Welcome everybody to midday magazine for this February 9th, 2024.
Have your host James J. Mailoff here at 330. We are going to welcome in our
friend Sally Kissner from the Arts Council. Talk a little bit about that.
Thanks to our friends over at the Wisconsin Rapids area convention bureau.
Right now in studio, we've got Wisconsin Rapids Community Theater Silver Foxes alum.
We have Chris Williams with us. Chris, good to see you.
Good morning, James. And may I say happy birthday.
Oh, that's song. Thank you for that. I appreciate it.
I didn't see that coming. Nicely done, sir. Nicely done.
Jim Rinker is with us as well. Jim, good to see you.
Nice to be here. Thank you very much.
And Don Mansell is with us. Don, good to see you.
Yes. Thank you. It's going to be fun.
Yeah, appreciate that. Good to hear. Don, the first time joining us.
So we appreciate the time from you guys and appreciate our Silver Foxes so much.
I take any opportunity I can on our morning shows to promote the Silver Foxes.
Talk about the work that you guys are doing and to celebrate it.
And certainly do encourage people to be a part of things at Silver Foxes.
What I'd like to do is celebrate Silver Foxes a little bit with you guys.
Talk about the organization. Talk about the program, I should say.
And the upcoming production you have.
So Chris, let's start right here with what Silver Foxes is.
If there's somebody out there listening, doesn't know what Silver Foxes does.
Silver Foxes is a part of the Wisconsin Rapids Community Theater group.
And so it was created as a way for some of our older adults that want to be involved with theater,
but don't want to go through some of the real hard work of memorizing, especially and things like that.
That they still have an outlet to show their skills and act and have fun.
Yeah, it's interesting.
So WRCT does a great job with this covering all bases.
They have hope, all productions for kids.
They've got of course their main stage and that and then Silver Foxes for people that
like Chris was mentioning there may either have struggle with or just don't have the time
to memorize stuff or that. I struggle with that. I always have in my career.
As I've done over a hundred characters and I've never had an easy time memorizing lines with
any of them, whether I have 20 monologues or one. I've always felt that to me that's why they pay
me is to memorize the stuff. The performance is a free. I like performing is all for fun and
everything. It's the rehearsal process and all of that that can be a bit of a grind.
With that, though, Silver Foxes limits that down or kind of narrows that down a little bit too,
right Chris? Right. We typically just have we meet one day a week and do our rehearsals then.
As time gets closer to the performance dates, then we'll like next week we're going to have
two rehearsals and then the week of the performance will have another two rehearsals before our
performance dates. Not a heavy schedule. Right. In comparison, a main show you're going to meet
oftentimes at least Monday through Thursday. Sometimes you meet Monday through Friday and it's
a night rehearsal. It's at least three hours. It can be a little more taxing for some.
So it's nice to know that for people who may want to be a part of Silver Foxes because this is the
last part, well, one of the last parts of Silver Foxes I wanted to mention is that it's for a certain
age group. Correct. Correct. And we normally, I don't even know if we have it technically. Yeah,
I don't think there's a cutoff time or anything like that, but just want to be with the group and
have fun, I think, is our main focus. But yeah, we practice, we normally meet around in early
afternoon and run our rehearsals and and stuff. So we'll talk about the upcoming production,
the Golden Age of Radio in just a moment, but I want to understand a little bit. We kind of
understand Silver Foxes a little more. Those out there listening that we want to encourage to be
a part of things. Let's explain how you guys got involved with Silver Foxes. Chris, how did you?
Well, I've been a part of the theater now a little about four and a half years now. And I've
been on some main stage productions and things, but the main reason I got involved with this group was
it gave us an opportunity to do some things that maybe you're not going to see on the main stage.
And that's what really drew me in because while we're doing the radio show and I have a real
passion for doing that. So that's kind of pulling me into the group. I'm glad you touched on that
too, Chris Silver Foxes. They don't just do shows that are designed and great for people in that
age range, but it's the fun creative things that they can do too. Some of the more interesting
stuff. And it's it's an intimate setting, the Lewis Canton studio, Louise Canton studio,
which great name, great, great, great respect to that for naming it that that area gives you a
little more of an intimate setting too. And a lot of people like that, a lot of people like that,
kind of almost like high school basketball feeling of being right in the court with the team and
stuff. So for you, Jim, how did you get involved with Silver Foxes? I can involved with it kind of
as a little bit of a push. The main stage theater, I'm involved in the seventh production in a row.
But several people that I've worked with have said, you really need to get on stage,
you really need to get on stage as a sector. So with me being at age and those who can't see me,
yes, I'm great. My concern is, do I have the ability to memorize lots of script? And so I figured
that if I were to go into this environment, I have a script in hand that I can read
a perform in front of people. I'm not, I don't have a fear of performing in front of anybody per
say. But it's, do I still have the gray matter that I can memorize and you know what can happen
with you can't memorize? So I figured this would be a, Foxes would be a good stepping stone for me
to get on to the main stage. And if I can't memorize any lines, I will know that and not embarrass
myself in front of a large crowd. But understanding that it is tough to learn that, to have that
self-realization, I think. And I admire that. I think that that goes a long way because it becomes
not just about, I've run into two different types of performers in my life. The person that's
out there for the audience and the person that's out there for themselves. And the person that's
out there for the audience has always been the greater performer to me. And that's the kind of person
you are. That's, that cares about the audience, that thinks of those things. It may seem a little
selfish or it may seem a little even egotistical in some ways. But that is caring about the audience.
That becomes more about the performance and them enjoying the performance than how you looking
good out there. Jody Foster had one of the greatest comments on acting I've ever heard. She said
that acting is about being the most uncool person in the room, basically being human, being real.
Most of us don't walk around like James Dean. We've got our weirdness. We've got our
our silliness and stuff. And that's being real. And that's part of why we love theatre.
Is it makes it brings reality to us? It's a mirror for society and a lot of those.
Don, how about you? Don, how did you get involved with self-refoxism?
Well, it was through the encouragement of my chiropractor. It took her about two years to finally
convince me to go for it. And my first performance, I never acted before. Never did any acting high
school or anything like that. But all my first one was the main stage. Wow. And it is challenging
to memorize all those lines. Well, after my first performance on the main stage, I was encouraged
to try the silver foxes. Right up. First, I thought, no, I don't want to get started with that.
But I'm glad I did because we really have a good time. Yeah. And then I also did another main stage.
It's a whole lot easier doing the silver foxes because you have the script.
You don't have to memorize it, but you also want to be more comfortable. So you're not actually
reading from the script. It gives you some little bit of acting to it also. There's a bit of a net.
There's a bit of a safety net out there. And that's a comfort right there. So that automatically
loosens you up a little bit more on stage. It kind of frees you up to be a little bit more
in character, if you will, even with a script. There's something that I appreciate all of these
stories you guys. Thank you so much. If you're out there listening and you've been on the fence
about joining silver foxes or looking into it more, I hope these stories encourage you to be like,
well, I can relate to at least one of those if not all of them. And there's always that first
time person that has never acted before. That's never done anything before and they get out there.
And they that's their second home now as WRCT because they are never leaving. Once you get over
there, you're not leaving. That's just the way it works. There's not a lot of one-time users
over there. But getting preparing for the interview this week and thinking, talking about it.
One of the things that stuck with me and I haven't had this happen before. One of my first
influences and favorite actors of all time was Anthony Quinn. I loved Anthony Quinn. Amazing
actor. One of the greatest I've ever seen. But I don't know if a lot of people know that Anthony
Quinn had to kind of cut his short, his career sort of short, which is kind of funny to say
considering he acted way into his late ages. But he struggled with memorization. And he felt
so shame about this that he basically just retired from acting. But he could have kept performing.
He lived for another couple of years and certainly acted into his late age and we see actors all
the time in their 80s and 90s acting like that. George Burns famously. But he felt that resistance
to do that. If only it had silver foxes. I say it a little bit tongue in cheek but a little
serious too because we don't have one thing that entertainment has gotten a lot better about. But
for many, many, for decades did a horrible job of, if you are in this age range, we can use you.
If you are a woman over the age of 35, we'll see you when you can play a grandma. You know,
you got no work in between then. And for men, it was a little bit similar, not as bad but a little
similar like older men. We'll talk to you when we need a grandpa or something. Now we've got so
much more opportunities and so many more scripts and different things and play groups like the silver
foxes. I am encouraged by that. I think that that's really cool. It isn't as if the Anthony
Quinn's of the world aren't still talented. Aren't still don't have chops. Don't still have
something to offer and something to give entertainment wise. So we need to outlet like that.
May I, this is Jim's first performance too with the silver foxes.
Yeah. Yeah. And glad to have him on. That's cool to see being able to kind of shift gears into
this. As you and Donable touched on a little bit, and I know you've mentioned this before, Chris,
it's just as much fun, silver foxes. Maybe not as much prep or, or pressure if you will,
but it is just as much fun as the main stage shows. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. That's one of
the greatest parts of it. And yeah, I'd encourage people if they're thinking about it, the contact,
the theater, and they can get them in touch with us and we can see what we can do.
We're going to give you the information on how to reach out to the theater before we wrap up
today. But I want to take some time to talk about the silver foxes most recent production, the golden
age of radio directed by you, Chris. It'll be premiering February 22nd at 2 o'clock, February 23rd
at 6 and then February 24th at another 2 o'clock show can take these in and encourage you to find out
more at wrctheter.org. Chris, what made you want to direct this one? What made you want to
pick this play? Well, as I mentioned before, I really have a real passion for doing these radio
shows. I was part of a small community theater over in Minnesota and that's where I was first
introduced to doing these things and I just fell in love with it. So when we moved back over to
Wisconsin here, I thought, wow, this is the perfect group for doing this, perfect. And so that's
kind of involved from there, I guess. I'm, I'm, forgive me Chris, I can't think off the top of my
head. Is this your first directed play? Actually, no, I directed last year. I thought you did. I thought
so. And then kind of the year before I was involved in a little bit of it. How do you enjoy directing
as opposed to just acting in a show? It's a lot more work. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I enjoy it. I mean,
I think it's kind of fun to mold the show, I guess, for lack of a better term and and try to get
the feeling of that. We're trying to give them the feeling of being in an old radio studio
back in the 30s and the 40s when they had live shows back then. So yeah, I enjoy it. I really do
enjoy the acting part. So I'm kind of doing a double, double thing this time where I'm going to
help by doing some of the announcing stuff. So I was going to ask if you were also acting in it.
Right. Right. So one of the things that I like to ask directors, are you seeing or are you
getting what the vision in your head? Are you seeing it on the stage? Are you seeing it in the
rehearsals? Absolutely. We've started and again, we're getting better. We're evolving. I love the
scripts we have and I think it's going to be great. Yeah, it seems like a really good one.
It seems like a fun one. So you told us a little bit of what you'll be doing in the show.
You're doing some narration? Yeah. Well, actually, yeah. Like most of the shows would have an
announcer. They would announce the title of the show and maybe give a background synopsis on what's
going on that type of thing. And then they always had commercial ads. And so the announcers would
do those also. Tim, I'm sorry. Chris, let's talk a little bit about what the play, the kind of
plot of the play a little bit. And then I want to get Jim and Don to tell us a little bit about
their characters. Sure. Sure. Well, again, we're using scripts that were actual radio scripts
from the 30s and the 40s. And one from the even 1950, I think there was there too. And so they've
they've been used. So they're we can pull them off line. Yeah. And most of them are
they're probably domain. So yeah. So yeah, so we we start. We get everyone up on the stage. It's
doing their part. And everyone has their scripts. And we get the show going. We have a little on
air sign that we use and a plus sign that we use. That's awesome. Yeah. So yeah, it's a lot of fun.
I, you know, even somebody my age heard a lot of like the shadow and some of the old radio shows.
My not a pop of my grandparents used to love the play. I mean, I grew up I think that that's
where my love of radio began is hearing a lot of those without realizing it. I think that that
really stemmed a long a lifetime love of radio. And there's so many people out there like that.
I know people that didn't grow up anywhere near that era of listening to radio as a kid or
anything, but still love these kind of performances. Where I used to live into Calvin, Illinois,
we every year they would do something like this, a radio thing, a radio play. And it was one of
those popular things that they did. And that's a college town, you know, and they'd have nothing but
20 something showing up to listen to it to take it in and all that. These things are still just
as popular and have still just as much of a place, you know, in theater. Oh, they're great,
they're great stories. And we try to keep it light. Yeah. So we don't really have any dramatic
shows this time. So, but they're on the light side and they're very well written, by the way.
Yeah. Yeah. There's going to be some good laps, I think, throughout this.
Jim, tell us a little bit about the character you'll be playing.
Well, there's what five, six, seven total. I mean, I think six of them. Almost all of them,
which he has kind of, but we're opening up with Evan Costello, who's on first. And Don,
here, he's playing Ab and I play Costello. Nice. Oh, it's a who that's great. And so it's a lot of fun.
So I enjoy that. Another one that we're doing is Fiber McGee and Molly and I play Fiber McGee.
Perfect. And so those are some of the characters that I play. I think the one that we're doing
is the original closet, original closet. Oh, good choice. Good choice. So the play is fun,
they're fun. Yeah. It's, yeah. It's enjoyable. What? Don, how about you? We heard a little bit
about what you'll be playing, huh? Right. Yeah. That app. Who's on first is really a fun one to
know. We're just kind of going back and forth. Yeah. I also am in the Biggersons. Come on.
This gentleman is, uh, just starts out with a snore. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The Biggersons had to do
some method acting on that one. I had the Biggersons basically about a couple who
argue and bicker at each other from their bed. Nice. Perfect. Like three o'clock in the morning.
And I also want to add that Chris has put a lot of, uh, sound effects into a lot of these plays.
And that really adds a lot to it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It was something that I, um, when you listen
to those old radio programs, great actors, you know, these are all actors that did Vaudeville and
stuff back in the day and everything. There was no, um, hey, this is how you do radio acting. They,
they just knew acting so that they didn't know how to do it in any other way. So you got such great
performances from such great actors in those shows. The other thing that made those shows hit so well
was the sound effects was having the, the, the coconuts together to make horses noises or the sheet
that it told you it was raining out or something. Oh, I love that stuff. And I know people really
enjoy that. Yeah. We, um, uh, yeah. Back back in the day, they had a guy or a group of people that
would do sound effects. So when they use anything they could to make that sound, um, we've kind of
modernized ourselves. So I basically have recorded the sound effects and we're just going to play
him through the computer. But, uh, it's, uh, it's fun too to be able to do something like this where,
you know, if it's just a one, if it's a, a normal show, that's great. There's always a good play
out there. Something like this, it gives people a little bit of variety because a little chance for
people to try a little of this, a little of that and, and all of it nostalgia. And, and, and,
and there's, there's few things in the world that taste better than nostalgia. Oh, it tastes go.
We love our, it smells good. It tastes good. It's great to style. Um, I have to ask, uh, Don, uh,
Jim, doing a, like, Avenue Costello, doing who's on first, we all grew up on that. Like that,
that's a classic bit. It had to, it has to be a lot of fun to be able to do something like that.
It's obviously a little surreal, too, I imagine. Oh, yes, yes. Uh, we just kind of can't even look at
each other and, uh, just go back and forth and, uh, it, it's a whole lot of fun. Yeah.
There's a lot of good, uh, good comments in their words. Excellent. Uh, I cannot wait to see this.
It is, it's absolutely fun because as you read the script, some of it is, you know, when you say
who's on first, sometimes it's posed, I pose it as a question and sometimes it's posed as a sentence.
Right. Right. And so, um, Dad, you have to look at it, if the exact dialogue and it,
it, it, how do I punctuate it? So, but we're getting the timing down pretty good.
There's times where we interrupt each other and we're getting that timing down pretty,
pretty well. Yeah. It's, it's, it's an awful lot of fun. Yeah. I think the part is who's on first,
what's on second? I don't know. It's on third. Yeah. So good. You're the manager, right?
And you're going to coach the team. Yes. Then you don't know the names of the players on the team.
Well, I should. So you guys got this. Yeah. You guys got this. They're doing great.
That's awesome. Thank you for the sample. Thank you for the preview. That was great. Yeah.
Uh, you know, another thing that kind of gives us a chance silver foxes does in these great,
uh, performances that you all give and there are, are other silver foxes members do.
It gives us another opportunity to relive some of these shows, some of these plays and appreciate
them. Yeah. Uh, it's, it's not for nothing. You run and you talk to the greatest comedians on
the world right now and ask them to write a bit. And they're going to probably do a good job.
But ask them the right a bit that 50, 60 years from now, people are still going to be laughing at.
Good luck. Good luck. Well, who's on first is a good one. That's still a classic bit. I
know. Absolutely. Even at second city, we teach that bit still. Even to even the young students
and everything, we still go over that one. It's a, it's a good practice bit. It's a good river.
It's a good warm up exercise. A lot of those things like it's kind of cool to still be able to
appreciate these and still have them being performed. Right. That's a good feeling. Uh,
did you have some? Well, just, um, is this kind of going over what we are doing? Um, we do have
a couple of Superman episodes this time. Nice. And, um, we have a, it's called my favorite husband,
which is, uh, Lucille Ball started this and this was kind of the precursor to I love Lucy.
And, um, then we've got another one with called five minute mystery. And,
according to the explanation, these were shows that they would offer to radio stations if they
had a five minute hole they needed to fill or something like that. So it's only five minutes long.
That's awesome. That's cool. And all of these, uh, again, all this stuff was written so well
back then and everything. I, uh, it's, it's, um, really amazing how this is stood up and so many
of these shows have done. Um, we're so excited about this. Cannot wait. Get your tickets and find
out more and find out about ways that you can volunteer or be a part of things with silver foxes,
with hopo, with anything involving our Wisconsin rabbits community theater. Find out more by
going to wrc theater dot org. Go ahead and follow them on social media as well. It's a great follow.
You guys break a leg. Have a great run and enjoy yourself. Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you for
the time. Thank you. All right. Thank you. We will take a time out. We'll come back and have some
more fun here on midday magazine at WFHR locally grown radio.
