Posted in Empress Theatre

Douglas went out of town the night Birdie closed. I didn't hear from him for several days, so I went ahead and ordered stuff to light Laura Bedore's Midsummer Night's Dream. Douglas called me while I was picking the stuff up at Oasis and informed me that he'd made arrangements with Kenny Chapman Sears to do lighting for MSND.

Douglas, Kenny and I met with Laura last night. I explained my plan, and Laura liked it. Kenny is going to implement it. And I get to watch the show with my wife. How cool is that.

Now lets just hope the Kenny and Douglas are smart enough to realize that projecting a moon on the back wall motivates the direction for the moonlight through the trees from the same direction... Something tells me I'll get called a couple of times before we're done with this show.

Other dreams: As I was coming to work this morning, the thought occured to me that our goal at OHPAA should be to create a performing arts center/annual festival that will rival Cedar City's Shakespearean Festival. I think we've got the talent for it; the rest is just logistics and marketing.

Damia started going around the neighborhood yesterday looking for odd ways to make money. She's set a goal to earn $1200 to buy a harp. She did pretty good, I think she ended the day $18 toward her goal. about 7:30 last night Roger Baumgart came over and said that Linda (his wife) was making a list of jobs for Damia to do. Then Roger dropped a bombshell. He asked if Damia would consider a guitar. Damia wasn't interested, but Mara said she would work to earn a guitar. Mara now has a lovey six string acoustic guitar and an electronic tuner. The Wimmer Family Orchestra is growing...

Amy on piano, Lessa on violin, Mirinda on flute, Damia on harp, Mara on guitar, Peter wants drums. I suggested that Neeva might want to try Tenor Sax like her namesake. Meyrick doesn't know yet, but we're speculating on a horn. Who knows with Ephraim. We're just gonna have to get my accordian fixed!

I can just see us all (or rather them all, I'll probably not be part of the orchestra) playing at Grandpa Shirleys after a show at the Empress; and with Grandpa Shirley's in the old Dyches building, there'd be room for a fairly good audience space.

Here's is how I visualize things happening: I've written $136,000 payroll into the operating budget for OHPAA for 5-6 full time staff positions. I've also written $50,000/year for 2-5 years into the capital projects budget for someone to manage the grants and projects. OHPAA will be able to put anyone they want into that last position, but I'm thinking it will be me. That will allow me to step down from DTS and work on the theatre projects and get the Dyches building renovation underway. This will be good for OHPAA and will facilitate getting Grandpa Shirley's up and running.  By the time the funds for the grant manager are gone, OHPAA will be stable, Magna will be in ascendence economically and probably incorporating, Grandpa Shirley's will be profitiable, and I will be working where I need to be for the rest of my life.

All I have to do now is generate $750,000 for the capital budget and set up $278,000/year in operating funds. Piece of cake!