And welcome back.
It is the WXCO morning report part of mornings with Pat Crichtlow 98.9 WXCO online at wxco.fm mobile devices and Alexa by searching WXCO and on the civic media app with our in studio engineer Ian Welsh.
Ian, good morning.
Good morning, Chad.
I know you're excited this morning, aren't you?
Yes, I am Because you're you're gonna be our engineer and also kind of a guest because what we're gonna be doing here to start things off this morning is talk about the River and Woods Theatre Company as they coming up this week later this week Thursday Friday and Saturday Outdoor theater Shakespeare in the park not one but two productions each day Tomorrow we'll be talking about a midsummer night's dream with some of the younger performers, but here
Today we are talking about the comedy of airs one of Shakespeare's great writings and very happy to welcome back Dan Thompson.
It's good to see you again, Dan.
Good to see you too.
And Keela Coppersmith.
I don't believe you've been with us before.
Sometimes I forget because there's so many people
that come
through.
I know Dan's been here, but welcome.
And also because you two are members of the cast and I know folks know that Ian is also a member of the cast as well.
So it's wonderful to have three members of the cast of this.
Wonderful show again.
It'll be at 6 p.m.
Coming up Thursday Friday and Saturday at Stewart Park Let's start off with the show because obviously Shakespeare Outdoors this is different isn't it because I imagine that being outdoors is got to be different than being you know in Whether it's at the University or one of the high schools.
What is the difference when you're actually outdoor performing?
Dan will start with you
Well being in an amphitheater we we do have somebody working on like microphones and But we're not personally mic'd it's just amphitheater microphones, but generally speaking You have to be really big in everything that you do You have to play like the person at the back of the park can hear you and
for the characters specifically in A Comedy of Errors.
That's actually not that hard because they're written very broadly.
And Kila, what about you?
Number one, have you performed outdoors previously?
What are the challenges of being outdoors?
Okay, I have never performed out in the park before, so this is the first time for me.
But I'm definitely, like Dan said, preparing for having to really project the voice and be very clear and speaking and very big and be prepared for the weather to, you know, be at our mercy and just endure whatever it throws our way.
Let's talk a little bit about backgrounds because, you know, Dan, you've been very active for folks who may not be familiar.
How long have you acted?
How many
have you been in?
Well, I started in January of 2023, and now it's summer of 2025.
Well, not
that long, really.
I guess not.
But it feels like an
earlier
life before I was doing this.
I've almost always had a show going on.
This has got to be...
13 I
want to say what about you Kila?
How many shows have you been involved in and how long you've been an actor?
I mean I I did a ton of Theater in college Where I got I got my degree in it and then I moved back to the area like around the COVID time And so this is one of my I think this is my fourth production in this area.
Where'd you go to
college?
Small private school in Milwaukee, but it was a good theater program.
What is the name?
Wisconsin Lutheran.
There you go.
Gotta be proud.
Gotta be
proud.
And let's talk about the roles that you're playing in this production.
Dan, what's your role?
This is gonna be
hilarious.
Okay, so I am playing Dromio of Ephesus, who is the slave to a man called Antipolis of Ephesus.
And...
I'm just Caleb.
Who's your
character?
I am also a Jromio.
I'm Jromio of Syracuse.
I think we're saying it's Syracuse.
Yes.
And also the slave to the other twin antifilis of Syracuse.
So it's two sets of twins.
Well, that begs the question.
What are similar about your roles?
What are different about your roles?
Our roles are the exact, like we have the exact same personality.
We dress the same we look the same everything about us is the same which is why the comedy of errors can occur because when we show up and talk to One of the two antifiluses antifilai if you will We don't know who we're talking to and when we show up they don't know which of us is which of us and so
Things
get wacky,
and
both
of us get beaten up.
Keela, what's your take on the role?
What jumps out about this role for you?
Yeah, I mean, he's right.
There's not a huge difference in our, like, identities.
He takes more beatings than I do.
I get to... I'm just so clever.
I get to dodge out of all those beatings.
But we're both just kind of, you know... You get
all the witty scenes.
Yes,
I get to be witty.
I'm dodging out of a beating the
whole time.
I'm going to bring in Ian.
Ian, what again is your role in this production?
Well, I have three roles, actually.
Three different characters.
I play a character called a Balthazar, who's kind of a rich gentleman that Antifluss invites over to dinner and also play
merchant on number two who's a well he's a very uh he's a quick to quick to anger a sort of character because he he needs money for a voyage and throughout the show he's he's constantly asking for it and he never gets it so that's for the comedy of that character and then a third character I play is also the my
favorite character also the funniest I play is a doctor pinch who according to the character description is a quack, a psychologist.
And we will have more with our guests talking about the comedy of Ears River and Woods Theater Company Thursday Friday and Saturday Shakespeare in the park.
More coming up, we'll be back at 7.52 with our next WXCO morning report and back to Pat Crite Low.
Mornings with Pat Crite Low coming up here on 98.9 WXCO.
And welcome back WXCO morning report part of mornings with pack right low here on 98.9 WXCO
I am Chad Holmes.
Again, we're talking to Dan Thompson, also Keeler Coppersmith, and Ian Welch, who are all members of the cast for the Comedy of Errors, which is being performed by the River and Wood Theatre Company.
There'll be productions coming up on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday against part of two productions during the daytime at 2 p.m.
for kids amid summer night stream, and we'll talk about that tomorrow on the program with cast members, and then six o'clock for the Comedy of Errors Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.
at Stewart Park in Warsaw.
Kayla, you said that you've had, you know, experience at the college level and studied it.
What are the different challenges of doing Shakespeare as compared to maybe other types of productions?
Oh, that's a great question.
I feel like when I'm doing Shakespeare, there's always this horrible fear.
I'm gonna just forget every single line, because it's, you know, you can't, like, save yourself
with,
like, I'm just gonna improv and make this up, like, because it's so the wording of it.
It's very particular and it's very in Iambic pentameter.
So it has that rhythm.
It's got a flow.
So people are going to notice if you fumble the bag with your words.
And Dan, in terms of finding character, it's different.
It's a different kind of role as opposed to maybe somebody that's in the modern era or even if you're playing somebody that's not in the modern era but not Shakespearean.
The challenge is again of this type of show.
For finding character, this character
is just, like once I put the costume on, I don't know if you know the term, the mask eats the face, where it's like, you wear it and it's like, oh, I'm suddenly just goofy
all the time.
And I always wear my whimsical socks, which we're gonna
be
wearing on stage.
And that was, I don't know, that kind of came easy once I read the script and I was like, okay, I get what this is supposed to be.
But as far as Shakespeare goes, like Keele was saying that Iambic pentameter.
Once you start seeing it in places, weird things happen.
Like, so it goes.
And that is part of how you have to memorize all your lines.
You have to make sure that all of your lines follow that beat.
Obviously, you don't deliver them entirely that way, but then you start seeing it everywhere.
Like, did you know we hold these truths to be self-evident?
Or even in Star Wars, I felt a great disturbance in the Force.
There are a favorite moment for each of you in terms of your role or within the show itself.
It could be even something that, you know, you're seen on the stage.
Is there a favorite moment in this show?
There's so many really good moments.
I really I really love some of the scenes that I get to do with Katie who was my antifilis and we we have this scene where
We go to this city knowing that there's a twin out there, someone who looks just like Antipolis.
And everything we think when people are thinking, you know, oh, this is the Antipolis of Ephesus, but it's the other one.
We all think it's witchcraft.
Like immediately just jump to that conclusion.
Must be witchcraft.
So we have this scene where Jackie's character, she plays a courtesan and she comes out and she wants a gold chain that she's talking to.
wrong antifilis at this point so we're like what do you why do you want this chain this must be wish witchcraft and we're like you know like trying to like be gone Satan
like get her
away from us we think she's like this devil and it's just we just jump to these crazy conclusions but like it's just I don't know you just get to be very
Like you let get to let go and just be stupid
And any special moments for yourself when you things that you really look forward to every night being part of oh
One of the first things I do is I meet Katie antifilis and Then I go back home and I tell the story about how Mistress
your husband doesn't want to come home.
He doesn't know you at all.
He's insane.
And I get to have this back and forth with myself.
It's so funny.
As Dromio, I play both myself, Dromio and Antiphalus.
And I make myself big and grand with this kind of voice.
And then I make Antiphalus this kind of voice.
And I just regale them the story of
of just being beaten at the mart for having tried to bring him home to dinner.
One of the great things about being on stage is not just being on stage but feeling the audience.
I'm gonna give you both a chance to sell it because obviously Shakespeare can sometimes probably scare people away a little bit.
Why should folks who are tuned in right now say, I'm gonna take that time?
at six o'clock Thursday Friday or Saturday or if you love it so much do it more than once what do you tell your friends or some or family members say this is why you should go to this show keela what do you think
um i've been telling people it's just a really great escape you don't have to think too hard it's one of shakespeare's simpler
plotlines to understand.
You as the audience, you're in on the whole joke.
You can tell what is going on.
All these characters are confused and you just get to spend the whole time waiting for the disasters to stop being a disaster.
It just keeps going.
It's just really funny, I think, is a good end of summer escape for people.
Come out and laugh.
I agree.
Dan, what about you?
How do you sell it?
Why don't your people come?
Well, it's also just a nice way to spend time outside.
You can come for the kids in the afternoon, and then go get dinner somewhere, and then stop by for an equally silly show
in the evening.
This is not elevated stuff, because I know that Shakespeare has a reputation for being very heady or...
You sit down and you don't even know what you're reading.
That's the actor's job to make sure that you understand what he's writing.
And I think we all do a wonderful job.
River
Woods Theatre Company, Comedy of Air, 6 p.m.
Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at Stewart Park in Wasaw.
Kayla Coppersmith, Dan Thompson, both break a leg, and thank you for coming on in.
Thank you very much.
And again, we'll talk tomorrow about the kids show up, coming up at 2 p.m.
each of those days on Midsummer Night's Dream.
Ticket information at the River and Woods Facebook page as well.
More of Mornings with Pat Crite Low coming up here on 98.9 WXCO.
actually mostly cloudy as I look out the window here at our downtown studios corner of Washington Street and North 3rd Street mostly cloudy skies 67 degrees in downtown Wausau.
I am Chad Holmes.
This is the WXCO morning report.
part of mornings with pack right low here on 98.9 WXO online at WXO dot FM mobile devices and Alexa by searching WXO and on the civic media app.
Again, we are with you at 22 and 52 after the hours in the seven and eight o'clock hours during mornings with pack right low.
If you miss any of our discussions, including in the last hour, as we were talking about the comedy of airs, the production for through the river and woods.
theater company that is coming on Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 6pm.
We had a chance to talk to actors Dan Thompson and Keela Coppersmith.
If you missed that discussion, if you miss any of our discussions, we put everything on a podcast each and every day.
It is put in our WXCO news section of wxco.fm also on Spotify, Apple podcast as well by searching WXCO news.
We have our daily news
that's part of our WXCO section as well and our WXCO morning report.
So you can get it all in one easy sitting, roughly 30 minutes because we get seven and a half minutes four different times during the course of the morning.
So again, if you have not checked out the podcast, please do so.
And also you can go back and see and hear our interviews as well by going to our WXCO YouTube channel.
Go to youtube.com, go to the 98.9 WXCO.
WXCO channel and then you can find all of our previous segments including the interviews that we have here on the WXCO morning report.
Joined again by Ian Welsh who is across the way.
Ian, good morning.
Good morning, Chad.
And of course, tomorrow we will also be talking about River and Woods Theatre Company and the Shakespeare in the Park because we talked about the six o'clock shows that are on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
There's
also
a two o'clock show for the younger set.
Yes, there
is.
The kids.
It will be a Midsummer Night's Dream and we will have performers Bayla Fritz and Adriana Bluth.
Blune.
Blune.
We'll get the pronunciation when that young person comes in.
But we will be talking about that production coming up tomorrow morning here on 98.9 WXCO.
But I know you're excited because you're getting closer and closer to the opening, just over 48 hours away.
Are you set?
Are you ready to roll?
I think we're all feeling pretty good about her.
Show everybody is putting in the time and effort and we're all having a lot of fun with the show we're Making I'm sure that we are You know keeping it I'm moving and helping each other out if we need it and Tonight I'll be our final rehearsal at the at the children's theater and for Wednesday we are gonna have our final rehearsal at the actual
Stuart Park itself.
So a lot of preparation goes into it.
But I have a feeling it's going to be a lot of fun and I think the temperature will be a little more tolerable than inside the rehearsal building because there's not much
hair conditioning in the building, so it gets a little, you know, hot.
Well, I hope that the weather does hold up and that everybody enjoys it.
Again, at Stuart Park Thursday, Friday and Saturday, a mid-summer night's dream, 2 p.m., and then the Comedy of Airs at 6 p.m., and we'll talk more about that.
Hopefully you were joined in just a few minutes ago when I was with Pat Crite Low.
We were always I joined Pat on the program each Tuesday and Thursday Just after the news at the top of the hour in the eight o'clock hour and again, I would suggest that You check out was a daily herald calm about this story
Colby windows and doors building 102 affordable apartment units in Wausau for workers earning $18 to $20 per hour opening expected in January of 2026.
So not too far off.
Very, very important and somebody that's been a renter in this area for a very long time.
I've spoken of the fact that we have seen so many rises in rent that the squeeze when it comes to affordable housing is real in this part of the state and basically throughout.
the state and the country, but it's very proactive from Colby.
And I mentioned the fact that you see so often these businesses that looking for handouts in order to expand their footprint in order to expand their business.
This was a case where they're investing.
in their workers, they're investing in their business because they realize that they cannot continue to be successful in Central Wisconsin if they cannot get workers.
And I mentioned the fact as well that there have been stories that I've heard.
numerous times in recent years, where there is a business that's looking for quality workers to come here, live and work in Central Wisconsin.
And there are a number of different areas that are vitally important when it comes to people deciding whether or not to accept a job.
One of which is affordable housing.
Another of which is how are the schools?
And that, again, is, I think we're fortunate to have good schools here, but at the same time,
there's
been some issues there.
We saw the Wasa School District try to pass a referendum recently.
and that was not passed.
What does that mean for the future?
So there's still all these questions around that as well.
But if you just let things sit back and not be proactive, whether it's governmental or whether it's private, then there's going to be trouble.
But this, I think, is a very important story.
And again, you can check it out.
The author, Nita Tezin, had the story at wasadailyherald.com.
Here's an old...
Saying I remember that Life is not a spectator a sport.
It's not meant to be washed.
It's meant to be lived to be proactive To get out there and do things
829 is the time you got an information update coming up and then back with Pat Crite low I believe he has Dan Schaefer coming up after the news so stick around for that
as we continue.
We'll be back at 8.52 here on WXCO.
And welcome back!
WXCO morning report!
part of mornings with packed right load here on 98.9 WXCO online at wxco.fm mobile devices and Alexa by searching WXCO and on the Civic Media app with Ian Walsh on Chad Holmes
We are just over a week away from the start of a new high school sports season.
And again, we will be providing you with extensive play by play coverage of high school athletics here on 98.9 WXEL.
However, I want to spend a few moments again, emphasizing the need.
for advertiser support.
And I know folks, oh, no, you don't want to hear about that.
Well, unfortunately, we do have to talk about it because we cannot continue to do this without the support of our sponsors.
And it's actually been, again, very tough.
And we understand that in this era, there's a lot of uncertainty.
The economic policies change all the time when it comes to tariffs and everything else.
And that leads to some uncertainty for business.
However,
The the proposals that we have for your sponsorship of high school sports I think are very very reasonable in terms of what we provide with our coverage of the area of high schools and in fact We're talking about adding a little bit more here in the fall
with the help of some folks involved in one of our area schools.
So I can't really go into it at this point until it becomes official because we can't do it without the support of some terrific advertisers.
But I would just like to encourage you to reach out to myself or to our salesperson, Aliyah, and we can get you the information you need to make a decision.
Again, that's what we're looking for.
Just to be able to put this out in front of you and
Make let you make the decision on whether or not it is worthy of your investment and worthy of your supports and we truly believe it would be in terms of the type of coverage that we provide and Also, I think the importance of what we provide in terms of high school play-by-play So again, the high school football season gets underway next week We're nine days away from the kickoff, but we are still desperately searching for more
Support from advertisers and we cannot continue to do it unless we get the support of our advertisers and we would just really appreciate the
The few moments for you to take a look at what we have to offer.
So again, please reach out to myself.
You can send me a Note on all my social media.
I'm all over the place whether it's Facebook or Instagram or X or blue sky or threads I'm pretty much everywhere, but also you can go to our 98.9 WXEO Facebook page or to
our website, there's a link to send us an email there, or you can just directly send it to me, chad.homes at civicmedia.us.
Again, that's Chad Dot Homes at CivicMedia.us and we would just love to talk to you and and make our pitch to say that hey this is well worth your time and investment and really does a lot in terms of supporting the area schools and the area student athletes as we bring you a coverage of high school sports starting again next week.
Last night, the Brewers win seven to one over the Pittsburgh Pirates.
10 wins in a row for Milwaukee.
10 in a row.
They are 74 and 44 on the season.
Just amazing stuff.
Really, really amazing stuff.
So no one expected this.
Nope.
Nobody did.
Bryce Terrang had a home run.
Christian Yellowchattie home run as well.
Brewers and the Pirates again this evening at American Family Field.
The news not so good for the Wausau Woodchucks.
and they had won 20 games in a row at Athletic Park and not lost at Athletic Park since June 28th.
Well, they lost last night and their season came to an end.
They fell to Green Bay six to four and they lost their first round at Northwood's league playoff series, two games to none.
Woodchuck's had a four to one lead, but saw Green Bay rally with five runs in the final two innings to earn the W. Still a very good season for the Woodchuck's.
They finished things off with a record of 40.
6 wins and 25
losses.
Yes, they did.
So again, the boys of summer wrap up for another campaign.
That's right.
Lots of fun at the old ballpark this year at athletic park.
All right, well, let's finish things off as we do each weekday with our number for the day quiz.
That's right.
What we do is give Ian Welsh the opportunity to
Trying to make the right choice.
We give him three choices.
One of which is correct.
Two of which are incorrect.
So that means one out of three is right.
And based on the math, 33% anything better than 33% is a passing grade.
Anything below 33% is a failing grade.
But we want better than that.
We want him to have more right than wrong, which would be three out of five, which would be a winning week.
Four out of five is an A grade and then five out of five is a gold star for the week.
That's right.
He is all for one so far this week after I gotta get back on the winning track after a very good four for five a week ago All right Taylor Swift has announced she has a new album coming up She just revealed Yesterday that her upcoming album will be titled the life of a showgirl
And she'll be talking on a podcast hosted by her boyfriend Travis Kelsey the tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs have more details on that coming up this week But our number for the day is in the United States How many albums has Taylor Swift sold in her career?
How many albums is Taylor Swift and it's basically album equivalent units Pure sales and streams your choices are all right
96.7 million 116.7 million 136.7 million album equivalent unit sales for Taylor Swift in her illustrious career
I'm gonna say 116.7 million all right
so just Taylor Swift
11 original studio albums, four re-recorded albums, five extended plays, four live albums that sold 116.7 million units.
Nice.
So you're one for two this week.
Very good.
We'll see you tomorrow.
Happy Tuesday, everybody.
Keep it right here on WXC.