing members of our community and developing those interviews into a biographical theatrical work about their community. This will be a new show, uniquely structured around the voices interviewed and interviewing. After the creation process, participants will rehearse and perform this new work in January 2021! (Participants ARE allowed to choose to only engage in the creation portion or the performance portion if they so desire.)

Link to “Our Community” Class Flyer

Classes will be held both online and occasionally in socially distant outdoor venues beginning October 17th:

• Ages 10-13 on Monday evenings 6:30 PM – 7:30 PM
• Ages 14-17 on Monday evenings 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
• 18 and up on Thursday evenings 6:00 PM – 7:00 PM

The performance will be determined both on public health recommendations at the time and what is determined appropriate for the work by the class.

Sign-up on our online store or contact us directly for other arrangements.

If you have additional questions, there is an informational meeting on Zoom scheduled on September 27th, or contact Blaine Community Theater at www.blainecommunitytheater.com or blainecommunitytheater@gmail.com

…the best laid plans of mice and men…

As of this time,we are sorry to say that the timeline for our production of “The Good Deli” is null and void. The original opening date at the end of June is not compliant with Governor Inslee’s phased re-opening plan, forcing the show’s production schedule to be delayed. Also, our normal venue, as a publicly owned facility, will not be available at all this Summer.

We here at Blaine Community Theater are eager to get back to trodding the boards, but, as I’m sure you’re aware, the world is crazy right now, and it’s hard to get all the moving parts lined up in a way that allow us that luxury.

“The Good Deli”‘s production status will have to be moved into limbo at this time–auditions cancelled and opening put on hiatus. We hope we can find a way to put it up before the end of Summer, but at this time we are pretty taxed for ideas on making it come together. And we’re dedicated to making a tradition of doing Halloween and Christmas productions for the end of the year, so worst case scenario “The Good Deli” will get pushed out to 2021.

We are also looking into possibly putting together online content for the time being to help keep us from going crazy. We were set to make 2020 the start of a pretty big roll-out of new Blaine Community Theater projects, so Covid-19 has stymied an awful lot of content we were hoping to produce, and we’re hard at work not to lose that momentum. If you have any ideas or wish to contribute in some other way, please feel free to email us at blainecommunitytheater@gmail.com

Thanks, and we hope to get to share the magic of the stage with you soon.

We said things may change. They have.

We have rescheduled the auditions for “The Good Deli” to May 16 & 17, and other posts on this site have been altered to include this new information. The rest of the show is, so far, still on the original schedule, but we will keep you posted as alterations are needed.

“May you live in interesting times.” ~ancient Chinese curse

We here with Blaine Community Theater have been quiet about the whole Covid-19 crisis because, for once, us being nomadic and having an inconsistent schedule has been to our advantage. We don’t have any shows currently running or in rehearsals, and we don’t have facilities to take care of, so for us, putting everything on hold at this point in time was almost unfairly easy compared to some of our peers in the local theater community.

At this time, we are currently running forward with our planned calendar until state and health officials announce we need to change that plan. The quickest upcoming events involved in our calendar are the auditions and production of “The Good Deli”.

We are still planning to do “The Good Deli” auditions on the scheduled dates, April 18 & 19. Auditions were already designed to be scheduled one actor at a time, so we feel exposure danger is severely mitigated compared to a standard cattle call audition. We have not yet heard whether the Blaine School District will continue to be able to let us use their facilities, but if they are unable to we will find an alternative venue. The good news about the rehearsal process for “The Good Deli” is that rehearsals were not scheduled to begin until May 25th, so casted actors will have plenty of downtime with their scripts if self-isolation orders are still in play. The show isn’t scheduled to open until late June, so for now we’ll operate as though all dates are still applicable and will make adjustments as necessary. If you have questions about any of these plans, please feel free to contact us.

Anyway, that’s how we look for the rest of the year’s first half. Like mentioned above, we are in a much better position than most of the county’s performance art groups. Most small arts groups depend on being able to put a show up this week to pay for overhead next week, so the necessary closures are a big problem for most of them. Please, if able, donate to a local art group. If you are kindly enough to want to donate to us, it can be done through our digital box office through the “Tickets on Sale” button on the top of the page, but there’s a lot of organizations that need your donations more than we do at this time:

• Sylvia Center for the Arts
• Bellingham Theatre Guild
• Lynden Performing Arts Guild
• Jansen Art Center
• Bellingham Theaterworks
• BAAY – Bellingham Arts Academy for Youth

Thanks,

Nick McDonald
Blaine Community Theater Board Member