About Sandy Springs reporter. (Sandy Springs, GA) 2007-current | View Entire Issue (May 2, 2019)
12 | Art & Entertainment f FREE CONCERT SERIES City Green Live is a free concert series on the Green at City Springs on select Friday nights. Pack a blanket and picnic under the stars while listening to nationally-known performing artists as well as popular local acts. Steep Canyon Rangers 7 Bridges Road The Sundogs Cosmic Charlie Savannah Jack SEP w 27 Shawn Mullins Facebook.com/TheReporterNewspapers ■ twitter.com/Reporter_News City Springs Theatre Company prepares for another season of packed houses PHOTOS BY EVELYN ANDREWS Sandy Springs Theatre Company Executive and Artistic Director Brandt Blocker in the nonprofit’s offices during a tour in April. Continued from page 1 Blocker, a veteran in community theater who serves as the nonprofit’s executive and artistic director. The nonprofit community theater group launched shows last fall when City Springs and its 1,070-seat Byers Theatre within the Performing Arts Center opened. The company is a separate organization from the civic center, which is also home to the Sandy Springs City Hall and hosts performances and events from many oth er groups. “Nonprofit theater certainly has chal lenges, but what I haven’t seen in this com munity yet - and hope to never get there - is struggles,” Blocker said. “Challenges are understandable, but struggles are far too difficult and painful.” Some of the challenges have included a lack of rehearsal space, trouble with the initial operator of City Springs and meet ing the “unbelievable” demand for tick ets from the community, Blocker said. The first two challenges have been solved, and the company is working on ways to meet the challenge of almost being too success ful, he said. But it hasn’t had any struggles with a lack of resources or support, he said. The company’s inaugural season brought “42nd Street,’ “Elf: The Musical” and “South Pacific” to City Springs’ open ing year and holiday season. That sea son has not wrapped up and will finish with “Billy Elliot: The Musical” in May and “Hairspray” in July. Many shows are sold out and are play ing to an audience at 97 percent capacity, he said. “That is also unheard of, especially in a 1,000 seat theatre,” Blocker said. The second season will bring a musical version of the book series and classic Dis ney film “Mary Poppins”; Irving Berlin’s “Holiday Inn”; the Tony award-winning “A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder”; a musical comedy based on the 1992 film “Sister Act”; and “Monty Python’s Spama- lot,” a comedy based on the film “Monty Python and the Holy Grail.” The announcement of the second sea son has been low key -- so low key that many may have not heard the shows and schedule have been set. That approach has been intentional, Blocker said, to ensure it doesn’t create demand it can’t fulfill Because of the success ticket sales and attendance have seen, the nonprofit has barely touched the marketing budget and rarely does advertisements, he said. Filling demand has also meant add ing extra shows. The current schedule has a show on Friday, two on Saturday and a Sunday matinee for two weekends. The company has needed to add performances for several shows because of demand and is considering adding shows on Wednes day and Thursday, he said. When the first season’s tickets went on sale, the nonprofit received over 300 calls in five minutes. Finding themselves un prepared for such a large response, it took several days to return all the calls, Blocker said. But in the end, the company earned over 4,000 subscribers, or season ticket holders, for its inaugural season. “We had no idea about the passion and magnitude of what they wanted,” he said. The company was formed in 2017 to bring Broadway-style shows to the Byers Theatre. It’s not technically an in-house theater company, but operates as an affil iate of the Performing Arts Center. The formation of the theater company initially started as an idea to lure the pop ular Atlanta Lyric Theatre to move from Marietta to City Springs. It morphed into
