I Vant to Suck Your Blood! Early Halloween with Actors

Disclaimer: I am a member of the Actors Theatre Generation One Board. I am one of the Social Chairs (a little funny if you know me and know that I am not exactly a social butterfly), and I manage the GOBoard Twitter feed. You'll be hearing a lot from me about the GOBoard's activities. We're pushing hard to recruit new members this season. If you're young (we don't really have a cut-off age, but 45 or younger is the unofficial "young" -- woo hoo!) and you support Actors Theatre, we'd love to have you!

Remember when we all thought Tom Cruise was weird when he bleached his hair blonde to play The Vampire Lestat? Remember when that was the weirdest thing he did?

I loved Anne Rice's vampire books. And I'm not kidding all that much when I say that those books were one of the reasons I ended up in New Orleans for nine years. They were dark and sexy and arty and the literary companion of my musical diet of the Cure and the Smiths.

Those books made New Orleans seem so damned exotic, and the best part about New Orleans is that it lives up to every promise of grand beauty and sultriness that has been conjured by authors-- usually it exceeds these expectations.

As did the "real-life" vampires who roamed the streets at night in New Orleans. Some were just your standard Goths, but some were all-in living the lifestyle.

Don't think about that too much.

Anyway, to celebrate Actors Theatre's production of DRACULA, the Actors Theatre GO Board is throwing a Vampire Ball in the Victor Jory Theatre on September 29 at 9pm (or after the show).

Tickets are $30 or $20 with a ticket stub from any showing of DRACULA. Come dressed in costume, come dressed as a vampire. We have food and drinks from some awesome sponsors, and this promises to be a fantastic time. Get your Hallowe'en on a little early.

You can buy tickets at the box office or call 502-584-1205. If you're already a GO Board member, don't forget to ask for your discount. If

Behind-the-Scenes at Actors

Disclaimer: I am a member of the Actors Theatre Generation One Board. I am one of the Social Chairs (a little funny if you know me and know that I am not exactly a social butterfly), and I manage the GOBoard Twitter feed. You'll be hearing a lot from me about the GOBoard's activities. We're pushing hard to recruit new members this season. If you're young (we don't really have a cut-off age, but 45 or younger is the unofficial "young" -- woo hoo!) and you support Actors Theatre, we'd love to have you!

This Thursday, the Actors Theatre GO Board is hosting a behind-the-scenes tour/season kick-off party. Normally, only GO Board members would be invited, but I've been given permission to extend an invite to my lovely readers. We're especially hoping to attract potential new GO Board members... so if you're a "young" (who knows what that really means?) professional (ditto) who might be interested in joining our ranks, we'd love to see you at this event!

You can find more information on the GO Board here, including more information about the many benefits of membership. But in short, for a $50 yearly membership fee, you get reduced prices on tickets and ticket subscriptions and invitations to exclusive GO Board parties and educational events. And your membership fee helps support Actors Theatre and the Apprentice/Intern company.

Thursday's event kicks off with a welcome from the GO Board Presidents and a season preview by Artistic Director, Les Waters. We'll also be introduced to the current Apprentices. Behind-the-scenes tours with Actors insiders will be available all evening. And there will be a bar and appetizers by Upper Crust catering.

Come, come, come! It will be a ton of fun. I, personally, have never had a behind-the-scenes tour of Actors (despite the fact that I'm one of the people in charge of this event!).  Hope to see you there.  Did I mention it's FREE??

UPDATE: Whoops! I forgot the times... it's from 6pm-8pm in Actors Theatre Lobby!

Louisville, Not Kentucky-- We have a Podcast, People!

For better part of a year, Linda Golden of LJ Golden-- Just Exploring blog fame-- has been chatting me up about starting a podcast. And for the better part of a year, I've been enthusiastically "HELL YES"-ing her to death.

I love this woman to pieces (and if you keep track of my personal life, I love her so much that, last March, I married her to Awesome Louisvillager, WFPL's Gabe Bullard). And Linda is responsible for some of the best conversations and adventures I have, on a regular basis.

So Linda and I are super happy to announce our new podcast, "Louisville, Not Kentucky"-- episode 1 is now online and is 25 minutes of silliness, cheap booze, Louisville culture, and upcoming events.

In this episode, we discuss: LaBoy LeFemme drag show at The Connection, swimming at Lakeside Pool (courtesy of Awesome Louisvillager Brigid Kaelin), sweet tea lemonade booze, Costumes & Cocktails at Actors Theatre, our first viewing of BIG BROTHER season 14 featuring Louisville's own Wil Heuser, the fact that Linda has never seen ROMANCING THE STONE (WHAT??) and much much more.

The learning curve with this whole podcasting thing has been a little steep, and last Friday we spent SIX hours whittling down 35 minutes of tape to the lean, mean 25 minutes we have now. Next time hopefully it will go faster, but whoa, did we have a lot of fun. I honestly think a (highly-edited) documentary of the two of us cackling like crazy ladies would be even more entertaining than the podcast itself (I say highly-edited because those moments of cackling were interspersed with looooong moments of us staring slack-jawed at Audacity wondering what to do next).

We couldn't have done this without a little help from our friends. Thanks to Gabe Bullard for the crash course in recording and editing. Loads of love to Kyle Ware-- aka The Guy-- for creating our adorable logo. And sending mad love to Ms. Hazel Miller who, in 1982, recorded the song "Look What We Can Do," which we used as our intro music. No joke, when Linda and I realized that the last 8 seconds of this song was the PERFECT theme music, I thought I was going to explode from pure joy. I challenge you to listen to the whole two-minute song, and NOT want to clap/dance/jiggle/your-expression-of-glee-of-choice.  I, personally, think that Linda and I need to take a bio picture for the podcast of the two of us jumping in the air and pumping our fists, inspired by the last 8 seconds of that song.

Right now the plan is to have a new episode every two weeks. Once we get better/faster at editing, it may be more often.

Spread the word, people. This is basically MY LOUEYVILLE in a podcast. Do you have ideas about events and institutions we should cover? Want to provide us with a beverage for our "What are we drinking?" segment?  Want to be our sugar daddy/mama? Tweet us at @LouNotKY or email me at lou [at] loueyville.com.

So proud. Go listen, kids. Link to the podcast here: http://louisvillenotky.tumblr.com/

Costumes & Cocktails at Actors Theatre

Disclaimer: I am a member of the Actors Theatre Generation One Board. I am one of the Social Chairs (a little funny if you know me and know that I am not exactly a social butterfly), and I manage the GOBoard Twitter feed. You'll be hearing a lot from me about the GOBoard's activities. We're pushing hard to recruit new members this season. If you're young (we don't really have a cut-off age, but 45 or younger is the unofficial "young" -- woo hoo!) and you support Actors Theatre, we'd love to have you!

Have you ever wanted to poke around in Actors Theatre's Costume Shop? Here's your chance to go behind-the-scenes and see where the fashion magic happens at the theatre.

Join the GOBoard for cocktails, music, and food (provided by great local restaurants including the Silver Dollar and Mayan Cafe) on July 28 from 7pm -11pm for Costumes & Cocktails in Actors' Costume Shop. [enter at 315 W. Market Street, next to Kinko's]

The theme of the event is "Through the Decades"-- come dressed in costume or snag some duds from the costume trunk. Costumes & Cocktails is one of only two public events offered by the GOBoard each season, so come hang out with our fantastic group of young professionals who love and support Actors Theatre and want to share their passion for the arts with you.

The first 50 people get a free drink ticket with their $10 admission. YPAL members receive a free drink ticket as well. That means if you're a YPAL member AND you are among the first 50 people at the event, you get TWO tickets.

Our DJ for the evening is Jason Clark, who has rocked Lebowski Fests past. And of course we'll have a photo booth on hand to capture you and your friends in all of your crazy costume glory.

A little bit about the GOBoard (I'll be doing a full post on the benefits of joining next week) from the website:

The GOBoard is a vibrant group of young adults who are engaged with Actors Theatre. GOBoard members participate in fund raising opportunities on the theatre’s behalf. The GOBoard membership structure provides multiple opportunities to gain entry level experience working with a nonprofit board with other engaged, like minded young professionals while actively supporting and impacting a whole new generation of theatre artists and leaders. Membership has Benefits: The annual $50 membership fee entitles you to ... Discounted Season Tickets to the Brown-Forman Mainstage Series, discounted performances of Holiday Shows, discounted Actors Theatre swag, access to unique behind-the-scenes special events, social gatherings, meetings and drink discounts at Intermezzo.

For more information or to join, click the website link above.  Questions? Email me: Lou [at] Loueyville.com.