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I happened to meet a very nice woman from Pollyanna Theatre Company over the holidays. She was volunteering to wrap gifts at Barnes and Noble for a donation to Pollyanna. Since I’m such a horrible gift wrapper, I was more than happy to hand over my purchases to her. We got to talking about Pollyanna and I realized that I had heard of it before but wasn’t all too familiar with what they did. Thought there may be others out there interested in it, so you will find a brief interview below.

They have also graciously thrown in some tickets for a couple of our lucky readers for this Saturday’s performance of WONDERDOG. If you would like to win a family four pack of tickets to see WONDERDOG this Saturday, January 17, 2009 at 10:00a.m., please leave a comment and I will pick two random winners on Friday, January 16th.

Tell us about Pollyanna Theatre Company:
Pollyanna has been around since late 2000 and has grown quickly. As a
company that specializes in the creation and presentation of new plays
for young audiences, we started out with an original play by our
Resident Playwright, Emily Cicchini and continue to produce at least
two new plays each season. We are a company of adult, professional
theatre artists that perform for child and family audiences. So the
children are our audience, not on our stage. Our goal is to create
exciting, imaginative productions that ignite the sense of wonder
found in each child who sees our work. We are now serving approx.
24,000 children each season.

How many Shows are performed in a year?
We currently produce four productions per season. Three of these are
usually in a theatre space and the children and families come to see
the play in a formal theatre space. One of our productions is always
a touring production that goes into schools, serving teachers and
students on their campuses.

What are the ticket prices?
It is part of our Pollyanna mission that no child or family is turned
away from a Pollyanna production because of an inability to pay for
their ticket. We work hard to keep our ticket prices within the reach
of Austin families. Tickets are $6.25 for children under the age of
12, $7.25 for students ages 12 - 18, Seniors over the age of 60, and
Austin Circle of Theatre Members, and $8.25 for adults.

How long does it take to put a play together?
Since most of what we do are new plays, the actual work on the script
may go on for one to two years before we begin the design process. It
is not unusual for several drafts of the play to be written before it
is ready for the designers to see and begin to work with as we move
toward production. The design process takes about 2 to 3 months and
rehearsals take place 5 mornings a week for about a month before we
move into the theatre. Then, once we are in the theatre space, there
is a week of technical and dress rehearsals before we see our first
audience members. So for the script, 1 to 2 years and for the design
process 8 - 12 weeks prior to a month of rehearsals.

Our actors:
All of our actors and designers are paid, adult professionals. But we
have a huge need for volunteers! Most of our ushers and box office as
well as administrative support are all volunteers. And we always need
more volunteers!

What makes you different?
Our dedication to young audiences, our emphasis on the development of
new dramatic literature for children, and our mix of in-theatre as
well as touring productions. There is no other professional theatre
company in Central Texas that does exactly what we do.

Are all of your shows appropriate for all ages?
This is a hard question. I always answer it this way. "You know your
child better than we do." Is your child developmentally ready to sit
for 50 minutes and attend to a production? For some children, the
answer is "yes" by the age of 3 or 4. For others, the attention span
develops much later. Each Pollyanna play has a suggested age. I
think it is important to introduce children as early as possible to
being an audience member. But it is a skill that has to be learned.
And like any other skill, you have to introduce children as they are
ready. It has been my general experience that most children are
successful audience members at or near age 4 to 5...... Younger
brothers and sisters are always welcome, but may have to take a break
and leave the theatre for a while in the middle of the play. And I
always welcome parents to do that if they need to. After all, the goal
is for the children to enjoy their time in the theatre. Only you will
really know if your child is old enough to enjoy sitting in the
audience.

Tell us one thing that you'd like the public to know about Pollyanna Theatre Company.
Pollyanna is here to serve schools and families. We are dedicated to
making sure that all children and families can have access to the live
performing arts. And that audience participation among children and
families is an important part of the cultural growth of ALL children.
There is nothing like watching a live event as a family to motivate
conversation. We love presenting plays that all ages enjoy. Parents,
grandparents and children can all enjoy a Pollyanna production and
that is our goal.

Posted by livemom on Tuesday, January 13th, 2009 at 2:29 pm | 4 Comments » You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.