Volume 13, Number 5 March, 2007
Main Stage Series at the Palace ...
The Cemetery Club
Opens March 16
by Rich Merritt
ACT
I's Main Stage Series for Season 2006 - 2007 continues this week and next with
six
performances of The Cemetery Club by Ivan Menchell which opens Friday,
March 16 at the Palace Theatre
in Vinton. The play aptly fits our season theme, "Parting is Such
Sweet Sorrow." The
Cemetery Club is set in New York City, and portrays the lives of three older
Jewish widows who meet once a month to visit the graves of their dead husbands.
Ida, Doris and Lucille are lifelong friends, who are trying to cope with their
new lives. It is sponsored by The Vinton Eagle, sponsoring an ACT I
production for the first time.
Ida,
played by Bunny Fritch, is sweet tempered and ready to begin a new life, but is
not accustomed to being alone after many years of marriage and doesn't feel
ready to start dating again until she meets Sam the butcher, played by Alan
Nebola.
Sam
the butcher, a widower who visits his wife’s grave and meets the three ladies,
becomes infatuated with Ida, which upsets the relationship among the three
widows, and disturbs the status quo. Suddenly, the relationship among the three
changes in ways that are both hilarious, hurtful and heartbreaking - especially
when Sam brings Mildred, played by Jill g. Lockard-Bopp, to a wedding attended
by all.
None
of the actors is Jewish or from New York City, so learning how to speak with a
New York Jewish accent is quite a challenge. The cast is up to the challenge.
Jill g. Lockard-Bopp may be the most experienced cast member. She was a theatre major in college, and has directed and starred in two dozen productions for ACT I, UNI and Catharsis Theatre Group. Her roles for ACT I included appearances in Lend me a Tenor, The Music Man, Blithe Spirit, and Girls in 509. She directed 110 in the Shade, The Cat and the Canary, The Rainmaker, and Mornings at Seven, among many others.
Bunny
Fritch, a retired teacher, has been involved with ACT I for 13 years, appearing
in 11 plays, starting with the female version of The Odd Couple in 1993. Her most recent plays include 110 in the Shade, Lend
me a Tenor, The Music Man, You Can’t Take it With You, The
Sound of Music, The Book of Murder, and It Runs in the Family.
The director is Sue Freet, and Suzie Westland is Assistant Director and Stage Manager. Ed Cardwell is in charge of the technical production, and Rachel and Keith Bonar are in charge of properties. Sue makes her directorial debut with the production, having previously served as assistant director for Life with Mother, Kiss Me, Kate, Noises Off, and The Music Man. Suzie was also assistant director for Lend Me a Tenor and was in the cast for The Music Man and 110 in the Shade. Rachel also appeared in Lend Me a Tenor, The Music Man, and 110 in the Shade. Ed has worked back stage on many past productions, including Lost in Yonkers, Kiss Me, Kate, The Music Man, and Love Sex and the IRS.
Performances
for The Cemetery Club are scheduled for March 16, 17, 16, 23, 24 and 25.
Curtain time is 7:00 pm for Friday and Saturday nights and 2:00 pm for the
Sunday matinees.
The
Cemetery Club is produced by special arrangement with Samuel French, Inc.
For additional information about this production, including more photographs, go to the Cemetery Club show page of this website at www.act1.org/cemetery.htm.
The ACT I Ticket information line and Palace Theatre Box Office number is (319) 472-9957! Call today for Reservations for The Cemetery Club!
Events Series...
The Heroes of Parlor Town Warms Audience
ACT I patrons braved frigid sub-zero temperatures to hear
Cedar Rapids pianist and ragtime music historian Brent Watkins on February 4
at the Palace Theatre for The Heroes of Parlor Town, a program of live
piano music and historical anecdotes. This Events Series performance was
sponsored by River City Graphics Specialties
and Coon Creek Cable.
The program opened with a showing of a short film, The Heroes of Parlor Town, created by Mr. Watkins and narrated by opera star and Iowa native Simon Estes, tracing the history of ragtime from its roots in the slave culture of the post Civil War era. This was only the second showing for the film, which has premiered only two nights earlier at a performance at the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art. The film was followed by Mr. Watkins' live performance, assisted by tuba player George Reida of Urbana. Composers featured included Scott Joplin, W. C. Simon, Jelly Roll Morton, W. C. Handy, and Eubie Blake.
Brent Watkins, the Media Pastor at River of Life Ministries in Cedar Rapids, has performed all over the Midwest.
For additional information about this production, go to the Heroes of Parlor Town show page of this website at www.act1.org/parlor.htm. You can visit Brent's website at heroesofparlortown.org.
Auditions:
Moon Over Buffalo
Auditions for the final production of the current ACT I season, Moon over Buffalo, will be Sunday, March 18 from 5:00 to 7:00 at the ACT I Studio over Clingman Pharmacy. Eight actors (4 male and 4 female) are needed, including four actors in their 20s and 30s. The show will be performed in May. For further information, please contact Director David Canaday (436-2432 or dacanaday@gmail.com). The play was written by Ken Ludwig, who wrote Lend Me a Tenor, performed by ACT I last season.
Weekend in New York
By Rich Merritt
If you are even halfway serious about the theater, you have to take a trip to New York City at least once in your life. Not only will you be able to dazzle your friends and neighbors, you’ll have stuff to talk about at parties and gatherings for years. You’ll eat the best food in the world, see fabulous sights, spot a celebrity or two, and walk through Times Square late at night in the City That Never Sleeps.
My wife Linda and I make a trip to New York once a year. If you plan it right, it’s not terribly expensive, not awfully crowded, and you’ll see some great shows. First, go in the off season – from Labor Day to April 1-- when the city is not crowded with tourists, students or children. Hotels are not too expensive, either. Hunting around on the Internet will find you rates of $100 to $150 per night at a reasonably good hotel in the theater district. If you aren’t picky, you can get rooms for a lot less. Our favorite hotel is the Doubletree, which is right across the street from TKTS, where you will be spending a lot of time.
Broadway musicals are about $100 per seat, and straight plays are $50 to $75, so we rarely buy full-price tickets in advance. Instead, we go to TKTS and buy half-price tickets on the day of the show. We never know what shows will be available, but there is always something good “on the board.” If this is your first trip, many famous, long-running shows will be available, such as The Producers, Mama Mia, Wicked, Phantom of the Opera, and more. You probably won’t see any of the blockbuster new shows, because their tickets are not available at TKTS. Catch them when you go to New York next year. Or order full price tickets in advance.
No matter what you see, it probably will be fabulous, as only a New York show can be. For example, we saw Love, Janis, an off-Broadway production down in Greenwich Village, featuring the music of Janis Joplin. I grew up listening to Janis, but I never heard her music so crystal-clear and well played. Instead of Janis singing in front of a bunch of drugged-out hippie musicians like she did in the 1970s, here the singer-actress was belting it out in front of professional New York City musicians, probably the best in the world.
What’s great about New York is that you have a smorgasbord of shows to pick from – straight plays, classic musicals, off-Broadway shows, new shows, and my favorite, musicals based on rock ‘n roll. In the past few years, I’ve seen musicals based on music by Billy Joel (Movin’ Out), Abba (Mama Mia), the Beach Boys (Good Vibrations), Elvis Presley (All Shook Up) and, of course, Janis Joplin.
I can’t wait for We Will Rock You!, a musical based on the music of Freddy Mercury and Queen, to come to New York. We saw it in Germany, and the musicians were stunning. In fact, when the cast was taking its bows, the band got the biggest applause. They were fantastic! Next year, when half-price tickets become available, I’ll want to see Jersey Boys, the music of the Four Seasons. Linda prefers Broadway musicals such as Wicked, Avenue Q and Sweeney Todd, plus straight plays such as Proof and Doubt.
The beauty of going to New York is that you can see it all. On our typical four-day weekend in New York, we usually see two things I want, two things Linda wants, and two things we both want. Six in all. Sometimes we see stinkers, like Light in the Piazza and The 25th Annual Putman County Spelling Bee, and sometimes we see unknown shows that are absolutely fantastic, such as Two Pianos Four Hands. Going to the theater is an adventure, which is why we do it every year. Last year, for example, we got caught in the Great Blizzard, and actually saw New York City shut down, with people cross country skiing down 7th Avenue.
We usually fly out of Cedar Rapids or Quad Cities early on a Wednesday, timing it so we land about 11 am, cab to the hotel, check in, and rush over to TKTS in time to buy seats for a Wednesday 2 pm matinee. We go to the show, and afterward rush back to TKTS to buy tickets for a Wednesday night show.
There are no matinees on Thursday and Friday, so we go to evening performances those two days. In the afternoons, we go to museums, take boat tours, and see the sights. On Saturday, we see a matinee and an evening show. On Sunday, we fly home. During a four day weekend like this, we see six shows and are back in time to for work on Monday. Unless it snows. Then we stay over, and see two more shows on Sunday. Eight shows in one long weekend. Only in New York.
On Our Stage
5 - 10 - 15 - 20 - 25 Years Ago
10
On March 7 - 15, 1997, ACT I presented the interactive dinner theatre production of The Boardwalk Melody Hour Murders at the Vinton Country Club. The play was written by Tom Chiodo and directed by Edwon Yedlik. The technical director was Mary Dee Phillips. The dinner audience was challenged to solve a murder mystery and cast members mingled with the audience during the performance. The cast included Mary Dee Phillips, Nich Radcliffe, Halane Cummings, Ron Baldwin, Patty Swift, Austin Karr, Diana Lamphier, Beverly Adams-Bowers, and Matt Salger. Matt Salger was also the Stage Manager.
The show will be remembered as an entertaining performance of a largely forgettable script (the title never even made its way to the program) which never-the-less featured two of ACT I's finest ever drag performances - Austin Karr a startlingly convincing drag queen and Ron Baldwin as an FBI agent disguised as a nun.
For additional information about this production, go to the Boardwalk Melody Hour Murders show page of this website at www.act1.org/boardwalk.htm.
25
On March 26, 27, and 28th, 1982, ACT I presented The Curious Savage by John Patrick at the Old Creamery Theatre in Garrison. It was directed by Steve Shaffer, who was a member of the Old Creamery acting company. The cast featured Becky Mossman, David J. Nolte, Sally Ludden, Steven A. Corlett, Dottie Anthony, John Mossman, Marsh Berry, Richard Paulus, Linda Radcliffe, Colleen Stufflebeam, Theresa Juhl, and Orin Calhoun. Deb Fowler was the assistant director and stage manager.
For additional information about this
production, go to the Curious Savage show page of this website at
www.act1.org/savage.htm.
Message
from
the Editor
You're going to enjoy this month's production of The Cemetery Club. This is a great script with a moving story and a fantastic cast. Trust me, this is not one to miss!
The February 4 performance by Brent Watkins was very special for me. I have known Brent since July of 1962, when our two families moved into the same neighborhood in Cedar Rapids the same month. Brent was 2, I was 10. Seven years later, when I was a senior in high school, Brent's parents asked me if I would be willing to give him piano lessons. By the time he moved on to a better teacher seven years later, his interest in ragtime had already begun, and the rest is history!
This photograph, dated December 1973, was taken of my piano students following a recital in my parents' home. Brent Watkins is at left.
See you at the Palace for The Cemetery Club!
Steve
That's Grease Paint for March, 2007!
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