Happy Birthday Blog!

   It's amazing to note that today marks the 10th birthday for the Tri-State Theatre blog!

   It started when my pal Dave Lavender called me and asked if I could recommend someone to write a local blog about community theatre. I said, "You mean other than me?"

   I was happy to tackle the challenge, because I'd been thinking about starting a blog anyway, and it was a great topic to tackle.

   I was a fan of local theatre anyway (in addition to working with Huntington's First Stage Theatre Company and other groups as well), and I thought the blog might be a good way to provide information about all the upcoming or ongoing shows, and would provide some promotion for those efforts.

   Marketing each show is a big challenge to community theatre companies - most have limited resources, and advertising a show is an expense most can't afford.

   So my hope was that this blog would help shine some light on the amazing efforts of the creative people who devote so much time and energy to create shows - and hopefully, I could share some of my own enthusiasm for live, local theatre!

   In that first post on Oct. 4, 2006, I wrote:

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   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. 

   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.

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   So, many thanks to the Herald-Dispatch for providing this forum, to my editor Andrea for her tireless guidance and thoughtfulness, kudos to the creative folks who make local theatre possible, and hats off to the thousands of actors, directors and volunteers who were part of the hundreds of shows that have been staged since we started.

   Most of all, thanks to you, gentle reader, for supporting this humble effort. As always, send in your show information, your reviews, your previews, or photos (send them to ChuckMinsker@aol.com) - this blog belongs to the Tri-State, and I urge you to keep using it to talk up your shows, and spread the word about the joys of community theatre!

   Thanks for reading - now on to the next 10!