Well, we go from the day the music died to music on stage at the Racine Theatre Guild.
And with me is Jocelyn Fish, director of marketing and development for the Racine
Theatre Guild.
And thanks, Jocelyn, for coming by.
Of course.
What year is this for the guild?
The 80s?
80s?
No.
Well, itself is, it's 88th season.
88th?
88th.
The middle of our 88s season.
Yeah, this is our 99th year here, so it's not that far apart.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Okay, so normally we talk about the latest show coming up.
But before we talk about all the shows straight ahead, I got to tell you, it's our rip
chord with my wife this past weekend.
In the 37 years I've been going there, this could be my favorite show.
I think it, I think it touched so many audience members in so many wonderful ways and even
in this, you know, it's really nice to have a show like this in the middle of a very,
very cold streak of weather, too.
You know, you come out of the house, you sit in the theater, you kind of warm up a little
with this story that makes you laugh, makes you a little sad at point.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And really great chemistry between the cast and the crew and the audience is just, we're
just loved it, which was so wonderful.
Well, Sister Sards, Linda.
Yes.
Was in here.
And she's got a personnel.
Yeah, she does.
Yeah, yeah.
But the chemistry between her and the other lead.
I can't.
Dawn.
Dawn Venice.
Yeah.
The chemistry between those two made the whole show because you really believe these two
characters were on television.
Yeah.
And it was so well done, the surprises, the shocks and everything else and I don't know
who picked that.
No, who picked that as the show you're going to perform is it a committee play reading
committee?
And you know, that's one of the really cool things is that that is a show that people
don't know.
And so I think people were really surprised how much it meant to them, sitting in the audience
and watching it because they think, oh, it's only the big names that make an impact.
And it's like, no, this is a newer show that really hits you.
Yeah, I was, I was really, we felt great after it was over.
We told my wife and I talked about it.
And it was so good.
Ripcord, if you missed it, that's your part.
All right.
Now we've got something for the kids coming up this weekend.
Yes.
SpongeBob musical youth edition.
Yes.
So under our receiving children's theater umbrella, which is actually, and it's 93rd season.
Whoa.
Yeah.
Older than the theater guild.
Horla Ky School, theater arts department has been working on this.
It is a musical based off of SpongeBob, the Nickelodeon TV show.
It was very big on Broadway.
This is the youth audition.
So it will be an hour long, $7 tickets, which is great.
But if you look at who did music on this show, it is everyone from plain white teas to
I believe Stevie Nicks to like the people that have worked on music for this musical is
quite a plethora of things.
So that will open this Friday, the 6th of February at 6 p.m.
And then have performances on Saturday and Sunday, the 7th and 8th at 12 to and 4 p.m.
So again, $7, you can get it in before the Super Bowl on Sunday, so you can still come
see it on Sunday before the Super Bowl kickoff.
So yeah, it's a really fun time.
Great way to introduce kids to theater.
I know I'm not the target audience, but I just never got the SpongeBob squarepants thing,
but young people love it.
They do.
And it's something.
They just love it.
It keeps the fun of the cartoon alive on stage, which is wonderful.
And they came over last night and they were rehearsing and blocking and singing their
little hertz out.
SpongeBob is there.
SpongeBob is there.
Yes.
Again, I know I'm not the target audience, but people, young people love it.
Yes.
Squidward, Mr. Krabs, all those people.
Well, it was Mr. Krabs.
Mr. Krabs.
I don't like the sound of it.
Okay.
And coming up on Valentine's Day is Gene's Chaz.
Our next Gene's Chaz concert is the Neil Davis and Steve Pepplin guitar duo.
And then Harmony as well.
I do know that there's probably only about 100-ish tickets left for this one.
So if you want to date night, I would say get on that sooner than later.
The guitar duo is obviously going to be doing it up with guitars.
And then Harmony as well, actually Sims Delaney pot-hoff is a member of it.
He has a recene native.
So that is a group that will be bringing some great jazz to the theater.
A little gypsy jazz actually is their theme on the 14th at 7 p.m.
Coming up and a little bit of addition will be the whiskey bells.
This is coming up the next week at Valentine's Day, February 21th.
The 21st, the 21st, that's 730.
So the whiskey bells is a local group here.
It's a trio of women that pay tribute to classic country, modern country, blue grass,
et cetera, and so forth.
They take inspiration from everything from the chicks to Hank Williams and then I have
some of their own music as well.
So it will be a great, again, a great white night to escape the cold and come spend an
evening in the theater.
I know that they performed a lot of local outdoor venues and things like that.
So this is our first time having them and we're very excited about it.
You guys ate like the king and I.
It's seta.
It's seta.
It's seta.
It's seta.
You're going to say it like that.
It's seta.
Jocelyn Fish, director, marketing and development for the scene, recene theater guild
is with me this morning.
And we're talking about all the shows coming up for February.
You've just tuning in.
We'll do a quick review before she leaves.
Let's talk about the next show up after Ripcord.
It's a mystery of a girl on the train.
Yes.
I would really, it's interesting.
And I don't know if I categorized it as a mystery.
It is a psychological thriller though.
So like it's its neighbor, I guess.
So this is based off of the bestselling book by Apollo Hawkins and then it was turned
into a movie that starred Emily Blunt.
Good movie, by the way.
So it is a very, very theatrical show because Rachel, our main character is having a lot
of uncertainty about what is reality and what is her memory and what has she been gaslighted
into believing.
She, the pretty much the premise of the show is that she's on the train and sees this
very perfect couple from the window every single day and she wants to be them and then
the woman in that couple goes missing and she somehow becomes a suspect, but also an
investigator in this missing woman.
And it is, it's quite something.
It will be really interesting to see it all stage.
They're right into rehearsals right now.
They're going to move on to the stage probably next week and get ready to open on February
27th and run through March 15th.
Now there was an Alfred Hitchcock movie because we have every Alfred Hitchcock movie
on Saturday in Blu-ray.
It was called Lady on the Train.
Oh.
And it's, she's traveling on a train and through one of the apartment building windows,
she sees a murder.
And of course, you know, it's trying to get people to believe you and find the exact
spot.
No trace of the murder, but she did see it.
She saw it.
Yeah.
Lady on the train.
That was in the 1930s Alfred Hitchcock movie.
Yeah.
This is, I love the movie with Emily Blondon.
Yeah.
I'd love to see it on the stage.
Yeah.
I think it will be really interesting.
And Kudos, whoever designs the stage for these shows, I mean, even for Ripcord, you
had to do a scareshell cemetery type book show.
Multiple things happening on this stage once and you still had to keep that bedroom scene
on stage.
Right.
And you said you had it.
You had it.
Whoever does that.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That one was, so we contract in actually local set designer.
So that was Steve Barnes.
He lives here in Racine and he works for all kinds of companies, theater companies in the
area.
Sarah had Frank works with us and she'll be doing the Hobbit.
And then Liz Otto Kramer is also one of our main set designers as long as well as
M Allen who is doing the girl on the train one, which there are some really cool train
track situations happening in that design.
So you guys have one little problem that most theaters don't have.
You don't have a curtain to bring down.
No curtain.
No curtain.
Everything's done right.
So I think that's really the one.
The cool things is that you see the theater magic truly unfolding in front of you because
you see every moment of a set change or a scenic change or what have you do the black
out.
I mean, yes, yes.
But you know, it's the audience is part of the entire production.
They are part of every single moment, not just witnessing the acting, obviously, but
seeing all these great volunteer crew members coming in and changing the set, setting the
props, etc.
And so forth.
And even the back, wherever that is in the back on the back wall, it's got to be usable
in so many different scenes.
For sure.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I'm amazed by every time I see the set designs for these shows, right?
Yeah.
And then you got to make them all useful.
Right.
And then you got to have the people with the black shirts changing everything around and
the blackouts and getting them the right.
And Jane Cernick is our technical director.
So she gets those designs from the scenic designers and then her crew.
She's got kind of a crew of volunteers backstage, which we are always looking for, especially
in construction that build those sets and build all those elements.
So it's quite the process.
And as you can see, this is a very tight turnaround.
We just closed rip-cord on February 1st and we open, grow on the train on February 27th.
That is 26 days to get everything together.
Everything's cast for the show.
Yes.
Okay.
Now the Hobbit.
Is that all cast?
I have not seen the official cast list.
I don't Parker was working on it.
We had over 55 people, I think, audition for the show.
Yes.
Wonderful turnout.
Very excited people.
So that is getting into…
A couple of bensions in there.
Don't know.
We'll find out, I guess.
That one is going to get into rehearsals so that will run in April, actually.
And that also has the outreach performances for local schools.
So if there are schools that may want to attend, they can call the box office at 6-3-3-4-2-1-8.
And we will get them that information.
And then we actually also at the end of February, we'll be having Pippin Audition.
So Pippin will go up in May, but auditions are actually going to be February 28th and
March 1st.
See, that's tricky because you got to sing and dance.
Yeah.
I mean, that's a big…
And that is Bob Fossy dancing, too.
Yes.
You know.
Very strategic movements, very, you know, Ben Verine as the lead player on the original
Broadway production and then Patina Miller in the revival, just the movement of everyone
in that show.
And great songs in that show.
Great songs.
Great songs.
Great songs in That is also interesting for me to listen and and you'll be better
singing bass.
Yes, yes.
And so I think that, that's a great show as well because it has a lot of, uh, very wide age range
range.
Yeah.
Yeah.
In the original Broadway cast of Pippin was Irene Ryan, who played Granny on the Beverly
Hill buildings and they even make a reference to her in one of the songs by Granny.
Yeah.
They call me Granny, which was really good.
I told you my Pippin story, didn't I?
Yes.
Yes.
Okay.
I'll tell you what we're talking about Pippin.
When we come up to it.
Yeah.
I, uh, I made a big mistake in life and I won't do that again.
Okay.
Let's do a quick review of all the shows we got.
You can spend your entire February at the Receding Theater Guild is really the just
I'm putting it up.
I'm putting it up.
I can't in the lobby.
I'm camping out there.
Okay.
Good.
I'm just getting this one of the electrical sockets for breakfast.
Yeah.
That works.
That works.
If you make me an egg every morning, we'll be right.
I'll make an omelette.
I am the best omelette maker that I know, but even my wife says I make the best omelettes.
I mean, you put it what you want in them.
I put the right ingredients and my eggs have a secret ingredient, heavy whipped cream,
heavy cream.
I put it in it so it makes the eggs fluffy.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I'll prepare that.
Okay.
Let's talk about the theater.
Yes.
Let's talk about the children's theater first because that's coming up real soon.
First week in the February, February 6th through 8th, we have the SpongeBob musical youth
edition coming up.
Again, those are $7 tickets for all ages.
So it's a really, really great way to introduce kids to theater only an hour long.
They also get to meet the cast and crew afterwards and get some autographs and photos from
them.
And so Horlick, um, lots of students at Horlick are coming over to perform that, which
is just wonderful.
Well, and now looking ahead there, love Ruby Allen time.
What's that?
It's coming up in March.
That's coming up in March.
That's based off of the book.
Um, and uh, sense of how it's bugging a rug production is coming down to do that.
It's about what you just say, bugging a rug.
That's what their production company is called.
And so that's a based off of a book.
It's about Ruby who loves Valentine's Day.
It is her favorite holiday.
She makes all these cards and she's so tired that she sleeps through Valentine's Day.
Oh.
And so she doesn't know what to do.
And she learns that you can tell people that you love them any day of the year, kind
of fighting.
It's a very, very sweet show.
Usually when the guy sleeps through Valentine's Day, he does avoid spending all that money.
But yeah, okay.
Yeah.
That's it.
Yeah.
But that will be a very, it's a very sweet, very heartwarming show.
So that will be great.
Yeah, that's coming up, uh, and a mid march and a march look like that.
How do you cast children in these shows?
That's got to be.
So children's theater, we actually contract in different groups.
So like Horlick has contracted in to bring in their students, Gilmour Fine Arts came
and did that and bugging the rug, well, too.
But yeah, you got to hurt extra cats when it comes to kids and you can't, you can't be
raped and yell at them because they didn't do something right.
No, it's a great learning process, actually.
They learn a lot about what their personal responsibility is and how to project their
voice and their body movement and they really build a lot of confidence throughout the
process of being in a show.
Well, the kids in Chitty, Chitty Bang, Bang and the best Christmas page in ever, they
were great.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Some of them are like just little professionals.
Is this the career they want?
Some of them, yes, very much so want to be an actor, want to be, you know, it's studying
theater.
We have actually a lot of people that started as kids at the theater guild that went
on to study theater, you know, kind of idea, which is a really cool bridge to build.
Do you tell them there's a light on Broadway for every broken heart?
Well, you know, we're really fortunate in this area that like regional theaters, especially
up in Milwaukee and down in Chicago and, um, in theapolis, you know, the Midwest has some
really, really phenomenal regional theaters that a lot of people get involved with too.
I really, and coming up Jeans Jazz, Valentine.
On Valentine's Day.
On Valentine's Day.
Yes, at 7 p.m.
So that will be the Neil Davis and Steve Pepplin guitar duo and then harmonious well as
well.
And then the guitar jazz and then some gypsy jazz that night.
Just look ahead then.
Jeans jazz.
Do you have March 28th?
Yes.
I think it's case.
It's case or cost.
It starts with a K. So I'm going to go with that.
And then the Hannah Johnson trio.
So case is going to be very interesting.
It's actually turn tables and live music.
So that will be really interesting, um, Jamie Brevick is leading that group.
And then Hannah Johnson and her trio, Hannah's a drummer.
So she's got a couple of other musicians coming in with her.
You don't find too many female drummers.
As a matter of fact, it was very nice.
I've had great conversations with her.
I was in church.
You have it in the young girl sits in front of me.
She's one of the drummers in the in the band in chair.
Cool.
And I was talking to her.
I said, I can only think of two female drummers.
One was the woman from the group, the honeycomb, have either right huge hit song in 65 and Karen
Carpenter.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I can't think of any other female drummers that made it big, but obviously there are.
Yes.
Yes.
And uh, sat of the April 25th is Eric Jacobson, the music of Clifford Brown, Joy Spring.
Yes.
So I had not heard of one of my favorite things about jazz in particular.
It's not a genre I'm familiar with.
So when I get these artists, I do a lot of research on them or who they are.
So Clifford, um, wrote this piece, Joy Spring, in tribute to his wife and it became kind
of his legacy.
Cause he died very young.
I think he died at like 28, maybe, maybe 38.
I might be getting that wrong, um, but so Eric Jacobson has come in and done this before
he did it with Miles Davis music.
And so that was so wonderfully received that he's back to play the trumpet for us some
more.
And in the limit of the edition series to whiskey bells coming in on February 21th, yes,
yes.
The whiskey bells.
Lots of great country music.
It's a trio of local ladies who also play tribute to bluegrass have some of their own
music.
It's going to be a really fun night to spend at this year, but on the main stage, which
is actually the same stage for all the children we're talking about is girl on the train.
Yes.
I called it a mystery.
You called it a psychological thriller.
Yes.
So I think it's, um, I would say that this one might be a adult content in adult language.
So just think about that who you're bringing with you.
There was some adult words in the report.
I called me by surprise.
I didn't mind.
It just got me by surprise.
So girl on the train, um, it, it's about, uh, based off of the book, based off the movie
and Rachel sees, uh, this perfect couple from the window and she's so obsessed with them
and wants to be them.
And then the woman disappears and she starts to have flashbacks and confuse reality with
memories and it's really, really, um, you get inside her mind a little bit and in the
complicated web this weaves in her life.
So yeah, that will go up February 27th and run through March 15th.
And how do you get tickets for everything we're talking about?
Everything we're talking about.
Go to the recene theater dot org.
We've got all of those up there.
Uh, you can call the box office at 262 633, uh, 4208.
My goodness.
It's, uh, it could tell it's early.
The board helps us forgot a phone number.
And of course, the box office is also open Monday through Friday 12 to 6 p.m. and
then 90 minutes before every performance.
And we have to remind you, those are the only two ways you should get tickets either
online or go to the box office.
And we're seeing theater dot org or go to the box office in person, talk to one of
the many delightful people there.
Don't go to a third party website because they will be charging you three to four times
of the ticket to worth.
So again, if you're doing it online, we're seeing theater dot org is the only way to do
it.
Or if you're going there in person, just go to Northwestern Avenue to the theater itself
and the box office hours are generally open all day 12 to 6.
Yeah.
Thank you, Joshua.
Thanks so much, Don.
Thanks for having me.
So when we get closer to a girl in the train, we'll talk again.
