Matt Kemple: Producer and Personality

All the hard work begins to pay off as the sixth installment of the Milwaukee Comedy Festival quickly approaches. It’s exciting to see it all start to come together.  If you didn’t know, it’s a lot of work to put together a comedy festival. Coordinating comedy groups from all over, organizing staff and volunteers, making flyers, selling tickets… I could go on and on.

The comedy festival is growing, and sometimes the hardest part is keeping it manageable so things don’t get out of hand. It’s the little things that can bring it all to a screeching halt. Think about it. You can throw the greatest party in history: send out the coolest invites, bring in a hip music act and invite the who’s-who in town. But if you run out of ice or toilet paper, the night is going to end on a sour note.

Luckily this year some people have really stepped up to lend a hand. I have to give a shout out to Co-Producer Patrick Schmitz. He has always been a great asset to the festival, but this year especially. Anne Cauley was brought on to the team to help with development, and she organized a Kickstarter campaign that raised more than $2500. All the money raised goes to help support the growing comedy scene in Milwaukee. And of course Joel Dresang has been a huge help with Milwaukee Comedy. Thanks!

I had the opportunity to work on a photo shoot with Liz Shipe.  She started a project attempting to put a spin on classic fairy tales and children’s stories.  The results are pretty incredible to say the least.  Here is a short video documentary on the photo project.

Reconstructing Grimm: Peter Pan

Now here is a project I have been looking forward to for a very long time: Tape by StephenBelber.

The play’s focus is controversial, intense, violent, and very exciting!  I’ll be playing Vince, a bad‐tempered, drug-dealing volunteer fireman – a very different character from anything I’ve played before.

Another aspect of this show is the unique, site-specific setting. Tape takes place in a hotel room, and Pink Banana Theatre has teamed up with the Best Western Inn Towne Hotel to produce the show in a room of the hotel.

The show is already intense, and having only 12 seats inside a small 12 x 15 ft. room, will definitely increase what the audience is feeling, to say the least!

Here’s some info from pinkbananatheatre.com:

Tape, set entirely in a hotel room in Milwaukee, brings together old high school friends Vince, a bad‐tempered volunteer fireman, and Jon, an up-and-coming filmmaker. After reminiscing over old times, the conversation – and their friendship – turn nasty.

Tape, By Stephen Belber
November 8 – 21, 2010
at the Best Western Inn Towne Hotel, Downtown Milwaukee
Reservations only; seating is extremely limited!

Directed by Juanita Schuelke and Fjosh Redbeard
Featuring Rob Maass, Matt Kemple and Gwen Zupan

We began rehearsals a few weeks ago, and the show is really coming together.  It’s a great script, and Stephen Belber’s writing is deep and profound – a real “actors play”.  There are so many levels of power and corruption that seep into the characters of Vince and Jon, it has truly been a joy to work on this show.

www.pinkbananatheatre.com

Wow. Pink Banana Theatre Co is now officially a non-profit organization; recognized under section 501(c)3 of the IRS code.

I helped with the creation of PB about 6 years ago.  I was the Theatre Program Manager at Bucketworks, and part of my job was helping groups start and manage small theatre companies.  Flash forward a few years later after I had left Bucketworks, I received a phone call I got from Juanita, Pink Banana founder and producer.  She asked me to Co-Produce the theatre company with her, and one of the accomplishments on her to do list was obtaining non-profit status.  I took her up on the offer. Because I had worked on many PB productions, including the first show Pink Banana Theatre ever produced, I was familiar with the mission of the organization as well as the style of shows.

After about two and a half years of research, paperwork, drafts, edits, new drafts, more edits, the paperwork finally began to take shape into something presentable. The first step that began the paperwork nightmare was submitting a request for an Employer Idetification Number (EIN).  With this I could then file for our Articles of Incorporation as a Nonstock Corporation. I worked with the Board of Directors to adopt by-laws, a dissolution agreement, and the vision statement of the company.  Finally, everything was mailed along with all the official forms.

It was a huge undertaking, but I learned a great deal and certainly feel the satisfaction of accomplishment!

I thought it was about time I made some major changes to this web site. Not just in the way it looks, but what I want to actually accomplish with it. The last major update I made, content – not just the way it looks, was almost two years ago.  Pretty pathetic for a self-proclaimed geek.

Don’t get me wrong, I do plenty of web site updating: I am in charge of no fewer than 6 sites, and own almost a dozen different domains for one passion or another.  It gets to the point when your hobbies turn into work, so the last thing I wanted to do was maintain an active website for myself.  I finally decided to make it fun again.

Beer goes great with Creativity!

Normally, I would design and code a site from the ground up, designing and maintaining every element so it was just right.  This is good for big projects like my job and the Milwaukee Comedy scene, bad for something like “my life”. For this site, that means never finishing, only starting. Because of this, I have thrown out the old model for my personal website, and moved to what you see here.  A template based blog.

I never thought I would go this route, but it makes me happy so far.  The new look is up and running, and I can focus on getting into the habit of posting every few days. So if you’re still reading this, you either stumbled upon it in the archives somehow and are drunkenly laughing with your friends, or want to know what’s up, so here is what you can expect:

• More updates than last major redesign – I think I updated the site 3 or 4 times in more than two years. If I can’t beat that, I shouldn’t have a web site. Seriously.
• Add old stuff – Over the next few days, I’ll add some old postings to the archives. Not everything, but some fun pictures, projects and such from past web sites.
• It’s not all about me – Part of the reason people visit a site is to find stuff they like. Most people really don’t give a shit about my resumé or how many shows I worked on (which was the original purpose of mattkemple.com way back in 2002), so I’ll be writing about stuff I think is cool: Comedy, gadgets, theatre and the arts, technology, happenings in the Milwaukee area and other stuff.
• I’ve learned to share – I find a lot of crazy stuff I think is funny or interesting. I’ll post stuff and you can read it, or don’t. You find something you think I’ll like? Tell me about it.
• Still totally about me – Deep down inside I have this site for me. Sometimes I see something that makes me laugh so hard I want to be able to click on it anytime I want. Also, I forget easily so It’s nice to find it right away.  I like to remember the projects and productions I’ve been involved in, because they are what help create today’s productions and projects.

Enjoy!

Well, I’ve had a great new job for a few months now.  It’s time I updated the website with a new bio:

Matt is a resident of Milwaukee, originally from Columbus, OH. He holds a degree in Communication, Media, and Theatre from St. Norbert College with extensive acting, directing, technical, and production experience.

It’s been a great week, take a look!

MEDIA RELEASE ——————————

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
February 5, 2008

CONTACT:            Matt Kemple, PR & Marketing Manager
414.278.7780 ● mkemple@nextact.org
www.nextact.org

MATT KEMPLE HIRED TO NEXT ACT MARKETING POSITION

After a month long search and over 60 applicants, Next Act Theatre has chosen theatre professional Matt Kemple as their new Marketing and Public Relations Manager. Matt joins the already first-rate staff of Next Act mid-way through their 18^th season, bringing with him an extensive theatrical background and love for the arts.

Matt is a resident of Milwaukee, having been transplanted here from Columbus, Ohio almost four years ago. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Communication, Media, and Theatre from St. Norbert College in De Pere, WI with extensive acting, directing, technical, and production experience.

Previously, Matt was the Director of Theatre for three years at Bucketworks, a creative resource center located in downtown Milwaukee, as well as the Operations Manager at Mad Science of Waukesha County which focuses on providing science based learning activities for children.

Matt has aided in the creation of a dozen different theatre companies, groups and organizations across the Midwest, including multiple programs and events with emphasis on new and emerging local artists. During the summer of 2007, Matt worked as stage manager for former Theatre X Artistic Director John Schneider’s “Project Non-Violence”, a program associated with the Greater Milwaukee Boys and Girls Club focusing on the theatre process with local inner-city youth. He is currently the director and founder of the Milwaukee Sketch & Improv Festival, a celebration focused on promoting sketch and improv comedy throughout the Greater Milwaukee area.

Matt has extensive design and construction experience as well, including three theatre spaces, recording studio, library, wood shop, coffee shop, and deck.

# # #

So I built a deck for my girlfriend Dawn’s dad, Gordy. I have never taken on a project quite like this by myself before.

Here's the original deck and steps.

Long story short, there was a small deck already in place that was starting to become rickety and fall apart, so a new one would need to be built, and why make it the same size? Bigger is always better. Last fall, they thought way ahead and added a sliding glass door off the living room.  Due to an accident, a handicap ramp needed to be installed quite suddenly , so the insurance company assembled one about 16 feet long off the existing decking.  In order to use the new door, two small steps were built to connect to the ramp temporarily.

I took the old deck apart piece by piece, which was no easy task! The original deck was put together with framing nails, so I pretty much only used a hammer and circular saw to take it all apart. I made some temporary steps using the old deck steps and screwed it all together to make sure it didn’t move around and was safe.

Taking the old deck apart.

After a few days, I removed the temporary steps and remaining structure to measure everything out and figure out were the post holes would be dug.  The old deck was built over conduit feeding electrical going to the garage, so I had to take very careful measurements to make sure problems didn’t come up later.

Temporary steps in place, time to call it a day.

We hired a company to dig the holes and pour the concrete, which was a good idea because the soil had a huge amount of rocks where the holes needed to go, and would have taken literally weeks to dig by hand.  It took a Cat two full days to dig the eight holes.  Deck holes in Wisconsin must be dug below the frost line, which is 4 feet deep! Any shallower and the deck could shift off the house from freezing and thawing over time. This obviously could make things very unsafe.

Look at that!

The day after the holes were finished, the inspector came by in the morning and approved the holes and the concrete was poured. Metal brackets were inserted into the concrete before it dried so the posts could be mounted and secured with bolts.  The hard part is getting the posts set perfectly to one another to ensure the deck is level and square. It can cause major problems with the construction of the deck if the joists are not built correctly from the start.

The start of building!

We attached the main beams on either side of the posts, and added additional supports when two beams needed to be joined together.  The decks dimensions are 8′ x 20′, much nicer than the five foot square of the old! Posts needed to be measured and cut to the proper height for the deck pieces on the top layer, and metal framing brackets needed to be installed to hold everything in place. This part took much longer than I thought, but still only two days for this part.

All in place, ready for the actual decking.

After all the joists are in place, additional support is added to the ends of the joists.  The beginning of this can be seen in the photo to the right. After this, the deck part can go down!  This was by far the most time consuming part.  I built the framing and joists out of treated wood beams.  The deck part used was Trex, which I think is recycled plastic, but it looks just like wood and should last much longer.  In the end it looked really nice but was very hard to work with. Cutting and drilling was a bit harder than traditional pine, and every hole had to be pre-drilled so the material would not crack or split!  In the end, the deck turned out great, but took a very long time.  It’s always good to be familiar with the materials you are using, and never be afraid to ask questions!

The top is there, just need a railing!