And for my guest, you're here.
Jocelyn Fish, who's director of marketing and development for the recene theater guild
is here.
And pretty soon we're going to.
And this is what actors do.
They make a grand difference.
Well, it does not help when it is snowing like crazy outside and people don't know how
to drive and, you know, nothing salted.
And so we'll see you, Linda.
Linda McClanahan's going to be here.
See is one of the stars of rip cord, which is opening this Friday night at the recene
theater guild.
It's always big when it opens.
You guys are extra nervous on opening night.
I mean, I just get to market the show.
So that's nice.
The actors and crew.
I know there's always like a level of what's going to happen.
And that's kind of the cool thing about theater is, you know, even though you've rehearsed
it and rehearsed it and rehearsed it.
It's a live event and you never know how the audience is going to react, especially
with a show like this rip cord is a comedy.
With a lot of heart, it actually does a couple of gun, gun punches, I would say throughout
the script as well.
It's about two ladies who live in a system living facility and Linda's character of Abby
wants her room to herself.
And then Don Van S plays her new roommate, Marilyn.
And so she's this sunny, happy, go lucky person.
And Abby wants to kick Marilyn out of her room.
And it's a head to head battle of who's going to stay in the room and who's going to go
and they make a bet and try to make the other leave.
Well, the director of the show is not Doug Instantans normally.
He directs a lot of the shows there.
This is Beth Johnston Bush.
Yes.
Talk about her.
Yes.
So Beth also directed over the river and through the woods last January.
She's been involved with the theater guild a few years.
Her husband Randy is a pastor up in Milwaukee, so they moved back to the area.
Oh, I don't know, like three years ago or so.
So she's taking the reins on this one and getting them all in shape.
I was at rehearsal last night and it's, you know, those moments when all the sound lights
acting costumes props are all really coming together and get ready for open and night.
I think I'd be terrified because I'd be so afraid of forget my lines.
I mean, I got to have the callators here in front of my face.
And you know, I've been here 27 years and I still have to have in front of my face.
I don't know.
And the thing is if somebody feeds you a wrong line, it's like how am I going to
how am I going to say that's got to be a little bit of improv on top of things.
Well, that's going to be I guess you can do some improv to get back on track again, but
it's got to be terrifying.
Yeah.
I mean, the whole thing, the theater is a flow of conversation.
And so, you know, how are you reacting to what the person is saying to you and how are
you talking to them physically, verbally.
All those things that an audience can connect with you on.
Let's talk a little bit about Chitty, Chitty, bang bang, which is you ended up run there.
It was a big Christmas show.
It was great.
Yeah.
I mean, what a cast and the singing, the dancing, and I was telling you before we got
on the air, the old bamboo is a dance they do use.
And there she is.
Come on.
Let's go.
Doors open.
Let's go.
She's here.
And I was so worried when they're dealing with these bamboo canes, they're going to smack
each other in the face with it.
And I couldn't watch it.
They didn't do it.
But I just thought they would come on back here, Linda.
Come on.
Yeah.
They rehearsed with those bamboo sticks a lot to those were very close to each other's
face.
At least in the movies, somebody gets smack.
All right.
Get another guy in there.
This guy's bleeding.
Hi, Linda.
How are you?
Good morning.
Good morning.
Good morning.
I see you made it through the big snows of Kilimanjaro back there.
Even if, yeah, the sharper got lost.
They got your sled dogs outside and everything, mushing your weight to the snow.
You know, this is the cool thing about our volunteers is they were led to head rehearsal.
I don't know.
What time did you guys finish up last night, Linda?
10 o'clock.
Yeah.
Last night we got out about, about 10, the night before it was about 11, 30.
Yeah.
And so now she's up bright and early just to see your face, doc.
She brought her, she brought her book with it.
Yeah.
And that's, that's what you guys have to do.
You're scum.
Let me see that for a second.
All highlighted groups.
Yes.
All kinds of notes about lines and stuff.
I couldn't do this.
And Linda and Don both have no, for any roles, these are very, very large line loads for
their characters and they are talking to each other a lot and they're having full
conversations with other characters a lot.
So it's a lot to remember on top of the block, you know, on top of which crime to bring
on on top.
People are always, don't always realize that we, we also have to, the whole thing is choreographed,
you know, we don't walk where we want to.
We walk specific places, specific times and you got to memorize that along with all these
lines.
Yeah.
And Don and I, you know, this is two senior women in a senior facility and we are both
definitely senior and like Don said to the Beth one day, she says, you do realize we really
are old ladies, not even know what date is sometimes, but we're getting there.
Yeah.
It's really coming along.
Last night, there's a scene with Linda and Len Mackie and Mackie plays her son and
it is a very, this is the gut punch moment again.
This is a very comedic show, but there's a couple of moments and as I tell you Linda,
I got a little choked up last night watching that scene because it gets very serious and
it's a very real conversation between two people in the middle of this really funny over
the top comedy.
Yeah.
Just quite something.
Yeah.
No, I was watching the, listen to the commentary the other day for as good as it gets for Jack
Nicholson and Helen Hunt.
Oh, yeah.
And these Jack Nicholson always had trouble with his lines.
And even in some, he used to write them on baby's diapers because he had trouble remembering
lines.
And you never know if it's in the final product that he's amazing in these movies, even
in a few good men.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You want me on that ball.
You need me on that ball.
You can't handle the truth.
Yeah.
I mean, he was amazing in those roles, but he couldn't remember his lines and that's
ways out of acting now.
He said he can't remember anything anymore.
Yeah.
We were talking about writing a part of the script on the, you know, the pillows and the bed.
And I used my, my tablet a lot, my iPad a lot.
And I was thinking about, you know, could I put the script on that, but, but I got use
it all the time.
Yeah.
Well, when you guys ran the sunshine boys several years ago, oh, yeah, one of the actors
was got set.
Yes.
And Jerry.
Jerry would now had a detached right now.
Yeah.
And so Norm had to step into it.
Right.
And he actually had the book in his hand all that he did it in such a way where you didn't
pay attention to the book, even though he would glance down at it, but he would glance
around.
You know, he's looking at the book.
That's good.
Yeah.
I mean, you can come in at the last minute, not in the whole, wow, that's, that's great
stuff.
So we're going to talk more.
I want to know what you do, what you do in real life, we're going to talk about that
in a moment.
We have some other show us at the Racine Theatre Guild.
And we're going to talk more about Ripcord, which opens up this Friday night, you nervous
about that, Linda?
Yeah.
Yeah.
You don't look like a nervous type.
I'm, I'm sound asleep.
That's what I'm talking about.
No, we are nervous.
Mostly because we, we, you know, we've been working hard.
It's a really good cast.
We love the director.
The audience deserves our best.
So, you know, we really want to, want to do that.
Yeah.
We're talking to, we've got Jocelyn Fish here, director of marketing development for
the Racine Theatre Guild.
And is it an actor actress?
I think it's actor, isn't it?
We have people pretty much, yeah, we'll go.
Actor.
Actor.
Linda Kleinhan from the latest production of the Racine Theatre Guild, Ripcord, which opens
up this Friday.
For people just tuning in, Jocelyn, give us a quick synopsis of Ripcord.
So, Ripcord is about Linda's character, Abby and Don Van Us's character, Marilyn's
living in an assisted living room together.
And Abby wants the room to herself.
She wants to be alone.
She wants her sunshine in corner and she just wants to read and peace.
And Marilyn is not that kind of person.
Marilyn is all energy, all sunshine, all in her business.
And so, they decide to make a bet to see if they can get the other to leave the room.
And they start to play pranks on each other.
There is a haunted house.
Haskellates.
Like crazy.
There is skydiving involved.
There is all kinds of family drama involved, so it's a comedy.
But then there are some really, really heartfelt moments as well.
Now, give us a little background on you, Linda.
You're a Dominican nun.
I'm a Dominican sister.
Yes, I am.
But long before I was a sister, I was a sergeant in the US Army, which included time in
Vietnam.
It's tough.
I get that a lot.
Yeah.
So, as my brother says, now I really work for the commander in chief, but I got involved
in the theater guilt, though, in 1995, when I moved here from California.
The first play I auditioned for was Happen to Be From My Favorite Book, which is to
Kill a Mockingbird.
Oh, I love that, yeah.
And then I played Mrs. DeBose, you know, the cranky old neighbor with you.
Don't you say, hey, to me, you ugly little girl, you know, that kind of thing.
I used to play characters.
This is a lot of, a lot more lines than I've ever had to deal with.
So, you cranky in real life?
Um, Beth once asked me, she says, I think you really have captured, you know, Abby's essence.
And I said, well, I was Abby for 11 years after Vietnam, you know, leave me alone, don't
talk to me.
So, what's your assurgent in the military with the boss people around when you get out
of the military?
Well, I've also been supervisors and managers and things like that.
I was a counselor for 20 years, working with military and little kids who were traumatized,
post-rantic stress.
I don't call it a disorder, it's not a disorder, it's an injury.
But anyway, so I do a lot of work with that.
And then I've retired and now I work a volunteer at the Hope Center downtown.
I think it involved the Dominican sisters, somebody from Vietnam, I just, you think of,
you think of the sisters as being calm, sweet, and quiet.
You're a lovely person, but you ain't calm, so why?
Well, yeah, somebody looked at me and said, boy, you're not your mother's nuns, that's
for sure.
You know, well, our Dominican sisters are quite, you know, we're seeing the Dominican
sisters are quite involved in justice issues and all kinds of things.
So it really is a, I'm very glad to be part of them.
We've done some really good work.
I mean, we started the healthcare network, we started a Bethany apartments and St.
Catharines High School and I'm going to forget all the others at the J Center.
And anyway, lots of senior companion program.
So there's a lot of things around town that we've been part of.
And of course, since the schools, you know, except for St. Catharines, we're still
up.
So how did you get into the acting part?
How many shows have you been in at the Guild?
I'm not really sure.
I think I've been in about nine.
I've worked backstage for many shows too, which I love to do.
I love to do props and ASM, assistant stage manager, you know, giving people cues.
Hey, get out here.
I'm being a sergeant.
Yeah.
I'm a bossy.
So on my daughter, I was stayed when she was a little, I said, she'll make a good military
officer.
She was little.
She was bossy, bossy, bossy, where you should say she was telling kids that you play
over there.
You're going to play with this toy.
Yeah.
It's not bossy.
He's kids around and never going to come back here again.
Now she's married.
She's in her mid 40s.
She's still bossing people around as she's, she was a natural boss.
And then the last show you were in on stage.
I think it was sound of music.
Okay.
Yeah.
I played sister Bertha, the, you know, the, you know, okay, she climbs a tree and shrinks
her knee.
Yeah.
The cranky one again.
Okay.
So let's start with ripples.
So this opens up this Friday night.
Yes.
Friday.
It's really funny.
I mean, it has some really good lines.
How do you get tickets for this?
Now, again, we've got to mention this now, there are only two ways to get tickets.
There are no other ways.
You think there might be other ways, but there are only two ways.
Yes.
It's recene theater or our website go to our website, not any other third party ticket
resellers.
Go to the recene theater dot org or you can stop in to the box office or give them a
call at two six two six three three four two one eight.
Best thing to do is get your butt down there in person.
Yeah.
There's always somebody there willing to take your money and give you things.
And this is so reasonably priced.
And come on.
And the, you know, if you've ordered them online, you, you actually can see the, the
layout.
Yeah.
But yeah, I have the same seats for about.
19 years.
So it's cool.
Yeah.
The really cool thing about this show and about every show at the theater is we have so many
volunteers involved from all walks of life.
So, you know, Linda's are our veteran dawns of retired music teacher.
We've got Matthew in this.
We've got Colleen.
We've got Len.
We've got Rich.
We've got Benson involved.
We've got Benson's involved.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Davidson.
Yeah.
Davidson's working on it.
There's always a Benson involved in one of your show.
I mean, they got like five Benson's and this time you got Megan Benson who's a Gerard
to Cosm.
And what's PSM?
PSM is the production, production stage manager.
So she is gathering all the volunteers to work behind the scenes and then she's making
sure they're doing their jobs.
Right.
She's got a lot on her plate right now.
Yeah.
You know, I'm looking at the call board.
I don't know how I got this.
I may be from being a season subscriber, so you get the call board, which is a really
big thing.
Yeah.
It gives you a little background information at the show.
This one has an interview that I did with Dawn talking about her experience at the theater.
So it's a nice way to highlight what we've got coming up to.
Okay.
I love working with Dawn.
Well, everybody.
The whole cast is there.
Yeah.
You two are.
Yeah.
So about the next three shows you got coming up.
The one to a mystery.
I've seen the movie, The Girl on the Train.
Yes.
The train will open at the end of February.
Doug Scott has first reading, I think tonight, if I remember correctly, then we got the
Hobbit.
The Hobbit auditions for the Hobbit.
In case anyone wants to be on stage, it is a straight play.
There's no music in it.
It is a play.
Hobbit auditions are Monday and Tuesday next week, so it will actually come get involved
and then it goes up on stage in April.
Yeah.
It's Lord of the Rings.
No prior, no prior experience.
No prior experience.
No prior experience.
Then you've got the big Broadway smash musical Pippin coming up.
Oh, yes.
Pippin also has auditions coming up.
I've just said that, or I'm sending that email out, I think at eight o'clock this morning.
But auditions for that will be February 28th and March 1st.
And then that goes into rehearsal right away in March and opens up May 15th and runs
through the 31st.
We got Benson's in all these shows.
We shall see.
I love the grandma and Pippin.
I thought about doing that, but you know, Martha Ray is one of my heroes, you know.
Okay.
Children's Theater.
I'm looking at a list here.
We have a Sunday show up in February in the SpongeBob musical Youth Edition.
Portland High School is coming to perform that first weekend of February, so that will
be February 6th through the 8th and then lover B Valentine is in March as well as part
of the Children's Theater.
You got the whiskey bells for a limited edition show on Saturday, February 21th.
Yeah.
21.
Yes, the 21.
That's something.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And the, let's see, the signature series, nothing until June.
Not, we do have an April show right there, right from my face.
The Royal Melodies.
That's for kids.
So that's a 45 minute concert with some of their favorite princes and princesses singing
their songs.
And then the other thing that I don't think you have is our Gene's Jazz series has started.
And our next Gene's Jazz concert is going to be the 14th.
And that is the Steve Pepplin and Neil Davis.
I'm switching their names around one, the two guitar duo and then harmonious whale, which
actually features some of our ever seen needed.
I do have Gene's Jazz.
I just can't believe it.
I thought I heard it out.
I'm here to help you.
Don.
Well, this is great rip core.
We'll be giving tickets away to rip court for the Saturday night performance.
It's always good.
I mean, every show in here is good.
And I mean, even I've never heard of a lot of these shows and I was surprised by how
good they are.
Yeah.
This is a newer comedy, too.
David Linsley there is known for rabbit holes, one of his more popular ones, Kimberly
or Kim Bo.
But this is, he kind of has this style of comedy of a reality that's funny, funny, funny,
and then again, a couple of gut punches in there to really bring it back down to the reality
of rip court.
What a ticket process for a rip court.
$20 is a top ticket price.
That's a hard one.
You know, if you want to go to a Broadway musical now, it's minimum $200.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's if you can get seats for it.
I mean, when I saw Chitty Chitty back bang on Broadway years ago, it was $125.
Yeah.
And now it's, and Hamilton, forget it.
You got to mortgage your house.
Sell you.
I had no kidding.
I mean, you got to be an indentured servant, if you want to see that show on Broadway.
All right.
Okay.
Once a quick review, rip court opens up Friday at the scene theater guild.
Tickets are available.
If you do one of two things, you either go to the box office, get your butt down there
in person on Northwestern Avenue or you can go to recene theater dot org, recene theater
dot org.
There were a third party people that are going to charge you three times the price, do not
do it.
No, recene theater dot org.
If you don't see the happy faces of the recene theater people on there, do not buy
the tickets.
I was going, well, I'm all the time, but if I have to exchange it, I do it in person.
Yeah.
I don't trust the internet for some reason.
I trust the smiley faces of the ladies at the box office, all the guys at the box office.
Yeah.
Well, good luck with the show.
I'm looking forward to it.
You get a wave to me, see me?
No.
You're in the dark.
And I don't worry.
My glasses on stage.
I sit pretty close to the front.
I like it.
The people who redo the stage.
Yeah.
I mean, they rebuild it in the show.
Just about.
Oh, what's left of it?
I mean, the entire group of volunteers.
So we have a lot of people that come in and we handpaint the stage for every show.
We build it up.
There must be four layers, six layers that can paint easily, easily.
And then this one, we've got a built up platform.
We've got a really interesting structure for the apartment itself.
It will be to see it in person is really quite something, you're at first, you're like,
what is it?
And then they're like, oh, it's the apartment.
Well, it's a, yeah, the senior facility is there, yeah, our own on the third floor.
So.
Well, thank you guys for schlepping through the snow.
I do appreciate it.
Yeah.
Thanks, Don.
Linda McLean, a hand who is one of the stars of the latest production record at the
receiving theater.
And of course, Jocelyn Fisher joins us all the time, director of marketing and development
of the receiving theater.
Thank you guys for coming in.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
I had tickets for the last weekend.
Great.
Okay.
I figured by the last weekend, everybody knows they're blind.
I was going to say by that time we might have the lights.
That's why I was one of the last weekend.
Yeah.
I was the first one.
Yeah.
And of course, we'll be giving tickets away shortly.
And maybe you can win a pair.
Thank you guys for coming in.
Take care.
