Building the Curious Comedy Theater

Two Years In

2010-08-18T14:17:00.001-07:00

I can't believe the theater has been open for two years now... well, almost two years.
We were building it up two years ago this very weekend. It's kind of crazy to take a minute and look back at all the work we have done for this theater.
After two years in still neither of the cool Portland newspapers (WW or Mercury) have done any sort of story on us, but we're doing just fine. Every month we're improving as far as ticket sales and reputation, as far as I can tell.
It's a struggle, but a fun struggle.
We're getting these T shirts printed soon.
Stacey and I have developed a two person sketch show called Tandem (our group is Jean Louis) and we'll be performing it in Austin at the Out of Bounds comedy festival in September.

Overall, things have been great. There is a lot of stressed involved in running a comedy theater in a town where there is no comedy, but people like us. I think everyone is doing a great job and I see nothing but good things for the future of the Curious Comedy Theater.

Over a year later.

2009-12-27T01:30:00.000-08:00

What a crazy year it's been. We've made a lot of people laugh, lost a few bartenders, made a bunch of new friends and made even more people laugh. We couldn't have done it without the support of all of our friends, coworkers and castmates. Thanks to everyone for a wonderful 2009 and here's to making 2010 even bigger!

Xmas time

2008-12-11T19:59:00.001-08:00

Our Christmas shows have opened! Come and check them out!

big weekend

2008-11-16T11:21:00.000-08:00

After opening a month ago, we got our liquor license and had our first weekend with plenty o' bar sales. It's nice to have almost everything in place, especially something like that (which will help us raise the money to get everything in place).

The Liberators kicked off their rental this weekend (Friday nights at 9:30) bringing with them the School Of Rock. Both the School of Rock and the Liberators had great shows for an awesome crowd. Thank you very much to both groups! (this is the crowd of over a hundred people, taken by my camera phone in a dark room)

Getting cozy

2008-11-07T22:19:00.001-08:00

Somebody is becoming more and more comfortable at the theater. We finally got a way up to the mezzanine that ISN'T an ugly ladder. I'll post pictures of it soon.

Election Viewing Party

2008-11-06T10:40:00.000-08:00

We held an election viewing party on Tuesday night and the energy inside our space could have powered Las Vegas twenty times over. We had a lot of press and a good amount of people sitting and watching with anticipation. Thank you to everyone who came out to watch and celebrate history being made. I didn't get many good pictures of the event (as you can see) Better event pictures can be seen here Curious Comedy Theater website Blog
but I did get a few the day after, while cleaning up.

Halloween Weekend

2008-11-01T16:07:00.001-07:00

So far, our crowds are were a little light - but the shows were great.
Stephanie had a showing of a different show she's in at a different theater, so Kathryn (assistant director) stepped in to play her parts and did a GREAT job. We were a little loosey-goosey with the scenes, which made it more fun for both us performers AND the audience (I hope). The Sam Adams musical was also a lot of fun - with the cast performing in costumes, but not forcing the costumes to influence their characters. It was an excellent show.
We still have another showing of both Will Work For Change and Sam Adams, Sam Adams Mayor Ex Machina tonight - as well as Sometimes Toilet Water on Sunday at 2pm and POP! at 7:30. Catch POP! while you can, because it's gone in two weeks!

Hot off the Internet Presses

2008-10-29T10:55:00.000-07:00

LivePDX.com has done a story/article on us.
Check it out here:
Curious Comedy Theater Debuts

Thanks LIVEPDX.com It looks great!

Wow

2008-10-27T10:44:00.001-07:00

You said it, theater... Thanks for being so great.
We had a terrific turnout for our Free Night Of Theater weekend - and less than 30% of the audience that attended claimed their tickets from FNOT, so we are happy to report the word of our theater is getting out. Thanks to everyone who visited our theater this weekend. Please, tell your friends!

the shows

2008-10-26T10:26:00.000-07:00

The word is getting out there. We had a great turn out for all our shows Friday and Saturday night. While the shows are going through some slight changes (as they always will) they are still doing well.

We will be going into process for the new sketch show, or new material for the current show. We figure we'll have more time to focus on the material this time around (as we won't be building a theater around us while we rehearse). I'll appreciate having the time to write and rehearse new material. I'm looking forward to the focus it takes.

Classes

2008-10-23T11:54:00.001-07:00

Our first round of Improv classes (or class, seeing as how there's just one) is in full swing. We've got a great group of people learning improv in the theater we built. It's a good feeling. The class is great!

ups and downs

2008-10-20T09:40:00.000-07:00

It was a good and strange weekend at the Curious Theater. Friday night we had a good size crowd and a great energy for the sketch show. It was Stacey's first show as Shelley's understudy - and she knocked it out of the park. Good show all around.
The Musical has had three of the eight cast members fall sick and/or injured at the same time, so it was the first time doing the show with five people. It worked well, but it was certainly MORE work with fewer people.
Saturday we had a dip in audience members, which caused the energy to lag a bit. We in the sketch show felt the dip and tried our best to make it work... but that's what it felt like (for the first time): WORK.
The musical did a great job on Saturday night (now with six cast members!) They took some risks and did different things which boosted their energy and the audiences enthusiasm - plus, they put on one heck of a Spy-Musical!

On Sunday night, POP! had a great crowd and the cast got through 29.5 of the 30 plays. We had to one play (one of the longest) before it was finished due to time. The cast did an amazing job keeping the energy up through the entire sixty minutes and the audience was right there with them the whole time!

Weekend 3

2008-10-17T09:10:00.000-07:00

We had our first Cheap Date night last night. Stacey and Bri did a two-person improv set which went really well. 5 minutes into it we had two audience members walk in... but that's it. We did free shows for two strangers and the rest of the cast. It was still a fun night.
I hope this weekend brings people!

Curious Debut Cheap Date (Longform Improv Night)

2008-10-15T22:42:00.000-07:00

Thursday October 16th, Curious Comedy Theater presents
CHEAP DATE $5 for not one, but two longform teams.
Dopamine featuring: Bri Pruett, Nate Smith, Nathan Loveless, Stacey Hallal and Manuel Hall
&
Swingers featuring: Betse Green, Bill Cernansky, Stacey Hallal and Bob Ladewig
Come out to the Theater tonight and see some quality longform improv at 7:30pm. Doors open and 7. There will be food, drinks & plenty of laughter!

daytime pictures

2008-10-15T18:59:00.000-07:00

There seems to be a big difference (with my camera phone anyway) between pictures taken during the day and those taken at night... so here are some taken of our space during the day.
The cabaret style seating.
The stage during the day.
Our front windows along MLK.
The front door sign (from the inside).
The curtains at our front doors.

If you haven't yet come by the theater and seen this place with your own eyes, I encourage you to do so. It is one heck of a beautiful building which we're thankful and lucky to have designed and built... and it feels good just hanging out in there.

Grand Opening Recap

2008-10-12T22:28:00.000-07:00

What a great turnout and weekend for our Grand Opening. We started things off Friday morning with our new back flat Jeffrey built for us. We had a borrowed black flat for our previous weekend - so it had to be painted... and early, giving it time to dry before the show at 7:30 that night.
From there we had some floors to vacuum and tables to set... Thanks to Stacey's folks John and Lorna for all their hard work helping us get the place ready for our Friday night shows!
We also got some Floor Mics, but the mics we purchased weren't in, so the place loaned us some rentals for our Grand Opening Weekend.
After that my Dad showed up and helped us get our lights in working order. (apparently we got our ceiling fans hung without putting the bulbs in).
Soon enough we were ready to open our doors...

The sketch show (Will Work For Change) and our musical (Sam Adams! Sam Adams! Mayor Ex Machina!) both went really well Friday night. We had a full house and everyone was ready to show them what we have been working on so hard for so long.
Saturday night we had even more people in the house (we had to add tables) and felt more comfortable with the shows and got to play around with them while performing. It was a lot of fun to play around with each other while on stage... it's good to be at that point in a show.

Sunday was a little rougher. We didn't get a crowd for our 2pm Kids show Sometimes Toilet Water - so the cast used our time wisely and went out to flyer the Alberta neighborhood to let people know about our shows and theater.
And Pop! had another small crowd, but they were into it - and the cast got through 29 of the 30 scenes. Thanks to all our audiences and everyone's hard work getting this theater up and running. We hope we'll be able to be around for a long, long time!

Grand Opening Weekend!

2008-10-10T09:09:00.001-07:00

We have spent this week putting finishing touches on everything around the space to prepare for our GRAND OPENING TONIGHT!
We even got two of these installed:
The place is really shaping up nicely.

Even Arlo has been practicing his one-dog show!

Line up this weekend:
Friday / Saturday 7:30 - sketch show - Will Work For Change
Friday / Saturday 9:30 - improvised musical - Sam Adams, Sam Adams: Mayor Ex Machina
Sunday 2:00 pm - kids show - Sometimes Toilet Water
Sunday 7:30 pm - Pop! - 30 plays in 60 minutes!

On Saturday, between the shows (from 9 to 9:30 pm) the Portland Cello Project will be playing. Be sure to come out this weekend!

Our First Review!

2008-10-06T19:10:00.001-07:00

Already out from our soft opening, we've got a review and a "Just GO!" rating:
Just Out online magazine

Keep the reviews coming!

Hard to believe

2008-10-06T11:57:00.000-07:00

Three months ago

Last month

Over this weekend

Are you ready?

2008-10-05T09:08:00.000-07:00

view from the tech booth.

Thanks to everyone who came out to our "soft opening". We're 93% There right now, so we've got 7% to finish for our grand opening next weekend! Maybe we can get some sleep after that???

The Stage!

2008-10-03T11:20:00.001-07:00

The curtain rod / pole has been build (thanks Tom!) and the stage curtains have been hung (thanks Jeffrey & Kathryn!). Today is the day we open our doors to the public.
There is still a little work to be done, but hopefully we'll get it 100% completed by our GRAND OPENING next weekend.
We got lights! (thanks Chris and Seth!)
It's both incredible and a relief to finally come to our (soft) opening day.

Window Curtains

2008-10-02T11:31:00.000-07:00

Tom had to design a different kind of rod to hang our curtains. It works great and looks pretty darn amazing, too.

We also finished the floor (seems like I keep saying that)
But, we don't know what type of entry-way door plastic cap thing we're going to be using, so we had to keep it this way Looks good, right?

Opening?

2008-09-30T09:35:00.001-07:00

We are quickly approaching our opening day.
And we've gotten a lot of help from a lot of great people.
The place is shaping up nicely!

and we just got our exit signs installed!

building it up

2008-09-29T14:07:00.001-07:00

Thank you to Mr. Jeffrey Kauffman for picking up where the Women In Trades left off (their class ended and our stage wasn't completed). He has taken on the task of completing the stage on his own - and it looks (and sounds) GREAT!
We also started installing all our kitchen / bar equipment. We have our bar sinks / well (with running water!)
As well as all our sinks and dishwasher in the kitchen! Turns out, our dishwasher was made for different wattage than what we had planned, so we have to get some rewiring done (boo).
Over the weekend we also finished the painting. Here's our mezzanine walls. Lookin' good! (view of mezzanine from the stage)

And here's a picture of Arlo, being cozy in bed. He's being a great little guy for getting a lot less attention while we spend a lot of time building our new home.
Thanks to everyone for all the hard work over the weekend. 5 days and counting until we open the doors!

lights!

2008-09-26T10:37:00.000-07:00

We have our emergency egress lights installed, so when the power goes out - there will be more light than there is during the day inside our theater. We still have to test them before we start taking some away... but sheesh, seeing six on one wall is a bit much.
We also began the daunting task of painting the mezzanine. We decided to go with the yellow/golden color because it only takes one coat (the brown and red both take two or three). Lets just get this place open already!

Also - have you ever wanted to see what a big box of curtains looks like? Something like that - and it weighs a thousand pounds.

the waste place

2008-09-24T21:25:00.000-07:00

For the ladies

and For the Men

Sorry dudes, ladies need more room to stretch out and relax in the water closet.

moving forward

2008-09-24T02:45:00.001-07:00

Another full day put in at the theater, after half a day of work. We put in a heck of a lot of the floor (I'd say we're at 80% coverage now)
Put another coat on the red walls (some places could still use another one) David and Stephanie helped get the gold wall started and completed! It all looks so great. After another round of red paint, we'll be ready for business. Actually, we'll need to install all of our equipment and finish the stage first, but you know what I mean.

floor please!

2008-09-23T13:12:00.000-07:00

We laid down about 25% of the floor last night. We got the bathrooms up to the front of the bar (6 feet out? Maybe more? I don't know...) It was another late night. I didn't get to the space until 9:30 pm and Stacey and I worked until 6:15 am. Thanks to Kathryn, Nate, Ashley, Bri and Stephanie for the help and making it fun.

btw: This is the video I was talking about last night:

more paint!

2008-09-22T06:24:00.000-07:00

Pictures of the work done this weekend.

Now in COLOR!

2008-09-21T11:39:00.001-07:00

As of Saturday, September 20, 2008 at 9 pm, the Curious Theater has its first coat of paint!

someone's a good boy

2008-09-21T10:16:00.000-07:00

Because we've been spending so much time at the space, we feel like we're neglecting our good little guy. He came with us the first half of Saturday and he was a great little boy.

weekend paint part two

2008-09-21T09:54:00.001-07:00

After spending thursday night prepping, Friday - beginning at 10am we started to prime and lead up to painting the floor. We had a lot of people stopping by to help us out, Bill, Noah, Nate, Ashley, Hillary - There was a lot of work that needed to get done (seems like a recurring theme here).

But, after all the work was put in, Stacey and I began to paint the floor around 1:30 am. Instead of sealing it, or staining it - we decided to paint it (a cheaper way of doing both of those things) - I mean, we sealed the cracks, but the floor surface we decided to paint. We may end up putting some flooring down - and we will have sections of carpet down, so this is by no means the final look of the floor of our space... just the first step. We finally left at 6:30 am Saturday morning.

prepping to paint

2008-09-19T02:27:00.000-07:00

You know what you have to do in order to paint your space?
CLEAN IT UP. You know how long it takes to clean up after you've installed drywall?
A LOOOOONG time. Originally we had planned on sweeping and mopping the floors and getting our first coat of paint down on the floor tonight (we decided to go with paint instead of sealing it, or stain, or wood. We'll have some carpeting) But we couldn't because we had to do fifty other things in order to prep the space for a good painting like filling in the seams: Our cement floors have little gaps, so we had to caulk them in before painting. None of us are professional floor finishers, so it took us a little bit of time before we realized we should tape either side of the seam and caulk down the middle. It worked very well!
We spent a good six and a half hours in the space prepping for paint. We plan on going back tomorrow morning, putting another hour or two in for prep - then finally laying down the first coat of floor paint.
We'll be spending the rest of the weekend priming and painting everything else.

Drywall

2008-09-14T13:22:00.001-07:00

We got our walls covered all the way down from the floor. Seeing as how our plumbing and electricity have passed city inspection - we're ready to seal it up, paint it, and open this bad boy.
The next step is to sand it all down, complete the priming and paint... and at some point we have to clean up to finish the floors. Still a little ways out, luckily we've got a lot of great folks ready and willing to help us finish the priming and begin the painting. We've got color decisions to make (as well as flooring) - so we're getting on that!
and we're very pleased with the progress! The doors will be opening soon enough!

Liam

2008-09-13T00:46:00.001-07:00

boy oh boy is this kid cute.

Walls!

2008-09-11T22:17:00.001-07:00

One step at a time. We've got walls!
Look! It's a bar!

And a kitchen!

Drywall starts tomorrow!

pictures

2008-09-09T21:52:00.000-07:00

View from the second floor to our front door

View from behind the bar to the front door

Skylight

Marketing shows

2008-09-07T08:52:00.001-07:00

Seeing as how we're under a month away from opening our doors, we have started marketing our shows. It has been tough building up the space while rehearsing five different shows at the same time, but I know it will be worth it.

Wowza!

2008-09-05T11:36:00.000-07:00

We've got the makings of balcony seating!

Priming DONE

2008-09-05T11:32:00.000-07:00

Finally completed 99.8% of the priming of all our walls. (I kinda ran out of paint before the last corner could get all the way done). Thank you to Nate, Ashley, Alex B and Alex F for volunteering their time to help us complete the priming. Next move - Painting!

Thank you, Women In Trades

2008-09-05T11:27:00.000-07:00

The wonderful Organization Women In Trades has volunteered their time to build the stage for us as part of their classes. We appreciate all the work they are doing and the skeleton of the stage looks great!

Sketch Show

2008-09-04T08:40:00.000-07:00

We're working on the title for our first sketch comedy revue.

sheesh

2008-08-31T10:20:00.000-07:00

Where do I begin? The walls have been primered... or primed... or painted white to prepare for the actual painting...
The steel framing is getting bordered and walls are being created...
Both the ticketbooth and the stairway have been walled... with particleboard. The drywall comes next... I think? (this is actually a picture of the bathroom / storage area where all our power is housed)
Our fire sprinklers have been installed!
Look! A greenroom wall (and the mezzanine floor!)
Our good friends Matt and Brandi have come to town and have seen our space... so if you're in chicago and need a verbal description, look them up. Matt, the bar isn't in working order just yet... Matt, you can't get a drink... Matt, the bar... nevermind.

CRAZY PROGRESS

2008-08-28T23:06:00.000-07:00

We have had a crazy, crazy week but so much has gotten done.

-We've purchased a large amount of the kitchen equipment we need - used!

-I drove a truck for two days picking everything up from Troutdale and Hillsboro.

-I am FINALLY ordering the curtains tomorrow. A terrifying prospect as they will be our number one biggest expense for a single item. They are also going to be beautiful.

-We are set on most of the interior design colors and items.

-We've expanded our grassroots fundraising efforts and I've been truly moved by the donations and other kinds of support we have received. It means a ton to us whether we get $15 or $1500 or advice or words of encouragement and love. We still have a long way to go, but we're moving in the right direction.

-The construction efforts are in full force. Momentum is rolling and the space is radically transformed every day.

We will post more photos soon!

Thanks everyone, for being there for us. This project is thrilling and terrifying and exciting. I hope - and believe - we are building a space where a great community will feel at home and wonderful work will be done and that will be filled with great amounts of laughter and joy.

Lots of Work getting done

2008-08-24T09:40:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the slow updates. We have been busy building and priming, preparing for the painting.
This was the ticketbooth area four days ago: Then here it is the day after: We had to work around a lot of things in order to prime the walls for painting.

After we started the priming, the construction of the mezzanine began - which forced us to abandon priming the back wall (which will not be visible to the public anyway.

The space is starting to resemble a barn, with a deck for hay storage in the back...
Next up on the list will be the purchase of paint, followed by slapping it up on the walls. It's in great shape. The construction is solid and we're moving full speed ahead. It's going to be crazy getting these doors open in the next 6 weeks!

theater update

2008-08-19T14:43:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I updated the blog on our theater progress.
A lot has been happening. We have a bunch of wood ready for the framing of our Kitchen / Bar / Bathroom and Greenroom:

The concrete holes have been filled in, so our plumbing is all set (well, it's drying for now)!

We even had a kitty living in our space for a day! (that's got to be some sort of good luck, right?)

There has been plenty of activity, both here in the space as well as work-wise.
More news to come...

Losing Patience

2008-08-15T00:22:00.001-07:00

Curious Comedy Productions recently competed in the Portland 48 Hour Film Project.
Taking a weekend to write, shoot and edit a 7 minute short film.
Screenings and awards are this week. More news to come.

48 Hours

2008-08-10T23:03:00.001-07:00

This weekend Curious Comedy Productions took on the challenge of creating a film for the 48 Hour Film Project here in Portland Oregon. On Friday at 7pm I got the genre of Horror. We were then assigned specific elements that had to appear in our film:
character: Jake / Jane Gravenstein. Wellness Practitioner
object: Jumper Cables
line of dialogue: "okay, I think I got it straight"

We ended up creating a 7 minute and 13 second short film titled Losing Patience.
Thank you to
Scott Rogers
Kathryn Durkin
Jeffrey Kauffman
David Saffert
Nathan Loveless
Bri Pruett
Bill Cernansky
Tucker Johnson
Robin Johnson

The movie will premiere at the Hollywood Theater this Thursday at 9:30 pm. After which, I will post it to youtube and put it on the blog. But come out and see it on the big screen!

Feature: water feature

2008-08-07T12:21:00.000-07:00

While the space is continuing down the path at a good pace, I don't have any pictures to update the work, so I figured I'd feature a great part right outside our front doors - the Water Feature!
I don't think I've posted any WF pictures on this blog yet, so why not put them up now. It recycles rainwater as it runs, and it looks great!

lying pipes

2008-08-03T15:55:00.000-07:00

Over the weekend the trenches were filled with pipes that will be connected to the water source - so we can have running water through all the places we need it.

2 bathrooms, 1 kitchen, 1 bar and an office.

Also, Arlo...
(he makes a great inspector.) We are moving right along.

dig dug

2008-07-30T09:42:00.000-07:00

Moving right along. The trenches are being dug to make room for the plumbing pipes to be laid.
It's crazy to go into a space that used to be relatively clean cement and have mounds of dirt all over.

It's amazing how quickly this is moving.

dig in!

2008-07-26T11:20:00.000-07:00

Now that we own the space and have our permits, the building has begun.
Step 1) dig a trench to lay the plumbing:

CHECK.
Step 2) lay the plumbing pipes and connect them to the waterline.
Step 3) pourback the concrete
Step 4) build, build, build
Step 5) open, open, open.

Curious Comedy Presents: special guests!

2008-07-25T10:45:00.000-07:00

Curious Comedy Presents:
Theater! Theatre! Noir Stage
3430 SE Belmont, Portland OR
July 25, 26th 8pm
$10.00

This week, along with our extremely talented cast of the best
local Portland Longform Improvisors we have some friends from Chicago!
Katie Neff and Steve Kaminski!
Come out and laugh your face off.

Theater at night

2008-07-22T09:12:00.000-07:00

I like the way it looks at night.

last minute fundraiser

2008-07-22T09:05:00.000-07:00

We had our first (and far from last) fundraising event this past Sunday. We spent less than a week planning it out, but it was a good time. Coughy & Doughnut$ was the name of the event. We ended with way more donuts than any theater company could ever need (so much so that the smell of donuts is going to make me sick for the next year or so). A good time was had by all - and now we know that we'll need to give more of a public notice if we expect people to come.

signage

2008-07-20T08:37:00.001-07:00

my Dad helped to get us these signs to help us promote our theater and space. They look Great!!!

Moving Along

2008-07-16T12:11:00.000-07:00

The auditions are done, the casting and scheduling is well on its way to being complete, the plans have been finalized and are getting the OK by the city, the business loan is here and we're all nervous with anticipation.
The next step is fundraising and marketing. We've got longform improv shows at the Theater! Theatre building over the next four weekends. We have handed out a bunch of flyers at different neighborhood festivals over the past couple weeks. We're looking forward to playing with even more people in this round of shows.
Scheduling our opening season of shows took some time, but it looks both time consuming and like a lot of fun. We've got our mainstage sketch show happening Fridays and Saturday nights, paired with a longform musical show. Thursday nights will be longform improv night, where our four established longform teams will play (two every Thursday, so each team will play every-other week).
Sundays we will have our kids show matinee and the high concept show at night. The high concept show will feature 30 plays in 60 minutes an should be a crazy fun time... just like the rest of the shows.
Once again, thanks to everyone who auditioned for Curious Theater - and even though we don't have enough positions to put you all into shows at this moment, I know we'll be working together in the near future!
(all photos by Kathryn Durkin)

One Day...

2008-07-12T09:11:00.000-07:00

I hope to one day be able to post a sign exactly like this with our theater.
We have worked out the schedule for our opening theater season and have begun to contact those cast in our shows. Rehearsals will begin within the next week. The wheels are turning!

website

2008-07-08T01:32:00.000-07:00

Our Website Has Been Updated

Auditions (pt. 2)

2008-07-03T08:09:00.000-07:00

Stacey was in rare form on the second day of our auditions. It was a bit warm and dusty in our theater the previous day, so we got there early to mop the floor. After the floor was sufficiently mopped, Stacey poured a bag of ice out onto the ground to "cool off the stage area"...

Seeing how our space is an empty shell, the bottom 8 feet of the walls are not done. There's no drywall there because we'll need to run electricity and other such line along the wall, so we had exposed insulation along our backwall. One piece of insulation was sliding down and it was bothering Stacey.

Without gloves, she used the bag of the recently emptied 'bag o' ice' to do her best job of pulling up some falling insulation...

Under Construction

2008-07-01T10:28:00.001-07:00

The countdown to building the interior of our theater has begun. "T-minus" (which I just found out stands for the continuum of time (T) with the moment of the event in question being considered as the origin or ‘zero’ time.) 6 days. Plumbers, Construction workers, Electricians get ready!

Auditions!

2008-06-29T18:33:00.001-07:00

Why not? We just got the keys to our new, soon-to-be theater space so we figured we would hold our general auditions in the empty shell. It was a busy weekend, but we met a lot of wonderful people and got to see some of the tremendous talent that we will be able to work with in our new space.

Our plan from here is to cast the first few shows that will be running as soon as we open our doors, so we can begin the lengthy rehearsal processes. There is plenty of work to be done all around, but none of it will mean anything if our shows aren't worked out, rehearsed and as close to polished as they can get.

Thanks to everyone who came out to our auditions this weekend! We were honestly blown away by all the talent.

It's Official

2008-06-26T08:37:00.001-07:00

We went in and signed the paperwork. The building is ours. We will start building the inside of it to look our our theater starting the first week of July (which is not far away... yikes).

We will also be holding our general auditions in the space this weekend. If you're interested in coming to our general auditions leave a comment or get in touch with us.
(the picture is of our celebration champagne and flowers. Thanks Kathryn & Jeffrey!)

Comedy Co Op Starting Up Again

2008-06-20T00:19:00.001-07:00

stylish or jerky?

2008-06-18T15:10:00.000-07:00

I prefer THEATER to THEATRE. Usually I like old timey ways of spelling things, but Theatre makes me think the place is run by old stuffy shirts who are full of themselves. We are going to be the Curious Theater, stuffy shirts and all.

Training Center Show Success!

2008-06-16T16:55:00.000-07:00

Curious Productions just completed the first two classes, which culminated in shows (at the CSz theater) this past weekend.
The Teen class had three shows, two on Saturday and one on Sunday. The six students were able to pack the house and knock it out of the park all three shows.
Here's a terrible camera phone picture:

Taping the space

2008-06-10T17:37:00.000-07:00

We had a walk through at the space today (walk through with the Real Estate agent, explaining everything in the space to us - where the electricity comes in, the water, gas, etc.) and we spent a few hours taping out the space with what we have planned out on paper. After taping it we made a few small changes, but for the most part - our plan seems perfect.
First - here's the NorthEast Corner

Where the Bar will be located:

Along the North wall (behind where I was taking the picture) is our entrance, leading audience members to the ticketbooth:

Along the West wall, south of the ticketbooth will be the bathrooms:

The Kitchen will be along the South wall - and toward the West will be the stage:

Soon, these spots marked off with tape will be filled with the walls in the shapes of the locations marked. I can't wait to post those pictures.

Inside Curious Theater

2008-06-09T08:33:00.001-07:00

We are planning on having a small kitchen and bar inside the theater as well as a stage. We've been told a bar brings in a lot of money and (hopefully) creates a warmer atmosphere. Not only do people like to laugh in both good times and bad times - its been said when people are happy they like to drink, when people are sad they like to drink more. That's not to say our theater/shows will make people sad... quite the opposite I hope.

We started to look at other places to see what sort of set ups they have as far as a bar and kitchen are concerned. We are a comedy theater first and foremost, so we don't want to have some beautifully constructed bar that will cost a million dollars and steal attention - however we don't want it to look stupid and dinky. A lot of thought must go in to these things.

Over the weekend we checked out a local Portland establishment that has a 10 foot by 8 foot (estimated measurements) bar that serves half priced fancy/girly drinks on Sundays. We like the size of the bar and it seems to get the job done... plus the half priced "snickertini" didn't hurt anything.
Since we've been in Portland, Stacey has consumed more alcohol than in the whole time we knew each other in Chicago. Girly drinks are a recent discovery of hers, so the Oatmeal Cookie, Snicker and Mint Chocolate Martini - along with fruity sangria are to blame.

Big Bright Colors!

2008-06-04T18:06:00.000-07:00

This is the 3D Rendering of what our space will look like once all three phases or our build outs occur. We're planning on building in three phases because building all of it at once will cost too much moolah. This way, in our first phase we build a stage and seating area / bathrooms to bring people into the theater to see shows so we can be generating money. The second phase builds up our bar and ticket booth area to get them in proper working order. Phase three builds our mezzanine which will add a proper tech booth, two classrooms and a small office upstairs.

We've got our ducks in a row, now we need to raise money to feed and properly care for all these expensive ducks.

the Empty Shell

2008-06-04T11:09:00.001-07:00

The Outside of our space:
The Inside of our space:

and looking up from the inside:

The space is somewhere around 3100 Square feet with somewhere between 17 - 25 foot ceilings (they arch so it's hard to say). It's a very nice space at a very nice price. We've got a month to wait to hear what the developers say, but we plan on spending this summer building a theater in there.
*Photos by Kathryn Durkin

Our space

2008-05-31T21:19:00.001-07:00

We moved to Portland from Chicago in August of 2007. Two days after we got here we held auditions for a kids show we wanted to do. We rented a space then cast, wrote, rehearsed and performed a kids show called Sometimes Toilet Water. In January of 2008 we started our version of the Neutrino Project (Portland Instant Movie Project) and ran for 11 weeks at a different theater. March of 2008 we had a late night long form improv show run for 5 weeks at yet another theater in Portland. We finally decided to get our own space... actually - we FINALLY located a space with all the fixins we would need to build a theater. It's a lot of work, but it's what we love... so here we are.