Welcome everybody to Midday Magazine for this Wednesday, August 21st, 2024.
Have your host, James J. Mailoff here.
In part two today of 430, we're going to speak with Daniel Minter, President of Assumption
Catholic Schools.
Talk about what's going on with ACS.
Right now in the studio, we have some of our favorite people, Sally Kisner, Executive Director
of the Arts Council.
Sally, good to have you with us.
Thanks for being here.
Thanks for having us.
And Eric Brittnocker from the Wisconsin Rapids Performing Arts Center.
Eric, always good to see you.
Thanks for being here, man.
How much?
Sally, we are so excited to talk about the upcoming 2024-25 season that is going to be
going on with the Arts Council.
You do such good work on this front, bringing these bands to town, really bringing a lot
of culture and fun to our area.
And I know talking with you on air, off air, not only how much this means to you personally,
but how much work you put into finding these bands and these different acts.
We've been doing this for a little while now, the three of us.
And I have to tell you, I don't know if I've seen a more like eclectic list, like there's
something for everybody that you usually hit on, you really nailed it this year.
Like this, there is literally just all kinds of cool stuff and some unique things coming
to our area.
We're going to dive right into this.
We're going to ask Eric a little bit about not only setting these bands up, but maybe
something he's looking forward to when it comes to this upcoming season.
And I'm going to put you on the spot and ask you the same thing, Sally, because I'm curious
the answer to that one as well.
But we are excited to get into the whole year.
Let's start, of course, with our first act coming up in September.
Would you mind if I just talk about the sponsors first?
Please, please do.
We can't do this without them.
Exactly.
And we have a lot of new sponsors this year, too.
So I would just like to recognize a Spiris, Brunson, Sonzato, Cobblestone Hotel in
Suites, Erin and G. Hermann's plumbing and heating, Fay Printing, First-State Bank,
Hardell Monuments, Herman Taylor Funeral Home, Mead Witter Foundation, Mid-State Technical
College, Modern Woodman of America, that would be Curtis Langa Meier, Point and Plover
Publication, PCS Bank Foundation, Quality Plus Printing, Rapid School of Performing Arts,
Richay Funeral Home, Solaris, Steeple, The Costs, Wealth Management Team, Team Cheryl
Companies, WFHR and WIRI, WGLX, Williams Plumbing and Heating, Wisconsin Rapid City Times,
and WSPT.
Wonderful list.
Wonderful list.
Support those that support us, support your community, by local support, local everybody,
and support those that put back into this community.
It's a wonderful list of people right there, and a big thank you to all of them.
And it's thanks to all of them, and the work that you guys do, that we're able to bring
these wonderful acts to town that are just minutes away from us, so we can take in
throughout the year.
It's a lot of fun, and it kicks off with Colin Rae.
It's a great act.
Exactly.
And that's one of them I'm really excited to hear.
I was not super familiar with him initially.
September 26th, he'll be here at 730, tickets are $59 for this one, and of course for
every show, $10 for student tickets.
But when we were looking for our country performer this year, we went through a long list of people,
and we just kept going back to Colin Rae.
His music is phenomenal.
His voice is just unbelievable.
He was popular in the early 90s.
He had a lot of big hits then, but he has continued to introduce new music.
He's a multi-platinum country recording artist.
He's got this wonderful acoustic trio he plays with that are really talented members
themselves.
Really good band.
He himself has 25 top 10 records and 16 at number one.
He's got a great resume to his list, and a lot of great songs that he's going to be playing.
One of the things I noticed that he does in his act, just doing a little homework on him,
he will do acoustic versions of some of his hits.
He will kind of like update them a little bit in some ways as well.
So he is a great crowd worker.
He really has some great MC work that he does.
He has a lot of fun with the crowd and everything.
He's going to be a great act.
And I think a lot of familiar songs for people too that can really enjoy Colin Rae going
to be coming to town September 26th at 730 meet him over at the Performing Arts Center.
One of my favorite things that you do Sally is covering music that so many younger generations
might miss out on.
If they don't get a chance to check this out.
My daughter has talked about that with I think about a couple years ago with an act she
went to see that she had not heard of some of the music before and now she's still listening
to.
The Glenn Miller Orchestra is some of the most timeless music ever created.
It's got such a wonderful sound and not for nothing.
I know a number of younger people that had just got turned on to some of it and really
enjoy that kind of music, really enjoy that.
And we're bringing the Glenn Miller Orchestra to town in November.
It's going to be a fun act.
It definitely will be November 7th.
Tickets are $54 for that one.
And you talk about it appealing to younger people as well.
I actually had a music instructor reach out to me from a school about 45 minutes from
here and he's going to bring a busload of students to this show.
Oh, awesome.
Awesome.
They are going to get an education.
That is going to be very cool.
This is one of the greatest bands of all time.
They've been touring worldwide for a long time too.
I see 1956, I believe they've been touring since, I mean, that's impressive.
That is a really cool thing.
A direct connection to the Glenn Miller's original band featuring top tier musicians from
across the USA.
It's a really unique thing to be able to do to be able to take in a band like that and
have them come to town here, Sally.
This is a great one.
They got a lot of great classic songs that they're going to be doing looking forward to
that.
Mark, is this a bigger setup than normal with, we're talking an orchestra, is this kind
of every day for you guys you're going to, you can just handle this.
Well, I didn't really, I know I looked at the writer months ago but I haven't actually
reviewed it before today but I think they have some amplification but being an orchestra
it's going to be mostly acoustic and so I think we're going to be able to leverage the
acoustic shell.
We might put just some slight amplification on like the piano and things that can often
get buried behind brass instruments and stuff but by and large it's going to be a big
group of people with a lot of instruments.
This show is actually the one that I'm really looking forward to.
Just kind of a backstory.
I got some albums way back in the day, some vinyl records from Goodwill of the Glenn
Miller Orchestra and in the mood was one of the best albums that I heard at the time
and I can't remember the songs on it but just the music and what was coming out of my
old vintage stereo at that time, the smell of the tubes, the smell of the vacuum tubes,
the smell of that vintage equipment and that record spinning around to Glenn Miller was
just phenomenal.
So that's one that I'm looking forward to a lot as far as what it's going to take as
far as the stage set up, we're going to make it happen and it's going to be slight amplification
but mostly acoustic I would say.
Very cool.
I got goosebumps you talking about that.
I had a very similar moment as a kid.
That's so cool.
Thank you for sure.
Any young listeners out there, that's the first one maybe to start with is in the mood.
Absolutely.
Great note by you.
This is going to be so much fun having them come to town to Glenn Miller Orchestra
Thursday, November 7th, 730, over at the Performing Arts Center.
One of a bands that I know has been around the area for a while and we've heard many times
I actually got to MC for them once.
Boogie Niojo is coming to town for Christmas.
Perfect Christmas act.
That's a good one.
It really is and I kind of discovered it.
We always have quite a few options for Christmas shows and they're always very popular.
This one kind of peaked my interest when I saw snippets of it from the Fox City's Performing
Arts.
They go there every single year and I thought if they're having them every year they have
to be worthwhile.
I reached out to them.
I think it's going to be a great show December 12th.
Tickets are $49 for adults, 10 for students.
They're also having the LHS choir participate in part of the show.
How wonderful is that?
You guys do such a nice job of incorporating our local schools and everything and getting
them involved in these whenever you can.
That is going to be a really nice addition to this added bonus to it if you will.
One of the things that I like that they do with this, they give you some classic stuff
in everything but they put a different spin on some of these Christmas songs.
Bring a new life to some of them as well.
They do it with their own style of doing things as well, which is unique and fun and very
energetic.
You can't help but get into these.
It's definitely a Christmas show but you'll know it's Boogie and the Yo-Yo's.
Yes, well said.
Yes.
Boogie and the Yo-Yo's coming to town for Christmas with you Thursday December 12th, 730.
Be sure to get your tickets for that one and again, shout out to the schools to being
able to get them involved in this.
That's great.
Jeff Allen, are we there yet?
Now some comedy coming to town.
This is another one of these fun things that you've been doing with this is bringing
in comedic acts from now and then here and there and everything.
It's tough though, especially with comedy.
Music, you know, you cover genres, you try to, you know, as you mentioned earlier, have
a country artist that this type of artist, some of that.
With comedy, it is so difficult to find a artist like who's going to fit this area, who's
going to be a family friendly act, some of those things.
We don't have as much of that as we used to.
Jeff Allen is that.
Jeff has been that his whole career.
You hit the nail on the head, calling it family friendly because it truly is.
And we're also doing a fundraiser associated with this.
So $3 for every ticket purchased is going to opportunity for hope, which is through ODC.
I don't know if anybody's familiar with it.
It's a recovery program.
And Jeff Allen himself is a recovered alcoholic.
He's been recovered for over 38 years now.
So he totally supports these efforts.
Jeff, I've heard some of his acts when he's talked about this and he does a fantastic
job not only bringing insight to that and giving people maybe a look into that world that
you might not know otherwise in a comedic spin and a very funny way of doing it.
My dad actually really enjoys him and finds his comedy really good.
Not only does he do that, but he touches on a handful of other things.
He's got a great comedy central special out there.
If you're looking for a preview of what Jeff does and get a little bit of his comedy
styles, and another noteworthy thing about this.
So this is coming up in January.
Jeff is from what I was able to see is currently kind of testing out some material right now.
So not only we might be have some new material from Jeff coming up in January, but you also
might be able to get a really refined show.
You might be seeing some of this stuff for the first time with some of this.
That's where a lot of comedians will work.
They're going to test out material here and there and maybe some smaller venues before
you get to bigger ones.
You are going to be able to hear some of that and check in some of that just according
to Jeff and his website and some of the things that he has provided on there.
And so we go ahead.
One note of interest, his birthday, I've been following him, of course, all of these
acts I tend to follow in one way or another once I book them.
And he spent his birthday week here in the area in Wisconsin golfing at three different
golf courses, including San Valley.
Nice.
Nice.
Very cool, Jeff.
It definitely likes the area.
He's going to love coming here.
And I do want to mention as a side note, if you'd like to learn more about opportunity
for Hope, encourage you to go to odciinc.com odciinc.com is a way that you can find out more
information about that and reach out to them if need be.
And reach out to the saverthearts.com, go to the website, get your tickets for Jeff
Allen coming up Friday, January 31st, 730, over the Performing Arts Center.
And again, keep in mind, this is a fun, a partial fundraiser as well, where a $3 from
every ticket's selling.
That's correct.
Okay.
Plus, you can donate online separately from that, if you like.
Yeah.
Be sure to do so, everybody.
We're speaking with executive director of the Arts Council, a good friend, Sally Kissner,
we have Eric Brittnocker here from the Performing Arts Center.
Well, let's get into our February show.
And this is a wild, it's actually, it's on my birthday this show, February 12th.
You've done this before, actually, that's a pretty funny.
Bachelor's of Broadway, gentlemen of the theater, Sally, can you tell us a little bit about
this act?
Well, if you like Broadway tunes, you're going to love this.
There are three guys backed by a band who just do Broadway music, and they are phenomenal.
They'll sing, they'll dance, they'll, they've just got it all together.
Yeah, they're really, they're harmony, their talent is really top notch as well.
And when we say Broadway, we're talking like the top upper tier of theater and musicians
and singers here, these guys are incredibly good.
They really enjoy performing together too, and that stuff is so contagious.
It's one of those things that you can't help but get into and enjoy when it comes to
it.
They have a real interesting take on some real classics as well.
They're able to bring to you.
And this is a chance to, I mean, New York seems cool and all, but do you really want all
that travel?
You just have New York come to you?
Like does that Broadway come to you here?
This is a perfect way of doing that.
It's another special fun show that we want to encourage you to get your tickets for the
Bachelor's of Broadway, gentlemen of the theater coming up Thursday, February 27th,
30th over at the Performing Arts Center.
They are also doing an outreach, and we have worked with Rapid School of Performing Arts.
They're going to be sending over a bunch of students from their musical theater program,
and we'll also reach out to other students as well, but our SPA is going to be sponsoring
the show also.
Wonderful.
Sally, you bring up an interesting point, or a good thing right there, is these, as we
go along through the year here and maybe a school or an organization hears about something
and they would like to be a part of things.
Should they reach out to you?
Is there still time to do some of that?
We're kind of set for this season, but once we announce our shows, like in the spring,
for the following season, definitely reach out.
We're always looking for sponsors, we're always looking for a good fit.
The musical theater program at our SPA was a perfect fit for this, so I met with them
and suggested it and they're on board.
We want to wrap up with the season talking about Michael Kavanaugh.
You have brought a lot of talented people to our area.
We've just talked about a lot of them, Sally.
Michael Kavanaugh is a unique, one of those rare talents.
Just incredibly gifted, a singer, musician, a lot of those things.
We've talked about people like that before, but this is a guy who was handpicked by Billy
Joel for the lead in his Broadway musical Moving Out.
If that was the only thing on his resume, good enough for me.
That sounds pretty good.
You go right ahead, Mr. Kavanaugh, you have the stage, all you want.
That really says something, along with the fact that he's called The Voice of the American
Rock and Roll songbook.
He's got a Grammy and Tony nomination, so many other things.
You don't have to take my word for it.
Go ahead and look him up, and you will spend the next hour listening to Michael Kavanaugh's
music.
You've seen him twice live, and just phenomenal.
You're so pumped when you leave the theater.
It's just so much fun, and not only is he extremely talented, but his band is phenomenal
as well.
Yeah, he's got a really talented group of people with him, and I'm glad you touched on
that, too, because all these acts are great MCs and do a really good job working with
the audience and incorporating them.
Michael really goes above and beyond when it comes to that.
He really wants you to feel this music and enjoy the music as much as he has, and it's
so contagious.
It's so you can't help yourself.
He's hitting on some of the greatest songs that we've heard in the last 40, 50 years when
it comes to Elton John and Billy Joel and some of these songs as well, while also putting
his own, I wouldn't say his own spin on it, but just he can't help.
He is who he is, and he's going to sing these there a certain way.
It's in his blood.
Yeah.
Yeah, it really is.
Incredible, former, bringing that great stage presence to this act as well.
So you're going to not only have fun hearing some stories and hearing him talking within
the audience and everything, but while also really nailing these songs and giving you a
chance to hear them, and not only differently, but in a fun, unique way.
Michael is going to be coming to town with the songbook of Billy Joel and Elton John Thursday,
March 27, 30.
It's going to be a fun one.
Sally Eric, we've touched on this a little bit.
Eric actually told us already who he was kind of looking forward to out of this season.
I know there is nothing but great shows coming up this year.
And as somebody who kind of picks these acts to bring to the area, I can only imagine how
difficult this question is.
But is there anything that stands out to you that you're really excited about?
You mentioned that you've gotten to see Michael before some of these acts you've seen.
Anything you haven't gotten to or you're especially looking forward to.
I think, well, I've also seen Glenn Miller orchestra a few years ago.
So the ones that I've seen, I love them, obviously, that's why I'm bringing them in.
But I think maybe Bachelors of Broadway is going to be a top of that.
That really does look really good, yeah.
I cannot wait to see, both of you guys on the Glenn Miller band, the Bachelors, they
sound really great.
I think in the oyos is such a fun act and they have such an awesome energy to what they
do.
I did not realize they were doing the Christmas show and when you see them involved with
a Christmas show, which is already such a great fun time of year, you know, the emotions
where they are and everything, and then you have an act like that that can really, really
pounce on that, really hit on that.
The energy that is going to be in the performing arts center that night is going to be palpable.
It's going to be awesome.
They've got their followers and I've had quite a few comments from people buying tickets
who have seen them numerous times and they're coming back.
Yeah, yeah.
We're very excited about that and excited about this entire season.
Sally, if people want to get single tickets, season tickets, where can they do that?
How can they find out more about that?
Kolas or stop by the Arts Council, our number 715-4242787 and we're located at 1040, 8th
South and Wisconsin Rapids.
Our office hours are 10 to 2.30 Monday through Thursday or you can go online and check out
our website, saverthearts.com.
You heard earlier, Sally, shouting out the sponsors for these events and everything.
As mentioned, maybe this season is kind of wrapped up when it comes to some of that but
there's always the next season for you to be a part of things.
Reach out to Sally in the gang at the Arts Council and support the arts in this area.
Let's keep bringing great acts to this area.
Keep in mind that you can make a donation at any time and donations and sponsorship information
is available at saverthearts.com.
Another unique thing you can do is sponsor a performer, a sponsor a certain act.
Is that right, Sally?
That's right.
Yep.
We have different levels of sponsorship.
Yeah.
Reach out, find out about that and work with the area and I have to say that when it comes
to this, in the position I'm in, I have a lot of people come in and a lot of different
events go on.
There are very few things that you can attach your name to that are not only going to bring
eyeballs, but bring the hearts of people like the Arts Council does.
You have a very respected and appreciated organization, nonprofit over there, Sally, and
the people who really, really love what you guys do and appreciate what you guys do.
I really appreciate having a center, like the performing arts center, to have these acts
in and everything.
Not every town has this kind of stuff that we have here and while I would think sometimes
why, you know, this gets a little normalized after a couple of years or something.
Not to this people, not to the people in this area.
They value this, they appreciate it and they want you to know that, how much they appreciate
these things.
And you can let them know just by getting tickets, just take it in a great show.
Think about this.
We certainly again appreciate donation, sponsorships, those go farther than we can really put in
the words, but you can help support sponsor the arts and support the arts just by buying
a ticket.
It goes a long way.
What sales are 70% of our revenue?
Yeah, it's huge.
And we want to keep being able to do kind of things like this.
And that's how we're able to do them by selling tickets, by getting you to these shows
and taking them in.
And boy, these are great shows.
These are really, really just nailed it this year, Sally.
It's a fantastic lineup, a great job by both of you, the work that you do throughout
the years on this subject.
And we encourage you to find out more and get your tickets at savorthearts.com, savorthearts.com.
Sally, Eric, thank you so much for the time.
Appreciate y'all.
Thank you.
We'll have more midday magazine coming up for you right here on 975 FM 1320 AM WFHR locally
grown radio.
