S4E10: Maybe it's a Presented Event, Maybe it's Mainstage: What's the Difference?

Resident Artists Amy Rene Byrne and Aaron White are joined by Associate Managing Director Justine Drake, and Communications Director Emma Ginader to clarify the difference between Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble’s Mainstage productions and Presented Events at the Alvina Krause Theatre. 

They both happen in the BTE space, but are two very different events! BTE's Mainstages are produced in-house from top to bottom, and Presented Events are brought in from outside of our organization. Learn all about what goes into our programming and what we hope to see in the future! 

Get your tickets at www.bte.org

Transcripts of all Season 2-5episodes are available on our Buzzsprout website.

Check out our current season: http://www.bte.org
Ensemble Driven. Professional Theatre. Arts Education. Rural Pennsylvania. For Everyone. With Everyone.

Transcript

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Amy: Welcome to Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble: Down Center, a podcast where we break it all down with our company, our people, our art, and our town, and put it front and down center. Hello, I am Amy Rene Byrne, Resident Artist here at BTE, and I am joined today by my fellow Resident Artist, Aaron White. 

Aaron: Hi there. 

Amy: And our 

Associate Managing Director, Justine Drake. 

Justine: Hey 

Amy: and our Communications Director, Emma Ginader

Emma: Yes, that's correct!

Amy: And today we're gonna be chatting about something that is very clear to us, but I think we realize that it may not be as clear to you, our loyal patrons, and that is the difference between our Mainstage productions and our Presented Events.

So let's get into it. What do you think the general public's perception of the difference between our Mainstage and our Presented Events might be?' 

Justine: I'm not even sure people know the difference. I think sometimes when they see stuff on the stage at the theatre and they know that BTE is at the Theatre, they think, okay, that's a BTE production. But it's not.

Amy: I think you're absolutely correct. I don't think that our general public necessarily, I'm not saying everyone, but I think just your general Joe Smith walking down the street probably doesn't know the difference between our Mainstage productions, Presented Events, when BU is producing in our space, which is another thing that happens.

And so for those of you that don't know, a whole lot happens at the Alvina Krause Theatre. 

Emma: We're really busy.

Justine: We're for sure center for community.

Amy: Yeah, I mean, I definitely think we aspire to be a community center, a hub, a place where people can come and experience the arts in some form or fashion, for sure.

Emma: Yeah. 

Amy: I can speak to it from the point of view of our Mainstage productions as a Resident Artist. That's my primary function here at BTE.

So our Mainstage Productions are any of the shows that you see that we produce as Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble. So these are populated with and by our Resident Actors. We bring in Guest Actors to fill out extra roles. Sometimes we have Guest Directors if there is not a Resident Actor that is either available or right to direct a project.

We produce them from top to bottom. We build the sets. We hire designers, we build the costumes, we do the lighting, we do the sound. 

Justine: We select the show. 

Amy: It goes all the way back to Play Selection. So that is a multi-month process that usually happens a whole year in advance of when the show happens.

We look at entire seasons. We pick out shows that we think our audiences will enjoy. We pick out shows that we think will challenge us as artists. We pick out things that we. Think would be important for the community. 

Aaron: Um, they're also longer. run. So we, we run, our Mainstage shows, two to three weeks, sometimes four if it, is a popular title. 

Amy: If it's Chris-- 

Justine: If it's Christmas-- 

Aaron: Five or six. That's right.

Amy: Sometimes we program multiple years in advance, especially if there's a show that we want to devise or create in-house, which we haven't gotten to do a whole lot of lately, but we really want to and we're working on that with our I Am, We Are project right now.

Emma: Go on the website. And you should get a link to send your story about Bloomsburg. And share it with us.

Amy: Exactly. So, those are our Mainstage productions and I'm actually going to lump in our summer productions as well into those Mainstage productions. That's not something terminology- wise that we have always done because those are our Summer Family Shows. And so sometimes those are viewed as a little bit different, but they take the same amount of resources, same amount of planning time. 

Justine: Sometimes more! 

Amy: Sometimes more. yes.

Emma: Yeah. You're dealing with kids and

Amy: More costumes, more expansive sets, all kinds of stuff. So if you're coming to BTE because you wanna see a show that BTE is producing, directing, acting in all of those things, you're gonna get that in our Mainstage Production.

Emma: Could I add something in from a branding perspective? So here's a another visual trick we try to do in our branding to distinguish the difference between a Mainstage show and a Presented Event. If you just see the BTE logo either just by itself or the logo and. Mainstage underneath it, that is a Mainstage show.

Justine: Right. And conversely, this year at least we've been lucky enough to partner with the Columbia Montour Visitors Bureau. Yeah. So if you've seen any of our posters around downtown and you see a little Visitors Bureau on it, that is a good indicator that it is a Presented Event. And I think we're kind of getting into what a Presented Event is now. 

Emma: Yeah. 

Justine: kinda alluded to it, 

Amy: a nice natural transition. 

Justine: Yeah. I tried.

Emma: Yeah. Yeah. 

Justine: So for. Presented events different from Mainstages. A lot of it, we have a hand in it, but it is-- 

Amy: We choose 

Justine: yeah. 

Amy: Choose what comes. But all of the production is done exterior. 

Emma: It's a BTE in and build a community of artists, that might not be a affiliated with BTE usually, or are working outside of the theatrical discipline. Like for example, we do a lot of concerts. 

Justine: Mmm-hmmm 

Emma: And so it is a way to expand that community and really bring in more people and really honor the arts and be that nexus for the arts.

Justine: Yeah. I love that nexus for the arts. 

Amy: Yeah. 

Aaron: But uh, also I think in that way is, it can be very exciting it allows us to, to diversify what we're offering to folks. So. 

Emma: Yeah, it really allows us to be really good art citizens. Which is something I learned about when I was at Chautauqua as a literary fellow , I forget who said it, it was either John Brantingham or, um, Jeremy Gil O'Neal who said it's really good to be a good literary citizen, and part of that is being a conduit or a platform and giving people the opportunity to present and showcase what they want.

Aaron: We have a real privilege here as Ensemble, like full-time ensemble members that we have a platform that a lot of folks don't. We have a lot of resources at our behest. We have a budget, we have a stage, we have lots of things. 

An Administrative staff. Yeah. Yeah. 

Emma: have We have, 

we have. roof over our heads.

Marketing team Director. Yeah. Yeah. 

 Development Director as well. We have a lot of things that a lot of people don't

Aaron: Yeah. And to be able to share that out I think is important. And the other nice thing about a Presented Event is that it's not bound by the individuals who make up our Ensemble. Folks who we have a lot of skills and talents in our ensemble, but they're not all the skills and talents in the world. And so, opening up the Alvina Krause Theatre to house those talents. And be presented to our community, I think is super important.

Emma: Yeah. Like where else can you hear an accordion player? Unless there's someone 

Amy: The subway in New York. !

Emma: Yeah, that's true. 

Justine: Love 

Emma: That is very true. Mm-hmm. Yeah. 

Amy: If you're ever down for some bagpipes, you can catch a man at the Weis in Montoursville, Pennsylvania from time to 

Aaron: Is that true? 

Amy: Oh yeah. 

Emma: That's amazing.

Aaron: Missed that. 

Amy: Yeah, he just, he stands in the back of the parking lot and just periodically is playing bagpipes and the Weis parking lot. 

Aaron: That's fun. 

Amy: Justine's face 

Emma: Yeah. 

Aaron: for all of you listening right now. There's

Justine: There's concern.

Amy: I don't in any way want to undermine what Emma was saying though. But, but you're right. Where if you want a night out and you live in Bloomsburg, you live in Danville, you live in Berwick, and you don't want to drive to Scranton or New York City or Wilkes Bury, or wherever.

Then where do you go? If you wanna just hear some live music, you can check and see who's playing at the local bars. We do have some really wonderful local bars that, that often host bands. but they're not bringing in a brass band. they're not bringing in, more--

Justine: A symphony. 

Amy: And that's not a knock on them, it's just the pragmatics of their space.

Aaron: And I will say that even larger cultural venues they're maybe having large ensembles. Maybe once a month, maybe if we're lucky sometimes. Quarterly there are lots of music programs, of course. But particularly to see a really good rock show you kind of have to wait for the summer sometimes for the festival season to start. So if you're hankin for blues in the winter uh, you can come to BTE and witness that.

Justine: We do have some really good talents that come in here. Knorwood is one that I think of. They're, brothers from Bloomsburg. They work at Route 11 um, which is an excellent restaurant. They're from Bloomsburg and now we're touring nationally with their group. They kind of are a Led Zeppelin tribute band that has Lord of the Rings kind of overtures. 

Yeah, a little folk music. 

Emma: Original folk music. 

Justine: original folk music as well. Mm-hmm. 

Aaron: Mm-hmm. 

Justine: And you know, we put them on in May of 2025, and then since then they kind of like took off. So I have a lot of joy in saying that we can be. The venue for local artists to kinda launch and kind of going back to that idea of community and being a nexus for the arts we can be that place for them 

Emma: And they're they're coming back in. 

Justine: That is true. yeah, In august. 

Aaron: Yeah. this is my own personal anecdote. Um, I'm in a band called Lavender Blue, we are, professional artists on all fronts. but we are, gigging people. uh, we get together whenever we can 

Emma: Oh. the gig economy 

Aaron: Uh, yeah. Well, and and, oftentimes when you are a musician, it is a gig economy. You're going from, 

Amy: Oftentimes when you're an actor, it's a gig economy. 

Aaron: Yeah, that's right.

Emma: When you're a writer, it's a gig economy.

Aaron: Yes. 

But there's something really, important in a vital creative sharing ideas and new things, novel things. I don't have a whole lot of places where in, in my life unless the algorithm brings it to me uh, when I have someone that I trust to say, hey, you should check this out. And so we were rehearsing uh, last week and Carl Fisher, who owns Alabaster Coffee in Williamsport and is also a stellar and highly trained stringed musician plays mandolin and guitar and fiddle occasionally in our band. 

Emma: Rad. 

Aaron: Yeah. Was like, Hey the milk carton kids? This is a newer, folk group. Ish. Their first album that I found on band camp was 2013. But there's, they do a really awesome song with Sarah Barielles and Chris Thiele on his radio show. And so we're doing that cover. But it wasn't until Carl said, Hey, you should check these guys out. It's like, Simon and Garfunkel, but for now, and they're really great. And I don't have a whole lot of places in my life where I just have someone who I trust recommend those things. I think it's really important in a vital, creative community to have those people that share those new things. You should check these things out. and the folks that we'll be bringing in these presented events they are hopefully people that are up and coming. They are folks that can fill a 300 seat Theatre. And so it is our opportunity to share that and say, if you don't know these people, you should know 

Emma: Yeah. They're trained, they're professional, they're polished, they have great talent. They're just new. I hope I'm not usurping the host role, but I am a nosy person by nature. But, so I have this question. What kind of Presented Events would you guys like to see in the future? 

Justine: I would like to see and this is me totally with my hobbies, but like speeches and debates, that's not. Exactly arts, but I consider it a tangent 

Aaron: Yeah. yeah. 

Justine: It's a performance. 

Emma: it's like TED Talks. Yeah. Like and podcasts. 

Aaron: Yeah. 

Amy: What were you silently Mouthing? 

Kimie: Task master. 

Amy: Kimie Muroya would really like Task Master to be on our stage in a similarly unrealistic scenario. I would love if we were a venue were of like podcasts at Do live shows Yes could come. I think we're a little too small for that. For the ones that would draw audiences. I think they generally 

play like much, much 

larger venues, but. 

Justine: you're telling me call her daddy wouldn't want to 

come to the AKT I

Amy: I think we may be a little too small. We would would've great bar sales though. 

Justine: Yeah, we would. would. 

Aaron: Yeah. we have a really nice theatre, a 350 seat theatre is a nice sized theatre. It feels intimate while still being really large and It's in Bloomsburg, right? So you can walk to it If you live in town, it's a half hour from a lot of different places. I just got back from TIC tour and I had people in Hazleton. Saying, oh, we love coming to BTE or in Sunbury, oh, we love going to BTE. We're within driving distance and in a really intimate space with a happy bar, 

Amy: And I would say some of the best alcohol prices..... 

Aaron: downtown. 

Justine: Statewide. Yeah, 

Aaron: Yeah, that's right. That's right. 

Amy: Some of the things that you all brought up that I think are just interesting to hear in conversation. So, you know, talking about how normally for an actor we are doing, gig work, but here at BTE we get this beautiful luxury of a full-time non gig based employment. As an actor really rare. And we have this beautiful facility and so what we're doing with the Presented Events is really try trying to take these assets that we have, the resources that we have at our disposal, and maximize what that means for our community in terms of access to the arts because we can only produce so much. and as our Ensemble gets smaller and smaller the confines of that get tighter and tighter. So, being able to make sure that we are consistently offering something for you to do on your night out so that BTE is a part of your regular rotation of entertainment, I think is is really valuable. 

Emma: I like what said about like bringing things in for the community and that service because one of our upcoming Present Events, gracie Kern and Her High Falutin' Band from Massachusetts and they're a blues band that has gotten international press coverage. So that's really cool for a small town to have that in rotation. 

Amy: Yeah, and this is one of our Presented Events that's partnership with the columbia on Tour visitors bureau. Can you talk a little bit about that? 

Justine: Yeah. BTE is approaching season 50 and we basically went to auto or Dave Karushian, who is the head of the Visitors Bureau. And every year, if you've ever been to any of the hotels or inns in the Bloomsburg or Columbia County area, you will see that you get a sale and hotel use occupancy tax on your receipt. At the end of the year. There's this lump sum of money from all of those taxes that everyone paid. And it is up to the county commissioners slash the Visitors Bureau to decide what to do with those funds. so when we heard that this was a possibility and you know, looking around what are things that might draw people to the area, to me a professional theatres one of the big things.

So, uh, we approached Otto and, and we said, you know, if there's any world where you might be able to give us some seed funds so we can start doing these presented events, that would be very much welcomed and after a couple of conversations, we met with the county commissioners. We pitched them four or five presented events um, they agreed to give us a portion of that hotel and sales tax. Because it would ultimately go back to the community and back to, okay how are we drawing in more visitors? How are we creating an economic opportunity here for downtown and for the residents? Um, and that's kind of how it was established. We grew that from four to five presented events to now I think we have six or seven 

Amy: yeah 

Emma: and and we have a committee, that we are creating to like plan out these events in advance. 

Justine: Yeah. because we still have a BTE brand to maintain. So the purpose of this committee is an additional layer of collaboration, but also like a vetting process. Mm-hmm. And, I think that's important because, we have direct say over our Mainstages, but presented events still are using our space and are a tangent to what BTE is. 

Amy: Right, we're not producing them , but we are endorsing them.

Justine: Correct. That's the right word. And so we wanna make sure we're, endorsing something that that fits with our mission and fits with who we are as uh. rural professional theatre 

Aaron: Yeah. For everyone. With everyone. 

Justine: Correct. That's our mission statement. 

Aaron: And recognizing it is our mission statement. And it's actually something that's really difficult when there are fewer ensemble members and our capacity to generate work may not reach everyone's particular taste. So when we say everyone, what the presented events allow us to do is that we might, I hope, be able to broaden what we're offering to people so that we can have something that is of interest to everyone. 

Amy: no. 

Yeah, I think that what you are all painting is a portrait of a well-rounded art institution in rural Pa. So if you are listening to us outside of the area and you're considering a nice low key vacation to rural Pennsylvania 

Aaron: you can canoe on down. 

Justine: Yes. Yeah. 

Amy: kayaking, but you also like the arts. 

Emma: Yeah. 

Justine: We are the place for you 

Amy: if you like hiking and you also like the arts.

Aaron: Yeah. 

Emma: if you like caves and you also like the arts 

Aaron: Caves? 

Oh

Emma: And coal mines. 

Justine: I love anthracite 

Amy: you love a, a a sleepy down. downtown with local establishments. 

Aaron: Absolutely. And good restaurants We have good oh yeah. 

Justine: Yeah. And we've been exploring those with our Play Tasting series too. 

Aaron: Yeah, Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely 

Emma: Yeah. 

Amy: No, all of that to say we do have a lot going on and our summer is super packed full both presented events with our summer family show. with our summer Theatre school that's going on. So just a quick overview of what all of those things are. uh, we have our summer Theatre school camps for ages three and up. And those are gonna be running from June 8th to July 31st. and we have a wonderful family show for the kiddos this summer. Elephant and Piggies, We Are In a Play. It's a really delightful musical for the younger kids. it's so much fun. It's literary based. It's very cartoony and bouncy and some of those songs really get stuck in your, head. I will say 

Aaron: We have some good hooks. Yeah.

Amy: Truly. And then we have presented events on June 6th. We have Gracie Curan and Her High Falutin' Band. Uh, On June 7th we have WSO's Bill Town Brass Band: Pops and Patriots concert. We have Lethan Candlish on August 15th with his, Who Am I Now show? So we are pock. We are puh.... 

Aaron: Popping? Chock full ?

Amy: Packed, chocked- full, packed, full, popping, all of the O 

Justine: we're jam packed. 

Aaron: Jam packed. 

Justine: packed Jam packed. We're jam packed. We're jam packed. Yeah. So there, there's a little something I think for everybody in that lineup. 

Amy: So when the weather's nice and you can venture out of your house and be around people come hang out with Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Alright, this has been Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble, Down Center, Ensemble Driven, Professional Theatre, Arts Education, Rural Pennsylvania. For Everyone. With Everyone. If you're interested in any of those events that we mentioned, please go to our website, www.bte.org and get more information and buy your tickets today. Thank you all. Thank you. I 

appreciate you. Woo. 

Emma: Thank you for having us on. 

Amy: This is Justine's podcast. Abut. Emma, have you been on? 

Emma: I. Technically have hosted a 

podcast.

Amy: so you're a pro.

Emma: Yeah. 

Aaron: Yeah. but, but, your first Down Center appearance?

Emma: My first down center appearance. I feel like that's an upgrade.

Amy: Wow. You think highly of our podcast.

Alright. 

Justine: Laughter is welcome. or we crack jokes or 

something. 

I wanted to say 

something towards that effect, but I lost 

it. so 

Amy: I mean, I cut it out. 

Justine: out. 

Amy: Y'all just solidified yourselves as the tags at the end of the episode.