I'm Arnie Fleischer, and I book the bluegrass concert series at the Emelin. It's truly a labor of love for me, because I've been an old-time and bluegrass musician myself for over 45 years. I started playing the 5-string banjo while in college and was a member of an active NYC-based band for five years in the late 1970s. I love the fact that my favorite music is available at the Emelin, just up the road from New Rochelle, where I live. And obviously I'm not alone in thinking that, because the bluegrass audience is one of the Emelin's mainstays, the most enthusiastic and loyal audience any theater could wish for.

I couldn't be more excited about the state of bluegrass at the Emelin.

With its 28th season about to start in just a few weeks, the Emelin's bluegrass concert series is one of the longest-running bluegrass events in the country. The series was started by then-Mamaroneck resident J. Jay Mautner and the NYC-based bluegrass promoter Doug Tuchman in the early 1980s. After Doug's untimely death, I was honored when the Emelin asked me if I would be interested in booking the series. The upcoming season is the fourth that I have booked, and, as with its predecessors, I've tried to put together a series that includes traditional and contemporary bluegrass, familiar artists and newcomers, and at least one of the women artists who have become more and more prominent in bluegrass in recent years.

But that's not the only reason I'm excited. By the time you read this I'll be in Nashville for my annual trip to the International Bluegrass Music Association's (IBMA) Business Conference, Awards Show and Fan Fest. Not only will I get to reunite with bluegrass friends from literally all over the world, I'll get to play more banjos than I can count and to help out at the booth of Paul and David Hopkins, the folks who made my primary banjo. And I'll be up late every night checking out showcasing bands for possible bookings at the Emelin ... and maybe, just maybe, slipping in a little jamming on the side.

Hope to see you all in October. Remember, bluegrass rules!

-Arnie Fleischer

You know what makes the Emelin staff unique? Bionicles. Yep. Lego toys that shoot things are the talismans (talismen?) of nearly every staff member, providing good karma, various bad jokes, and a DMZ on every desk.

Mine came from my daughter, who gave it to me last December: a gift, she wrote, “from the new job fairy.” It’s orange and gray, and somewhere along the line, it acquired a just-made-to-scale fast food milkshake. Charles, the Company Manager and Box Office Emperor, got his from Justin, the Production Tsar. I don’t know where Justin’s came from, or where Susan, Administrative Wizard, got hers. Bridget Bettke, Bookkeeper to the Stars, brought hers from home, of mysterious origins. And we’re all secretly plotting how to get one into Adrien’s office (he wrote the last blog, so I’ll let you read that), since he seems to think that his statuette of Stewie from “Family Guy” serves the same purpose and we don’t want to tell him how misguided that is. So anyhow, my Bionicle is useful to bend and shape and re-position as I’m thinking about what acts to book, or how we’re going to make technology upgrades to the theater, or whether our customer service statistics indicate that we’re reaching our goals.

It also makes me realize, this unnamed Bionicle from space, that I’ve been with the Emelin community now for nearly a year’s time. When I arrived last December, the Emelin was already mid-season, a full slate of shows booked by my predecessors that would see us through the end of May. Now, we’re ready to launch into a new season, and because I was the one who booked it (although lots of people’s ideas are in it!), it feels like my first season. I’ve been booking performance series for a really long time (my daughter wasn’t even around to give me a Bionicle for the first one), but there’s really nothing more exciting than getting a fresh new start – and that’s just what this feels like.

I’m excited about everything in the upcoming season, as you might expect, but if I had to pick one thing (and Adrien says I do), then I would definitely pick the dance series. Anybody out there remember being a little girl in a tutu and sequins and dreaming of being a ballerina? Well, long before I wanted to be a Bionicle, I had my teeny heart, and my two left feet, absolutely set on the path to dancing glory. Long after that dream died an entirely natural and painless death, I still find myself drawn to the wonders of dance. This season, there are three dance shows in the series, although, if you look hard, you’ll find that I’ve snuck a fourth one in under a different name. Here they are:

Fraulein Maria: This is a masterpiece. It’s fun, it’s funny, and it’s sublime. Doug Elkins and Friends have created the perfect paean to “The Sound of Music,” not to mention a tribute to and a parody of some of modern dance’s contemporary masters. I took my daughter to see this at Joe’s Pub last year, and by the time we left, we had both laughed so hard that our stomachs hurt. We looked at each other wide-eyed and said, at exactly the same time, “that was FANTASTIC.” If Hannah is willing to come to the Emelin to see a show that she’s already seen, you know it’s got to be good.

Misnomer: Chris Elam, graduate of Mamaroneck High School and choreographer wunderkind, is a dancer and choreographer who knows how to reach audiences from all walks of life. When I saw his piece set to Greg Brown’s music, I cried; it’s a beautiful meditation on fatherhood and the passage of time and the things we keep and the things we love and the things that get blown away in the wind. And then, much to my surprise, when I saw him freeze his dancers in the next number, and then bark at them – “Evolve!” – it was sheer comic genius. It’s accessible in that you don’t necessarily need to know anything about modern dance, but it never talks down to anyone.

Soul Street: Now this one? Hmmm. Take some talented young dancers, give them bodies made of rubber and fantastic hip-hop and breakdancing moves, and then… then set it to Vivaldi or Frank Sinatra! This show is for families, especially. The kids will gasp and ohhh and ahhh, and the parents won’t have to cover their ears when the music gets to the chorus. It’s charming, it’s clever, and the music is sublime.

I’m not going to tell you what the fourth one is, because I’ve carefully hidden it in another series – so that’s a different conversation anyway. In the meantime, does anyone know if Lego ever sponsors the performing arts?

-Lisa Reilly
Executive Director, Emelin Theatre

Welcome to the brand new Emelin Theatre blog!

I am very excited to be writing the first entry in what we at the theatre expect to become one of the best features on our website. As a marketing person, I often tend to sway towards the standard sales pitch when speaking with fans, patrons and benefactors of the theatre, which can often feel impersonal. It is very exciting for me, personally, to be able to reach our audience through a more friendly, informal medium. We started a Facebook page several months ago and received a surge of positive feedback, but more importantly, we realized how much fun communicating more directly can be. So we decided to go completely crazy and extend this communication through a blog and also Twitter (which, I'll admit, I was a little terrified of at first!).

So what we hope to achieve by blogging is to give you a closer look at the Emelin, our staff, performers, curators and all the little things that go on behind the scenes. The voice may change and the format may vary from words to video to photos, but for every entry, please feel free to comment, make suggestions, complain or praise (the latter being the preferred).

By the way, have you seen our line-up for the upcoming season (which starts in less than three weeks!)? We've added a dance series, beefed up our live theatre offerings, booked a huge array of incredible music acts (including a new blues series that I am VERY psyched about) and so much more. Check it out, it's going to be a thrilling season! (I wouldn't be able to sleep tonight if I didn't clue you in at least a little bit!)

Hope to see you at the theatre soon (and please say hi!)

-Adrien Goulet
Marketing & Creative Director, Emelin Theatre