Welcome everybody to Midday magazine for this Monday, February 17, 2025.
Have your host James here and I am joined right now today by some amazing people.
We get to talk theater in our second segment of the show this week and
we're going to be talking about silver foxes. They have a great radio show coming up.
I want to get into with some of the cast here, but we also have executive director Gretchen
powers in with us right now from Wisconsin Ravits Community Theater.
As we are continuing to celebrate 50 years of WRCT Gratchets.
It feels good, doesn't it?
I say it as much as I can, every chance I get.
Gretchen, I wanted to dive into it if you don't mind a little bit of the history of silver foxes
for a second. Just to the audience, it may not be as familiar with this great organization,
it's great team as we are.
For sure. So the silver foxes actually was started by
Joanne Joseph, who actually passed away last year.
Great woman with a wonderful legacy behind her. She wanted a way for seniors or people who
struggle with maybe memorizing lines or getting up in front of people to kind of reach for their
dreams. And so a bunch of real confident ladies with some silver hair decided to start a group
called the silver foxes and it's been going strong ever since.
It's such a great name. Silver foxes is such a great name.
And I had to go to say as somebody, when I was a kid, I realized seven years old,
I want to be an actor. This is what I'm going to do the rest of my life. I'm dedicating myself to
acting. But as I got older and I see certain older actors go away and stuff and like,
oh, there's you have to retire or something like that. I remember reading about Anthony Quinn,
one of my favorite actors and he kind of retired from acting because he couldn't memorize lines
anymore. And that always seemed like a fear to me. And then silver foxes come around and I hear
about this awesome organization and stuff and like, oh, I never have to stop acting. I can do this
the rest of my life. And it is something that we see a lot from a lot of older actors,
you know, Paul Newman, Robert Redford, a lot of these guys worked way late into their lives and
everything. It's great to be able to do that on a theater level. It's great to be able to see
that and it's so impactful to our community and to, especially this community, where we have a
good senior population. Yeah, but it's empowering to see, I think it's really cool when they call
come together and they pick their, pick their scripts and they're all sitting around giggling and
it's like they're having fun. They're having actual fun and they're going to put on a great show.
So it's really fun to see. Let's talk about that show a little bit. The silver foxes situation
comedy, a radio show coming up this Thursday, February 20th. We'll have a show, Matt Nay at two and
then on 21st, there'll be a six o'clock show and it'll wrap up on the 22nd with another two o'clock
show. This will all take place at the Lewis Kent Studio Theater. It's going to be a really good
one. Can you tell us a little bit about the show? Yeah, so when we say radio show, now it's not like
James's radio show is where you turn on the radio and you sit and listen to it. It's actually a live
show with all the actors there in front of you on the stage. But what they do is they read the show,
but they use cute voices who kind of can't, they, some of them are in different skits and so
sometimes they'll use a different voice so that they don't sound like the same character in each
thing or they'll use, they use this little cup thing to just make it sound like they're on the
phone. So they actually do things to make live sound effects. It's really cool as well as just
the timing of everything. It's all comedy, which is really fun. So they have it broken down into four
different skits. One is called audit trouble. One is called three gray hairs. One is Cecil has a
loose tooth, which I must say I have a tooth phobia. And when I was sitting in my office and
we could hear him from practicing all of a sudden I hear Jeff Friday being this little boy
with a loose tooth. And I'm just like, no, no, it's the whole skit among all just just pull the tooth,
just pull the tooth. Reminding me of my son. And the other one is called friendship. And they're all
just really, really cute and they're, they're led by some really fun actors. So we're going to meet
some of those actors in a moment here. Thank you for that grudge. It's just great. That was good.
That's great. You sold that. You sold that. You sold some tickets right there too. One of the things
that I love about this as well is these kind of, especially this one in particular. And I do
want to note Chris Williams, the director, shout out to Chris, who a good friend of ours around here.
We love having Chris on the air with us. This is such a throwback to Vaudevillian and radio
radio shows of the past that so many people enjoy and love. But there's a lot of younger people
that are have kind of gone back and go back and listen to like the shadow and some of those
old radio shows. I ran into this a lot with a lot of my students where they're going back and
and checking out old sketches and old things from those early days. Because if there's any positive
to kind of Hollywood and a lot of these things, just redoing rehashing the same old same old and
everything. People have gotten tired of that. So they're going back and looking at some of those
old things. The Laurel and Hardy and some of those early sketches. So there's been a much more
popularity to this and a lot more tension brought to this. So something like this is a perfect show
for especially this day and age. Young or old, I feel like everybody's going to attend this.
Everybody that attends this is going to enjoy it. We are going to meet some of the cast now. I want
to take a moment to get to know them a little bit. Thank you, Gretchen, for all the help. I appreciate
the assist. Let you guys introduce yourselves and then we'll kind of and you can say the characters
you're playing if you want to. Let's start with you, Tron. Hi, I'm Tronda and I'm playing Suzy
with Cecil with the loose tube. Oh, that's good. And he's been a baby. He's been kind of scared
about it. And so of course I'm going, oh, Cecil. So that's me. That's a great laugh. That's a great
laugh, Tron. Thank you. And it's great to have you back. We've had you on before. I wouldn't
stuff and appreciate you being here and appreciate what you're doing. Thank you for that.
And Don. Well, my name is Don. My career started with acting way back about five years ago. I was
asked by a friend of mine, took her about three years to convince me to give a try at acting.
So my first one was the gift of the Magi. Well, after that was finished, I was approached to
join in with the silver foxes. At first I thought, no, I'm not ready for that. But I decided to
give it a try and I am so glad I did. We have so much fun. I've been in many different performances,
probably a dozen or more by now. And every one of the performances have been fun. You basically
turn yourself into a different character, a different person. And that can be challenging at
times, but it's always still a lot of fun. I think of all my performances. My favorite one was the
Abbott and Costello. Who's on first? It was fun acting between Jim and I. We played the Abbott
and Costello. And it was so much fun going back and forth with who's on first, what's on second,
and I don't know, is on third. So if anybody wants to join silver foxes, it is so much fun. We're
like a small little family. So please think about it and join us. Very well said, Don. Thank you
for that. Appreciate that. And you brought me back a great memory. My Papa and I used to do who's
on first, but I would fall apart laughing before we could finish the bit half the time. That's
such a great one. And I appreciate the kind of your story, if you don't mind, as well,
because one of the things that we do this where we certainly want to sell some tickets,
we want to get a great audience for you guys and everything. But we're also kind of recruiting
here. We want more people to be a part of silver foxes. So I appreciate that. That's very good.
You won't be sorry because it's a lot of fun. Don, can you tell us a little bit about your
character or characters? Well, one of the characters, I play two guys. It's our buddies. We're friends,
you know, friends forever. But there are times when we disagree and we separate for a while,
because we call each other names like Ninkam poop and idiot and moron and stuff like that. But
then we make up and we're best friends forever. Well, it doesn't last long and we're back at
each other arguing. And it just kind of keeps going back and forth. That's kind of a fun one.
Every guy just nodded their hat. Everything. Yep. Yeah, that's us. Yeah, that's that's our friendship.
So yeah, that's that's pretty good. That's what we're having. So when you kind of understood a
little bit more of your guys as characters and Gretchen gave us a bit of a nice synopsis there
with a kind of breakdown of these different shows that we're going to get with this one, how often
did you guys get together to rehearse? How often did that happen? Start just down the down line here
and go down. We start out every week. And then of course, we have to do more often twice a week.
This week we're coming in every day. And of course, it's so as Thursday, Friday, Saturday.
But we go in today. We go in tomorrow. We have a dress rehearsal Wednesday. And then the place.
Thank you for that. And it's noteworthy for one. Certainly, we appreciate the time that you guys
put into this. Nobody's getting paid to do this. Everybody's doing this out of a passion and love
for community and fellowship and theater and all these things. But it's also noteworthy to the
audience out there. If you're wondering, well, I don't know if I could commit to Silver Fox's show.
I don't know if I have that kind of time. And it's really not that big of a time commitment.
No, not to begin with. And then as we progress and you get more comfortable with your obviously
your skits and then again, that whole week. And that's it. But if you're retired, you have something to
do. Yeah. And one of the other things, and you touched on this a little bit too, Don, I think,
when it comes to this, I hope that everybody out there listening has got more friends and you know
what to do with and got more and more things to do than you can know what to do with. But we know
that the reality of this that more and more are we as a society are getting isolated. And that's
especially happening to a lot of our senior population, which we have a very healthy one in this
community. And I take any chance I get to talk about these trailblazers and talk about these
individuals that made our community. And how much it breaks my heart to think of them sitting
alone somewhere and not having something to do or anything like that. Here you go. Here's
something right here. You can be a part of this. As Don noted, you come here, you maybe make new
friends, maybe make some new connections or something like that. That there is no words for.
You can't put that into I got nothing for that one other than I encourage people to be a part of
this. And here the excitement and the energy and their voices, and how much they're enjoying this.
Give silver foxes a chance. Give it a shot there. There is no downside to this. There is no
negative to this or anything. You're going to go, if you try, if you don't enjoy it, that's okay.
That's all right. You know, but you gave it a shot. And there's something to be said for that.
Don, your story is one of my favorites in theater. I hear many stories like this,
of people around your age. And I'm guessing you're in your 30s. You look young, man. You look
young. But in all seriousness, we know so many people that are in that situation, never given
theater a shot. Never maybe even thought about it. But they get into it late in life and like,
hey, this is all right. This is kind of fun. This is kind of what I can do this. I can have fun.
Why is Carrie Granke to have all the fun? I want to be out there. I want to do some stuff
with everything. Anybody can do this. That's the beauty of acting. Is there certainly people that
are a little bit better than others or what have you or anything? But anybody can do this.
There's a reason that animals have like a star in the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Even animals
can do this. It's that much. It's that accessible. And I appreciate you guys sharing your stories
about this and the idea of more and more people being a part of it. Do you have any favorite moments
of the show without spoiling the show? Can we give a little bit of a tease already?
Is there anything that you enjoyed about the process? I'll start with you, Trond.
Well, I enjoy the show because we do laugh when we're doing this ourselves. In fact,
we have to stop ourselves from laughing so we can go on with the acting. But I do love the one
that Don is talking about. And of course, I love the one I'm doing. And again, like you were saying,
we do promote anyone coming in and trying, especially men. We need more men.
Don, what's there anything to stand up for you as far as this show that you're enjoying?
Well, I enjoy doing different characters because it gives you a chance to
be a different part of you. And it has to do with the books. He's not very good at keeping
the track of the books, the accounting, and all that sort of stuff. And one of the characters
that comes up is I call Miss Joe Hennessey. And he brought his wife supposedly into a restaurant.
And he owes money. Well, she comes to find out when he calls and it talks to Mrs. He said,
don't, that was not me. So he's like, oh, oh, that's not a good thing. So when he gets out of the
hospital, have him give us a call. All right, all right. You guys have sold me on this show.
I think this is going to be a really fun one. This is great. Thank you for that. Don,
appreciate it. And appreciate your guys' feedback on this. And certainly want to encourage people
to be a part of little foxes and be a part of all of our shows at WRCT. There's room for everybody.
And we're always looking for more and more good people. You guys have yourselves a really
and a good time. Enjoy yourself. Enjoy this run. Have a good blast out there and make it so good
that other people want to be out there with you. Enjoy it and enjoy it and everything. Thank you
for the time, you too. Appreciate the time from our actors here. And again, one to remind everybody,
the silver foxes situation comedy or radio show coming up February 20th at two, February 21st at six
in February 22nd at two. Get your tickets at WRC theater dot org, especially as we are having fun
at WRCT celebrating 50 years, Gretchen. 50 years. Would you been a part of a lot of it?
I've been for more than half. So that just goes to show how old I am.
Recent directors play us. We were able to have Kathy Miles on and spend some time with her
and talking with her about this and how much it means not only to her, but to this community.
As we are celebrating 50 years, the show must go on, of course, and main stage shows are happening.
And we are right around the corner from Arseneck and Old Lace, one of my favorite three
scripts of all time, favorite plays of all time. Very excited about this one. You get the best
seat in the house. You get to be behind the scenes and seat here and all this stuff going on
and everything. How is it going from your perspective? They ready to go?
I think so. I think that they are ready for an audience. I mean, it's just the start of tech.
Like on Saturday, we did a tech rehearsal with our sound and light people and it went,
it went well. They have a set. The set looks gorgeous. You would think that it's a living room.
It's actually kind of funny because one of our leads is a realtor and I'm trying to convince her to
do a video of her trying to sell the set. Oh, that's an awesome idea. I love that. So we'll see if she
does that for me. It looks really cool. Our lady who paints everything. Look, the colors are
really awesome. We have a guy who painted the floor to look like wood. It looks great.
Oh, that's so awesome. That's so great. You know, as a side note, we've had some amazing
individuals. Our whole lifetimes at WRCT doing and building sets. You and I got out of the
mountain with dark of the moon and some of these things. What is going on with our set building
in the last, I don't know, eight, ten years or whatever it is? It's a whole other level.
It's like they're trying to win a competition. I don't know who's going to take their place
when they're gone because it just kind of scares me a little bit. So if they are, they will eventually
get up to an age but they'll be like, I don't want to build anymore. So people with their hammers
and their saws and their drills come find me. Yes, we are always looking for younger people out there
to want to be a part of this. And by younger, I mean, 20s, 30s, whatever. It doesn't matter.
Heck, it could be 40s. We're always just looking for more and more people. Whether it's silver foxes
or it's WRCT shows. Arsenic and Old Lace is premiering February 27th. Get your tickets for
that. Everybody at WRC Theater dot org will certainly be talking about it and building it up
and making sure that they have a great cast, a great audience every single night. And then we
we're already getting close to wrapping up the main stage season. I know. How did that year go
by so fast? Crazy. Yeah. Noise is off is going to be premiering May 1st. We're looking forward to
this one. I'm seeing it's directed by Maso Kai. Maso. No, Melissa K. I'm so sorry. Melissa K,
who is my co-host and is going to smack me in the head when I she hears this. But we are excited
about this one. And auditions are March 10th and 11th. Want to encourage everybody to. They got a
nice size cast for this one too. It's a nice size cast. And I can tell you that it is going to be our
most ambitious set we've ever had to build. It's going to be rotating. It's going to have a lot of.
It's going to be a big one. So it is going to be awesome to see. And I'm really anxious to watch
them pull it off. We know that especially with community theater, you know, you're going to have
a good portion of the audience. It is fans and family. You're going to have people that just love
theater and come every year, every show, whether there's, you know, people they know in the audience
or not. But I do think that one of the other things that is happening again, bringing up the set
building is people that I talk to and hear and they they show up and they're one of the things
that they rave about are these sets to the point of this set and it being the ambitious. I can see
I can see there's concern, but I could also see you know, we got this. The set of this we got
I could see why we could even take even think about this. Why the play selection committee would
even think about this show now. Well, we got the kind of people that may be able to pull this off.
It's a real compliment to not only them, but to the studio to the theater itself and what we
have built here. Yeah, I've had some people who are big theater. I don't want to say snobs because
that's not the right word. But no, it should be. Yeah, they'll be like, Oh, I don't know how you're
going to pull that off. I'm going to come and just watch it so they can see if you actually do it.
Well, we're going to do it. I promise. And and I love all those theater snobs. I am a theater
snob. Right. We really when it comes down to it, all of us have loved theater really are. And again,
it's a big size cast. So they're going to, you know, any man, woman young old, it doesn't matter.
Come on down to audition and keep in mind as well with all of this. If it sounds exciting,
you, it sounds interesting to you, but you're, you just want to dip your toe into water or something
like that. I, I think the Gretcher, one of the great ways to do this is being behind the scenes is
maybe even just being a ticket, you know, handing out tickets or something like that. Get your,
get, get there. Get to the theater. Feel the vibe, feel the energy. You can almost be a fly on the
wall in that respect and just kind of seeing how things develop and happen the way people interact
with each other. I, I really don't say this lightly. I promise you, you're going to want to jump
in the water. You're really going to, you get your, you get that toe and you're going to want to go
all in. We, you and I, all of us know people who are similar to Don where they, they gave this a chance.
Maybe even they just gave this a chance to kind of quiet the people that are telling them to give
them a chance. Look, I'll do it. And now they are not, they have a second home. They're, they're not
leaving, you know. I have towels for when you jump in. They're not great towels, but they're towels.
The towels, the towels, they're overdoing good. And, and keeping in mind as well, among all these
things that this is a, oh, it's a fun time. It's a wonderful time. It gets you out of the house.
So many things that we need more of in our society. And this is a huge impact in our city's economy.
This is a big impact on that. So when you're taking in these shows, the silver foxes shows,
when you're taking in the main stage shows, you're a part of different events that they host over
at the WRCT. You are buying local. You are supporting local. And I will bring this up every chance I
get until it changes. I do it with our politicians. I'm going to do it here too. Wisconsin finished
dead last in the Union last year when it came to funding the arts. Let's change that. Let's adjust
that. The arts are a huge part of our economy in any city, in any place. And the more we attend these
shows, the more we're helping out our whole state. And you're having some fun while you're at it too.
If you want to find out more, encourage you to go to WRCTether.org, WRCTether.org. Be sure to follow
them on social media as well and share what they do on their, on your pages. You just never know
who might see things otherwise. And, Gretchen, if people do have follow-up questions to any of this,
if they want to get in touch with you specifically, how can I do that? They can either call me at 715-421-0435
or send me an email, CDWRCT-X-LAIRS.net.
Trying to don, break a leg, enjoy yourselves. Thank you so much for the time and taking time out of
your lives to entertain our community and everything. Greatly appreciate that. Say hi to the rest of the
cast and Chris and everybody for me, please too. Gretchen, always good talking with you, always
good hanging out. We'll talk again real soon. Sounds great. Again, find out more information at
WRCTether.org, WRCTether.org. And we'll have more Midday Magazine for you tomorrow right here at
97.5 FM. 13.20 AM, WFHR. We are locally grown radio.
