Luann by Greg Evans and Karen Evans for July 20, 2017

oh, this is going to be a swell theater camp

Well, certainly a disappointing start. But it did give Les some good practice being a nice guy. I do think he’s slowly coming around.

The first two look like a mother / daughter combination, so I am going to guess a three-person production of “Gypsy” will be in order.

15 to break even. Such is life. Maybe some will come in late.

So much for Luann’s exclamation from two days ago…

I think the event should be canceled – giving the three people a refund.

Yup. Thought so. I never heard of theater camp growing up. Football camp, sure. Soccer, yes. Swimming, of course, considering I lived in AZ. Art camp, of course. Language camp, not so popular but they were there. Theater? Nope. I asked my sons about it and he said their high school did not offer theater class but did cast students for school plays, and that was when the students learned about theater, so they assume that the same is true for outside of school – if a person is interested in theater, they audition for plays or go to school like Julliard – specialized program. I guess there is not that much interest in theater except perhaps in Los Angeles and New York City. Nowadays, it seems to be a nepotistic field. Many of actors of today are children of older actors of the past – some are even multi-generational. They know the ins and outs of the industry and have the right looks and attitude, learned from their parents and their industry friends/acquaintances. Easier than hiring a snoot-nosed newbie.

There were some people yesterday who complained about having to log in daily, and related stuff. I just thought I’d offer a few technical insights, as I understand them. Anyone else with some related ideas can add their thoughts.

Whenever you log in, with a username or email address, and a password, there is usually a checkbox that says “remember me” or “stay logged in” or some such. Be SURE to check it, or you probably will have to log in daily. When you log in with the box checked, GoComics stores a cookie in your browser to remember that you’re logged in, and who you are. The cookie may have an expiration date, but on this site, if it expires at all, I think it’s every few weeks or months. You may rarely have to log in if the cookie expires, or if the site is experiencing a glitch that has logged off some or all users.

There are also Security and Privacy settings in your browser that can affect this. If your browser settings say to delete either “cookies” or “persistent logins” on termination, then that can make you “lose your cookies” (yuk!) and have to log in daily.

Depending on your settings, your browser may remember your ID and password for a specific form for a site. So when GoComics asks you to log in, your browser may already have your ID and password (possibly masked) already filled in (autocomplete). But in my experience, the “remember me” box is almost never pre-checked. You have to manually check the box again, or your login will not be remembered.

Finally, as best as I can tell, these processes don’t discriminate between conservatives or liberals. So I think that most of the charming idealists on here can expect predictably uniform treatment!

Bet they didn’t use ValPak to get their message out to the community.

I sort of think more people will show up. The word may not have got around and the time may have been announced wrong…all sorts of reasons. I HATE to think it will fail!

Wow. Three People. Well, It’s three more than Luann attracted at the dunk tank.

They need Tiffany. People would come.

The kid on the far right with the shades looks like he doesn’t want to be there. Perhaps his parents just dumped him off and told him that he will participate.

The theatre camps in our town are very popular. They had to hold two camps to accomodate the overflow from camp one.

Luann says she “ran off” extra registration forms….is that still the lingo used to make copies? Used to say that with mimeograph machines…..

DOOOOOOHHHHHHHHH!!!

At this point they’d probably just apologize and cancel the camp. They can’t hold it with only three participants.

I’m surprised Pru is surprised. Almost any performer has played to nearly empty houses a lot more often than full ones. Publicizing effectively is very difficult.

Luann’s probably going to still insist the two kids and adult (if that’s who that is, next to the one girl at the left side) wear the name tags. After all, she did go through the trouble of providing them…

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And I’m sure they can kick around some ideas, while they get a game of “toss” going…but to make it more challenging, Pru and Lu can wear blindfolds to catch (okay, guys….now’s your time to make a break, if you want- when they get them on- run!)…

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No, but really- hopefully more show up, maybe late. After all, there are lights and other utilities being used in the theater, and the Fuse. If not, this group can turn off some lights and probably just do that old Electric Company bit (and elsewhere), “Theater In The Dark”….

Is there any camp that doesn’t require advance registration, and that on the opening day has no idea how many people will be attending? This is totally amateur hour, and I’m not talking about the campers.

The attendance reminds me of the Ted Knight School of Broadcasting.

The reality of theater camp

“Sitting Room, Only”

“A Pair Waits On A Full House”

“Intimate Apparent”

“Commanding A Generally Private Kernel”

“A Game Of Throngs”

“Every Garden Starts, By Planting Just A Few Seats”

“Save The Last Attendance For Me” (♩)

“Alone, Together….Naturally” (♬)

“Who’s Up For A Game Of Crickets?”

“There Goes The Crowd Surfing…”

“….And When I Finished Speaking, All I Got Back At Me Were A Bunch Of Blank Chairs”

“A Class, Half Full”

“One Fifth Of Behoov-en” (♩)

“Two Or Three Out Of Fifteen Ain’t Bad” (♬)

“How The Rest Was Won”

“More Roles For You Guys, Then!”

“The Cure For Stage Fright”

or

“Just The Few Of Us” (♬)

Maybe possible that a lot of people went to the wrong place????

someone here predicted this yesterday. this is more like ballet summer camp than baseball football or basketball summer camp

To get the necessary 15 campers, Mr. Gray will have to round up teenagers on the street and make them an offer they can’t re-Fuse.

At least Prudence changed out of that blouse with the hideously cut sleeves !

Pru – "Oh Les? Would you be a “dear” and take down ALL those extra chairs you spend hours putting up? And when you’re done, go get a mop and head to table 5? Shannon made a “messy” again! And take out the garbage and unload the delivery truck? And your Uncle Al said your Parole Officer is here to see you and he’s NOT happy.

And when you’re done with all that and before you take your break, could you go to the center of the room and dangle from that rope? The Props Department screwed up and forgot to deliver our piñata, and we NEED a “stand-in.” Oh it’s Easy! Just hold STILL while the kids POUND you repeatedly with sticks! Won’t that be FUN?"

Where’s Shannon? Theater camp amd Shannon are a good match. She’s got the drama down so well already.

I guess that neighborhood is smarter than I thought …

How sad

And we’re surprised? Theatre camp is being run by one person who has taken a total of one art class at a community college, and Pru with some limited experience with Quill in college (and I’m not sure what she is doing now other than working at the Fuse"

I was a little off. I expected 5 attendees. They only got 3. Still a bust.

Not much different than Tiff and her beauty contest. You think that everybody feels and thinks as you do. Jonah’s and Pru’s are in the minority.

In the real world, they would have advertised beforehand, allow for pre-registration – Gee that internet’s swell, huh? Also, the ol’ put-up-flyers method, Luann could’ve mentioned to her boss at KidsFirst to let older kids know, etc. BUT, this is the ‘Luanniverse’, ya know.

I think I just heard a Nelson laugh.

Teary eyed – Prudence says, “OK, everyone! We’ll work on – uh – one man shows! Yeah … that …”

Umm, why would they have campers register by last name? You only do the last name split if the campers are preregistered and you need to find their name to cross it off and give them registration materials at check-in. If no one pre-registered, they would just walk up, register, and receive their documents.

No name tags will be needed

Theater camps can be very popular, but usually only for programs that are well established and have regular productions. I have several theatre kids and they all did summer programs.

3

Well, the small attendance is of course a bit of a disappointment. But there are a host of questions and ideas that this turn of events has stirred up in my mind whilst I take a brief coffee and pipe break before more grading:

1. I wonder if Pru/Luann did much in the way of advertising? My suspicion is NO. I also suspect that if they did advertise, that it wasn’t in the right venues. What they should have done (if they did not) was to get fliers to all the neighborhood schools in the region around the Fuse, get fliers to any and all movie and theater houses, and also attempt to get some help in sending e-mails to school leaders (principals, vice principals, etc.) so that they could announce the camp availability to the parents in the school’s weekly newsletter.

2. Another thing the could have/probably should have done was to try to somehow get associated with Moony’s Theater Program…. this of course would cause the truly horrific risk that Quill (Duh, duh, duh!!!!!!!) would unfortunately reappear in the comic. So, I am actually happy they did not form this connection. But, it would have been helpful for them, and this would also have been a way to help get the word out as well.

3. The two females sitting next to each other…… one is clearly a teen of sorts. But, is the other one her mother, or is she another potential student? In other words… are there TWO or THREE potential “campers” in the crowd at the moment?

4. Pre-registration would probably have saved Pru and Luann a great deal of trouble here. With only two or three kids…. they would have been able to see the low attendance ahead of time and could have either a) worked like hell to drum up other participants, or b) cancelled the event.

5. While everyone seemed to be pretty gun-ho (even Les, surprisingly)…. it seems oddly strange that Pru in particular was so under-prepared with background/knowledge on how to get folks to come to drama camp…..

….. Luann…. sure, I can understand her lack of knowledge as this is her “first rodeo” so-to-speak. But, I would have to imagine that Pru has done this thing or has been involved in this sort of thing before and would be better at this.

6. So, where will Greg lead us? Will he have the event cancelled? Will he have the camp for only two or three folks? Will this be the punchline…. and the story will migrate somewhere else? Will the failure of the camp cause a severe economic hardship for “The Fuse”? We will have to wait and see.

Ok, coffee is finished, and pipe has gone cold. Back to work.

Who remembers Mary Tyler Moore episode “Ted Baxter’s Famous Broadcasters’ School”?

This is supposed to be a drama camp for teens. Why is the adult woman allowed in? There is no teenager alive who wants mom to go to camp with them. And what would happen if a bunch of middle aged men showed up wanting to hang around the teenagers? Would they let them in too?

I’m not sure where they are located – but I think the idea had potential if this is in a big city. Pru may have only put up fliers here and there – and did not reach into the larger population with advertising.

If the BRAT went off with Nancy, are we gonna get tortured some more by her this week???

maybe the "slacker’s " B.O. is so bad that everyone has to sit on the opposite side of the room from him .

I’m wondering who was in charge of advertising and getting the word out. Did Luann think that just telling all of her friends would fill the seats? Or was putting an ad in the local paper and handing out flyers something both ladies never considered?

I wonder if Les did something else to sabotage the effort given that he had pocketed much of the funds that were raised.

so will the kid with the attitude throw the beanbag at the young girl, hurting her?

Now this makes sense! This is what happens when you aren’t prepared or qualified to teach.

Actually my older daughter did two summers at theatre camp and it was a big deal in our area. Mostly girls though.

So they had no numbers prior to day one? What kind of camp is this? I think Gunther is running a rival camp somewhere and he’s bellowing “bwhahahahah” from a distance while donning a cape.

a little surprised to see Les so cooperative and helpful.

An awkward moment for Pru. But she’s a pro, so she must know that things like this happen and that it’s not really her fault (nor necessarily anyone else’s).

Indeed, I early on in my career had a similar experience when I cobbled together an event featuring a top-notch speaker, figuring it would draw a good attendance. Instead, it was very like what Pru got here. I got over it and later had other, more successful events….

You would think that kids would have to pre-register for the camp so instructors can plan. Its Thursday and they need more students. Maybe Tiffany will show up. Maybe Mrs. Manezon at Mooney is holding a rival camp.

When I took theater classes as a young teen there was an application to be filed and the check had to clear.

HAHA…this one made me laugh out loud! Bring on the drama!