THE “MAGIC” OF THEATER Jeff Herbst, Artistic Director At Northern Sky, in a normal year, under normal circumstances, almost all of the details of our summer and fall performance season are settled at least a year before we open. By then, we have already vetted whatever premiere we might be staging through readings and workshops, and secured the actors and musicians attached to that project. A costumer has researched and sketched, a prop designer has started scouring bargain stores, and a scenic designer has drafted ground plans in readying the world of the play to come to life on the stage. Our admin team has discussed marketing, playbill, sponsors, and box office concerns and put action plans in place to make sure we have as many ways as possible to secure an audience and generate excitement. We then focus our attention on securing all the personnel needed to carry out the incredible amount of work it takes to do repertory theater, outdoors, six nights a week for eight performances. And do the same thing in another venue at the same time! We need a bevy of interns and technicians and the requisite housing to bring them in from out of town for the duration of our usual 15-week summer season and extended 9-week fall season. We need to line up hundreds of volunteers and a house staff to facilitate patron needs and comfort. Northern Sky might seem like a “small” theater company that magically makes things happen in the middle of the woods and now in the Gould Theater. Poof! A new show! But, as I just described, the machinery behind the curtain has been cranking away and the Wizard is really a steadfast crew of professionals who put in the hours and apply their expertise to conjure up delights well in advance of the moment anyone walks down the paths to the amphitheater or Gould. That’s a normal year, which, as we all know, was not 2020 and is not 2021. As COVID continued to loom from March of last year through to this new year, we knew that our upcoming season would be a difficult one to conjure up. How could we possibly
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Northern Sky Theater
