9 a.m. to 11:22 p.m. on Saturday.

Puppets and Kids!
Originally uploaded by Ruth Ruthie Ruth

1. had two childrens theatre puppet shows at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. worried a bit about the content, as it was about the story of hiawatha, and might be too complicated for little kids??? but no, Catskill Puppet Theatre, those kids know what they are doing! Lots of cool puppets (turtle, bear, cave spirits) that were just silly characters to add to the fun. after the show, they would bring out each character and tell a little more about them, talk in their voice, ect. the man of the puppeteering duo, john, brought out the bear and used this monologue:

"hello, hello there. don't look too scared, i'm not going to eat you. but i thought i did see some dessert out there...some...BROWNIES? (troop of brownies in the audience squeal with delight)...no, no, actually i'm a vegetarian. yup, i only eat vegetarians. (adults and children laugh) Actually, i do like a little pepperoni on my pizza and i eat fish. (people who know quasi-vegetarians laugh)."

so professional, so great to work with. and the story was really cool and their sets were awesome. also, i had an extra 100 people show up for the 1 o'clock show, so i was flying high at this point.

2. everything worked for the Christian McBride Band concert.

let me re-phrase. i spent A LOT of money bringing in this group on the advice of tim and the jazz department director at CCM. here's what worked:

a. got my first feature article in a cincinnati publication!

b. Average audience for our evening concerts? about 130. Our total last night?

330. Boo. Yah.

c. my rhodes worked and i even found a last minute tuner/technician when the piano tuner showed up and was like, oh, yeah, oops, i've never tuned one of those before (should have seen that coming, true, true).

d. all the backline (amps, drums, etc) worked perfectly, as should be expected. but they also showed up all at the same time, along with the baby grand. I'd never seen one of those delivered before and it was pretty cool. shoving, pushing, unwrapping, unfolding, tilting, shoving again, and presto! a piano.

e. sound was great. not too loud! their tech rider was difficult to figure out, cause it was set up for a large venue, but everything worked out perfectly.

f. the artists! Christian McBride, Geoffrey Keezer, Terrion Gully, and a sub for the night, Walter Smith III, were so nice, so easy to work with, so happy to be in Cincinnati (huh?) i hope they can come back again.

g. nothing could have worked well without our friend Brian Batchler Glader (don't actually know how to spell his name). He's basically volunteered his whole weekend to drive around the entire band, including getting up at 6 a.m. this morning to drive the band to the airport. suggestions for thank-you gifts?

h. impact. impact impact. i was scared that my blue haired ladies (specifically four of them that sit in the back row) would be disenchanted with this type of jazz. but no! i actually caught them bopping in their seats and at the end of the show, they turned around and said "that was wonderful!" it was the most diverse crowd i have ever seen at our series; ages 4 to 74. and every one was so happy
and pleased!

i. the whole band signed autographs after the show at the merch table out front, and tim had the keyboard player (Keezer)and McBride (bass player) sign our rhodes. he was really excited and had a great time.

i really can't explain the feeling of accomplishment that I have finally found with this job. it's been tough, booking artists and having no money or time to market them properly in this community. i truely feel that the money spent on the band fee could be allotted to marketing expense: at least 80% of the attendees were at our theatre for the first time, and very excited to come back again.

SATISFACTION. IMPACT!