Hello all, welcome to WFHR's Rapids Report, probably brought you by Crockett Sceptic.
Big thank you to them for this June 12th, 2025.
Have your host James J. Mail off here and welcoming into the studio.
We have our friends from Wisconsin Rapids Community Theatre's Silver Foxes.
The great, the wonderful, the legend, Linda Garsky.
Hi James.
Hi.
Is that how you wrote it, Linda?
No, no, that's...
That's not how I wrote it.
That's not how I wrote it.
No, no, no.
The litter would never do that.
Well, you know, it is journalism is very important to me and honesty is very important to me.
This is this course, AZ to my De Niro.
This is one of my favorite people in the world and one of my, I easily, favorite person
to be directed by.
So there's not going to be any journalism integrity with this interview.
We're just going to have some fun.
We're going to talk about Silver Foxes in local theater and first off, Linda, how you been?
I have been just fine.
Good, good.
I appreciate you being here in the time, not only with putting up with me, but doing, you
know, taking time out of your day and being a part of Silver Foxes, being a part of other
things at the theater.
We appreciate that.
If you don't mind, we always like to use this as an opportunity to recruit, to let other
people know out there that they can be a part of Silver Foxes, what is it to be a Silver
Fox, Linda?
Oh, the Silver Foxes are such fun.
This is a group of between 10 and 20 at any different time people all over the age
of 60, everybody's retired.
They enjoy being on stage and joy acting, but the difference is, is you have no memorization.
You're allowed to carry your script along with you on stage.
It makes it a lot easier and a lot more relaxed and it doesn't involve as much rehearsal time,
which is nice too.
But everybody in this group is so much fun and they're, they're all young at heart, every
one of them.
I apologize.
I thought I had this off the top of my head now.
I can't think of it.
How long has Silver Foxes been around?
It's been around a while.
I am thinking it's at least 10 years that it was brought to us by Joan Joseph, who has
performed with us a number of times over the years.
And she just thought it would be nice to get a senior group together.
And she started it up.
She's passed and we miss her.
But it's, it's really grown into a fun, fun group and they do some darn good work too.
I'm just thinking that in the whole time this has been around, I've only heard such
positive, wonderful things about it and that that's not too surprising considering local
theater.
Usually get a lot of that kind of feedback.
But you mentioned the scripts on stage and it might be a little bit different than
some people are used to taking in place and I've never heard anything about that.
I've never heard anybody say anything about the scripts or any of this stuff.
People just love these shows, love seeing these shows.
And I think that there's also, you know, especially for long time residents, oftentimes you
see people in silver foxes that were in plays on the main stage and that and getting
to see them again, sometimes even in the more different light.
It's, it's really fun for the audience, for the community in that regard as well.
Exactly.
A lot of us have come up through the WRCT ranks and you just get to a certain age where
you just maybe don't want to spend as much time as it and don't want to have to memorize.
I tell you that's kind of a blessing sometimes to be able to walk on there with your little
cheap book and really nobody's ever really commented on the fact that we do that.
But everybody comes in and they do their own costumes and they bring their wonderful
personalities on stage with them and it's a hoot.
And we have a, you know, we certainly have a healthy senior population in this area and
we've got a lot of resources for them, but I don't think you could ever have enough.
No.
And one thing that I think that, you know, I talk about this a lot with the ADRC when
they join us and about the isolation and loneliness that can exist, especially for our senior
population in rural areas.
You know, you might notice there's a couple of check marks there for our area here.
I, I would put this as number one, number two, as far as recommendations of if you want
to get out of the house, you want something to do.
Here you go.
This is it.
It, the, the, you know, the time commitment is not that heavy is not that much.
You, you really get a lot of what you put into it, which is, you know, fun and exciting.
And I, the, the, I don't know if you haven't done this before, we can really hit on this
enough about the not, not needing to memorize.
Yes.
It's such a, a confidence builder and a such a, oh, that's, I don't have to worry about
that.
That's off my shoulders right away.
Exactly.
So you get to really focus on having fun, building your character, working with your
coast, you know, actors and all that.
It's very freeing.
So I would say, especially if you've never done theater before, this is perfect for you.
It is.
We have people that never had done theater before and came on here and they're just blossoming
now.
And it's so cute to watch everybody.
And there's some pretty good talent.
There's some that I would put in a main stage.
Oh, yeah.
Two.
They, they got that talent level.
I think of a, a good friend of ours that we both met.
Now, this doesn't necessarily have to do with silver foxes, but Al Ross.
And I loved working with Al.
I had so much fun doing rainmaker with him and everything.
And it was his first show.
And just recently retired from the mill and never even thought about acting.
And he does this.
And he's great.
And like, I move out of the area and I'm keeping an eye on going to the website and checking
out the shows and stuff.
Because I love you guys.
And I'm like, keeping up with stuff.
And I see Al is doing a one man solo show where he's just doing a one man solo show.
Like the guy that I was doing, I was working with and trying to explain being on the stage
with and stuff in areas.
He not only took the ball and ran with it, but he was great at it.
I heard nothing but good.
I still hear good things about that.
Al Ross, if you're listening, we can always use more guys at the silver foxes.
And I hope he does my music as an example, but I think he's such a great example of this.
You never know what you just give something a shot.
And if you don't like it, cool.
You don't have to do it again.
That's fine.
You can tell people you gave it a chance.
That's something to brag about.
Something I tried on my bucket list.
Yeah.
But if you do it and you love it, man, get used to coming down.
You're going to be coming down for these all the time, whether it's to take in the show
or be a part of them.
If you want to be a part of silver foxes or learn more about it, we'll give you information
a little bit later about how to do that.
But again, a big thank you to the whole team and everybody that does this.
Now, Linda, you and I have known each other for a very long time.
I think there are a few people that know me better than you.
That being said, I don't think you even know this about me.
I am a gigantic Goldie Hawn fan.
A huge Goldie Hawn.
I love Goldie Hawn.
I grew up on her movies.
I'm a big fan.
I do remember as a kid watching her reruns a laughin' and that's one of the first places
I remember seeing her as a young woman.
I knew Goldie Hawn from like Wildcats and you know, the Army movie, darn it, I can't
think of it.
Private Benjamin.
Private Benjamin and stuff like that.
It might be my favorite of hers.
So that was her I knew.
I go back, I watched laughin' and I did again just for the heck of it this weekend for
the interview coming up and I was blown away.
I thought I knew all the great bits and all the great actors and people that got their
start on that show.
It's amazing to go back and look and like just see all the young faces, all the people
that got a break from that one.
It's got to be one of the more influential shows of its time.
Definitely.
And certainly to our community out there and just the world in general, a lot of people
love this show.
Probably have some myths of the show.
So what the Silver Foxes decided to do is a tribute to laughin'.
What are you guys gonna be doing with this?
What is going to be going on?
Well basically we took that whole theme of laughin' when we ran with it.
It's our tribute to aging, which is very appropriate for our group.
And we have skits, we have all, we have the Edith Ann.
I'm playing Edith Ann who is five and a half years old.
We have Ernestine.
We have the wall where people are popping in and out and we have like five different
wall scenes.
We have the crazy doctor scene.
Lee Tritz is playing in Christine Sullivan.
Are the two narrators who narrate the whole show and we get Lee singing, which is always
a joy.
In fact, I got a list, everybody that's in this prediction is Linda Arnt, Tronda Barris,
Peggy Burgholtz, me Cheryl Johnson, Carol Hamillink, Marilyn Higglestead, Pam Marshall, Don
Mansell, Christine Sullivan, Lee Tritz, Pennywise, and Chris Williams.
Oh my gosh, you got some of our best, perfect crew right there.
You got a perfect team right there, that is going to be great.
It's also, I want to mention too, and I don't know how much of the audience is this, but
if there's anybody who doesn't know laughin' or anything, I encourage you to go look up
some clips of it or something.
But even if you haven't, you may enjoy this more than the rest of us, because I mean we're
going to love the nostalgia and the enjoyment of this and so much of that, but this is a
show that I think holds up.
This is like whether we're talking old reruns of the show or we're talking about this
production right here, it's something that fits in 2025.
It's still just as funny, it's still just as good, which is really hard to say about comedy.
There's not much, there's not much at age, age is worse than comedy, unfortunately, you
know, it tends to be topical, tends to be of the moment and a lot of that.
So it's something for a joke or a show to have that kind of longevity, that kind of love
for it.
It's not just nostalgia that brings us back to it, it's so much of the groundbreaking
things that they did on that show that we're needed of the time that isn't that different
now.
No, you know?
So it has so many layers to it, along with it being one of the most fun kind of shows
you can take in.
And the production that you guys put together is going to be just as great.
We even have the German.
We have Ardelaise.
German.
I forgot.
Marilyn Hilgestead is doing the German.
She comes out of the bushes.
It's a scream.
It's an absolute scream.
That's fantastic.
When it comes to the time put into this, I also like to bring this up for anybody thinking
about being a part of silver foxes, but also just to give credit to everybody involved
with it.
How did the rehearsal process go?
Did you guys get a chance to rehearse a bit to her?
Yeah, we started like about 10 weeks ago.
We meet once a week.
We meet Thursday afternoons for a couple of hours and it's very relaxed.
We don't do auditions.
The director generally decides where she wants everybody to go.
We read through it first and then she decides where everybody's going to play.
And then we just start getting together and reading it.
And you know, it's minimal amount of time.
It's just a fun afternoon as we get closer, obviously, where we're rehearsing, you know,
a couple hours every day until the run.
And it's fun.
All we'll take the rest of the summer off and we'll start again at late August, early
September for the Halloween show.
That's another good one.
And something good to keep in mind out there.
If you are thinking about being a part of silver foxes, you know, this will be a good time
to reach out and everything.
You can't get your feet in the water a little bit.
And that the rehearsal schedule has a good balance of helping build the actor's confidence
in themselves and the show and everything while also not being a gigantic time commitment
and stuff.
So it's a really good balance of that right there.
That's fun.
The show is kicking off June 12th to a clock.
Well, that's today.
Get on over there and check this out, everybody.
And then of course, you'll have an opportunity on June 13th on Thursday at 6 o'clock for
a show.
7 o'clock, that's actually.
Oh, sorry.
7 o'clock show.
Yeah.
That'll be at 7 o'clock.
Although, you know, get there a little early.
Get a nice seat and everything.
Yes.
This is taking place in the WRCT auditorium, so that's another thing to keep in mind, everybody.
Which is a wonderful place to see a show.
Linda, is there anything else you wanted to touch on with this one?
Hope.
Come and see us.
Come play with us.
It's going to be a great time, everybody.
Take in a tribute to laughing from our great silver foxes, a part of WRCT.
You can find out more at wrctheter.org, wrctheter.org.
Be sure to follow them on social media as well.
It's a great way to keep up the date and everything they are doing.
You can also reach out to them that way.
If you have questions about silver foxes or that kind of thing, is there another way to reach
out, Linda?
Is there?
You can call the WRCT office.
421-0435 and talk to Gretchen.
She's our executive director and she's absolutely wonderful and she'd be more than happy to
fill you in.
And of course, not just this, but there are so many other great things going on with
the WRCT community theater.
Not only all summer long, but all year long.
Get on over there, get your tickets for those shows, maybe fill out an audition tree and
plenty of other great things.
And of course, the kids shows.
We got lunch by the river going on.
We got a couple of other kids in youth and teen productions.
We'll be talking about here at the show.
Look forward to covering all of this in a great summer of theater.
It's going to be fun.
Break a leg.
Have a great time with the show.
Thank you, James.
Again, wrctheeter.org is where you want to go.
Get your tickets and find out more.
Everybody.
We appreciate everybody joining us here for another edition of WFHR's Rapids Report.
