Hello world, welcome to WFHR's rapid support, proudly brought you by Croc
Conceptic for this Thursday, October 9th, 2025.
Have your host James here, and we get to talk at the dinner.
We have the variety production for rumors, the cast of rumors and the director of
rumors here with us right now, a great show that's going to be coming to the
Johnson Community Center in Amherst on October 16th.
The premieres will get into the more dates and high-end tickets as we go
along here.
I don't want to kick things off, going down the line, let you guys introduce
yourselves and what your part, what your role in the production is, we got a
very familiar voice to kick things off.
Hi, this is Beth Roan-Haphager, I play Cookie Kusak.
How many years we've been talking to each other.
You've had to put up with me, Beth.
Thank you for being here, Beth.
Appreciate you.
I'm Brent Frank and I play Officer Welch.
Thanks for being here, Brent.
I'm Tom Bri and I play Officer Pudney.
Tom, good to see you.
My name is Kenny Vlas and I'm the director of the show.
Kenny, I'll be giving you the most attention as a director and as an actor and I want to
get cast.
So he's going to have all the questions.
No, thanks for being here, Kenny.
Appreciate it.
Certainly, right out the gate, I want to say a big thank you to all of you, your crew
and the rest of the cast.
Bringing entertainment to our area, bringing the arts to our area, bringing all of
this, taking time out of your days to be able to do this.
Greatly appreciate you all doing this one.
And you picked a darn good play.
I mean, anything Neil Simon related, usually you're pretty okay.
But Kenny, for those that may not, it's always weird to say this with the Neil Simon production.
But in case anybody may not know about rumors and what the plot of this play is and some of
that, could you kind of give us a little bit of a cliff notes version?
Absolutely.
So rumors is one of Neil Simon's last shows that he wrote.
I was wrote in the 80s and we kind of kept that 80s theme throughout our production.
So rumors is, is a farce and it's about a anniversary party.
10th one at the anniversary party that goes terribly wrong.
And they have some good friends that come to the show that are there to help cover for each other.
And so the stories get wilder and wilder and the rumors start to really grow.
And then at the end, there's trouble.
And I guess you have to come to the show to find out what happened there.
Nicely done.
I appreciate that you mentioned it being one of his last shows and the time that it came out.
I think that that context really adds to the show itself, especially if you haven't seen it before or anything like that.
And keep in mind, of course, when we're talking about a production like this,
even if you've seen rumors like yesterday, you're not, you haven't seen this version.
You haven't seen this production.
It's one of the beauties of theaters.
There are no reruns in every one of these as unique and different in its own light.
I imagine approaching this, that was something that you thought about that you wanted to do
was putting your own fingerprints on this.
So you're the team's own fingerprints on this.
Oh, absolutely.
And did a little bit of research.
There's a lot of different versions on YouTube that I kind of watched to get some ideas.
In fact, last weekend, I went to see another local production of it to get a few more ideas
and kind of give us a measuring stick of where we're at.
But we've really had a lot of fun with it.
So I got an excellent cast with some experienced members and some kind of newcomers.
And they were a great cast.
They learned their lines early, which gave us a lot of time to really work on blocking
and really work on finding little humor parts in it to even just kind of tweak things
to make it just a little bit more funny wherever we could grab an extra laugh.
You know, Kenny, as a fellow director, I've directed one show.
I'm not a fellow director.
But I just recently did on Golden Pond.
And I know approaching a show like that that has such a history to it and such a presence to it and everything.
I wanted to do something very similar and kind of did a lot of the same similar things.
It's great to note that.
I think especially as we encourage more and more people to get into that directing chair to give that a shot.
These are the kind of things that you can do.
And I think it's not to say that it doesn't take time and energy or anything away from what you've done or I've done
or any other director, but anybody can really do this.
It's a cool thing about it, I think.
It's very similar to acting.
Anybody can do it.
There's certainly some that do it better than others and all that.
But that's why we encourage locals all the time to be a part of productions like this.
Well, funny you should bring it up because this is actually my directorial debut.
Is it?
All right.
So I got involved in community theater when I was a kid, you know, probably eight, nine years old.
My mom was quite involved in it.
And as I got older and had my own kids, my kids just gravitated to it and they love it.
In fact, my son Colin has been, has earned the promotion to the stage director's job.
My daughter will be working up in the sound booth.
My wife is there to help with anything and everything that we need to do with the production.
So being a small community like Amherst, we have excellent support from our community.
We get a lot of family members that, you know, take on extra roles and do extra things.
And it's just really exciting.
I mean, I, like I said, I went, I'm just humbled at the, at the amount of talent that I have to work with.
And it just, it really makes my job quite easy.
You know, to that point, and I appreciate you, the details there, especially your family being involved, that's so cool.
That's awesome, by the way, that they're involved with this.
It speaks to what theater is.
It's a family environment, whether it's bringing your own family in there or the family you make by meeting people in theater and everything.
You make these relationships and friendships that last a lifetime.
I know that in part because some of it is right to my side right here.
Somebody that I've been fortunate enough to be on the stage and these microphones with many times.
Beth, I know that you and your family are a lot involved in the theater.
You guys happen to come to town here and just be right across the street, basically from the, our local theater here in Rapids and stuff.
So you've got it, you understand what Kenny's saying there to a better degree than some out there.
When it comes to this character, can you tell us about this character you're going to be playing this time and a little bit about them?
I'm glad you said this time because this is actually the second time I'm in a production of this particular play.
The first time had a wonderful experience because I ended up marrying one of my cast members.
We're dealt, we're dealt, we're dealt.
We're dealt really well for me.
Good investment.
This time I'm playing a different role.
So I'm playing Cookie Kusak and she is actually the eldest of those that are attending.
She and her husband and she has a television cooking show.
You think that was typecasting?
They actually didn't even know about kitchen soap.
At that point.
So the funny thing with her is that she has her back thrown out before she even gets to the party.
So that plays into the part quite a bit.
I am trying to tap into my inner Carol Burnett as much as possible and having fun trying to figure out how to make it as funny as possible.
I don't, I've been, I've had a chance a couple of times to play the same character before.
I've never been a part of the same production and played different characters.
That feels like it'd be really cool.
It's challenging and wonderful.
This part is kind of that comic relief.
I mean the whole production is comedic.
But she just throws in these one liners just randomly, especially in the second act.
And so the challenge for me is remembering where those come in in the second act.
I joke with my husband.
I know all of my lines.
I'm just not always sure where those lines come in.
That tricky part.
That's great.
Thank you for that mouth.
Brent, can you tell us a little bit about your acting experience and what the character you're playing?
Well, I sure.
This actually marks my return to the stage after more than 30 years.
The last time I was out on a stage for a dinner theater production down in southwestern Wisconsin.
Prior to that, I was in a couple of high school productions.
So this is still relatively new to me, but I've got some background in it.
My character is one of the two investigating officers that come along late in the second act
and try to straighten out all the rumors.
Right.
Well, two and two together and we keep coming up with five.
Well, Doug.
First off, good on you for getting back on that stage.
I appreciate that when anybody ever does that.
And I always admire it when it's done.
And when it comes to why you decided to get back on the stage, what brought you to it?
Well, this is a funny story.
For a number of years as the executive director of the Jensen Community Center,
where rumors is going to be, I had been trying to make some efforts to get community theater back on our stage.
We had had community theater years ago.
And most of the players there had retired.
And it kind of faded away to the point we were having some children's musicals each summer.
Variety productions was doing those.
And I said, wouldn't it be nice if we had an adult play with growing ups?
I should say in similar adult play.
We get grown ups.
We get grown.
Kenny and I have talked back and forth.
And when he came up with this, I thought, well, I better put my money where my mouth is and audition.
And Kenny said he had a part for me.
And I did a video audition for it and got the part.
Excellent.
Very cool to hear.
Very cool.
I appreciate that background.
And I want to talk to you a little bit more about the Jensen Community Center before we wrap up today.
And some of the point of the show and everything.
As somebody who, and I'll be honest here, I love movies and TV shows like the rest of us and everything.
If they got rid of all that and all we have was community theater, I'm good.
Like, I'm okay.
As long as we've got community theater, as long as we have theater, I'm all right.
This is where the real entertainment is for me when you get one take.
It's, you know, locals up there and some of those things.
It's where I think it lives and breathes this theater.
And that's really cool to hear.
Especially when it feels like oftentimes when we're talking about community theater nowadays,
we're talking a lot about losing community theaters.
You looking to bring this one back just, you know, artist to artist.
I appreciate that.
That's very, very cool to hear.
And makes us all the more want to get behind this show.
Yeah.
And actually, I'll expand a little bit on what Brent said.
So the Amherst area had the Tomorrow River Community Theater started in 1978.
And it ran pretty much two shows a year for probably a decade or more.
And then later on got into musicals.
And as we got into the 2000s, it, you know, as Brent said, we had people move on.
We had people age out of it.
We had, you know, fortunately, we lost some of our founding members, of course.
And so this show was really a way to kind of bridge that gap between then and here.
So this show is actually being dedicated to the, to the memory and the history of Tomorrow River Community Theater.
I know, I know we're going to have a lot of our former cast members and former crew members of the old TRCT will be in attendance.
And we're going to do a couple of special things, too, to kind of dedicate that show as well to one of the founding members that passed away just last year.
But what happened is after TRCT went away, we had great support from a woman named Janet Kladowski that came in with variety productions.
And variety productions, the reason it's called variety is because it's everything.
A lot of musicals has been the on stage stuff, music concerts and performances, but there's, there's running and walking and health element.
And Janet has dedicated, you know, time endless hours of time towards, towards variety productions to make it what it is.
And I'm fortunate enough that she's let me take the reins on directing a play trying something new.
Her shows are all pretty much family friendly for all ages where our show is really meant for a mature audience.
So if you're thinking about coming to the show, keep that in mind. There is some, some strong language in it. And, you know, you might want to think about that before you bring your child.
But just what a great experience. And I'm so excited to bring that, that theater feel back.
And hopefully it's something that we can keep on going here.
Yeah, yeah, appreciate that. No Kenny on all of that.
So Tom, one of the, can you ask the questions about your character and a little bit of your acting background, if you will?
I'm Tom Ray. I play Officer Pudney, who works with Officer Welch.
And we're called to this house and nobody really seems to want to tell us what's going on.
But they have all different stories. They have all the different rumors.
They're telling us and we're trying to figure all this out is basically on the fly.
So it's a great part. I want to back up something. This play is fun and it's funny both.
You know, it's just fun to be there, fun to watch it. And it's funny end to end. So it's just a great play.
As far as my background goes, I'm worse off than Brent is because for me, I was high school, middle school and high school.
I would school is called junior high, but junior high in high school.
And that was back in the 70s. And because of the course that my life ran down since then, I have not had a chance to be involved in community theater.
I have not had the chance. Most of my work involved traveling and doing different things.
Sure. I retired from my main job now. So I have time.
So one of the first things I did was I want to get into this and I made the mistake of telling Ken that I really wanted to do this.
And he made sure I was hooked into everything we're doing in the community now.
And I'm a big supporter of an Amherst person. So anything that the community's got going on, I want to be involved in.
So I jumped right in. I appreciate all that time.
And to what you and Brent have been touching on there about being away from the stage for a while, getting back on.
That's brave, man. That's brave. I don't throw that word around or anything.
I admire that. I do it because I'm insane. I can't help myself. I'm an actor at trade.
People insane minded people like yourselves to do this. I always admire that.
I think it's a brave thing to do. And you brought up, actually, you've all touched on this a little bit.
And we'll kind of come back to you. Brent's a little bit more about the Jensen community center and the purpose of this show and some of those things.
But to tie into that, something that you've all kind of touched on already is wanting to do things for the Amherst area, caring about the Amherst area.
We in our area and all of our listeners out there, wherever you might live, have a very similar feeling.
And I think, especially in this day and age, where I want to do some good, put me to work.
I want to do something good. And I've got this skill set, but I don't know where to put it.
I don't know what to do with it and everything. And, you know, not all of us can cure a disease or help in an ER or something like that.
But everybody's got something. Everybody got some way to be able to add to their community.
And for many of us, this is our skill set. This is one way we can do that.
Because while plays are great and they're awesome and Tom, you had a great note there about this being a funny and fun show.
It's funny. You're going to laugh at it, but it's fun in the sense of you're going to enjoy the whole show, even moments you're not laughing your tail off.
That's a really good note by you, I think. And that's important in this day and age.
How many, I mean, how many opportunities do we have for strangers and next to strangers laughing and just enjoying themselves having a good time?
That right there is worth doing it alone. But don't, you know, miss out on or miss the economic impact these things make as well.
People come from out of town. They come to Amherst to see this show. They maybe have dinner at the local restaurant or something like that.
You can insert any city name in there and your local community theater is doing that.
Bringing people to town, helping the economic impact in this. It's vitally important these shows, these productions, wherever they are, we encourage you to support them and be a part of them.
And with this one in particular, Brent, it's helping something directly right in the community, the Jensen communities center.
Yes. Proceeds from this production benefit our three-stage expansion project. The Jensen Center opened back in 1988.
And it's about a 10,000 square foot facility give or take. Don't quote me for sure that number. I kind of pulled that off my top of my head.
But acting. Yeah. There we go. In prop living. In prop. Yes.
When we opened, we did have a space for a theater, but we didn't finish it. It would just had a sloped floor and we had the stage poured and that was it.
There were no curtains, no seats, no lights, no sound, nothing. The center itself had been built from a request from a former resident of Amherst.
Her family had given us the money and part of the reasoning then with the theater was that let the community buy in through fundraisers and other other activities to put in the seats over time, put in the curtains and everything.
We have a full professional theater there and it amazes visitors to our small community. They come in, they see the other rooms that we have for parties and things of that nature.
Well, now after more than 35 years, we're really stressed for space. The theater is is good sized, but the stage is a bit small. When we stage a production, you know, like a children's musical and we have 80 kids up on that stage, you don't know where to put them.
One thing that I tell people is that like one of the wings, the stage left, I'm sorry, the stage right wing is only about an arm span, why? From the wall to the stage, between six and eight feet. Well, there doesn't give you much room.
So this three stage expansion project, the first stage was we added a new terrace concrete terrace off one side of the building for additional rental opportunities.
The second stage was a sprinkler and fire alarm system that was needed when we were built. The code didn't require it required it later, so we added it.
The third stage is an expansion of the theater itself, mostly for backstage use for safer passage from one side of the stage, the other additional storage space for sets, costumes, things of that nature, also for other things for many of our other activities.
So we mounted a capital campaign early last year. We're nearing the end of it. We did hit a couple of state regulations as we were finishing up the plan for stage three that are required to go back and say, guys, we need a little more money, please.
So that's why productions like this are very helpful to us and variety productions has been such a supporter of the project. It's, you know, mainly it's going to benefit them as well, you know, give them additional workspace and things like that.
But it helps the community as a whole as well, allowing us to offer say a bigger, bigger acts and things of that nature, because not only do we have theater like this, we do host music concerts, we have all kinds of seminars there with our central location.
It's wonderful that we can have groups that have offices all around the state will converge on us. Yeah, and that works very well.
I appreciate all that to do some kind of. Yeah, I was just going to add to it and actually, you know, to show how versatile the community center is, there are usually when where they're rehearsing, there's a dance class going on in the next room or there's a ukulele group that's meeting to run through their practices.
And in the way the center is laid out, we don't interfere with each other. We can all make it happen. It can be very versatile.
It's, it's just such a gift to have that and I'll back up a little bit. I was involved in theater and Amherst before we had the theater and we were doing performances wherever we could.
The high school gymnasium, the, you know, the local, there's one local restaurant that had enough space for about 75 people.
And I was actually in the first production when the Jensen Center opened back in 1989.
We did the sound of music, which was a pretty good size cast. And we had to do it in the community room and we could usually get about a hundred people unfolding chairs in there.
So to, to go from that and, and like I said, I feel like I've been raising money for this theater my whole life.
But to actually get to move into a theater, I was also lucky enough to be in the very first production that was held on the stage.
It was another Neil Simon comedy, the odd couple, many are familiar with that show. And we didn't have, we didn't have a stage floor.
We were on concrete. We didn't have curtains. We had a, a rag tag bunch of lights that we had inherited over the years and to see where we're at now and to look forward to where we're going to be in the future is, is just amazing.
And, and we can't do without our community support. I mean, our, our community of Amherst is, you know, the village itself is just over a thousand people.
But we get people from all over the place that come to see our show is in a lot of that has to do with the comfort of the Jensen Center.
Yeah. Well said. And, you know, it has a local tie to us around here too. I've been doing shows at WRCT in town since I'd see 97, 96 something like that.
And ours used to be at the local library. We love McMillan, wonderful spot, not necessarily built for productions, not necessarily built for things. So it really limited the selection choices of plays.
A similar thing sounds like with this production and with Jensen in the community center and everything, the expansion, some of these things, going to allow for maybe even a wider selection of stuff to be able to do, which is great because now I have to do a show with you guys.
I have to, like a lot of people out there, I see somebody smarter than me, like that's do something. And I'm going to, I'm going to go ahead and do something like that. So that, that seems like a good idea.
This show is a wonderful to one and it's one that you can be sitting there in the audience, laughing your tail off enjoying it and knowing the back of your mind and the front of your heart, you're putting back into your community at the same time. It's a win-win situation.
The productions are Thursday, October 16th, 7 o'clock, Saturday would be the matinee at 2 o'clock, and then Saturday, October 8th, another show at 7 o'clock. So back to back days here with shows, three shows, three opportunities for you to be able to take these in.
They are all taking place at the Jensen Community Center at 47 North Main Street in Amherst, beautiful Amherst, I love Amherst, by the way. Love the area.
Tickets are $15 a piece. You can text more, and if you'd like them, 715-340-8078, that's 715-340-8078, or if you want, you can email them vpjgtix at gmail.com. That's vpjgtix at gmail.com.
If you need any of this information, please reach out to us. We'll make sure to give it to you, and make sure that you get these tickets to see rumors. It's coming up. Again, Thursday, October 16th.
One encourage you all to take in this show, and I want to encourage all of you to enjoy yourselves, have fun out there, break a leg. Thank you so much for joining us and putting up my silly questions and everything.
Thank you.
I can add one more thing on there. Our doors are going to open at 6 p.m. and also at 1 p.m. hour before the show. We will have a bar there, so you can come in and purchase some drinks.
We're going to have heavy appetizers to get you into that anniversary party mood. We also have basket raffles. We have a 50-50 raffles.
There's a lot more going on there at the show, so feel free to come early, enjoy the center, take a tour, go out on our beautiful international bank of Amherst Terrace and check that out, and come out and enjoy a great time.
It's a great point, Kenny. If you're like me and haven't been to Amherst in a while, get there a little early, check out things in there. I know there are spots that I love to check out, and Amherst.
And come by a little bit early and again, support this great show by local support. That includes the arts, everybody. Thanks again for the time, y'all.
And a big thank you to you out there listening to us for another edition of WFHR's Rapids Report.
