Plus, lotsa new shows and a visit with theatre-trailer guy Ray Bailey

In this episode of the OnStage Colorado podcast, hosts Alex Miller and Toni Tresca look at some recent reporting in the Denver Post and the Colorado Sun about the financial side of theatre and overall arts funding in the state. According to the Sun, Colorado ranks 46^th in the amount of money dedicated to the arts from our taxes, all while arts participation has the state in the No. 1 slot. But there may be some good news ahead if the State Legislature approves all or even some of Gov. Jared Polis’s budget, which includes increased funding for the arts.

Also in this episode, Alex catches up with Ray Bailey from Ray Bailey TV — a videographer who specializes in creating professional trailers for theatres to help publicize their shows. (Here’s one he did for the recent Lone Tree Arts Center production of Dreamgirls.)

Ray is also a big proponent of helping theatres do their own videos, and his new YouTube channel will soon have some tutorials to help.

Theatre companies and organizations mentioned in this episode include:

• 2-Cent Lion Theatre Company
• Adams Mystery Playhouse
• Arvada Center
• Aurora Fox
• BDT Stage
• BETC
• Butte Theatre
• Curious Theatre Company
• Denver Center Theatre Company
• Firehouse Theater Company
• Longmont Theatre Company
• Magic Circle Players
• Miners Alley
• OpenStage Theatre & Company
• PACE Center
• Performance Now
• Potted Potter
• Su Teatro
• The Catamounts
• Town Hall Arts Center
• Veritas Productions
• Vintage Theatre Company

Listen to the podcast

Transcript

Alex Miller: Hey, hello and welcome to the OnStage Colorado podcast. I’m Alex Miller, and with me once again is arts reporter Tony Tresca. Hey, Tony. Well, happy new year.

Toni Tresca: Hey, Alex. Happy New Year to you, too.

Alex Miller: Yeah, this is our first show back after the holidays. We took a little time off, uh, this time of year, where, you know, a lot of the holiday shows, uh, kind of wind down. And the first week or so of January is a little quiet, theater wise, but things are really heating up. Uh, so we’ve got lots to talk about. We are recording this on January 14th, which is the coldest day of the year. Well, that’s not saying much. It’s only January, but it was like, yeah, minus five. I think you said it’s minus nine where you are. So it’s really cold up in Boulder County.

Toni Tresca: It’s a negative nine. Feels like -22. So good day to stay inside and go to the theater.

Alex Miller: Yeah. Yeah for sure. Um, and, uh, so, so, uh, as usual, we’re going to review some of the latest shows that we’ve seen and or reviewed, as well as take a look at what’s coming up around Colorado on stage all over the place. Uh, also later in the podcast, I did an interview with Ray Bailey from Ray Bailey TV. So Ray is the guy behind many of the really well done professional theatrical trailers that you’ll see local theater companies using. And I had a great chat with him about how he got into that business. Uh, it’s one of those pandemic stories, uh, and also the value of video for marketing, uh, theater. So, so stick around for that. Um, also, I wanted to, uh, give a tease to the first ever Onstage Colorado Awards for theatrical excellence, which. Uh, which I’m calling the OSCA’s. If you think OnStage Colorado awards. Uh, there’s there’s the thing there, and the new.

Toni Tresca: York-new is coming out. I hear I hear the accent in that.

Alex Miller: I know when I was 15, Oscar would have been rendered Osca for sure. Um, so, uh, so, yeah. So that’s coming up. And so we took a little bit of a different approach. We did not say this is the number one best play. This is the number one best actor. What we did was we went through the 160 or so shows that we reviewed last year, which I still I still can’t get my head around that number. It just seems like so much.

Toni Tresca: Yeah, it’s, I mean, and and and we didn’t even get to everything that. Oh no, that is just, it’s such an impressive number. I mean, this will tie, I guess, into our larger conversation. We’re going to have in a second about the resilience of Colorado theater. But it’s just impressive that coming out of the pandemic in 2023 there, we got to go to that many shows to review and that there were so many else other options out there for patrons and people to go and enjoy for sure.

Alex Miller: So so what we so since we wanted to recognize all of as much of this great work as we could, we have quite a few more reward awards than like, say, the Henry Awards, where they, you know, they do more of like the Oscars or the Tony type thing where it’s, you know, best this, best that. Um, and we also did a couple of different things where we don’t have an actor actress category, uh, we or supporting or lead actor, uh, we just kind of bunch them all together because a great performance is a great performance, whether you’re in a smaller role or the lead role, if you’re male, female, trans, whatever. So. So none of that stuff, which I think, I think we’ll see some of that, some other awards moving in that direction. So we’re trying to be on the Vanguard, right, Tony.

Toni Tresca: Absolutely. We’re cutting edge. We’re who needs who needs gender? We’re just gonna award performances.

Alex Miller: That’s right. Um, so we’ll have the announcement of those coming up in the next week or two. And, uh, I don’t know, I’m thinking about maybe trying to do, like a live, I don’t know, a live stream on Facebook or something like that. So figure out the technical angle of that. So, yeah.

Toni Tresca: If you’re let us know what you’d be interested and you can write us and you can always get in touch with us by reaching out via our email at the OnStage Colorado podcast. What is that email? Alex.

Alex Miller: Just info at OnStage Colorado dot com.

Alex Miller: Yeah, so stick around. That’s going to be, uh, pretty exciting. I think there’s going to be a lot of people, uh, really excited to see that, you know, maybe they didn’t get recognized in some of these other awards. You know, there’s uh, of course, you know, John Moore does the True West Awards, which is, um, a different kind of thing. It’s more like the people behind the scenes in a lot of ways. And it’s a great series of, I think 30 that he does in December. Um, and, and then like, there’s this Broadway world place that I’m not entirely sure how they do it. I think that’s maybe like voting or something.

Toni Tresca: It is. Yeah. You it’s a they they gather they gather the nominees and then you, they do an open vote and then they just announce whoever won by the majority, uh, the viewer audience vote.

Alex Miller: Yeah. And the way that not to not to dishonor. But I mean, it’s really skewed. It’s like, you know, I think, you know, theater A gets everybody to vote for their show. And theater C didn’t even hear about it. So, uh, so it’s but, you know, still, recognition is recognition. It’s still something you can hang on your wall. So, so anyway, so we will have that coming up soon, maybe next week. Um, so this week, uh, our main topic we wanted to talk about was, uh, kind of kicked off with a. A story from John Wenzel in the Denver Post about the resilience of Colorado theater. And, uh, you know, there’s been, uh, like a 20% drop in theater attendance nationwide. And, uh, this story was kind of about how Colorado has has done a little better than that. It’s still not, you know, at pre-pandemic levels. But Colorado is theater. Theater, community theater industry has has really, uh, you know, kind of survived, uh, a little bit better than some of many of the other states. So, uh, and part of that in the story, you know, we’re talking about, like mixing things up to maybe appeal to younger people with, uh, like the theater of the mind, uh, or other shows like that that aren’t just traditional theater experiences. And I’m thinking also of like space Explorers, which is coming up from the Denver Center at the Stanley Marketplace and, and even Drunk Christmas, you know, the audacious, the immersive theater, you know, it’s like just different.

Toni Tresca: Yeah. I mean, Denver, I think, has really benefited from being on the cutting edge of the immersive world, too. I mean, we host the Denver, host the immersive immersive convention, um, every year here. So we’re it’s a hot spot in the hub for creativity in that. And then I think another thing that ties in that’s really helped Denver, Colorado stand out, as opposed to maybe some of these other cities that get mentioned New York, Chicago, Boston, these conventional, typical cities you think of when you think of theater is Denver is not waiting for those other places to send them scripts, or they’re not waiting to rent to like, oh, what what’s what’s coming from New York? I mean, we’re doing them regional premieres are hot. I they’re real hot. There’s a lot of them. I mean, curious is curious is doing those a whole bunch of them this season. But world premieres too. We have local writers. Jeffrey Newman, uh, just as I was one of many here is we’re doing the work to make Denver a place where theater is happening. It’s being created, and that’s unique.

Alex Miller: Yeah. When I tell, uh, friends or people from out of state about our website, they’re like, just theater in Colorado. I’m like, yeah, Colorado’s got a lot of theater going on. Um, but, um, so anyway, so, uh, you know, in addition to some of that more, uh, I don’t know, kind of different out there stuff, you know, that familiar comfort food, uh, as he called it in the article, has its place. Also, look at the candlelight. Candlelight? Uh, you know, they only do well-known musicals, and they sell out a lot of shows, uh, in the Arvada Center. You know, there’s some of those are just kind of tentpoles, uh, you know, that they can put butts in seats and maybe do some other stuff. Uh, not candlelight, per se. They pretty much stick to. But but of course, Arvada Center and some of the others that have those big musicals and then, you know, they can they can afford to do some other things that maybe aren’t going to draw as many people, but are still valuable.

Toni Tresca: Yeah. And I think another thing that has to also be acknowledged is like there is just a unique there’s an appetite for it here. This is another piece that John Whitesell wrote, uh, on the just published on the 11th, um, in there. And it’s talking about how Denver is attendance rate, uh, is compared. So the average attendance rate before the pandemic, uh, for audience numbers to go to arts events was 48.5%, according to the National Endowment for the Arts. Compare that to Denver’s rate for attendance 76.8%. That is, that’s almost 20 more than 25% difference in terms of audience attendance and willing to go out to arts events. And Denver’s also just was the first in art exhibition attendance that that year. And of course, these are pre-pandemic numbers. But as we saw from uh, we’ve talked about the the economic report that came out earlier this year, Denver’s only down about 15% from before the pandemic, 15.6in terms of audience participation, whereas nationally it’s still upwards of 20%. So even just comparatively, Denver is. Getting the audience back faster than some of these other places. Yeah.

Alex Miller: And just anecdotally, I mean, I think we know from going to a lot of shows that, you know, we’re not seeing, you know, empty theaters by any means. So, um, also following up, uh, some of the stuff that’s being written about that I just came across like just before we started this, that an article in today’s Colorado Sun about our state’s contributions to the arts, which is important because, you know, uh, you know, the economy is doing this or that. You know, it’s just hard to get people to donate as as much as maybe they used to. But they had some interesting statistics in here. So we are, um, in 46th place in terms of how much our state government contributes to the arts, and that equals $0.35 per resident per year. So on the on the flip side, uh, Colorado ranks number one in the percentage of residents who personally perform or create artworks, according to the National Endowment for the Arts Participation study. And so the story says, uh, you know what 46th place translates to is a $2 million budget for the Colorado Creative Industries programs in a state of 5.8 million people. Compare this with Colorado’s neighbor, Utah, which has about 3.3 million people and allocates $9.5 million per year to its uh, arts agency. Uh, and they had this great graph that showed, you know, uh, Colorado sort of, you know, uh, miserably at the bottom, new York was number one with $12.27 per person. Maryland was number two. I was like Maryland, um, $1,111 per person per year.

Alex Miller: And Oregon, which is always, I kind of think of as a state sort of similar to Colorado, was 279 per person. So there’s obviously, uh, a big gap there. And, you know, if if, uh, people, you know, people want potholes filled and all that stuff too. But we also want a vibrant arts community because that’s that’s what makes civilization, uh, so, uh, but anyway, so the story went on to say that, you know, uh, Governor Polis, his proposed budget, um, includes a one time $16 million tax credit for creative workforce housing, which is huge, and an additional $2.5 million for Colorado Creative Industries annual budget and a $540,000 cash fund for Colorado creative districts, which are supported by CCI. So that’s good news. Uh, of course it has to go through the legislature, which is like, uh, you know, a battleground right now. Uh, and so, uh, but, you know, controlled mostly by, controlled completely by Democrats. So hopefully that maybe that’ll help. So adjacent to that next week, we it just turns out that I got in touch with Josh Blanchard, who is the, uh, you know, the executive director of Colorado Creative Industries. And so he’s going to be our interview for the podcast next week. So we’ll be able to talk to him about, you know, if that money comes through, uh, what what, uh, CCI can do with it and how it’ll benefit the arts. So, uh, so great timing there. I know Josh, uh, I’ve known him a long time.

Alex Miller: He was originally, uh, you know, uh, moved out with with his husband, Chris, to start or to take over the Lake Dillon Theater, which is now theater Silco. And then he went on to be a Summit County commissioner, and now he is the head of CCI. So really interesting career and a great guy. So looking forward to that. Uh, another thing that I wanted to mention is, uh, shout out to the Boulder Dinner Theater, the BGT stage, uh, which is this is its final month of, uh, of shows, uh, because their theater, their building’s getting sold out from under them. And so today, actually, I think this is January 13th, I think today is their last regular show of their final run of Fiddler on the reef. But they’re doing a New Year’s Eve, uh, performance of fiddlers with, uh, you know, a celebration and everything. So that’ll be the, I guess, the final lights out thing for Boulder Dinner theater or BGT stage. So, um, you know, I’ve been going to bed stage for decades. Uh, you know, it’s it’s always been a great, uh, organization that always really solid, uh, you know, shows they had a really great, uh, repertory or just kind of a, you know, a theater company, uh, doing the stuff there. And it’s just it’s sad to see it go. It was, uh, it’s, uh, one of those things that, uh, sometimes capitalism sucks, you know? Um, so what’s been your experience with BDC, BDC stage? Tony?

Toni Tresca: They’ve been one of my favorites. They’re really they’re probably actually, I think. Don’t fact check me on this, but I think they’re the theater that has been closest to where I actually am currently living. So I have been. I went there all the time. I really loved the shows. I love just being able to spend like five hours there and like you get to chat with the staff and it just feels like, I don’t know, you feel like family there. I haven’t been going there in quite as long as you or many of the other patrons have. But even just in like the three years that I had been going, it has just been you felt that connection in there and the performances are incredible on that stage. You see why, like people like Amy Adams and Sutton Foster got their start, how they got their start there and went on to incredible, amazing things from BGT stage. So it’s a it’s a really big loss to for Boulder as a city because now with BGT closing, there is no, uh, full time theatres that own their own space in Boulder anymore. They are the last one. They were the last one. There’s the Derry Art centre, of course, who does all sorts of arts programming, but that’s kind of a home for those nomadic theatre troupes who don’t have a permanent building space. So, uh, it’s a really big loss for the community.

Alex Miller: Although, you know, you could make the argument that it’s probably a better model to, uh, rent the space rather than have to be, you know, a run in real estate. Uh, but, yeah, it is it is sad. Um, so best of luck to all the folks associated with BGT stage and what you do next. Uh, we’d love to hear about it. Um, absolutely. All right, well, um, we’re going to take a quick break, and when we come back, I’ll look around the state at all the live theater coming up in January and into February. The OnStage Colorado podcast is supported by Town Hall Arts Center, whose production of Urinetown runs January 26th through February 25th. The three time Tony Award winning musical comedy is set in a collapsing urban metropolis, where a 20 year drought has led to a government enforced ban on private toilets. The citizens must use public amenities owned and operated by an evil corporation that profits by charging admission to the most popular seat in the house, so to speak. A hero will rise, a revolution will be sparked, and an unlikely love story will unfold. Get tickets at Town Hall Arts Center. Org. Onstage Colorado is also grateful for support from the Boulder Ensemble Theatre Company. Betsy, whose next show is What the Constitution Means to Me by Heidi Schreck. In this smart and timely comedy, Shrek resurrects her 15 year old self, who traveled the country competing in American Legion speech competitions to save money for college, unearthing her perspective on the Constitution then and now. She delves into four generations of women in her family and how the founding document shaped their lives.

Alex Miller: The show plays in both Denver and Boulder. Info and tickets at Betsy. Org. Okay. Welcome back to the OnStage Colorado podcast. It’s time for our weekly peek into some of the shows you can see on stage right now around Colorado. So some of the shows that, uh, so the first couple of reviews of the year, I went to Newsies at Performance Now, which is playing through January 21st at the Lakewood Cultural Center. Uh, great show. Uh, Newsies is always a ton of fun to see. I had a I had a couple of quibbles with some of the some of the sound. It was a little hard to hear. You know, the orchestra was kind of stepping on, uh, some of the some of the lines, uh, and, you know, it it’s a little bit more like a, uh, a mixed bag of talent. It’s not like, you know, a lot of professional actors, and there’s a lot of a lot of younger folks, and it’s it’s a little it’s a little all over the place, but, uh, some solid leads. Uh, and overall, a great fun show to check out. So, uh, and then the other show I went to that I think it ends, uh, this Sunday on the 14th. But Potted Potter, it comes around every year. It’s a, you know, potted potter has become like this juggernaut. Like, kind of like there’s several casts playing. I think there’s one in Vegas that’s on all the time.

Toni Tresca: Yeah, they’ve got touring all there, like all international productions. And in addition to the ones in the US and, and North America. So yeah, it’s a I got to interview one of the actors for westward. It sounds like it’s a very fun show to do acting wise, because you are just like you get that immediate response from the audience. You get to if something’s not working, you can change it up. And they said he he described this show as like about 70% scripted, 30% improv, which that sounds that sounds sounds like a fun way to keep things fresh. I’ve I’ve not seen it yet. I’m actually going to go this afternoon to see it, but, uh, okay, I saw I saw your review of it, which, uh, seemed a little bit mixed.

Alex Miller: Yeah, yeah. I mean, you and I both performed in the kind of, I don’t know, I think of, like, Potted Potter really took a lot of its, uh, you know, stuff from the Complete Works of William Shakespeare and that and that series. There’s a whole bunch of other shows with along that line from the Reduced Shakespeare Company, which is fine, but I just didn’t think that it was as funny as I was hoping it would be. And after about 10 or 15 minutes, my wife and I both kind of looked at each other like, what is this? Um, you know, because it’s I feel like it started off a little slow. Uh, but, you know, it definitely has some fun moments. The crowd really loved it. You know, there’s there’s really a mix of humor. There’s a lot of insight. Definitely. You know, Harry Potter jokes that, you know, anybody who’s a fan of the canon, uh, will will get a kick out of there was, you know, there’s a fair amount of puerile or, you know, sort of juvenile, you know, just slapstick and things like that that are.

Alex Miller: That’s fine. But, you know, sometimes I thought the bar was a little, a little on the low side and, um, but my, my experience was also tempered by these people that brought, like, their five year old kid. Oh, I was like, you know, and I hate to sound like an old grump, but I tell you, the kid did not shut up through the whole thing. He was just like yelling stuff out. And they were like, every once in a while it’d be like, quiet, Johnny, you know, whatever. But Johnny never got quiet. Uh, and so that really kind of cut into it. But that’s no reflection on the show. But and they also they had a pretty good, uh, uh, production values. They had like, smoke and lights and music. And so it’s definitely an engaging show and decent amount of audience participation. So, um, also coming up, Fun Home at Vintage Theater that is running through February 18th, and our correspondent Eric Fitzgerald will be at that one. So we’ll have a review of that.

Toni Tresca: I heard I heard the opening weekend completely sold out. So if you it’s in their smaller, uh, theater. So if you are looking for tickets to Fun Home, uh, it’s a pretty big musical, uh, Tony Award winning musical. Uh, you should probably hop on it.

Alex Miller: They’re doing a musical in that tiny, uh, but that’s accurate. Yes. Wow. Because, yeah, that’s like, it seems like it’s got like, 50 seats or something. It’s pretty small.

Toni Tresca: I think it’s like 60 or 70 in there. Yeah.

Alex Miller: Yeah. It’s such a funny theater. It’s like a rectangle. It is. Yeah.

Toni Tresca: This is the second musical that they’ve, I’ve seen in their recently because they did tick tick boom in their smaller space as well last season. So yeah.

Alex Miller: Uh, up in Fort Collins uh, open stage is doing sweat the Lynn Nottage play about disgruntled workers. So that opens uh, on the 13th and runs through February 10th. And our correspondent Carrie Redmond will have a review of that. Um, this one coming up at Miners Alley Playhouse. Uh, misery, which is an adaptation of the Stephen King. Um, I don’t know if it was it a novel or a short story that was made into a pretty well-known film back in, like it’s a book?

Toni Tresca: Uh, yeah, it was a book. And this this play is adapted by the same person who wrote the screenplay for that 1990s film starring Kathy Bates. But she won her Academy Award for. Um. Yeah, it’s a it’s this is the first play in Miners Alley’s new space. They’ve, uh. I got to talk with the creative team over there about putting this together. And they just said it was really fun to be able to build this, this show because it’s so claustrophobic in that new space. They’re like, we couldn’t have imagined trying to rehearse this in like a church or something and then put it in here. It’s lovely that we have that rehearsal space now with the which obviously they can do once you have that $17 million performing arts center.

Alex Miller: Yeah. And I think I saw one of the photos of rehearsal. It looked like, you know, they were able to do two levels, uh, which they really couldn’t do in the old space. So yeah, that’s going to be a great one. It’s got a great cast. Emma messenger plays the lunatic Annie who locks up this, uh, author with, uh, you know, to get him to change the script to the his latest novel, which she didn’t like, and also Mark Collins and Thorsten Telus, and this one’s directed by Warren Cheryl. So that should be a banger. Uh, definitely check that out in Golden. And, uh, and then, uh, kind of a little bit on the other side of the metro area, uh, Pace Center is doing school of Rock, and that is, uh, January 19th through February 10th. Of course, this was a well known film, 20 years old now. It was 20. It was 2003 that came out with Jack black. Such a great film, such a funny, funny story. Uh, so I’m going to be going to that when, uh, excited to see that.

Toni Tresca: Me too. Yeah. This is, uh, Andrew Lloyd Webber did this musical, if you can believe it. I but I was listening to this songs and they are very fun. It’s like it’s contemporary rock with like a dash of opera in there. And this is the first collaboration between, um, the, The Pace, Parker Arts and Veritas Productions who are. They’re really trying to bring high quality professional theater to Parker.

Alex Miller: That’s great. Yeah. And, uh, so Nancy Begley is going to be on the podcast. I’m interviewing her this coming week. So she’ll be on the the Pod to talk about school of Rock and, uh, and New Veritas, uh, also stabilize at Denver Center. Uh, Theater Company is doing this from January 26th all the way to March 10th. So this is one from the new Play Summit a couple of years ago that I remember the reading. It’s a it’s a really interesting story about three Latinas who are driving from Albuquerque to Denver with a dead body. So it’s it’s a it’s a comedy of sorts. And I know you’re going to that one. So we’ll have a review from you. So that’s great.

Toni Tresca: Yes I am I’m really excited. I that just sounds like a great premise.

Alex Miller: Yes, yes it is. I remember the story. You know, readings don’t always you can’t always remember exactly what they are because they, you know, they don’t leave as much of an impact on you since they’re not acted out and stuff. But I just really remember that one being really an interesting script. So, uh, definitely want to check that out if you can. Um, also clink clink from two cent lion returns. So this is a, uh, original play by Kevin Douglas, uh, a Duke student who formed this company with a couple of other, uh, of his, uh. Uh, folks from the school there, and they’re the sort of the in-house theater at the People’s Building in Aurora this year. So that’s exciting for them. That’s right.

Toni Tresca: They’re going to be doing three shows over there. They’ve got clink, clink up first, then they’ve got Josie’s Diner and then they’re doing Rocky Horror. So it’s a three show season to kick off 2024 over there.

Alex Miller: Great. Yeah. And clink. Clink is a really, uh it’s a really touching story about two women. And it starts from when they’re girls and through their into their adulthood. And it’s a really great play. Great original play from from Colorado playwright. And that is January 27th through February 11th. Uh, also coming up from the Catamounts is, uh, they’re continuing their series feed. It’s called this one’s called Feed Her Dry. And so this is it says that explores the concepts of temperance, abstinence, hedonism and moderation and modern life. So they’re taking off on the whole January, uh, thing. And so in addition to, you know, they usually have, uh, pairings of food and drinks, so they’re going to have non-alcoholic pairings for this one as well as, uh, full strength stuff if you want it. Uh, so that’s, uh, that’s a really neat, uh, event that’s, uh, run on January 27th through February 10th at the Dairy in Boulder. Uh, and also on stage now. I’m sorry. Go ahead, Tony.

Toni Tresca: I guess I’ll throw in two. Yeah, two more that are that folks can maybe check out. Uh, soon. I was like, David, uh, David Nehls and Emily Vanfleet are doing the wind with stories on stage at Su Teatro. It’s this world premiere musical that David’s been working on for a while, because he just became obsessed with this silent film called The Wind, about this woman who moves to West Texas and is being kind of haunted by the wind and these thoughts, and it just sounds like a deliciously macabre musical. And I’ll be I’m going to be there tomorrow. It’s at Su Teatro. They’re doing their only right now. They’re only doing one, uh, one performance of it. But their David is hoping to continue this musical’s life. And so maybe if you can’t get to this one, hopefully you can see it at some point.

Alex Miller: Yeah. Yeah. It’s it’s, uh. Yeah. This this just a one off at this point. You know, it’s a reading. Uh, it’s a kind of test it out. So you see what works with an audience. And then hopefully we will see. I’m sure we will. I’m sure somebody will want to pick up David’s piece here.

Toni Tresca: I am sure. Yeah. David just has such a way with music. Music and and lyrics. He just. Ah, he’s so talented. Yes. And the other piece that I want to shout out is, uh, it’s over in Boulder. It’s a celebration of Martin Luther King Jr Day. It’s by modus modus Theater. It’s their doctor, King Junior, and the radical roots at the heart of justice. It’s a it’s an event at the Dairy Arts Center. It features quite just quite a few, uh, speakers, including hip hop legends, the reminders, social justice activist and poet Norman Johnson, uh, the Colorado Boulder African American studies director Doctor Reiland Rabaka. And then it’s two autobiographical monoliths, a monologuist, Candace Bailey and Jamil Roberts, who are just going to be talking and making space to reflect on the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr and the work that still has to be done. So that’s going to be on, actually, Martin Luther King Jr Day, January 15th at 230 at the Dairy Arts Center. All right.

Alex Miller: Great. Thanks for reminding me about that one. One of those rare Monday shows. Uh, yeah. Uh, also on stage or opening soon. The Secret Comedy of Women is up now at the Garner Galleria at the Denver Center through February 28th. And so this is two women, kind of it says girls only. You know, it’s really it’s really geared towards women. It’s very funny. I at least my wife went to it a few years ago and just loved it.

Toni Tresca: So I haven’t seen it, but I feel like it’s maybe not for me. So yeah.

Speaker3: Yeah.

Alex Miller: Also at Teatro I can’t pronounce this. It’s like an Aztec word.

Toni Tresca: It’s actually at, uh, people’s building.

Speaker3: Oh. I’m sorry.

Toni Tresca: No.

Alex Miller: You’re good. Who’s the who’s doing it?

Toni Tresca: Uh, it’s still control Group productions, but it is, and I g I, I should know how to say it. I just was talking to somebody about this rematch again.

Speaker3: Yeah.

Alex Miller: Aztec, Aztec or Mayan language is very unpronounceable. It’s cacamatzin or something like that.

Speaker3: So that’s what I was about.

Toni Tresca: Yeah, that sounds right.

Alex Miller: So January 13th through 20 at the People’s Building from control Group, uh, very, uh, cool sounding play with a, you know, kind of a native or indigenous people vibe to it. Um, and.

Speaker3: This is, it’s.

Toni Tresca: Actually a remount. They had done this once in October. And so this is kind of more of a immersive spin in the people’s building. They’ve they’ve added some stuff, taken some stuff away. So it sounds like it’s really a new vision. So even if you saw it in October, it’s something completely different.

Alex Miller: Okay. Great. I guess on the other end of the spectrum, uh, flower Power murder at the Adams Mystery Playhouse, uh, which is, you know, sort of an interactive fun, uh, probably like a, like a melodrama kind of thing through, uh, February 24th. Magic Circle players in Montrose is doing a walk in the woods. Lee Blessing’s play about to Cold Warriors. Uh, meeting. Uh, it’s a really great play. It’s a great two hander. And that’s playing in Natchez through January 27th. Uh, down south Cripple Creeks Butte Theater is doing crimes of the heart from January 19th through February 3rd, and then back up in Golden back at Miners Alley Playhouse is Amelia’s big idea. This is an original musical for kids, uh, from Heather Beasley, Richie Kennedy, and Eddie Carey. And that runs January 27th through February 10th. And if you don’t catch that run, it’s going to come back and run March 9th through April 6th. And I think this will be the first of their young people’s theater that’ll be in the new facility. Uh, and then, uh, Jesus Christ Superstar is, uh, celebrating its 50th anniversary this year at the Buell. Uh, so that’s running January 23rd through 28th. And, uh, I’m going to go to that because this was one of the first musicals I ever saw when I was a kid.

Speaker3: Uh oh.

Toni Tresca: Yeah. And it’s we’ve got a Colorado, a local in there. Uh, Joshua Besse, who is from Littleton, Colorado, uh, is in the touring cast of Jesus Christ Superstar. He’s in the ensemble, and he is also, uh, he is the understudy for Jesus and Pontius Pilate, which are if you’re like, wow, the two opposite characters. Yes. That’s right, that’s his track. That’s what he’s doing. And I had a chance. I had a really fun phone call with Joshua this week, uh, just to talk about the show. And, uh, that’ll be a piece that’s coming out in westward. So get pumped about Jesus Christ Superstar.

Alex Miller: All right. Great. Well, uh, wish, wish the main leads of those parts. Well, but if they do happen to get a cold or something, it’d be great to see him get a chance to step in.

Toni Tresca: Yeah, yeah, it’d be awesome.

Alex Miller: All right, well, I think that’s that’s most of the stuff that’s coming up shortly. Tony usually have a couple of extras. What have you got this week?

Toni Tresca: Yeah, I’ll throw out a couple. I’ll be going over to curious, uh, this upcoming week to check out the world premiere of Truth Be Told over there. Uh, it’s directed by Christie Montoya. Larson, who just did the minutes over there, and it’s a two person cast, uh, Karen Slack and then Jada, Susanna Dickinson. And it’s just the story of this journalist who is going to talk to this mother, uh, who is? They’ve been involved in a in a school shooting. Somehow, I believe it’s I think that and so it’s this harrowing play of their conversation and just this conversation about, uh, about gun violence in America. So I’m. I’m curious to check that one out. Uh, I’ll be doing a review for OnStage Colorado. So right there.

Alex Miller: It runs, uh, January 13th through February.

Speaker3: 10th.

Toni Tresca: And then the other one that I’ll shout out, that’s coming soon, uh, it’s a this is a, this is one, you know, but it’s a fun one that you do not want to miss. It’s urine town. Yeah. It’s over at Town Hall. Art center. This is running January 26th through February 25th. It’s a three time Tony Award winning musical, uh, about P. Uh, and it’s a satire if they promise. It’s a satire. So funny you’ll piss your pants. But be warned, that means you’ll have to go to Urine Town. So, yeah, it’s a local cast over there, and it just. It looks like it. It’s going to be a lot of fun. You know it. It’s silly. It’s a romp. Uh, but that’s. I love a romp.

Alex Miller: Yep. And I have never seen Urine Town. And I am going to that. I’m really excited to see it at Town hall. I’m sure they’ll do a great job with it. Um, and, uh, so, yeah, thanks for reminding me. I thought I had that on the list, but somehow I skipped over it, so. All right, well, uh, stand by here in just a minute. We’ll hear my interview with Ray Bailey from Ray Bailey TV. All right. We’re here today with Ray Bailey of Ray Bailey TV. So, uh, thanks for being on the podcast today, Ray. Great to see you.

Ray Bailey: Yeah, nice to see you too, Alex. Thank you.

Alex Miller: So, Ray, like a lot of people in the Colorado theater community, uh, we’re pretty familiar with your work. You are seemingly a at many shows with your camera, and you create these fantastic trailers. There’s really professional trailers for theater companies, large and small. So. So I thought it’d be fun to to talk with you about, you know, how that that came to be your thing and, uh, and sort of, uh, some of the, some of the ways that, uh, you know, theaters can benefit from that kind of, uh, media to promote their shows.

Ray Bailey: Yeah, absolutely. So it started in the fall, um, slash winter of 2018. I was in Newsies. Um, I was actually in Newsies for Parker Arts and, uh, Inspire Creative, uh, theater Company at the Pace Center. And during that time, I had been doing corporate training videos since 2005 for Furniture Row. And right before Covid hit, they basically said, we got to let you go. We’re going to go into more one on one personal, um, like face to face training. And since I was in and I lost everything, I lost, I mean, I lost my job. I had been doing it for so many years, and during that time it got really scary because I was in Newsies and I’m like, well, I’m not going to make enough money doing Newsies to to like, pay all the bills, like I have to have another job. So I took that as an opportunity to I’m like, well, I don’t want to give up what I’m doing, so let me create something new. So I interviewed all 48 cast members in that show. They each got their own video. So it was called Meet the Newsies. And I interviewed and cast and crew wasn’t just cast members, and I wanted to take this as an opportunity to get some experience. I’d never edited a trailer in my. My life. I’d never done anything for theatre in my life up until that point, and I decided I would take this as an opportunity to get the experience. Then after Newsies was over, take those videos and market them, market myself and my services to other theatres because I loved it so much. So I took those videos after the show, marketed them out to everybody on the Colorado Theatre Guild Theatre list. And, and my very first phone call back was from Len Mathéo at Miners Alley Playhouse. And once I started doing his, other people saw those and it kind of it kind of took off from there.

Alex Miller: Wow. That’s that’s so interesting. That’s what an interesting way to start. And you know, another one of those Covid left turns that a lot of people, uh, dealt with.

Speaker3: Yeah.

Alex Miller: So what character were you playing in Newsies?

Ray Bailey: I was sites, I was one of Pulitzer’s, uh, uh, right hand men. The one that kind of agreed with the newsies, but, um, okay, he was on the newsie side, but he he still worked for Pulitzer.

Speaker3: Okay, yeah. I just, uh, I just saw a performance now’s production, uh, the other day, so I was just working on the review today, so it’s very fresh in mind.

Ray Bailey: Did you see my trailer for that one?

Alex Miller: No, no, in fact, I was looking on their website to see if it was there. And I looked on your website and all I saw was the town hall one, so I don’t know, you’ve got it out there yet.

Ray Bailey: Yeah, I’ll check it out.

Alex Miller: What is the the value of a of a trailer for for theater? Um, you know, marketing, there’s so many different things that theaters can do and a lot that they don’t do just because they, they can’t afford it. They don’t have a marketing person, things like that. So how do you how do you convince them to, you know, to to spend some dollars on a trailer?

Ray Bailey: Um, well, my I, there’s differing opinions. I’ve actually spoken with people and I had one guy specifically. I won’t mention his name that actually said Ray, I don’t I don’t believe this. And then he said the sh word. He’s like, I don’t believe this. Sh sells tickets. Um, yeah. And I was like, I was like, but he was, he was he was calling me at that point to actually hire me. He was actually saying, hey, I want you to produce a trailer for me, but I don’t believe this stuff sells tickets. And to me, I’m like, well, I don’t want to waste your money and I don’t want to waste your time. If you don’t believe it sells tickets, then then please go work with somebody else, because I want to dedicate my time to someone that believes it will actually help benefit their theater and benefit, uh, ticket sales. So I think the the benefit is, I mean, I think of it like a movie trailer, like if someone says, hey, you got to go out and see the new Wonka movie. Um, I want to watch that trailer to see what the movie’s about before I go see the show. Now, granted, there are so many shows, um, that people are familiar with that they already know what the show is about, so they might not need to see the trailer. But I like to approach every single one of my videos from a new standpoint. So I will research trailers that have been produced for that show in other states and other countries, and I will try to do something new and different. And while telling a story, I don’t like to just do a highlight reel where it’s a bunch of singing and dancing with edited together with one song.

Ray Bailey: Right? Because to me, I think you’re showing up a bunch of visuals, but I like I like telling stories. So and I do believe it does help generate ticket sales, whether it’s one person or like 20 people. I believe that, and I’ve had people come up to me, um, and this is funny, Alex, I’ve actually had two people come up to me and say, you, you, you need to give me my money back. And I said, what are you talking about? And they said, well, we watch your trailers. I went to see the show because of your trailer, and I didn’t like the show, so, so I want the money back. And my goal is to make whether I like the show or not. Um, if I’m a fan of like, because I film a lot of shows and I’m not a fan of every single one of them. Um, I love the artistry, but I’ll film a show and I’m like, okay, I didn’t like this show. It was very well performed. I just don’t like the storyline. It’s just not fitting with me. It’s not my my cup of tea, but I have to market that show as if I really, really liked that show. And then because that’s that’s what the theaters are paying for. And, and then I will make, uh, I my goal is to make a show that might not be everyone’s cup of tea. Try to make it look like everyone’s cup of tea.

Speaker3: Uhhuh. That makes.

Ray Bailey: Sense. And then sell tickets that way.

Alex Miller: And then. So for the for the look of your trailers, um, you know, you say you don’t want to just cut together, you know, a bunch of scenes, do you? Inter splice like interviews with the directors or the cast or, or things like that in some of them?

Ray Bailey: Absolutely. Yeah. So, um, there has been a few shows where I wasn’t really sure how to market it. Um, I didn’t know how to create just a standard trailer where I tell a story. So in those cases, an interview with the director, for example, Cold Country that I just did for Betsy, um, I interviewed, um, Jessica, Rob Lee and I interviewed Anastasia Davison and a bunch of other cast members that were in that show because I figured because it’s based on a true story, I figured interviews with the cast and and director in that instance will help sell tickets to the show better than just me telling the story of the show. And I started that with, um, essentially, Kat. It was like behind the scenes. I do behind the scenes videos, too. I don’t do them as much anymore because those don’t have as much watch time as as a trailer. But I started it with that, um, by doing interviews with cast and crew and directors and. Biographers and lighting designers, but I they just weren’t getting the play time. So I kind of pivoted and I used interviews in the actual trailer, and I believe that that helped sell tickets as well.

Alex Miller: Okay. Well, I wanted to ask a little bit about the the process. So first, um, I would assume you work with the, you know, if there’s a marketing person and then with the director to set up the time and you go to probably one of the first dress rehearsals or something like that. Uh, like most photographers do. And then what’s your camera setup? Do you have like the 2 or 3 cameras to capture it all? You get it all on one or what?

Ray Bailey: Yeah. So, um, my standard setup for most theaters is a two camera setup. I set up side by side. This camera right here would be my wide, my wide, which captures everything. So, um, so if someone, if I’m filming stage left and someone enters stage right, um, and I got to take my close up camera, I can cut to the wide camera and then zoom my close up camera over to them as quick as I can. And then that just gives me something to cut away to. Ideally. That’s more I typically do that if the theater is ordering an archive recording of the show. Um, and if there’s big dance numbers where I need to capture the entire stage, um, and, and it’s just so, like, overpowering. Um, that’s whenever I’ll do that type of setup some shows. Um, I can give you an example. I wasn’t allowed to film, um, an archive recording of Addams Family at the Pace Center, and it was in the schoolhouse, and, uh, Concord did not allow us to film the entire show. And I was only allowed to use 30s of footage from from the show to create a trailer. So we did something tricky. I filmed the entire stage or the entire show on stage with my gimbal camera. So I’m on stage physically with the actors and I’m pretty. I’m. Since I’m an actor as well, I’m pretty good at knowing where they’re about, like anticipation.

Ray Bailey: They’re getting ready to walk down stage left or whatever, and I basically just followed the actors around and the dance numbers around and then get these beautiful on stage shots. Um, I got that idea from Hamilton when Hamilton released their their movie version that was recorded on stage on Disney+. That’s whenever I got that idea and I was like, oh, let me get on stage with the actors and get some really dynamic shots now. I only do that if the theater is not ordering an archive recording. If they’re ordering an archive recording that does not act as an archive recording shot, I need to be out in the audience for those. So sometimes the theater might want me to come back a second time, or I film the entire show on stage. I come back the next night and I film the entire show from the audience with my two camera setup. Um, and then they get the best of both worlds, a really dynamic trailer. I did that with Dreamgirls at Lone Tree, which was we had over 6000 views in one day with that trailer, and that’s because I was on stage with the actors the entire time, and it was really flashy. So yeah, so my, my camera setups kind of, uh, changed depending on what, um, what the theater is wanting.

Alex Miller: Okay. But yeah, you bring up an interesting point that some of the rights for a show, uh, they’re pretty explicit that you cannot take or distribute a video of, of much of the show. Yeah. So you’ve got to work around that. Um, and now are you allowed to, like, if you’ve, if there’s that, um, restriction, can you still make a video that’s just distributed to the actors and the crew, or is that just verbose?

Ray Bailey: Um, um, I can so they are allowed in the contracts, the actors are allowed to take as many scenes as they want that they’re in to create demo reels. So I can actually record the entire show and give an actor specific scenes that they’re looking for. Um, that way they can have, um, they can have, uh, stuff for their demo reel or use however they’d like.

Speaker3: Okay.

Alex Miller: Got it. And then the other thing I have to imagine is a real challenge is the sound, uh, to get the sound good. So how do you how do you tackle that one?

Ray Bailey: Well, I my favorite person to work with in the, uh, in the industry is Kurt Beahm. If you’re familiar with Kurt Beahm, uh, he’s just a genius when it comes to to sound, um, I bring him on as many shoots as I can. If he’s not already working for the theater, I typically work with him, um, over at the Fox, um, town Hall Arts center. He’s there all the time. Sometimes it pastes, um, one of my really good friends that, um, he’s not working at the Pace Center anymore, but, uh, was was Joe. Um. And I forgot his last name, but Joe was outstanding. He just doesn’t work there anymore. So you. Honestly, if anyone’s going to get into to doing what I’m doing, you have to make friends with the sound guy. I. I have turned down shows when they say the actors aren’t miked, and I will, and we don’t have a soundboard for you to plug into. I will not do that trailer because beautiful footage with awful sound equals an equals awful footage like no.

Speaker3: One, no.

Ray Bailey: One wants to see that sound. It’s so important. So what I like to do is I bring in Kurt. I say, well, I’ll, I charge this amount of money to bring in my buddy Kurt. Everyone knows Kurt in the industry. So, um, he will mic up up to 20 actors. Um, he’s he’s able to mic up, up to 20 actors, and he records everything on his own little, um, zoom mixer board that he’s got right there. And then he hands me the card afterwards, and then I sync it up. So I bring him, I mean, yeah, him and I work together all the time. We’re actually working together tomorrow, um, up at Betsy.

Speaker3: Well, it really.

Alex Miller: Shows because, you know, your trailer is really. They do have a very nice sound to them, which which is really what makes them look, you know, look and sound really professional.

Speaker3: Hats off to Kurt. Yeah.

Alex Miller: That’s great. So the other thing, and this is speaking from the point of view of like a marketing person and someone who’s very interested in theater marketing and how theaters can do better at it. You’ve they’ve, they’ve they’ve made this investment in a trailer. Their next big thing is getting it out there. What do you tell them about that? And how is that sometimes frustrating. They don’t get it out there as much as you think they should. Or what are some of the best practices there.

Ray Bailey: Yeah. So there I mean, it depends on what theater I’m working with. Like, um, me and Steven Burg at Town Hall Art center. He’s their marketing guy. Him and I work hand in hand. We create the script for the trailer, the shot list. We’re doing something really fun for Urinetown coming up, where we’re filming the actors on the buildings of alt downtown Littleton, and we’re flying a drone. Um, and it’s really cool. And we’re filming that this coming Sunday for their production of Urinetown. So there’s people like Steven who him and I really, really work well together. And we, we love the ideas. We bounce off each other. Um, town Hall Art center is also extremely good at just getting it out there immediately. Some theaters allow me to post the trailer first. Because I finished the trailer, I send it to them for approval. They say it’s approved. I say, great, can I post the trailer? And they say, no, we got to wait because we’ve got this marketing campaign and we’re not going to do it till 2:00 on Thursday. Then I have to kind of sit on my hands and not do anything. Uh, um, Steven Burg and Town and Robert Michael Sanders, they’re really good at just saying. You know what? Just get it out there because. The sooner we get it out there, the more people will buy tickets or the faster people will buy tickets.

Ray Bailey: So there’s people like that, um, that I work really good with. Um, I also Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center. Um, I work really well with them. They are one of those that they hire me. I don’t I can’t post until they post, um, the video, but they also hire me to do Instagram format trailers. So I have to reframe everything and position it. So it’s, it’s Instagram friendly up in like nine by 16, uh, format. But um, my my advice to basically all the theaters is get it out as quick as possible. Share it. I, I share it on all the theater, the Colorado theater, Facebook groups. Um, I share it on my website. I share it on my YouTube channel now, um, I share it on Instagram, and I tag as many people that I know that are in the show. I tag them in the video and then they share it. So I would say my advice to any theater that, um, especially just marketing departments, I getting it out there as quick as possible is my advice. I say don’t wait. If you have a specific marketing campaign where you can’t post it till Thursday, I don’t see the harm in posting it three days earlier, because that’s three days earlier that you can actually market the show and and get people to buy tickets.

Alex Miller: Yeah, squeeze all the juice out of, uh, that you can. Right.

Speaker3: So, yeah.

Alex Miller: Uh, I wanted to ask, um, as we, we kind of wind down here is, uh, so let’s say you’re a dinky little theater and you don’t have you have $50 marketing budget. You know, what would you suggest these theaters can do to to make to kind of work in that video space? Uh, you know, for, for cheap. And I’m thinking kind of like, you know, backstage with an Instagram post or Facebook post, like, what is the value of that? And why should theaters be doing that?

Ray Bailey: Um, I think if you’ve got an iPhone and I’m getting ready to train everybody because, um, kind of a side note here, Alex, real quick, um, I started my YouTube channel. I hadn’t been I’ve had people ask me all the time, why aren’t you on YouTube yet? Because I was hosting all my videos on Vimeo, and I just started a YouTube channel with the idea in mind that I’m going to train a lot. Pretty much any theater can market their shows through dynamic video production. If they have an iPhone and a simple editing software like Capcut if they wanted to do it that way. And I’m getting ready. And the reason I’m doing this is because I am noticing, like Miners Alley Playhouse, they don’t have it in the budget anymore to use me. They were my very first, and they just let me go, um, right after they opened their new space. And so I’m no longer doing videos for Miners Alley Playhouse, and that gave me the idea I wasn’t hurt because, I mean, I missed them. They’re my family and everything. Um, at this point. But my goal for theaters is to teach them how to market themselves, um, through dynamic trailer editing without having to hire me. And eventually I can be like a consultant where like and free of charge.

Ray Bailey: I won’t charge anything for my services. I will help you market your shows by teaching you what you need to do. So if you do have a small budget, even if you have a large budget, use the budget you would have used to hire me to to pay your actors. I mean to pay the stage manager who needs like double the pay in every single show because they’re incredible. Um, so use the money you would have used for me for something else, and then I will just. It’s almost like I’m trying to pay it forward because they’ve taken care of me for five years. All these theaters have taken care of me for five years. That I’m to the point now where it’s okay if I take a step back and help other theaters market themselves. And on my channel, I’m actually releasing a video this week. All my videos are on there now. Um, all my trailers. I’m going to do like a top ten, my top ten favorite trailers coming up soon. Um, but on that I am going to teach anything that they want to learn. The importance of title cards, the importance of of cutaway shots, uh, music sound like you mentioned is extremely important.

Ray Bailey: But all of these things that you can do with your iPhone, um, for a fraction of the cost, where you don’t need to use me, that’s that’s my goal. So if people subscribe to my YouTube channel, uh, a little plug here. Shameless plug. Um, it is the theater trailer guy. So if they just type in the theater trailer guy, I think you can also type in Ray Bailey TV and it’ll bring it up. But, um, I literally this week I’m getting ready to launch a bunch of or starting the beginning process of a bunch of videos training theaters to not have to use me anymore. And then my goal, sadly enough, is for theaters to say, you know what, Ray? We’ve learned enough from your channel that we don’t need you anymore. Um. Thank you. Um, and you can go on your merry way, and I will feel happy with that because theaters, I believe, are struggling financially. And I almost feel bad taking their money to market their shows when I know in my head it’s so easy for you to market the show yourself. You don’t need me, so let me teach you how to do that.

Speaker3: So yeah.

Alex Miller: You know, you and I are very much on the same page. I’ve done a couple of theater marketing workshops, uh, you know, one online through Colorado Theatre Guild and another at the Colorado Community Theater Coalition, uh, earlier or last fall. Um, and it’s just something that, you know, you don’t have to spend a lot of money. You just have to do it, you know, and you just need to know, like some core things to do. And video is a is a huge one of them. Um, but one last thing I would ask you though, uh, in terms of the like that return on investment. So a trailer isn’t necessarily going to have people clicking on, you know, buying tickets or whatever all the time. That’s not always the goal. It’s it’s that overall familiarity of the show and the work from the theater. Right. And, and that sort of umbrella effect of, of all of that. Right? I mean, is that kind of how you explain it to, to theaters?

Ray Bailey: Absolutely. Yeah. And I mean, a lot of them just want to show off the quality of their work. There’s so many theaters out there that have unbelievable Broadway style or Broadway quality shows that are only like performance now. Oh my gosh, they’re incredible. Um, and their, their shows only run two weeks and it’s or three weeks, three weekends, but two full weeks. And to me it’s it’s heartbreaking. Those shows need especially little women. Oh my gosh. For them that should have ran for three months. Um, because they’re so incredible. So, um, yeah, to answer your what was your what was your question? I’m really good at breaking off one.

Alex Miller: Oh, no, that’s all right. I was just talking about ROI and like, you know, how theater shouldn’t expect that every every person that sees the trailer is going to click and buy tickets.

Ray Bailey: Yeah. So basically showing off their quality work, make making other actors, making other texts, making other people that are backstage, um, see that? Oh my gosh, the quality of work that’s being put on by this theater. I want to go audition for them. I never I never even knew they existed because I’ve never even seen videos of theirs. I’ve seen pictures. Yeah, but, um, yeah.

Speaker3: I think it.

Alex Miller: Helps. Uh, yeah. You may know, like, say, it’s a show. Is is Newsies. You may be familiar with it, but you might be skeptical. It’s like, can I go are they going to be able to pull this off, this little theater to do this big show with a pit orchestra and all that? And a trailer will tell you it’s like, look, you know, it’s it’s it’s pretty good, you know, for for what they’re doing, uh, whatever the theater is. So. Yeah, it’s it’s great. It’s a great service and it’s a great you know, we live in a very video centric, you know, place where, you know, it’s like looking at videos is how a lot of people determine what they’re going to go to. So yeah, I think you’re doing God’s work there.

Speaker3: Right. Oh, thanks.

Alex Miller: All right. Well, uh, so Ray Bailey, uh, Ray Bailey TV, he is on YouTube at the theater trailer guy uh, on YouTube. So check it out on there. And, uh, we look forward to seeing. So you’ve got a couple coming up. You’re in town at Town Hall Arts Center. You’ll have a trailer of that. And you’re also doing, uh, like the reading of The Importance of Being Earnest from Betsy, is that correct?

Ray Bailey: That’s tomorrow.

Speaker3: Yep. All right.

Alex Miller: So. All right, Ray. Well, thanks so much for being on the OnStage Colorado podcast. And, uh, we will look for you out there on YouTube.

Ray Bailey: Awesome. Thanks, Alex.

Alex Miller: All right, that’s it for this week’s episode. Thanks so much to Ray Bailey for coming on to talk about theater trailers and of course, Tony, for helping us walk through all of these shows. Thanks, Tony.

Toni Tresca: Yeah. Thank you Alex, that was a great conversation you had with Ray too. Yeah.

Alex Miller: So we’ll be back next week with more Colorado theater news, as well as an interview with Josh Blanchard, director of Colorado Creative Industries, to talk about this Annie centered arm of our state government, how it works with arts organizations around Colorado. If you haven’t already, please subscribe to the OnStage Colorado podcast. Wherever you get your audio stuff, please give us a review or a couple of stars. If you’re enjoying this programming and let the other theater lovers in your life to know about us. Be sure to check out all the reviews, news, other podcast episodes, and our full statewide theater calendar on the website at OnStage Colorado dot com. I’m Alex Miller.

Toni Tresca: And I’m Tony Tresca.

Alex Miller: And we’ll see you at the show. Show. All right.

Speaker3: We did pretty good there.

Alex Miller: Yeah. Not bad, not bad. All right.