Scott Pohl: If you’ve ever gone to a mid-Michigan community theatre show and wanted more information about the people involved, both onstage and backstage, there’s a website collecting everything you might want to know.
The Lansing Theatre Database is the pet project of Matt Ottinger, who hosted WKAR-TV’s “QuizBusters” program for 29 seasons.
For Inside The Arts this week, I talked with Ottinger via Zoom from his new home in California. While he has moved away from Lansing, the database remains important to him.
Matt Ottinger, welcome back to WKAR.
Matt Ottinger: Thank you Scott. Welcome back…I like that.
Scott Pohl: We're here to talk about the Lansing Theater Database, and I thought it would be smart to just start with a description of what it is, what the people find when they go to the site.
Matt Ottinger: The idea is that you can look up any show that was done by one of these community theaters, or an actor who performed in these shows, or a crew member who ran lights or made costumes, whatever they did, and you can click on that person or that thing, and it will tell you everything you need to know.
For example, if you went to a show, you would click on someone's name and then it would show you everything that person has done. It's meticulously cross-referenced, so you can bounce around from page to page to page and really, really dig into not just the current things that Lansing has done recently, but back until about the mid 80s.
Scott Pohl: Did you start it yourself?
Matt Ottinger: Yes. I really get a kick out of organizing information, especially organizing information that no one else has organized before. I had collected programs from all the shows I myself had seen over the years, and I, it just occurred to me, wouldn't this be a fun project? And I started at some date…I want to say it was maybe about ten years ago…working backwards, and then as new shows would come on work forwards until I've got a wonderful spread going back into history, but also maintaining it for the present.
It's very common that someone will say, I went to see that show, and I recognized that actress and I, but I couldn't place her, so I went to your website and I found that actress's name, and I clicked on and there it was, and there were all the shows, that other shows I had seen her in. That's extremely satisfying to me. Any use that the database gets is very satisfying to me.
Scott Pohl: We're talking with Matt Ottinger about the Lansing Theater Database. Our listeners should know that you have moved away from Michigan, Matt, and yet you're still maintaining this database, right?
Matt Ottinger: I want to feel close to the community, and it's hard to do that when you're living several thousand miles away, but the one thing I promised when I moved is that I would continue to do this, and it makes me happy to continue to do this. This is not a chore for me on the other side of the world…the other side of the country, excuse me. It's a pleasure for me, and the fact that it continues to bring my friends back in Michigan pleasure delights me no end.
I should mention, though, at this point, there is someone else who's terribly important to the database. And that's Joe Dickson, another Lansing theater person who left the area. He's responsible for the housing of it, the hosting of it, and whatever it takes, which I don't have a clue about to make sure it is there and available to people. I pour in the data. The data is all mine. But if not for Joe, the site wouldn't exist. So, I want to make sure I get that through. And as for a succession, I don't have that in mind. I'm hoping to be able to do it for many, many years to come.
Scott Pohl: I want to thank you for your time, not just for talking with me, but for the time you still invest in the Lansing theater community. Thanks, Matt.
Matt Ottinger: Thank you very much, Scott, I enjoyed this.
Scott Pohl: With Inside the Arts, I'm Scott Pohl.
UPCOMING ARTS EVENTS
Tonight, Riverwalk Theatre in Lansing opens a two-week run of the musical comedy “Reefer Madness”. There will be eight performances, starting tonight at 7 p.m.
“Come From Away”, the musical about travelers stranded in Newfoundland after the 9-11 attacks, opens the Lebowsky Center for Performing Arts season in Owosso on Friday. There will be six performances this week and next, starting Friday at 7:30 p.m.
Peppermint Creek Theatre’s staging of “Ransacking Troy” this weekend and next has been canceled.
