Designing a Theatre

CURRENT

   An interesting thought occurred to me, not only have  designed a number of theatre scenarios as a theoretical exercises, but I also was asked to design a theatre for the Borough of New Hope, whichI did. That theatre had a rear wall that opened up to a large field for outdoor presentations. If I can find the drawings, I will post at least one of them here.

  There is some movement on the new construction proposal.

RECENT

   This post was to announce my search for a new studio space and I have been looking at the available theatres. When considering an older theatre which needs renovation, I realize that I have limited life left in me and I really don't want to spend it on renovating a space that I may never get to use.

    So with that in mind, along with some other factors, including; that I have proposed the construction of a new theatre space to a developer who is considering that suggestion and we are conducting ongoing conversations in this regard. That being the case, I have decided to design another performance space and will be investigating the appropriate details to determine viability of such a project.

 

   Years ago, when I worked for the New Hope Arts Commission, I was approached with a request that I design a performance space for New Hope Pennsylvania. I did that and the proposal was submitted through The Arts Commission. Unfortunately, from my point of view, the Director put his name on my designs. That was the final event which caused me to discontinue working for the Arts Commission. Water over the dam.

 So now with this new proposition, combined with my work on The Bryn Athyn Orchestra, along with other projects and work on Image of the Mins Studios growth, my mind is focused on these matter again.

    Coming off of the Bryn Athyn Orchestra's Spring Concert yesterday, a design occurred to me today for a performance space that could meet both proscenium and concert hall needs, something the Mitchell Performing Arts Center and numerous other theatres cannot do.

   So I am going to design a new performance space, which may or may not get built.

   Gong back through my Career history, it's clear that I have been exposed to and managed many theatres situations: cinema, legitimate, festival, amphitheater, community, arena, black box, adapted spaces, parade, indoor and outdoor,  just about all circumstances of presentation. So I am well experienced in what a stage & theatre needs to be.

  With that in mind,  I am going to satisfy my urge to design things by designing the theatre I would build if I could do so without restrictions. I will set up another blog for that project, so I have a place to post that information.

ARCHIVE

The search for a New Studio Space

 This was the title of the post below.

I have altered this post to serve a new purpose

but what I have said below is still valid.

I am facing certain issues with my existing studio location that are on top of the fact that 

I have adapted my operation to the space, 

rather than having the perfect space for the work I am doing.

   So with that in mind, I have decided to either locate a suitable existing theatre, 

with shop space and land, or build one.

   Basically, I have always worked out of adapted spaces, except when I had an office 

in the Paramount Theatre in Boston, but that was temporary, because I was "on-the-road".

   I post this commentary, so if there are opportunities that I don't know about, 

I would appreciate hearing about them.  I am wanting to remain in Eastern Pennsylvania, 

because I want to be close to Bryn Athyn Pa. The Poconos could work, 

preferably a suburban or rural environment. 

Urban might work, as long as I have both shop space and back lot.

Send me an email at; image.of.the.mind.studios@gmail.com

Use the subject; Theatre for Sale

An Internet Domain

   Years ago I began posting on eBlogger. Well, over the years this has extended into many blogs and posts that are all interrelated. I have been thinking for sometime about buying a domain and transitioning to another location for all my blogs and a Shopping Cart to sell the Gnomes of New Hope Books. This hasn't happened yet, but it may. The thought of moving everything and learning a new system is daunting. I like the way I post, because it meets my needs. So, that's something I have to think about. AG

Printing Press ?

      Well, it's beginning to look like Image of the Mind Studios may be installing a Printing Press into the operation.    The Gnomes of New Hope project requires a substantial amount of printing in order to fulfill the objectives.  Not only are there seven books in the collection, but there is also the Libretto that needs to be provided to the production personnel and the music score provided to the orchestra. That in itself is huge, larger than the illustrated Storybooks or the Libretto.

   What it ends up getting down to is this; in order to get the per page cost down to an acceptable budgeted amount, having a press in the shop is one option that needs serious evaluation.  The difference is that; unless there is sufficient sales to move an entire production run (of the Illustrated Storybook), the cost of an on-demand printing press appears to outweighs the cost of inventory on the shelf.  Inventory goes into raw materials that could be used for another project, as opposed to finished publications awaiting distribution.

   Of course supplies and personnel come into play as well.  So this is under consideration. I may wait on this action until the Board of Directors is fully in place and functioning properly. But really, inventorying published goods (pages) produced by a vendor, at the level required to bring the price down, ties up resources that could be used elsewhere and be applied to setting up in-house capabilities.  

   There's also the option of partnering with both printing and distribution operations, which needs to be pursued.

Morer Later

AG

The Gnomes of New Hope; Zach & Zebby's Grand Adventure

The Gnomes of New Hope

Zach & Zebby's Grand Adventure

A Fully Illustrated Storybook Collection

based on the Stage Musical

The Illustrated Storybook Collection is nearing completion.

This means that I will be entering into refining the production line for publishing 

and binding these books.  As you can see from the photo, the books are Hand-Stitched. 

This means that this is not going to be a high volume operation. 

Until I find a way of stitching these books that will allow higher volume production, 

the initial productions will be Limited Editions, Signed and Numbered and those editions will be sold 

at MSRP directly from Image of the Mind Studios.

I will take potential orders via email, but they will need to be pre-paid before I ship.

Notice will be given when the books are ready to ship,

at which time payment in full will be expected.

A Shopping Cart page is in the process of being designed and set up.

There will be unlimited editions, sold from other outlets, but the production will be limited to what we can produce in house, unless I find other suppliers willing to do the binding exactly as I have designed it. That means that delivery times will necessarily be slower than some outlets expect.

I will take larger orders and fulfill them, with the understanding that we can only make so many 

within a monthly timeframe. Wholesale pricing is available for orders depending on quantity.

The terms are simple; pricing is agreed to (Direct Limited Editions @MSRP 

or wholesale, according to the discount schedule) 

Full price pre-paid on orders less than 5,000 units

50% deposit, balance COD on all other orders less than 100,000 units

Letter of Credit on orders larger than 100,000.

ALL SALES ARE FINAL, NO RETURNS 

for other details check the blog link above

The Business Plan is available to Potential Investors in the theatrical production.

The Alpha & Omega Society

    At some point in time, I will make The Alpha & Omega Society official as a registered foundation. 

    But in the meanwhile, I continue to plan for the establishment of a Retreat Community to be part of the A&O Soc..

    There is a blog of the same name that is developing and there is a theatrical project called 

"I Am Alpha & Omega" 

that I am beginning to work on again. What will come of this is unknown.

    My game plan has been to acquire between 25 & 100 acres of land and to set up an Artist/Spiritual Retreat.  The slogan I have started to attach to the A&O Soc. is " supporting creative influx". 

    The goal is to create a living/working environment that combines some residential structures (to maintain the operation) and mostly temporary housing in the form of cabins, campsites, and RV hook-ups, these being connected to an assortment of studio spaces relative to the Arts & Crafts necessary to produce Film & Theatre. I have coined that "The Theatrical Development Centre"

    I am currently interested in this facility being in upper Bucks County, because that location is close enough to the current location of IMS that we can use the shop to construct a number of things and it is less than an hour away. Originally, I had thought somewhere in central Pennsylvania might be good and I was looking for land in Sullivan County. That thinking was determined by locating the retreat in a remote location with access off of Route 80, central to major routes and somewhat equidistant to New York, Chicago and Washington. But further evaluation of those locations brought the conclusion that access to supplies and an increase in travel & heating costs (among other considerations) made that concept less practical. After a change in thinking, I began looking at the Poconos, which I still like. We looked at more than one campground already in existence and that remains a possibility. But my current thinking is to locate in Nockimixon Township, preferably within eyeshot of the lake.

    I've always, since I was 20, wanted to build and run my own theatre. I've worked managing three separate movie theatres, two of which were multiplexes and and an assortment of live theatre stages during my career as a theatre artist/technician/Stage & House Manager/Technical Director/actor/writer/designer/filmmaker...

    So, the idea of building a theatre up around Lake Nockimixon is feeling quite good to me. It's close enough to my shop that I don't need to pull up stakes to make that happen. That is the current thinking. With enough land to create a retreat environment that is attached to a theatre, The Theatrical Development Centre (TDC) can become a larger reality.

    Initially, TDC was a concept that hinged on this concept of a Retreat Community, but since I have been setting up shop in Southampton, I have decided to make The Theatrical Development Center a sub-division of Image of the Mind Studios. Eventually, IMS may come under the purview of The Alpha & Omega Society, unless IMS becomes funded and converted to a major corporate studio operation.

    As it stands now there is a business structure that involves four separate business operations, which is in the Business Plan that is attached to The Gnomes of New Hope. I'll discuss that on IMS Producing Partners (which for now is a members only site). Anyone who wants to see that plan can discuss it with me. Initiate a dialogue via email.

    I will post more often regarding the Retreat Community. I'm beginning to reconstitute my thinking and my notes on this subject.

    Years ago, I had a pocket sized notebook that was filled with notes and designs for this community that I wanted to build. Well, let me offer some advice; don't use a pocket notebook for important information. I say this because that notebook, filed with extensive details and designs, disintegrated in the washer machine when I left it in the pocket of my shirt! When that happened I felt like I got slammed in the head with a baseball bat and has taken me over fifteen years to recover from that shock. The designs are starting to come back into my mind and I am beginning to reconstitute them. I guess part of the reason for that is that; there needs to be some degree of reality surrounding a concept before any sense if viability can come about.

    With the impending release if The Gnomes of New Hope; Zach and Zebby's Grand Adventure, there seems to be the possibility of sufficient resources to look again at these ideas as if they could in fact become a reality.

    For my part, I need to begin to transfer my life's work and resources to someplace where they can be useful and remain intact, because, quite frankly, I could drop dead at any time and these thing need to be taken care of.

     I'm not so sure that these dreams are going to happen. I'm running out of time and I'm getting tired.

    I welcome dialogue via eMail, Messenger, WhatsApp, Telegram, or Facebook though.

AG 

Business Structure

   One of the things I am beginning to seriously consider is restructuring Image of the Mind Studios to be operated under a Board of Directors, which has not been the case for all these years. 

  

  Having formed IMS in 1977, I have operated it as a Proprietorship, but the truth is that operations have outgrown that model and it is becoming difficult to keep it from growing too unmanageable without a different business model. 

   That business model will involve IMS being a Closely Held Corporation, thus allowing me to sell stock in IMS and begin to transfer ownership to a new management group. It is enivitable that this must happen, as I am advancing toward the end of my life in this world.

  Additionally, The Gnomes of New Hope needs to be managed under a Joint Venture structure, which I am legally establishing, now that the Illustrated Storybooks are almost ready to publish and bind.

   The photo above shows the Music Score, which needs to be redressed. Working on the music was put aside so that the focus of attention could be solely on finishing the Illustrated Storybook Collection and it is almost time to shift over to refining the Score. Once the book layout is finished this can happen.

   Years ago I was working on the score, doing time & key signatures, but also creating the divisi necessary for the assorted quartet scenarios. Unfortunately, a hard disc failure caused me to loose six months worth of work on that,  along with years of work on the book layout, which all had to be done over again. That event delayed the work for ten years. A VERY distressing situation. I never got back to the music, but this is something that needs to be done.

   I have a production line set up for publishing the books, albeit a rough idea of a proper production line, just to do time studies and produce prototype materials. I am looking at putting a printing press in the studio, but it rather depends on what happens with sales. Here again is a reason for a Board of Directors and departmentalizing operations.

   In addition, as I mentioned previously, there is the possibility of purchasing a machine shop, which is lingering in the immediate future. So this needs to be taken into consideration, even though machining operations have not been part of IMS, in terms of modus operandi. Even so, this might be integrated in terms of animatronics, which is a consideration as part of the overall picture.

   In any event, a reorganization must be considered as essential, no matter what direction the focus of attention needs to be. The truth is that there are so many aspects of this operation that departmentalization is inevitable if Image of the Mind Studios is to survive me.

  More on this later. AG 🎭🎶🎬

Bryn Athyn Orchestra ∞ Digital Playbill Program

 Here is the Playbill Program for 

Bryn Athyn Orchestra's upcoming Concert on March 9th 2025

Winter Concert ∞ Playbill Program 2025