We're going to talk about the theater, why do we call legitimate theater, like, is it
illegitimate theater?
I don't think so.
You always say they always say, is legitimate theater, is like there's some illegitimate
one floating around, you don't want to go to those cells.
No, no, maybe that's from like vaudeville days or something like that.
You don't want to go to those illegitimate ones and get caught.
Jocelyn Fish is here from the Racine Theater Guild.
Oh, I had it written down.
I didn't write it down.
I have it written down.
It's, let me get it down.
It's, you're in charge of the whole shooting works.
Sure.
We'll go with that.
That's my new title again.
The director of marketing and development.
Yeah, we have it on our Facebook page.
We got it back.
Yes, yes.
And we're here.
The new season.
This is the 88th season.
88.
Started July 1st.
Do you have anybody working there volunteers who are 88 years old?
I believe so, actually.
So they haven't been involved since they were born, of course, but we do have a few volunteers
who have been involved for over 50 years.
So yeah.
So there you go.
Our 88th season kicks off on July 18th.
I was get the third week of the show.
That way, it knows their lines and, you know, there's no flubs and stuff like that.
But there's no flubs anyway.
And even if there was, you wouldn't know it.
Everyone works to make the show work.
Yeah, but you wouldn't know it anyway.
I'm not going to know if they give a wrong one or not or not or not.
Right.
Yeah, you don't know the show.
The drowsy chaperone kicks off the brand new 88th season.
Talk about that.
Yeah.
Next week.
So we open on July 18th.
Drowsy chaperone is a really fun tribute to musical theater because we meet a man who's
in his apartment.
He's a little lonely.
He's a little sad.
And he says, when the favorite things he does, when he's feeling blue, is put on his
favorite musical record.
And so he starts this record at the top of the show.
And the show comes alive in his apartment on stage.
So he's listening to a fictional 1928 musical called the drowsy chaperone.
And it is zany.
It is wacky.
It pays tribute to every musical theater trope you can think of from funny gangsters to
the Anjaneu star, to the producer, to, I mean, anything you can imagine pretty much is
jam-packed into this musical.
So it's tap dancing, singing, roller skating, lots of props and costumes and all come together.
I remember noises off.
Yes, it's a little farcical like noises off.
It's a show within a show, kind of idea, yes, very much.
Are you impressed that I knew that?
Yes, I am.
I saw the movie and I saw your production, you know.
Yes, the Michael Caine movie.
Yeah, they're both very good.
So the drowsy chaperone runs through July from July 18th through the 27th and ticket
still available.
It's ticket still available.
Yep.
We're very heavy into rehearsal.
I actually sat in on all rehearsal last night and it's one of the really great things
when you're sitting there and I've seen three or four weeks of rehearsal now at different
points is the growth that the show has.
These volunteers are putting in so much time to learn their lines, practice their dance
moves.
They're coming in early.
They're staying late.
They're getting their costumes together.
Oh, you got to dance.
They got a dance.
No.
Because it's a musical, of course.
They got to have a good tap number, good little twirl here and there.
Rod Steiger starred in the musical Oklahoma, the movie musical, but he didn't sing or dance.
He was, you know, he didn't know how to dance.
He didn't know how to sing.
He was just a bad guy.
Yeah.
So this one is directed by Rob Cruz, who is also the theater and music teacher out at Union
Group.
We saw the show they put on there.
And so he's got quite a few students also helping out, which is always nice to have
a lot of enthusiastic people, as always, behind the scenes too.
Now the director, does he come to the first performance?
Yeah.
But he doesn't come to all of them.
It depends on their schedule.
I know that Rob will probably be around to quite a bit because he's very involved in
the theater guild.
But yeah.
So where do they sit?
Sometimes in the audience, sometimes in the booth, each director is a little different.
I could, one time, if I was a director, then you start looking at all the little tiny
things.
That's the audience doesn't know yet.
And you can hear screaming from the booth yelling and things like that.
The drowsy chaperones has a fun musical to kick off the gate of season.
Super fun.
Yeah.
Okay.
Now here's one that's a classic.
The importance of being earnest.
Yes.
The importance of being earnest.
So we actually had auditions for this this week.
We had over a hinker around 45 people came out to audition for the eight roles.
This was written by Oscar Wilde in 1895.
And it is still as funny today as when it was written.
It's kind of a comedy about folk and fun at society.
And at the time, it was Victorian society and all these high standards that Victorians
had of manners and politeness and truth.
And so we meet Jack, who is pretending to be earnest.
We meet Eldrenan, who's pretending to have a friend Bunberry.
And they kind of switch roles and switch places, but not a lot of mistaken identities.
They both are trying to find love and they have both told these young women that they
are in love with that their name is earnest.
So how is that all going to come to fruition?
There's lots of discussion about, again, manners and truthfulness that are the complete
opposite to what is expected at the time.
So it's personally one of my favorite plays, so I could talk about it forever, but
there's a name here anymore.
Nobody's naming their kid Eldrenan anymore.
Eldrenan, no.
No, no.
Now, there was a very famous Eldrenan.
He was a mouse.
Yes.
Yes, he was.
It was flowers for Eldrenan and it was the movie was named Charlie and one of the Academy
Award for Cliff Robertson was starred as and his little mouse was Eldrenan.
Yeah.
That's about the only out and this two Eldrenan's, I know.
Yeah.
So that will open up in September 5th, actually.
Oh, we're talking about the fall.
I know.
September 5th through the 21st, the importance of being earnest, that sounds like a fun show.
Dracula.
A comedy of tears.
A comedy of tears.
So, of course, this is taking the classic Dracula story that many of us know at least
parts of if you don't know the full thing and it's putting a very zany twist on it.
It's a big time tribute to like the Carol Burnett show, Monty Python and 39 steps.
So there is wacky whom there is, they're running all around Transylvania, trying to track
down this killer after Lucy's sister falls victim to a disease of the blood, but he's
actually, of course, sucking her blood.
I want to suck your blood.
Yeah.
And so this actually started as a podcast during COVID and was adapted to the stage.
So it's a newer play, but I think it's going to be a lot of fun.
Of course, lands right around Halloween for us too.
And the big Christmas musical is what I saw on, actually, on 42nd Street, they renovated
this old porn theater called the Victory Theater on 42nd Street.
And next to it was a regular movie theater, they knocked down the wall and made this giant
theater.
It was called something I forget the name of the theater, but their premier musical was
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
And so I went to go see it and it was great sitting in this old 120 year old theater on 42nd
Street that had a dubious pass, but they cleaned it up for Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
That's the big Christmas musical to December 12th through the 21st, like the movie for
some of them.
Yes, very similar to the movie.
We do have a car, it unfortunately, we don't have space to fly a car.
Thank goodness.
It goes over the audience.
I know in the Broadway show.
I know.
And we're watching this thing and they lit it in such a way where you couldn't see what
was holding the car up.
It was a giant arm holding it up and you couldn't see it.
And this car people are looking up and they're like, oh no.
Yeah, good fun.
Good fun.
Yeah.
But people at it.
This, of course, is based off of the great movie with Dick Van Dyke.
It's got two tweets in it.
It's got Hush by Mountain.
And of course it has.
I love that song.
Hush by Mountain.
Triti G Bang Bang as well.
So he fixes up this rusty race car for his children and it turns out to be this magical
flying object and they have to, um, people, the bombers are very jealous and want to
keep it for themselves.
So they decide to kidnap his father.
And so they have to go on a rescue mission to, uh, rescue grandpa pots in shitty.
What did you have a car though?
We do have a car.
All right.
Yeah, wait to see it.
Yeah.
Do you remember who the bad guy was in the movie?
The child catcher.
Now, the bad guy was Gert Proba.
Oh, Gert Proba.
But he is, he is by the most famous James Bond villain.
He was gold.
He was gold finger.
Gold finger wasn't Chitty G.
Baby.
Okay.
Doing comedy.
And when you see him, it's like, sure.
That's, that's or a gold finger.
Chitty, Chitty Bang Bang, the big Christmas musical.
This is one of those things where performances might be sold out.
So I would say with Chitty, especially getting your tickets earlier, um, because it, it's
a great family show.
You know, people love to find something for all the kids and grandparents and parents
to enjoy.
It's multi-generational.
The other great thing, of course, about Chitty G. Bang Bang is that will be one of our
outreach shows for local schools.
So if there are any teachers, teachers, aides, PTA, families, et cetera, listening, that
might want to bring their schools.
They can reach out to the theater guild and we can get them details on that.
This is, this is one of those way off trivia questions that means nothing to anybody.
But I saw one of the last movies ever playing to the Low State Theater on Broadway.
It was Dr. Little and they had a short movie coming for a week.
And then they opened up a twin theater.
They refurbished it and then the big Broadway premiere of the movie, Chitty, Chitty Bang
Bang.
Oliver was the other one.
Chitty, Chitty Bang.
But that was the big, they had all the stars there and when they twin the theater, it's
pretty neat.
All right, rip cord.
Now, when the snow is blowing in January and it's like 20 below zero, think about this.
Rip cord.
We're playing at the Racine Theater Guild.
Yes, which is a great comedy to bring people in out of the cold.
We all need a little escape, I think, at that time of year and a little laughter because
we don't see a lot of sun.
So it's about two women who are forced to share room and assisted living facility.
And one woman wants that room and she's kicked every other roommate out.
And so her goal is to kick her new roommate out and they set up a bet and it turns into
over the top, one uping of each other to try and win this bet who will get to stay in
the room and who will go.
I like that.
Yeah.
And there is actually quite a bit of heart in it too.
You know, there's a lot of discussion about family and and a little bit of loneliness
because they're both widows, but you know, it also is just, it's a good time as well
in the middle of January, of course.
Next one is based on a, I think it's based on the movie girl on the screen.
It's on the movie and based on the book.
So girl on the train came out and it was a smash hit book.
I became a movie with Emily Blunt in it.
And so this is the stage version based off of both of those.
It's very theatrical because Rachel is obsessed with this couple that she sees through the
window of the train every morning and she feels like their life is absolutely perfect.
And then one day the woman and the couple goes missing and somehow or another, she gets
herself entangled into both being a suspect and a witness to their lives.
And it is an overlap of her memory, an overlap of her fantasy and an overlap of reality
all at the same time on stage.
So it will be again, lots of special lights and sound effects and things like that to bring
that whole theatrical experience.
There was a down for the historic movie called The Lady Vanishes.
Oh.
You ever hear about it?
I did.
And then one of the scenes on a train and she sees some murder take place as the train
slowing down through a stage.
She sees it through an apartment building and nobody's going to believe her because they
go over there and everything seems perfect.
Everything's fine.
But the guy knows she saw it's called the Lady Vanishes.
Interesting.
Yeah.
So I always wondered if that was the inspiration for it or something.
That could be interesting.
Yeah, you have pulled a little memory twig in my hand here when you said hush of mine
mountain.
Oh, yeah.
Gotta pull up the song.
Yeah.
Jeremy and I have been thinking, it's our treasure chest.
These things are enormously valuable.
Look, an ivory tusk, that must be worth a fortune and diamonds and a golden crown.
It's probably king Alfred's.
Of course it needs cleaning up a little.
Take them, daddy.
You can sell them.
I never mind about the car.
You can spend it all on your inventions.
Oh, thank you, children.
All these wonderful things, they're very precious.
Amen.
I'm afraid other people wouldn't appreciate them.
Why not, daddy?
Because other people don't see things the way you do.
Come on out.
Let's go to bed.
And don't you worry.
Things are going to come right somehow.
A gentle breeze, from hush of my mountain, softly blows, or lullabies,
or by bay, it fills the sails of boats that are waiting, waiting to sail your worries away.
That isn't far to hush of my mountain, and your boat waits down by the key.
The winds of night so softly are sighing, soon they will fly your troubles to sea.
So close your eyes on hush of my mountain, wave goodbye to cares of the day, and watch your
boat from hush of my mountain, sail far away from lullabies, bay.
I love that song.
I'm going to show you my mountain from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and someone's going to be
singing it at the We're Seeing Theater Guild, did you cast it yet?
No, auditions for that will be coming up first weekend of September.
So those will be open to ages 10 and older, actually, of course, because there's quite
a few children in the production.
You know, I always wanted to have Broadway musicals handle that because they have to do performances.
I think it's every night except Monday, yeah, Monday, and I think Sunday nights I don't
do it at all.
They usually have multiple kids in most of their cast because of child labor laws, of course,
in school, and all of that.
Like you're dealing with kids, oh, and you can't yell at them, you can't threaten them.
It really is.
We have a lot of people who started as kids at the theater guild, and they've grown up,
and they talk about how they didn't realize how much they were learning about how to
be an adult and how to mature things like that and rules and expectations as they were
going through their shows.
And now they've grown into great human beings.
Jackie Cougan, who was a channeled actor back in the 30s and 20s in movies, and he wrote
a book.
And so Jackie Cougan was Uncle Fester on the Adams family.
He wrote a book, and the way they got him to act was they said, if you don't do this,
we're going to kill your dog, and that was the name of his book, we'll shoot your dog.
That was the name of his biography, but that's how, could you imagine doing that today?
Oh, my gosh, no.
They said, if you don't memorize this book, you can't do it.
I'm an adult.
And horrible.
All right.
Back to the fun stuff.
We got the habit coming in in April, just in time for spring.
Yes.
And of course, it's based on the J. R. R. Tolkien story that's kind of a prequel to Lord
of the Rings.
We meet Bilbo Baggins who just wants to stay at home and be cozy and enjoy his food.
And all of a sudden, he gets asked to go on this journey with these dwarfs who are looking
for a ring.
And so he's miserable, the weather's awful, the terrain is terrible.
He just, there's no good food.
But, and he doesn't really know what he has to offer.
He doesn't quite know why Gandalf has asked him to do this.
And he learns a lot about, you know, he actually does have a lot to offer to this journey and
to helping others.
And so it's a great, great kind of experience for him.
And of course, people love that series, love that story and have so many connections
to it.
It's one of the most popular books of all time.
So I think we're going to have a lot of fun with that in April.
And then you got the big, seizing finale musical.
Yes.
Yes.
Pippin, the big, big, closer for the 88th season, you know, it's picked a great musical
at the end of the season.
And Pippin is a Broadway classic, spin, the original star Ben Varene.
Yes, Ben Varene was the lead player, yes.
Yes.
Irene Ryan, who was granny on the Beverly Hill Pillar, he's first on Broadway.
Yes.
He was the old woman in the ass.
And Chiever refers to herself as granny in one of the songs still, yeah.
Okay.
So let's talk about Pippin.
So Pippin will be opening up in May.
It is, of course, written by Steven Schwartz, who everyone is kind of on the radar right
now because of Wicked.
So this is one of his first musical ventures.
It's about a young prince who feels like he has the way the world on his shoulders and
all these expectations about what his life should be.
And you know, he goes off to war, he tries to find love, he, you know, has a father that
he's trying to please.
And it's kind of his journey to find out what he truly wants and what truly matters in
life too.
With some beautiful songs, like you just played corner of the sky, oh my gosh, can you
think of any of those right now?
All the songs.
All the songs are great that I can't remember off the top of my head.
But it's, yeah, so it's, it's, we are introduced to this story.
It's another one of those almost to play within a play, but we're introduced to it by
the players, including the lead player who was Ben Vrenz, because they roll into town
and they are putting on this story of Pippin for all of us to see and learn from.
Well, I can't wait.
I got to wait.
May 15th.
That's going to take us into the Memorial Day weekend, wow, but it all kicks off with
a drowsy shaperone July 18th to 27th next week to get nervous in the openings.
It's weird.
I actually get jetters and I don't even go on stage if there's a mistake.
I'm going to do better next time.
Okay, drowsy shaperone, the importance of being earnest, Dracula, comedy of terrors,
chitty, chitty bang, bang, rip cord, the girl on the train, the hobbit, and Pippin,
what a great season.
Yes.
Yes.
I got my tickets.
You got yours?
People can still get season tickets.
They can come.
And that's the best way to save the most money throughout the whole season.
We also have flex passes that help you pick and choose.
If you maybe only want to come to one show, but you're bringing a bunch of people, that's
also a great cost saving.
And then, of course, individual tickets for all of our shows are on sale now.
So like you were talking about, if someone's got chitty, chitty, bang, bang on the radar,
if they're thinking about the hobbit any April, they can already go to our website and
get those tickets.
And here's the thing.
Yes.
You buy on recene theater dot org only don't buy from any of the third parties.
We do not have any affiliation with third party resellers because they'll charge you
four times.
They will charge out the nose.
So luckily, I haven't seen many of these on some of those third pretty websites.
Maybe we've, I'm going to say that now, and of course, we're going to appear everywhere.
We've got beyond that.
But yeah, the only place you should be buying tickets is recene theater dot org, or of
course, through our box office, which you can call at 262-633-420 or stop in Monday through
Friday 12 to 6 p.m.
Very important.
Very important.
Hey, Jocelyn Fish who's director of marketing and development.
It's time for that kind of my head now.
Yeah, look at that.
I couldn't think of it.
We only been talking for like two years or something.
The record of marketing development for the recene theater guild and we're going to
have you back time and time again for all the shows and so now you're casting for which
show?
We're in the middle of casting for Ernest and then we'll have Dracula auditions at the
end of August.
We'll have Chidi Chai Bang Bang auditions in September and then throughout the fall.
So if people are interested in being involved, either backstage on stage, what have you that
can go to our website under the Join us tab and there's volunteer and audition info.
I know who wrote Chidi Chidi Bang Bang.
And Sherwin Brothers did the music.
No, who wrote his story?
I don't know.
It was Ian Fleming in between all those James Bond books.
He wrote this one children's book.
Chidi Chidi Bang Bang.
Then he went back to writing Thunderball and Dr. No and all those great, great, great
Bond shows.
Thank you, Jocelyn.
Thank you.
Thanks for having me.
We appreciate it.
We'll be back soon.
I'm sure.
Yes.
I'll tell you when you're back.
