A newsletter from American Folklore Theatre • SPRING 2013
Go Jump in the Lake! Jeffrey Herbst, Artistic Director
W
ater, water everywhere at AFT as we launch our nautically themed summer season. All three summer shows, set between 1876 and the present, have Lake Michigan and Green Bay in common.
Ahoy, Captain! Windjammers, by Robin Share and Clay Zambo, makes its world premiere at AFT. This lovely show is set in 1876 on the Great Lakes, when sailing was the hallmark of maritime commerce. I have been working with the Academy of New Musical Theatre in Los Angeles for several years now and Windjammers is one of the results of that collaboration. The story celebrates the courage of the brave-hearted jacktars who dared to make maritime life their calling. There is romance, of course, with newfound love between a captain and a woman with a secret. It’s
Go Jump in the Lake, continued from the front page also a coming of age story about a boy, who navigates his way into young manhood. The cast includes Chad Luberger, Chase Stoeger, and Susie Duecker, all recreating the roles they played in last summer’s workshop. Joining them will be Doug Mancheski and newcomers, Rhonda Rae Busch, Jennifer Shine, Nathan Fosbinder, and Eva Nimmer. Molly Rhode will direct and has already been working with set designer Lisa Schlenker to figure out how we might theatrically represent a 19th century schooner on our AFT stage, keeping in mind that it has to go up and down with every performance. Dave Alley will light it, and Karen Brown-Larimore, from Madison, will wear the costume designer cloak for all three shows. Our pit will be partially chaired by AFT returnees, Craig McClelland and Bergen Maurstad, along with first-timer Janet Anderson.
Rivet, Rosie! It seems to be the perfect year to bring back Loose Lips Sink Ships after the success last summer of the premiere of our other WWII musical, Victory Farm. Loose Lips, with book and lyrics by Laurie Flanigan and Jacinda Duffin and music by James Kaplan, premiered at AFT in 2001. It is the touching, funny story of how WWII affected the lives of people in Sturgeon Bay with men going off to fight overseas and women staying behind to pick up the work in the shipyards and contribute indispensably to the war effort. Love and romance are lost and found, people’s lives are changed forever, and, as with any war, not everyone makes it home. Through it all the characters maintain their senses of humor and our trio of writers have given them some truly hilarious moments amidst the realities of war. The cast will be entirely new this time around with Jennifer Shine, Chase Stoeger, Lee Becker, Molly Rhode, and Chad Luberger taking on the roles of Ann, Eddie, Marty, Roxie and Jack. Returning intern Kiersten Frumkin will play the youngest sibling, Trudy, joined by new intern, Teddy Warren as Eric. Stewart Dawson will fit the original set by Andi Blady for the stage and Pam Kriger will once again take the helm as director. Colin Welford provides Musical Supervision as well as orchestration for this show, and Josh Alley returns as soundman extraordinaire.
Go, Pack! Muskie Love is back and that means DNR Doug will be on the prowl. This delightful retelling of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing was the first musical penned by Dave Hudson and Paul Libman. AFT presented the world premiere in 2004. Jim Maronek’s delightful set will be Ben, Bea, Roy, Sara, Claude and DNR Doug’s playground. Doug Mancheski and Lee Becker will re-create their original roles with Molly Rhode and me joining them as Bea and Ben. Chase Stoeger and AFT returnee Susie Duecker will play the young lovers. Pam Kriger returns as director. Dave and Paul are busy penning a new number that will have the Packer-loving Sarah fawning 2
Go Jump in the Lake, continued from page 2 over doe-eyed Aaron Rodgers. With good-humored digs at our “Illinipution” neighbors to the south, Muskie Love remains an AFT fan favorite.
Plant it indoors! I’ve already heard from a number of people who saw Victory Farm last summer in the park say how much they are looking forward to seeing it again in the Door Community Auditorium. There are certain AFT shows that light a fuse and immediately are launched into the canon of favorites. Victory Farm certainly rocketed into that category. In the fall of 2008, Katie Dahl and Emilie Coulson approached me about doing a reading of a show that they had an initial draft of called Sweetie Pies. The story was based in Door County during WWII and centered on the Mueller family orchard and a group of POWs from Germany sent to take up the migrant work due to the shortage of labor caused by the war. The show gestated for a while with intermittent work and readings between then and 2011. The title changed first to Cherryland, USA and then finally to Victory Farm. James Valcq joined the writing team as composer and from there the show went to a workshop in 2011 to its spot in our 2012 line-up as another AFT world premiere. The show has tremendous heart and plenty of humor as the story of two worlds unfolds and barriers are broken. We have a terrific cast returning from the production last summer: Molly Rhode and Doug Mancheski will play Americans, Edna and Jack; Dan Klarer, Chad Luberger, and Steve Koehler will once again delight as the German trio, with the role of Dottie still to be cast. Jon Hegge returns to direct the show. He will be working with Andrea Heilman as set designer and Dave Alley as lighting designer. Neen Rock will again be Production Stage Manager and prop designer for the season. It promises to be a wet (only figuratively, we hope) and wonderful season. See you under the stars!
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Door County Arts Mean Business! Dave Maier, Managing Director “Must be a pretty cushy gig in the winter, eh?” I’ve given up trying to convince folks I’m not the Maytag Repair Man of the non-profit world come November. Truth is, during the performance season, it’s all routine and reaction and putting out fires. Administratively speaking, winter is our creative season – full of planning (shortterm and long), marketing, scheduling, designing, grant writing, fundraising lobbying and “sharpening the saw” so to speak. The off-season is the only time we have to really connect with other arts professionals to learn and bring home the latest, best practices for running the place. And we also work to keep AFT and what we do in the public eye. You caught me on my soapbox this month… Tina Quigley (Executive Director of Mosaic Arts in Green Bay, WI) and I were recently invited by Arts Wisconsin to give t e s t i m o ny t o g e t h e r i n s u p p o r t o f increased funding for the arts to the Joint Finance Committee in reaction to the proposed 2013-2015 budget for the State of Wisconsin. Here are some excerpts… Wisconsin is home to 12,953 arts related businesses that employ 49,526 people with full-time jobs. These o r ganizations comprise a $535 million annual industry, providing nearly $65 million in local and state tax revenues. These businesses play an important role in building and sustaining economic vitality in our communities. And yet, Wisconsin ranks 46th in the nation in per-capita funding for the arts – behind Alabama and Mississippi.
Our neighbor to the west, Minnesota, ranked #1. The arts improve the quality of life in our cities and towns. They enhance community development, spur urban renewal, attract new businesses, and create an environment that attracts skilled and educated workers. In tough economic times, cities compete aggressively to attract and retain businesses. From an employer’s perspective, a strong arts and cultural sector and a creative workforce are critical factors in attracting and keeping businesses. Last year AFT was awarded the first-ever Wisconsin Department of Tourism Governor’s Award for Arts, Culture and Heritage. We clearly get the link between the business of our art and tourism. Over half of AFT’s typical audience is from outside the state of Wisconsin. Door County is home to dozens of cultural and arts education organizations. A sampling of just nine Door County non-profit arts companies, AFT included, represents 2012 revenue of just under $6 Million – these are businesses that in turn support 487 Full Time Equivalent jobs and generate $1.5 Million in local and state government revenue. Excluding the cost of event attendance, these businesses leverage a remarkable $4.7 Million in additional collateral spending in the county by attendees and participants – spending that pumps vital revenue into local restaurants, hotels, retail stores and other businesses. We are also home to scores of entrepreneurs who make their living as artists, arts educators and arts administrators. This small sample is from just one county out of the state’s seventytwo. 4
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Arts Mean Business, continued My two sons, who are now pursuing future careers in science, no doubt benefitted greatly by educational experiences filled with art and music and literature. I’m sure most of your kids have enjoyed much the same. While they didn’t aspire to become actors or painters or musicians, involvement in the arts helped shape them into well-rounded community members with 21st century skills for the world and workforce. A broad arts education is essential to the inspiration of new generations of artists, as well as to the development of new generations of appreciative and critical audiences. From a business perspective alone, these critical components – early education and exposure to the arts, and new generations of artists and audiences - form an i n terdependent loop that needs to be nurtured and sustained and supported for
this industry to prosper. Therefore, we should all be concerned that our state is near the bottom of the nation when it comes to per-capita funding of the arts that we are, in effect, beginning to starve the goose, so to speak. The Wisconsin arts industry supports jobs, generates government revenue, and helps drive our vital tourism industry. I personally hope that we put creativity to work for Wisconsin and support increased government investment in the arts and cultural sector to generate tax revenues, jobs, and a creativity-based economy. If you feel the same, I’d encourage you to make your opinion known to your various representatives. The door is always open, and I’m ever eager to hear your feedback, your opinions and your suggestions. I look forward to seeing you “under the stars” this coming summer!
Want to Share in the Applause?
who camp at Peninsula State Park for a week and want to volunteer at every show during their stay, and volunteers who help at just one or two shows. In other words, we’re looking for you!
Become an
AFT Volunteer! AFT relies on, and is always looking for, fans ready to step up and lend a hand! To make a show go, we need volunteers to usher, sell merchandise and concessions, assist with traffic flow in the parking lot, assist patrons to our handicapped seating area, and to drive the golf cart shuttle. All told, there are more than 80 opportunities to volunteer at our shows each week – that means you have about 1000 chances to volunteer over the course of the summer!
What qualifications do we require? The main requirement is enthusiasm about AFT! As a show volunteer, you’re almost always the first representative of AFT that a patron sees. We need you to be a friendly AFT face for our guests and to be able to stand for about an hour and a half – those are about the only tools you need, we’ll train you on any task we give you.
What type of commitment are we looking for? We love to have volunteers who can commit to helping out once a week through the summer season, volunteers who we can call at the last minute in case someone else cancels, volunteers
If you’d like to volunteer or just to get more information, we want to hear from you! Just tell us, “I want to volunteer at AFT!” in person at the AFT office, over the phone at (920) 854-6117 x101, or email Ann at abirnschein@FolkloreTheatre.com. 5
Taking a Break… Doc Heide, Co-founder of AFT, Playwright, Artistic Advisor
Forty years ago this summer, I had the thrill of performing on the Peninsula State Park stage for the first time. UW-Green Bay, where I was a junior, had recently launched a troupe called the Heritage Ensemble to bring history alive via folk songs. Having taught myself to play Mom’s guitar listening to scratchy Peter, Paul & Mary records, I auditioned and somehow landed a spot. So began the finest summer I’d ever had. We stayed in a mansion on the Fish Creek bluff, magnificent and a bit spooky. During the days, I sat in my gabled room upstairs reading about the psychology of consciousness and exploring meditation methods. But by night, we got to stand under the stars and sing in delicious harmony about settling the Wisconsin wilderness. Nobody knows who wrote those songs, but their earnest melodies were completely irresistible. Just as impressive was the Amphitheater–close enough for campers to come on foot, yet far enough into the woods that you felt like a guest in Nature’s home. It hardly mattered that the other guests included a mosquito or two. As Lee Becker put it, we do Deep Woods Off-Broadway. After many summers of folk music revues, we began exploring book musicals in the early 1990’s with the birth of AFT. Nothing I’ve ever done has proved more satisfying than dreaming up a show, collaborating with pals to write it, then appearing in it under bright lights in our piney cathedral–in red long johns, no less.
On the rare occasion that I’ve been able to sit in the audience, I feel like I’m in a Vonnegut novel transported into some magical alternative reality where topnotch musical comedy shimmers to life in the middle of a forest. This summer will be the first in over three decades where I won’t be onstage in the Park. There just isn’t the right role in any of this year’s shows. But to celebrate the 40th anniversary year, I’ll be hosting a special concert at the Door Community Auditorium on Tuesday, July 23. An all-star cast (e.g., Eric Lewis, Katie Dahl, Claudia Russell, Chris Irwin, Steve Koehler, Laurie Flanigan, Holly Feldman, Craig Konowalski, hopefully Karen Mal and more) will sing lead vocals on songs I’ve written over the last couple of decades. Yes, I’ll surely miss seeing your happy faces beaming up at us actors this summer. But perhaps the best thing about this turn of events is that I’ll get to be out there more in the audience grinning myself. ‘Cuz for me, AFT has always been like those folk melodies we sang decades ago: completely irresistible. See you under the stars. Songs of the Inland Seas, 2001
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Follow AFTers Out of the Woods titled Pardon My French, with Chicagoan Lauren Taslitz, which is scheduled for a reading at Chicago Dramatists in May. With Mark Sutton-Smith, Dave wrote Off to Olympus, based on Greek myths, which premiered at his wife’s theatre company The Actors Garden. Performed by more than 150 children over the summer, it was a joyful show and a fitting tribute to Mark, the composer, who passed away in March 2013 after a long battle with cancer. CLAUDIA RUSSELL is finishing her new CD, All Our Luck is Changing, to be released in late spring. She’ll be touring the Midwest with husband Bruce Kaplan in July and October. She shared the stage with CHRIS IRWIN and DOC HEIDE in AFT’s Home for the Holidays at the Gibraltar Town Hall in December. Chris is moving to LA where he’ll be a pilot. Doc was Fall Commencement Speaker at his alma mater UWGreen Bay (despite having his appendix removed a few days before) and got his article on charisma and the psychotherapist accepted by the Journal of Psychotherapy Integration. He and LEE BECKER continued work on their prequel to Belgians in Heaven, which will solve the mystery of where Mildred the Chicken came from. Lee played Santa in Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer at First Stage Children’s Theatre and became father to darling son Wilbur in October. ERIC LEWIS has been touring with Jason Petty playing steel guitar, acoustic guitar, tic tac bass and singing back ups in three different shows, Hank and My Honky Tonk Heroes, Country Royalty: A Tribute to Hank Williams and Patsy Cline, and The Swingin’ Cowboys: The Music of the American West. AFT co-founder GERALD PELRINE writes: “Finding ‘computer recording’ a grim jest concocted by Irish advertising executives, Gerald Pelrine returns to muttering and sarcasm as principal forms of artistic expression. From cacophony to calamity, all the way to catastrophe at soundcloud.com/gerald-pelrine.”
Here’s a sampling of what AFT folks have been doing during the off-season, in no particular order: MOLLY RHODE directed Sound of Music at the Skylight Music Theatre, performed in The Clockmaker at Next Act Theatre, and in Pump Boys and Dinettes at Skylight. Her husband CHASE STOEGER got great reviews for a set design he did for the Sunset Playhouse, and appeared in Jeeves In Bloom at Milwaukee Chamber Theatre. Together they were thrilled to celebrate daughter Silvia’s first birthday in December and watch her master the mechanics of walking. STEVE KOEHLER played Captain Von Trapp in the aforementioned production of Sound of Music and appeared in Sleepwalking with Morningstar Productions and in Jimmy Kaplan and Friends at Sunset Playhouse. Also featured in JIMMY KAPLAN’s show was KATIE DAHL, who spent the winter working with DAVE ALLEY on the Victory Farm cast album before touring Minnesota, Iowa, and California. Katie’s co-author EMILIE COULSON says she’s been “running writing programs at San Francisco public schools through 826 Valencia and am especially excited about our ongoing partnership with American Conservatory Theater, through which we help high school students write and perform their own work on ACT's stage. I also hosted Katie Dahl for a house concert in January during her CA tour!” Director PAM KRIGER went to Boston for her son’s wedding and to China to visit family. Her most interesting project was working with Renaissance Theatreworks and Cardinal Stritch University to co-produce Irina’s Vow, which she describes as “an amazing play about a Polish-Catholic woman who saved 12 Jews during the holocaust by hiding them in the basement of a German general’s house.” PAUL LIBMAN and DAVE HUDSON are working on The Station, a new show for AFT inspired by the rise and fall of the American passenger train. Paul has also written a musical, currently 7
Follow AFTers, continued
his pottery school Mudslingers outside Boulder, Colorado. This winter DOUG MANCHESKI filmed a Western thriller called Appleton with a cast and crew from Los Angeles, and appeared in Love Letters at TAP. BO JOHNSON directed The Bible: The Complete Word of God Abridged, Three Days of Rain, and Out to Lunch: A Garden Variety Show. He also produced and performed in Who Killed Santa and appeared in Next Act’s It’s a Wonderful Life. Bo won this year’s Best Local Stage Actor Award from Express Milwaukee. KAREN MAL adopted a newborn baby girl: Coralina Summer Mal. Set designer JIM MARONEK writes: “In a heroic effort to protect and preserve Liberty Grove’s rural roads, my wife, Carole, and I attended far too many governmental meetings at ungodly hours of the day and night and wrote on enough paper to consume the trees we are trying to save. A Heritage Roads Program has emerged which is the light at the end of the tunnel of canopy trees that make Door County so special. Our Northern Door Neighbors Association hugs new members as well as old trees.” ANN BIRNSCHEIN performed with the Peninsula Symphonic Band’s Christmas Concert on trumpet, and moved to Sister Bay. STEWART DAWSON tells us, “my winter was filled to the point of overflowing with absolutely wondrous accomplishments too numerous to list here. Getting out of bed this morning was one of them.” Lastly, two members of the Alley Family had good years. AMBER ALLEY got married last fall, is now director of Mount Horeb High School’s drama club, and will run a halfmarathon in May. And CALLIE HILL (MILLER) is completing her second year at Princeton Theological Seminary in New Jersey, where she lives with her husband Brent. This summer she is looking forward to participating in a chaplaincy internship at a local hospital.
DAN KLARER performed in The Santaland Diaries at Third Avenue Playhouse, filmed a sketch comedy show episode in MA, and worked for the Madison Ballet with AFT stage manager NEEN ROCK. This summer he’ll be in Greater Tuna at TAP with Ryan Schabach and then Victory Farm in the Fall. ALLIE BABICH is in her sophomore year of training at the U of Minnesota/Guthrie Theater BFA Actor Training Program. She performed multiple characters in a production of Much Ado About Nothing and this summer will be in a melodrama called Sweet Revenge on the Minnesota Centennial Showboat. JON HEGGE appeared in wife LAURIE FLANIGAN’s new musical Tales Along the Minnesota Trail at the Minnesota Zoo. Laurie joined the original Twin Cities cast of 20 Days to Find a Wife for a staged reading in the Ephraim Town Hall this past October. Their daughter Celia is now in the second grade and was just named Student of the Month. Laurie is collaborating with JAMES VALCQ on a new musical about hoboes called Boxcar commissioned by AFT. James continues as Managing Director at Third Avenue Playhouse, as well as designing the sets and lighting for all of TAP’s Stage Door Theatre Company productions. In December, TAP’s StageKids premiered his new adaptation of the children's holiday classic The Birds’ Christmas Carol. This summer he looks forward to directing The Glass Menagerie and The 39 Steps for Stage Door. RANDY SCHMELING has been touring Wisconsin and Minnesota this spring in Power Balladz, which also performs monthly at Chanhassen Dinner Theatre in Minneapolis. This summer he’ll be in Urinetown at The Jungle Theatre. Meanwhile, SCOTT WAKEFIELD is on Broadway in Hands on a Hard Body. In between throwing pots at Plum Bottom Pottery, CHAD LUBERGER appeared in Almost, Maine last fall and this spring at TAP. Fellow clay specialist JOHN HANSEN ran 8
Don’t Let That “Folklore” Fool You… Holly Feldman, Manager of Marketing & Audience Development
American Folklore Theatre. If you are like me, and you grew up sitting in our outdoor amphitheater in Peninsula State Park, the name alone can conjure up a whole slew of emotions and can even awaken your senses. You might be immediately transported to a beautiful summer evening: the feel of cedar beneath your feet, the smell of a campfire, the creak of the wind through the pines, and the anticipation of witnessing a magical performance beneath a canopy of stars. It’s a powerful thing when just hearing the name American Folklore Theatre can bring you swiftly back to your most cherished childhood memories. That’s why those for whom AFT is a household name might be appalled by the following statement, but the truth is, the name “American Folklore Theatre” can be somewhat, well, challenging. I know it might be hard to imagine, so here are just a few of the things we’ve heard from those discerning visitors who have never been witness to the magic that is AFT: “American Folklore Theatre? Isn’t that a wing at The Smithsonian?” Or this, “Well, yes, I’ve seen the signs for American Folklore Theatre, but I just thought you were a troupe of banjo pickers in the park.” Or even this analysis offered by Ron Peluso, Artistic Director, of what was then called The Great American History Theatre, "You might be the only theatre with a worse name than ours." They've since changed theirs to The History Theatre. Yes, by comparison, AFT just doesn’t
carry the prestige of names like The Looking Glass Theatre or The Rialto. Don’t get me wrong, I mean, alphabetically speaking, American Folklore Theatre is about as good as you can get. Open just about any Door County marketing publication and there at the top of the page, you’ll see AFT as the very first listing, by default. But simply being listed first only gets you so far. Perhaps at this point, a history lesson is in order. In 1990, when Doc Heide, Gerald Pelrine and Fred Alley, all long-time members of AFT’s predecessor, The Heritage Ensemble, helped the organization move to a new level of professionalism, the group’s name was changed to American Folklore Theatre to reflect their intent to broaden its scope while still preserving its roots in the traditions of populist culture. The founders expected that we would be a more expansive version of the Heritage Ensemble. They loved the Ensemble-style shows and the folklore that spoke of the people’s own stories and music. As Doc put it, “I never imagined we would be doing so many of the type of shows we do now — book musicals with composed scores in the Broadway style. If we had set out to create a theatre company that would produce more than 40 new musicals, entertaining over 40,000 patrons each year, well, I expect we would have failed miserably.” He also added, “I would point out that we’re not the only entity that has outgrown our appellation. I’m sure if AT&T had it to do over, they would probably leave “Telegraph” out of their name.” So, yes, our current name is deceiving. You simply can’t believe how good it is 9
Don’t Let That “Folklore” Fool You…, continued until you actually go. That explains why, in all of our surveys, we find that our strongest marketing tool is word of mouth. Friends tell their friends, grandparents take their grandkids, generations of families pass on the tradition of sharing time at our performances each year. Actually, when you think about it, that sounds a lot like the very definition of folklore. Add to that our setting deep in a state park, keeping our ticket prices low, and welcoming kids and you’ve got something of a hidden treasure. Very few of our shows now include traditional folk songs or lore. But for all of its downsides, there is something sweet about our name. As Doc put it, “It might make us work a little harder to tell our story. As long as we have “folklore” in it, we'll always sound a little oldfashioned, and in a sense we are. Who else would try to do something this crazy in this day and age? Perform outdoors in a location guaranteed to make us seem humble? Charge so little that everybody can come? In an era when the theatre audience is steadily older, we draw old and young and everybody in between. In an era where theatre can barely survive without corporate underwriting, we are
beholden to the people.” As Artistic Director Jeff Herbst mused, “It's somewhat ironic that, by virtue of the fact that all we do is completely original material, we may be the theatre company most disqualified to use the word folklore to describe us!” Doc went on, “Folklore is like hash. Nobody writes it, it just accumulates. And nobody composes folk songs. They get handed down over generations and refined by the personality of the next person to recall them. Only the strongest tunes survive. Our shows aren’t exactly folklore, but we do tell stories that real people care about. The “folk revival” is 50 years past, but we keep its light burning every night under the stars.” So until we get full board approval to change our name to something like: “The World’s Greatest Outdoor Theatre Company”, you can continue to call us American Folklore Theatre. Just don’t think of it so much as a “name” as a “state of mind.” Or at the very least, take the recommendation from Warren Gerds in his most recent review of our 2012 World Premiere, Victory Farm, and “Don’t let that ‘folklore’ fool you…”
Creative Kids Day Friday, July 19 9:30-12:00 pm or 1:00 pm-3:30 pm 2013 Creative Kids theatre workshop sessions take place on and around the AFT stage in Peninsula State Park and are led by AFT Company Members. For children ages 5-16. Register early! Limited number of children accepted. Fee is $25 per child or a maximum of $60 for 3 siblings or more. 10
Tickets on Sale Now! Tickets for all shows, including our fall season, are on sale now. Reserved seats sell for an additional $6 per seat. And of course, there will always be 350 general admission tickets for sale at the box office at the park one hour prior to each performance.
How to buy advance tickets: Visit our web site at www.FolkloreTheatre.com To order AFT tickets on your smartphone or iPad, download our free mobile app today! Search “American Folklore” at Apple App Store or Google Play Store, or scan the QR Code to the left.
Buy tickets at our office in the Green Gables Shops 1.5 miles north of Wilson’s Ice Cream. Office hours are 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.
Order via the phone, 920-854-6117: Telephone sales hours 10 a.m. - 5 p.m., Monday thru Saturday, June thru October. Visa and MasterCard accepted.
Gift cards are available for any occasion!
Please review us on TripAdvisor.com for those unfamilar with the AFT experience! You can also follow AFT on:
Thank You to Our Sponsors! A huge thank you to our sponsors for this year’s shows. Their support helps so much with the costs of putting a show on the stage at AFT while still keeping our ticket prices affordable.
Windjammers sponsored by
The Cordon Family Foundation and Door County Maritime Museum
Loose Lips Sink Ships sponsored by
Peninsula Publishing & Distribution, True North Real Estate and Wilson's Restaurant & Ice Cream Parlor
Muskie Love sponsored by
Baylake Bank and Julie’s Park Café & Motel
Victory Farm sponsored by
Main Street Market, On Deck Clothing Company and The White Gull Inn 11
Windjammers Robin Share, Playwright
When Boyo, the young hero of Windjammers, is about to sail out for the first time on a Great Lakes schooner, his mother tries to persuade her bookish son not to go. “You’re not,” she explains delicately, “you’re not that kind of boy.” I always laugh when I hear this line; I feel for Boyo. When I tell people I’m writing a musical for AFT about nineteenth century Great Lakes sailors, they give me the same quizzical look that Boyo’s ma gives him. “You’re not,” they want to say, “that kind of writer.” I suppose I’m not. For one thing, I am a city gal from L.A., a Californian. (I confess. Before working on this show, I would have been hard-pressed to confidently locate Wisconsin on a map. Never mind Door County.) And, like Boyo, I don’t have sailing in my blood. I did take a Disney cruise once, but I don’t think that counts. To be successful on his voyage, Boyo arms himself with sailing books and manuals; for me it has been maps of shipping routes and diagrams of schooner rigging. But what we both discover is that it isn’t about what we know going in that defines our voyage. No, it is the wonderful people we meet, the roundabouts and detours, the stories and the amazing places along the way. In short, it is all about the journey. And the journey to bring Windjammers to the AFT 2013 summer season has been an amazing one. The Windjammer journey began in 2008, when Jeff Herbst reached out to the Academy for New Musical Theatre (ANMT) in Los Angeles and encouraged bookwriters there to develop ideas for future AFT productions. As
I recall, I put forth at least half a dozen pitches for AFT, but not one made the cut. In fact, it was Jeff who suggested something to do with nineteenth century Great Lakes shipping. Delving into that history led me first to the folklorist Ivan Walton, who in the 1930s spent his summers tramping around the Great Lakes collecting songs and stories from the old sailors still living there. Ivan had focused on the seamen of the sailing vessels, schooners mostly, who hauled freight across the Great Lakes during the golden age of sailing. These sailors’ lives were raucous and exciting, but their stories were often heartbreaking too. Thousands of vessels and lives were lost in the lakes. And most of the old fellows who survived were left penniless and with little to show for their toil or the risks they had taken. So the first draft of Windjammers was sort of a history lesson with Ivan Walton as a narrator paying tribute to these men, telling stories and introducing a revue of sailing chanteys and folk songs. I should add that up to this point I was a writer without a composer. ANMT partnered me with composer Clay Zambo – a member of the BMI Musical Theatre Workshop in New York, sister workshop to ANMT – I think because he was willing to work with existing folk music. Sort of like an arranged marriage, I would email Clay the lyrics and tunes, and (happily and with great relief) he would email me back beautiful arrangements with rousing harmonies and choruses. In this way, Clay and I wrote the entire first draft of Windjammers without having ever met. With encouragement from ANMT and Jeff Herbst, Windjammers gradually began to 12
Windjammers, continued
and the dusk fading to darkness, and the music washing over you, that is just magic. There is no other word for it. Last summer we Clay Zambo returned to AFT to workshop Windjammers. As writers, Clay and I both felt we had never been treated more respectfully and appreciatively. The dedication of the staff and actors, the amazing opportunities to develop characters and ideas, the generosity of ideas and space from director, Molly Rhode, and artistic director Jeff, and the inimitable stage manager Neen Rock, all contributed to the development of Windjammers into a show full of humor and heart. Soon Windjammers will come to life on the stage of AFT in 2013. The journey may have been a long and winding one, but that’s what makes the ending so satisfying.
make the journey from a folk music revue to a true book musical. There are new characters now to tell the story of finding the courage to face ones fears and open ones heart. Still, there was something we were missing. “Come to Door County. Come to AFT and see for yourself,” Jeff Herbst suggested. So in the summer of 2010, we did. Like proverbial ships passing in the night, Clay and I came and went at different times, but each of us, on our own, fell in love with the place. After all my research, what I had been missing was seeing the lake lapping up against the shoreline, walking the deck of the Denis Sullivan (very like the deck of the schooner in Windjammers), and looking out over the water at night when the moon was full. I sat in the theatre after a performance and texted Clay, “This place is magic.” Sitting in that theatre with the smell of pine,
2013 Windjammer’s Workshop in Milwaukee. Clockwise from top: Colin Welford, Jeff Herbst, Clay Zambo, Molly Rhode, Robin Share, Susan Weidmeyer, Samantha Sostarich, Beth Mulkeron, Chris Feireisen, Chad Luberger.
Preliminary Windjammers set model by designer Lisa Schlenker. 13
SUN
2013 Summer Schedule WJ
MON
TUE
WED
12
JUNE
THU
13
WJ - 8:30
16
17
23
18 ML - 8:00
WJ - 8:00
NO SHOW
24
25 ML - 8:00
WJ - 8:00
NO SHOW
19 LLSS - 6:00 WJ - 8:30
26 LLSS - 6:00 WJ - 8:30
FRI
14
ML - 8:00
20
ML - 6:00
WJ - 8:00
21 WJ - 8:00
LLSS - 8:00
27
SAT
15
28 WJ - 8:00
LLSS - 8:00
22 ML - 6:00 LLSS - 8:30
29 ML - 6:00 LLSS - 8:30
30 Lake Michigan, 1876. A coming of age voyage of courage and adventure amid high waves, fresh air, legend, and song. Begins Wednesday, June 12 at 8:30 pm Mondays at 8 pm; Wednesdays at 8:30 pm Fridays at 8 pm
NO SHOW
8
7 14
15
Begins Wednesday, June 19 at 6 pm Wednesdays at 6 pm; Thursdays at 8 pm; Saturdays at 8:30 pm
21
22
NO SHOW
28
ML - 8:00
16
WJ - 8:00
NO SHOW
ML - 8:00
23
WJ - 8:00
29
NO SHOW
ML - 8:00
30
WJ - 8:00
LLSS - 6:00 WJ - 8:30
10
9 WJ - 8:00
NO SHOW
3
ML - 8:00
WJ - 8:00
LLSS
The Home Front - Sturgeon Bay Shipyards. A buoyant comedy celebrating the spirit of women during WWII.
2
JULY 1
ML - 8:00
ML
LLSS - 6:00 WJ - 8:30
17 LLSS - 6:00 WJ - 8:30
24 LLSS - 6:00 WJ - 8:30
4
5 WJ - 8:00
LLSS - 8:00
11
12
LLSS - 8:00
18
WJ - 8:00
19
LLSS - 8:00
25
WJ - 8:00
26
LLSS - 8:00
WJ - 8:00
1
Begins Thursday, June 13 at 8 pm Tuesdays at 8 pm; Saturdays at 6 pm
Adult - $19 Teen - $9 Child - $5.50 Reserved Seating Available - $6 additional
6
5 NO SHOW
11 NO SHOW
18 NO SHOW
WJ - 8:00
12 WJ - 8:00
19 WJ - 8:00
7 ML - 8:00
13 ML - 8:00
20 ML - 8:00
13 ML - 6:00 LLSS - 8:30
20 ML - 6:00 LLSS - 8:30
27 ML - 6:00 LLSS - 8:30
LLSS - 6:00 WJ - 8:30
2
LLSS - 8:00
4
ML - 6:00 LLSS - 8:30
31
AUGUST
A laugh-a-minute fishtale set on the shores of Green Bay
6
LLSS - 6:00 WJ - 8:30
14 LLSS - 6:00 WJ - 8:30
21 LLSS - 6:00 WJ - 8:30
8 LLSS - 8:00
15 LLSS - 8:00
22 LLSS - 8:00
3 WJ - 8:00
9
ML - 6:00 LLSS - 8:30
10 WJ - 8:00
16 WJ - 8:00
23 WJ - 8:00
ML - 6:00 LLSS - 8:30
17 ML - 6:00 LLSS - 8:30
24 ML - 6:00 LLSS - 8:30
• Advanced tickets for both summer & fall seasons may be • Rain policy – AFT never cancels a show until show time. If purchased online, the phone, at our office, or free phone app. the show is less than half over when interrupted due to bad • Box office opens at summer and fall venues 1 hour prior weather, we give out refund applications or rain checks. to each performance. If the show is more than half over, we issue rain checks, • Will Call tickets can be picked up at Merchandise Stand one good for any future summer show without expiration. hour before the show. For additional info: 920.854.6117 • Limited handicapped parking is available backstage – we www.FolkloreTheatre.com request reservations be made for this. 14
2013 FALL SHOW SCHEDULE August 30 - October 19 Door County, 1944. A tale of family, forgiveness, and the fruits of our labor. “2012 Top Ten List” - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel at Door Community Auditorium Adult - $27 Children (12 & under) - $13
ALL SEATS RESERVED
With your help… We make amazing things happen! Name ________________________________________________________________________________________ Address ______________________________________________________________________________________ City ____________________________________________________ St ________ Zip ________________________ Phone _______________________________________ E-Mail __________________________________________
BENEFACTOR CATERGORIES
The Fred Alley New Musical Fund is the creative engine behind all of AFT’s new play development.
(For General Operating):
❑ $10,000 & up - Visionary ❑ $5,000 to $9,999 - Benefactor ❑ $2,500 to $4,999 - Producer ❑ $1,000 to $2,499 - Director ❑ $500 to $999 - Actor ❑ $250 to $499 - Designer ❑ $100 to $249 - Stage Manager ❑ $50 to $99 - Donor ❑ $1 to $49 - Friend
❑ Please accept my gift of $ ________________ for the Fred Alley New Musical Fund.
The AFT Endowment Fund, managed by the Door County Community Fund, helps to ensure AFT's long-term financial health and stability.
❑ Please accept my gift of $ ________________ for the AFT Endowment Fund.
❑ My employer will match my gift Paperwork: ❑ is enclosed
Employer Name: _______________________________________
❑ will be sent
❑ My check for $ _______________________ payable to American Folklore Theatre is enclosed. ❑ Please charge $ _______________________ to my ❑ MasterCard ❑ Visa (Please provide info below) ____________________________________________ ____________ _________________________________ ACCOUNT NUMBER
EXP DATE
PLEASE CLIP & MAIL TO: AFT - PO Box 273, Fish Creek,WI 54212
SIGNATURE
Thank You!
Your donation from May 1, 2013, through April 30, 2014, will be recognized in our 2014 playbill.
Carla Peterson Tim Stone Paula Wright-Keller
The mission of American Folklore Theatre is to create, develop, and present professional musical and dramatic productions which will further the knowledge and appreciation of the culture and heritage of the United States. The Theatre is dedicated to maintaining standards of artistic excellence; celebrating and illuminating the human condition; reaching a large audience of all ages, including families; and fostering a humanistic work environment with adequate and appropriate emotional, financial and creative support for all those associated with us.
Our Mission
Kenneth C. Boyd Mark Breseman Frederick J. Heide
Barbara Gould Secretary
Thomas A. Moore Treasurer
Cynthia Stiehl Vice-Chairperson
Mary Seeberg Chairperson
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
American Folklore Theatre, Inc. PO Box 273 Fish Creek, WI 54212-0273