Jocelyn Fish is here and we're talking about the 50th anniversary not of the Racine theater go because it's a lot older than
that.
This is
the 50th anniversary of the theater that's on Northwestern Avenue.
Yes.
Yes.
1976.
Well, 50 years later.
Really?
Yeah.
50 years.
A lot of people listening weren't born when that started.
That is true.
Yes.
Yeah.
So how'd you get, how'd you get that theater built?
What, you know, the land, what was there beforehand?
Oh, so.
In general, back up just a tiny bit.
The theater guild, like we were talking about, is 89 years old this year.
We were founded in 1938.
A group of people got together, put 26 people in a room.
Each had 50 cents, so $13 is what started the theater.
Really?
Yes, in 1938.
So we were kind of a homeless theater troupe for a long time, bebopped around town, performing at the Douglas Center, the Women's Club, the Uptown Theater, the Capitol Theater, a few different areas in town.
We ended up, as many people may know, renting and then buying a theater on the corner of High and Erie Street.
That was a former church.
And we were there for over 20 years.
And very quickly, once we hired Norm McPhee in 1969, it became...
a reality that we needed a bigger space.
We needed more room to produce things.
We needed a scene shop.
We needed storage.
And we needed more space for our audiences because we were a very popular place to go.
So when we started looking in the early 70s, the very first place we looked at actually was the Wustum Park.
So the Wustum Park was actually donated to the city of Racine, I believe in the 1930s.
for the purposes of the Fine Arts, which is why there was the Racine Arts Museum on that campus already.
It's a 12-acre campus, and we wanted to build there.
And we met with Wisdom, and at the time, we couldn't quite come to an agreement about...
What it would be and what the relationship would be and all this so we actually ended up looking at land on the lakefront and had a contract with the city for a 99 year lease on the lakefront as part of this development that was going to happen It's would have been sort of over by the festival park area.
Okay.
Mm-hmm Yep, so where the fountain is I think down there um and so that ended up
not coming to fruition.
We got asked to release our lease because case needed parking spaces that were going to be built there or something like that.
So we ended up going back to Worcester and we actually signed an agreement with the city of Racine where we lease the land that we are on from the city of Racine, but we built and we operate our own building independently.
So we broke ground December 13th, 1975.
And on October 6th, 1976, we opened with Taming of the True.
Oh, Shakespeare can't be bad.
So do you have a 99 year lease?
For the current property?
No, no, that one's shorter.
I'd have to double check with
the actual.
I don't think they'll throw you out.
No.
Oh, let's see.
It's midnight tonight.
Pack your bags.
I want you
out.
Yeah.
One of the really cool things was that we had a lot of community support to make this happen.
The mayor's Stephen mayor Stephen.
Oh gosh, I'm going to forget his last name was a big supporter of us.
The Common Console was on board with this.
And then, of course, we were very lucky that we had Clayton Nielsen on our board of directors who owned Nielsen Ironworks.
And so he was able to get in contact with Sam Johnson and, you know, Risteen Walker Manufacturing and all these big companies at the time and had them give us big donations to help this building happen.
And then the community came together and said, here's $20, here's $10, and here's $100.
So we raised over $750,000 to build our facility.
Well, the prices are so low for tickets, you can't make a living on that.
I know that because the prices are low.
Well, yeah.
And I mean, it was a big venture at the time.
I mean, it's a huge space.
It's a, I believe, 200,000 square foot space and close to a million dollars in 1976.
So we were a scrappy theater group and we really worked with the help of some very incredible volunteers in the community.
to make it happen and now we've been here in our quote-unquote new theater for 50 years.
Now I know something I found out several years ago.
I think it was Bill Clinton was being interviewed by CNN and they used the theater for their show.
They brought their cameras in and they brought their lights in, their TV lights, they brought everything in, did the interview.
and said, keep the lights.
And that's what's up there now.
I don't remember if it was Bill.
I know it was around a presidential election.
It was 2004.
It wasn't Bill
Clinton.
No.
So, but Paula Zahn came and did live broadcast in 2004.
And then actually we had one with Jake Tapper as well in 2017 at the Theatre Guild.
Yeah.
I remember they said, keep the lights.
That's kind of nice.
Yeah.
Yeah.
They throw a lot of money around those TV productions and then they're just like, well, we invested in this and you can have it.
It's like, okay.
Well, that's good.
So I'm not going to look up at during the break, see who that was.
Yeah, I can't remember who.
Wasn't Barack Obama, was it?
No.
2004, no.
No,
no, it wasn't him.
Yeah.
Well, I gotta look it up.
So anyway,
Do you know how many productions have been put on
there?
300 and I,
you know, I generally don't like to ask questions of guests and spring it on, but I had a feeling you would know that answer.
Yeah, it's technically at the end of last season, it was 365 main stage productions, which now is up to 367.
Does
those include the spotlight series?
Correct.
Yeah, that's just the main stage shows.
And so we've had everything from dramas to plays to musicals to international festivals or international productions that were
There's going to be a whole discussion on Sunday about the cultural exchange that we had with the USSR and Georgia, actually, in the early 90s, which is pretty fascinating.
Now, you never named the theater after somebody.
It's still just the
Racine Theater Guild.
The Racine Theater Guild.
It's not the, you know, Jocelyn Fitz's Racine Theater Guild.
No, if you look around our building, there are some placards in a few areas.
Yes, absolutely.
Leroy Juristead, for instance, our auditorium is named after him.
huge, huge part in the fundraising aspect of the theater.
And so far, our 50th anniversary of the Theater Guild, we did name the auditorium after him.
The Clayton Nielsen Green Room is downstairs, for instance.
But the Theater Guild is a community space.
So that's kind of why it's been the Racine Theater Guild forever.
It's volunteers, it's community members, it's the public, it's kids all coming together to share the space and create theater.
You know what I'm going to do someday?
I'm going to leave a lot of money to the Racine Theater Guild.
And I want the bathrooms named
after me.
The Donna Terry
Rosen restrooms.
There you go.
Plot outside
the restrooms.
Got
something named after me.
We're talking to Jocelyn Fish, director of marketing and development for the Racine Theater Guild.
The Guild celebrating 50 years on Northwestern Avenue, actually 86 years.
89 years.
89.
Don't want to short you three years.
89 years presenting shows to the city of Racine.
And about 50 years at that theater.
Yes.
Now we're talking about during the break there, a thrust stage.
I was
called a horseshoe, but thrust stage.
There were three different kinds of said.
Yeah, there's three different kinds of stages and theaters.
Most people are probably familiar with the proscenium or you can kind of think of it of like.
a television screen because it's a framed picture that you're looking at.
It's a flat stage with a frame picture.
A thrust stage, which is what the Theater Guild has designed after the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, has the audience on three sides of it, and then an arena or in-the-round theater has audience on all sides.
One of the great things with the thrust stage is it's very theatrical.
It's very intimate.
It's 44 feet from the center of our stage, the last seat in the audience.
But the challenge is you don't have a curtain.
Everything's happening in front of the audience.
But you pull it off real well.
We do, we do.
And again, this is, we have a big event on Sunday at 2pm.
People can come and join us.
It's free and open to the public.
But if you want to go to racinetheatre.org and get your free tickets, so we can have a headcount and get you some snacks too.
That would be
Great, where we're gonna talk about all kinds of stories.
We have several life members, we call them people who have dedicated a long time of their life to the theater guild, including a video that I recorded last week with some members who have been involved for over 60 years at the theater guild.
And then we'll have some songs and we'll have some scenes as well, including a scene from Tamey the Shrew, which was our first show at the theater guild.
Any tours?
Yeah, some tours too if people want to take a if they haven't been before I
want to see what's going on behind
yeah, yeah if you want to stop in and attend the event and then
get into the underbelly of the theater.
We'd love to show you.
Yeah,
I don't remember where the bodies are buried.
So you've been there 10 years.
I have been there 10 years.
Wow,
look at you.
I know.
Who would have thunk?
Is
this what you wanted to do, theater?
I actually went to school undeclared for my first degree.
I had no clue what I wanted to do with my life.
I didn't know.
Because I grew up in, you know, Roll, Wisconsin, and I loved theater, but I thought your only way to do theater was to be an actor.
And that was not something I wanted to do or felt comfortable doing.
And so I kind of, I went into nonprofit work.
I've worked for like three, four different nonprofits before working for the theater guild.
And when I was looking the last time I was looking for a new job, I finally decided, well, theater's always been a hobby.
But I've got my communications degree and marketing experience and all this stuff, volunteer coordination, and found this tiny little newspaper clipping about a job in Racine.
And here I
am.
Looking for somebody who has no direction in life.
Doesn't know what they want
to
do.
Drifting through life aimlessly.
If this is you, give us a call.
And it
worked out.
But you also now are directing?
I've directed children's theater show and a main stage show at the theater guild.
It's been a really interesting growth there.
You know, I've gotten a lot more into the process of theater and analyzing a show and thinking about blocking and all the elements of a production and working with scenic designers.
You know, it's
And I think, Ken, we just have this breath of volunteers who are giving so much time and talent and love to our organization and being able to work with them and feel so much pride in seeing what they put together.
And the community coming to support them is just wonderful.
And you know something too?
Usually, if you get a lead role in a show, you get a big head.
But one of the guys who worked, he was in Lean On Me.
He played one of the teachers in one of your shows.
Work in the candy counter.
Rick
Morales.
Working the candy
counter.
Rick Morales is on her board of directors.
He's been backstage.
I think he's running lights for the next show.
He's been on stage.
Hawking M&M's and Kate
Barnes.
And yet he was one of the stars of the shows.
Yeah.
Yeah.
He does everything.
A little bit of everything.
Yeah.
Well, that's just great.
Now, I remember before COVID, you were able to go downstairs in the green room and meet the stars.
Then COVID came and they came upstairs.
Yeah.
You kind of kept that.
Not like that.
Yes.
Because when you leave, you could start talking to some of the people.
Right.
And I love talking to him because I just don't know how people act.
I don't know how to remember
lines
for one thing.
If you could see me here, I've got every word in front
of me.
Just a few papers.
I can remember the
keyword score
in front of my
face.
I couldn't remember it.
So I don't know how to remember lines.
You ever think about acting at all?
Not really.
I
asked you if you ever thought about
it.
Sure, yes.
But, you know, it's definitely I could do it while I did actually have to.
do a little bit of it this summer.
We had an actress get sick for the show that I directed and I had to go on stage and make a show happen.
And that's what really what show was that was for dad season tickets during our preview night.
We had an actress get sick and this is this is not the first time a director has stepped into a role.
It's actually happened several times.
That was a great
Yeah.
And so.
Yeah, that was a very interesting experience.
I got thrown on stage and you know, you get to experience the nerves and the excitement that all these, that the actors and the crew members too, because you know, with play that goes wrong, for instance, the crew members were actually
a big part of the
show.
Now, let's talk about that just a few moments here because I saw it and I was worried about the people in the audience.
They were laughing so hard.
Even my wife said, I think that guy with his kind of heart attack is laughing too hard.
And the laughter in that theater, I was looking around worried about some of these people laughing so hard.
It was a funny show.
It was a joy because it's a very technical show, as you can imagine.
Who designed
the
sets for that?
The set was actually Jane Sernick, who is our technical director.
She designed the sets for this
one.
Because now you have to design the set that it works.
You have to design it so it can fall apart.
Fall apart and everywhere.
Without hurting anybody.
100%.
Yes.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That platform, the set, they had to go on the second floor, take an elevator to get to the second floor, and the floor collapses.
I mean, it...
Multiple times.
Multiple times.
And it goes, and I thought, oh my God, that guy's going to fall.
He's going to
roll off.
He's going to hit himself.
Yeah.
Because there's nothing holding him on there.
No, no.
It was pure, I mean, the angle of the platform we made sure was at an angle that people were comfortable with.
We practiced with that.
Uh, we did a full tech day of just like platform work and making sure we had it
falling off the walls.
Yes.
Yes.
You had
to make sure you're in the right
spot.
Everyone had to follow their blocking for those moments for sure.
So yeah, it was, uh, it was very interesting and.
Fun to call because I was the stage manager for that one.
So I was in the booth and you know, one of the things I said was pull pins, you know, based off of where people were.
And so the crew, you know, we had the same crew for all 13 shows, which is not always a requirement we have, but for this show was necessary because you needed the same person doing the same task.
every single show because you needed to know it was going to be done right and everyone was going to be safe.
And the crew, with part of the show, because at the beginning they're looking for stuff and screaming at each other.
And it was very well done.
Yeah, we had a good
time.
I just was looking around.
I was scared.
I said, I got this guy next to me.
He's laughing so hard.
And you could hear people just screaming
with laughter.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It was
great.
And I'm spending the whole time looking around to make sure, especially the people in back of me, too, are you going to be okay?
Do I need to call
911?
What's going on?
Laughter is the best medicine.
And that was just like, it's such an over-the-top, farcical, three stooches, situational comedy, slapstick galore, like,
yeah.
Yeah.
And, you know, on your gravestone, died laughing.
What a great way to go.
There are worse
ways to
go, for sure.
Okay, so a quick review.
The 50th anniversary of the Racine Theatre Guild on Northwestern Avenue, that's actually 89 years old, but on Northwestern that theater, that's going to be this Sunday's
celebration.
This Sunday, gathering at 2.30 is when the actual, like, program starts.
Again, stories will have some scenes from Tamey the True, Glassman, Ashery, Glorious, actually.
Kathy Berkson and Cobb.
My
mother's favorite show.
I
know.
There's a person that thought was going to die laughing in the audience.
her favorite show.
She's been
to a million Broadway musicals and shows, plays.
That was her favorite show,
glorious.
Yeah.
So Pippin, we're going to do a highlight from.
I love Pippin, yeah.
And what am I forgetting?
Oh, and Little Shop of Horrors.
So they'll be a highlight from each show from the last five decades and then some stories as well about.
the theater and
now it's free to go.
But to get tickets online, the free tickets online, you can get some stuff.
Yeah, it helps me help us know how many snacks to order for everyone because there is a little light refreshment before the show starts.
And now I found that we're going to do it.
I was going to do on Sunday.
Now I found that we're going to do on Sunday.
Well, that's great.
You get people have been wonderful.
We had season tickets now for 20 years.
And I
just it's one of the highlights of our season when
you guys
are putting on a show.
Yeah.
And I love it.
Now, you're going to, when's your next show start?
Next show starts October 30th.
I'll probably be talking to you soon about it.
And Michael Klingner is directing Angel Street Gaslight.
Yeah.
Gaslight.
Now it's called Angel Street, but it's, if you watch the movie Gaslight with Ingrid Bergman and Charles Boyer and Joseph Cotton and Angel Lansbury, a teenager, that's it.
We watch it over and over because the acting in there is so good
and
I'm not going to ruin it for anybody, but the ending is really
good.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So, but Angel Street was the original show, then they changed
it from the
movie to Gaslight.
And so it's got like this dual title.
And so I just refer to
it as both.
And that's where the term gaslighting
comes from.
Gaslighting somebody
each
year.
I'm not going to tell you because I'll ruin the show.
But
yeah, very suspenseful.
It's a very kind of mine, psychological thriller side of things.
So yeah, very excited.
I love that.
And it's Halloween, you know.
And the thing is, I know the entire plot.
I know the ending, but I still want to see
it.
Right.
Oh, for sure.
Yeah.
For sure.
There's no surprise ending, is
there?
I don't believe so.
I've not actually seen the movie.
I've only read the play.
Oh, you gotta see that.
I know.
I'll wait till we do the play.
Then I'll watch the movie.
We just got to that library a few weeks ago.
We watched it again.
Yeah.
I never get tired of watching it.
Yeah.
Especially the Joseph Cotton role when
he's the
detective and he figures everything out.
Yeah.
Anyway.
Thank you for coming
in.
Thank you.
Thanks for having me.
It's always a joy
and Doug Instance and the entire crew there.
I love them, man.
That was right in the people there, I know.
It is amazing.
Again, the community aspect of everyone seems to come out and see a show.
It's
great.
I was going to say, oh, I owe that guy money.
Let's quit.
Let's head into the seat now.
Thank you, Jocelyn.
Thanks.
You guys are a real treasure in Racine.
We're so lucky to have the Racine Theater Guild.
Jocelyn Fish, who is the director of marketing and development and an occasional director of shows, stage manager.
fill-ins for sick actresses and all that kind of stuff.
You never know what you need to do.
Thank you, Justin.
Do appreciate it.