All the titles stacking up, I guess.
one guy with the face.
Yeah, that guy who did
which was
And
Yeah, it was super fun.
It was a very campy but family heartfelt Packers musical.
So we had a great time with that.
head.
Yeah.
And the great thing is, is, you know, we are a very collaborative group and we had people that were new and tried something for the first time.
And so it was a great, great team.
Oh,
Yes.
Yes, yes, yes.
That
that.
And he's giving it
The
It's a challenge.
I mean casting is one of the biggest things because there's so many talented people that come out and you have to decide who's right for that role in that moment and how are they going to work with everyone else and how do their voices sound.
There's so many layers that just go into the casting process and then once you're in the rehearsal process it's about time management and creativity and trying something new.
It's a whole fun.
That's why we stay in the theater world.
We get to play
I
he still
for an audition for every show
the Benz.
I know.
I got a whole bunch of them in play that goes wrong though.
Yeah.
The Benz was
loose.
Bob's
floating around, so
guy.
I was so happy to have him
up
Yes.
The title for this play is great because it tells you the plot in the title, which is wonderful.
But in a larger summation, it is about the Cornley Drama Society who is trying to put on the murder at Havershire Manor and
Everything keeps going wrong.
All they want to do is do a good show.
And lines are forgotten.
The dead body can't stay dead on stage.
They trip over each other.
They fight.
They hair pull.
They, you know, all kinds of just crazy things continue to go wrong.
It's a whole domino effect.
Everything quite literally comes crashing down at the end.
So it's very, very funny, very broad, huge hit in London and then came to Broadway, huge hit there.
This company that wrote this original piece now has like Peter Pan that goes wrong and Christmas Carol that goes wrong, kind of idea of things.
So it's gotten so popular that they're able to do these offshoots, but ours is the play that goes wrong.
How does it play
It's been really fun, especially to bring in the crew this week, this last week, and have them genuinely just cackling at some of the just absurdity of the moments, especially if you've ever done theater.
The show will make you, you know, oh, yes, I've been stuck in a moment like that where we couldn't remember what our next line was or what have you.
So it's very.
But for people that don't know theater, it's also just super.
It's kind of like someone described it as Monty Python meets plays, you know, or like putting together a play kind of idea, just very broad comedy, very over the top.
It's super fun.
Now, this is like noises off.
Yes.
You guys did that show too.
You've done noises off.
This is definitely like a nod to noises off.
There's a lot of plays like this actually that are, you know, a play within a play of everything.
falling to pieces.
Correct.
Yeah.
And this show, the stage directions of the original production relied very heavily on curtains and tabs coming in for a moment.
So we've worked out different ways of how to clear the set and move things and
So we have not only our cast of eight actors, two of whom are quote unquote backstage people, but are actually actors on stage.
And then we have five crew members that are running around backstage, making sure all the things that go wrong go wrong correctly.
Correct.
Yeah.
So we have a thrust stage.
It's a little easier.
What would you call it?
A thrust stage or a three-quarter stage.
Oh, look at you.
Look at using theater terms.
Theater terminology.
Showing off here.
So like we at least get the option to hide them behind the scenes in a way with our proscenium arch.
But yes, the theater in the round is much more challenging.
You have to have a lot less...
you know furniture and set pieces because everyone has to see at every angle.
So that's why they rely
right
Yeah, you have to see the actor at all times.
Wow.
And so, you know, if you go to the fireside, for instance, they have a pit that typically raises and lowers furniture for them or actors bring them on or what have you.
But it's a much more minimalist type set.
They
on the
occasionally.
We do.
Yeah.
This show we don't.
We just got the bombs and the main entrances, but there are some special effects that
Uh, you know, we want to make sure it go right.
Uh, we have backup plans in case they don't kind of idea, but there's, there's so much that goes wrong.
I don't want to spoil it.
I gotta ask you
Yes.
Yes, we have.
I mean, and it happens.
I mean, things first of all, we've had people getting car accidents on the way to the theater or are ill or what have you.
But yes, we have had a couple of times where someone slept through an alarm or rushed in the door 10 minutes before curtain because their babysitter fell through or, you know, life happens.
That's that's the thing.
And so you you make a
game plan for plan B, and you hope to do plan A, and sometimes you gotta do plan B.
Let's get going, I
yeah.
Wow.
And you know, you figure out, again, the biggest thing is figuring out how to move forward.
The show must go on kind of idea a lot of the time.
I went there once,
make it, something happened to
had a detached retina, Jerry Renauded.
And so Norm had to go.
Right.
And he
the script.
And
it
Yeah.
Yeah.
Wow.
So it happens.
And, you know, we don't do understudies at the theater guild.
We did a little bit right after COVID because people were getting sick and quarantining and stuff.
But, you know,
the same time when we've had instances like that, everyone steps up and shows like the true spirit of community theater.
We're going to work together and make this happen.
at the
ways to
You go in
Don't walk.
Run from
and your
Monday through Friday, Friday, 12 to 6 and 90 minutes before the performance.
You can also call them at 262-633-4218.
And
there we go.
Justin,
to
That's our ticketing website, yes.
The play that goes wrong is Doug.
He
director.
Is he
you.
This show is really interesting because so much of the comedy is about the timing of things.
So he has been like courier.
is interesting and it's almost a choreographed dance to some of the comedy and that's you know is good comedy is the timing the coordination especially there's
six people doing the same look at the same time.
And so it's been a lot of, you know, repeating a rehearsal moment of that, you know, type of stuff.
Gaslight,
And Angela Lansbury.
And Angela Lansbury.
An 18-year-old Angela Lansbury.
Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
So it is where the term gaslight comes from.
It's a kind of psychological, not quite thriller, but psychological.
of this gentleman and his wife and he goes out every evening and the gas lights in the house flicker and she wonders about that and there's strange sounds and she wonders about that and she keeps asking him about it and he's like, you're just imagining things.
Nothing's going on.
Nothing's
comes from.
It is.
It is.
And so this is a, it's a kind of Victorian classic.
We just had auditions Monday and Tuesday.
I know Michael Klickner had a great turnout.
So yes, that will be coming up in October.
It's a very good story for that time of year.
People like a kind of like on the edge of your seat.
It is.
It's got
Get your money's worth out of that car.
Well, it flies back in in December, yes.
And actually, we have auditions this weekend if anyone wants to come and audition to be part of the show.
Like we were talking about earlier, we always have open auditions for every show, even if we did it the year before.
Everyone has to audition so those are this weekend if people want to be a part of it But it's based off of the movie all the classic music great Sherman Brothers music Chitty Chitty bang bang of course two sweets of course and it's just You know one of the great great things about it, too Is it's our outreach show for local schools and watching the kids bounce up and down in their seats to Chitty Chitty bang bang?
The car is wonderful too.
It
movie
that about?
It's a comedy of manners without manners.
It is about two kind of happy sets of parents whose sons get into a confrontation on the playground and it starts out kind of as a civil conversation through gritted teeth and soon turns into a
finger pointing all out yelling just absurd, almost feral aspect to it by the end of I know better than you, I know better than you, how dare you tell me what to do with my child, blah, blah, blah.
And so it's a, it's a very over the top.
Comedy of manners without manners
I know
the cottage is a farce a great farce a modern farce with no non-sternal coward a couple goes to their cottage retreat to have their annual affair rendezvous
And the woman reveals that she wants to tell her husband about their affair and everything.
Never a good idea.
that.
And then it's who's sleeping with who and mistaken identities and all that good jazz, slamming doors of a farce.
Everyone loves a good farce.
And in the end, it's a modern farce.
So it has a little different identity than most farces.
you'll have to come and see what it's like.
Hannah's suitcase based off of the true story of Hannah, a young girl who a group of students found her suitcase from the Holocaust and was wondering what happened to Hannah.
And so their teacher does this international research project to find out what her fate was and it blends
the students piecing together the pieces of this history and the history of the Holocaust at the same time.
And that will again be one of our outreach shows in April.
So we'll have a lot of students come and see that and get to have really in-depth conversations about the horrors of history sometimes and how we have to learn from the past.
This was a
29th anniversary.
Yes, so Come From Away is about 9-Eleven, but at the same time, it's about...
9-Eleven, yeah.
Correct.
The humanity that happened around that time, the way that we all came together to support each other, and we were all scared, and there was so much uncertainty.
Anyway, so what the main story is is...
On September 11th all the air traffic to the United States was shut down and so the planes had to be rerouted and
a group of planes landed in Gander, Newfoundland, in Canada.
In this town of like 9,000 people, all of a sudden had 7,000 passengers from all over the world to take care of for the next few days before they could leave.
And just the way that they treated them with kindness and respect and opened their doors to them, it's just, it's a really, really beautiful story and great music too.
show.
Wonderful show.
one?
Just the first one I did.
Yeah.
Yep.
So I got a couple other things on my radar this year.
Oh,
Well, some school stuff.
And then I've got we're planning again our 50th anniversary of the theater guild building is coming up and I'm putting that together.
And then.
couple other projects.
You told
our 100th
I do have some fun WRJN photos.
Yes, I got to have those.
The theater guild actually, we were founded in 1938 and in the 40s we did radio programs with WRJN.
I need those.
So I've got some nice newspaper campaigns.
I'll tell you what, go home, get them, come back.
I'll show them through the radio.
Everyone will have to squint at the radio to
those.
Yeah.
up.
Yes.
So signature spotlight is also going to start up in October.
We are bringing a show called Queens and Kings of Soul.
So that's going to celebrate Motown, R&B, all kinds of stuff.
My wife didn't want to go.
Yeah.
So it was, we had a women of soul concert last year.
This one's still all women singing, but lots of songs by some men and by men too.
So great concert, great music.
You know, we'll have some
Rita and there of course and then modern singers to Olivia Dean I know Got a couple songs in there.
So that will be October 3rd And then the next one is going to be in December.
That's our Christmas one December 17th.
It's a Thursday Joe Cardamon and Melissa are going to direct that it feels like Christmas
do.
We've seen concert then.
Yeah.
Yeah, so journalists are putting that concert together.
And then we actually don't have another signature spotlight all the way until June.
It's going to be the 10th year of signature spotlight this year.
So it's going to be 10 years in the spotlight.
And Rob Cruise is going to bring together the original creator of the spotlight program
church with Bob
Robin...
Oh my goodness, Robin.
I'm so sorry.
I'm losing my mind.
It's too early.
Oh my gosh.
Don't put me on the spot like this.
Oh, Robin.
great.
Robin Wilkes.
Oh my gosh.
That took way too long to get that out of my brain.
Oh wait, this is live?
Oh right.
away.
Opening night.
We're going to give those
Excellent.
right.
Come join us.
It'll be a fun time.
show.
It was great time.
It
Good, I
Yeah, thanks, Don.