Documentary Pitch

Title: What’s New at the Morris?  

Tagline: The Hottest Tickets in Town

Concept:

          In our documentary, we will talk about the history of the Morris Performing Arts Center in South Bend, Indiana and all their new renovations. Some of the history is that it was originally called the Palace Theatre, The Morris was built in 1922. In this day, you could watch a show for twenty-two cents. It originally served as a vaudeville house (mixture of acts of song and dance) and new acts happened every ten minutes. In 1959 the Palace Theatre voted to demolish because of bad business. A local philanthropist, Ella Morris, purchased the Palace for an undisclosed sum and sold it to the city for one dollar. That is where it got its new name. Some groups and bands that have played at the Morris have been: Elvis Presley, Trace Adkins, Counting Crows, Robin Williams, John Mellencamp, Daniel Tosh and many more!

Along with the history, we want to talk to the people who help keep the Morris Performing Arts Center going. The Morris hosts bands, comedians, orchestras, etc. They keep an event schedule on their website to show you what is coming up so you can buy tickets. I would like to interview some of the workers who have been there a long time to talk about their experiences. The executive director, Dennis Andres, and the marketing manager, Anita Beachy, will be good to interview to see how they book shows and run things. If we could interview the Director of Financial Services and the Director of Marketing and Promotions that would be great too.

Interview Questions:

·         How did you become involved in this career field?

·         How long have you been working at The Morris?

·         What is your favorite part about this theater?

·         Tell us about some of the history that you know of

·         How are you able to book some of these great bands?

·         How many shows do you guys have in a year?

·         Were the renovations easy?

·         What is the focus at the Morris Performing Arts theater?

·         Are the prices of tickets the same for seats for each show?

We will be coming up with more detailed questions for each person by the time we start shooting, which will be November 2^nd-November 15^th. (See John for the schedule)

 

Loose script:

VIDEO	AUDIO
Shows the Morris Performing Arts Center	Instrumental background
Flashback pictures before the renovations were done	Voices of the workers on the history and how far the Morris has come
Interviews at the workers desks	Their own voice
(WILL FIGURE OUT THE REST WHEN WE HAVE MORE INFORMATION)