Happy Birthday to This Blog!

It's amazing to realize this humble blog celebrates its fifth "birthday" today!

What a blast it has been to be part of the community theatre scene - I've made many new friends though this venue, and hopefully we've provided some key information about local shows and events.

With just over 1900 posts written, I find I'm still having a heck of a lot of fun, so I hope to continue on into the future - I hope you'll keep following along, gentle readers, and don't forget to chime in every now and then and let us know what you think.

Just for fun, here's the first post from way back in October 4, 2005 (with some minor editing to take out dated references to "coming soon" attractions:

Local theatre in an interesting phenomenon, wherein a group of people gather together to “Put On A Show.”

Huntington has a rich history of theatre, both at Marshall University and its outstanding Department of Theatre, and through community efforts, including groups like the Musical Arts Guild, the First Stage Theatre Company, Huntington Outdoor Theatre, Fifth Avenue Theatre and ARTS, to name the ones that leap immediately to mind.

You’ll also find active theatre groups at almost every local high school, and several groups just a short drive away in Charleston and Ashland.

And thanks to the Marshall Artists Series, we even get to see professional theatre groups perform locally.

So if you like live theatre (and we assume you wouldn’t be here if you didn’t), there’s a lot to choose from. In addition to its rich history, Huntington has a bright future ahead, with some impressive shows on the way in the months and years ahead.

That’s why, under the kind auspices of The Herald-Dispatch, we’re launching this theatre blog - to focus on those local shows, and talk about the shows that are coming up, shows from years past (the ones you loved and the ones you hated), and to take you behind the scenes to see how shows are made.

If you have a topic you want to offer up, drop me an e-mail and we’ll get the discussion going. I’ll be offering my own comments, reviews and previews as we go along. Comments are always welcome, as long as they’re civil.

So thanks for stopping by - we hope you’ll add us to your “Favorites List” (hint, hint)!