ENTERTAINMENT | TRAVEL SECTION
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Kalamazoo Gazette
Sunday, August 18, 2013
What’s happening: A listing of local events. PAGE G2
Henderson Castle Author-historian to give presentation on Kalamazoo landmark BY JOHN LIBERTY JLIBERT1@MLIVE.COM
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ALAMAZOO — Author and historian Shirley Swift says the Henderson Castle is more than stone, glass and wood.
“The castle is not a living, breathing entity, but it’s an entity that whomever comes into the castle can receive as much as you put into it. ... The castle has personality. You can walk right in, and you feel like you’re at home. I feel as though it’s alive,” she said. Much of the life of the building is detailed in her new book, “Henderson Castle:
Kalamazoo’s Legacy 1895-2013.” Swift is the co-founder of the Van Buren Regional Genealogical Society and has been writing and speaking about area settlers since 1988. Swift said she’s a friend of Henderson Castle owner Francois Moyet, who first floated the idea of a book about the castle’s history. “I said, ‘No problem. I’d be glad to,’” said Swift, who also will give an oral presentation on Tuesday about Kalamazoo women settlers at the castle. Swift said she researched the 118-year-old Victorian mansion at the Kalamazoo Public Library, Kalamazoo County Clerk/Register Office and Western Michigan University archives. The 70-page book has about 37 pages of photographs. Moyet co-authored the book.
Swift also interviewed former owners and those whose family members lived in the building, including Frank Henderson III. She also talked with Leonard Yonkman, a Mattawan carpenter who worked at the castle for more than 20 years. Swift said she worked at the castle 20 years ago and “fell in love with the place.” She also said she has experienced a “presence” while visiting the castle, which long has been rumored to be haunted and is a frequent investigation spot for area paranormal groups. Swift’s book, which is sold at the Henderson Castle and the Michigan News Agency,
follows the building’s construction in 1890 and details the various owners of the building leading up to today. Among some of the more interesting discoveries for Swift: § For a time in the 1950s, it was
to be the new home of the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts. § Kalamazoo College owned it from 1957-1975, and students were housed there. § The neighborhood association saved it from being demolished in 1975. Kalamazoo restauranteur Francois Moyet bought the Henderson Castle in June 2011. It now serves as a bed and breakfast, holds private and public events, serves French cuisine for lunch and dinner and continues its history as a Kalamazoo landmark. “It’s not a big institution. You feel the warmth of all the people that lived there,” Swift said.
IF YOU GO Kalamazoo’s Gentle Pioneers What: A presentation by author and historian Shirley Swift about the early female settlers of Kalamazoo. When: 7 p.m. Tuesday Where: Henderson Castle, 100 Monroe St. Contact: 269-344-1827, hendersoncastle.com
MLIVE.COM FILE
‘Young Frankenstein’ to create monstrous laughs in the Barn Theatre BY MARK WEDEL FOR MLIVE.COM
AUGUSTA — The Barn Theatre is entering a treacherous world, a world where actors have to keep a straight face while singing of “big knockers” and speaking of “enormous schwanstukers” in ridiculous accents, the world of Mel Brooks. They’ll close out their season with “Young Frankenstein.” It basically is the 1974 film on stage, with “four times the amount of song-and-dance,” director Brendan Ragotzy said. There will be the expanded version of the film’s one songand-dance showcase, where Gene Wilder as Dr. Frederick Frankenstein reveals his monster (Peter Boyle) to the world via clumsy tap-dancing and
bellowing of “Puttin’ on the Ritz.” The 2007 Broadway musical added songs of innocent fun (“Roll in the Hay”), numbers about anatomy and science (“The Brain”) and of mobs of spirited villagers (“Transylvania Mania”), all of which are fun for the whole family. The show could be considered PG13, Ragotzy said). “They’re all very, I don’t know if this is a word, Brooksian,” Ragotzy said. It is a word. Brooks’ humor is well-known, a mix of Borscht Belt, vaudeville and burlesque that would seem cornball coming from anyone else, and is packed in this musical since he wrote all the lyrics and the book. Kevin Robert White will be Dr. Frankenstein (pronounced
“Frahnk-en-steen”). He’s joined in the lab by Roy Brown as Igor (“EYE-gore”), Bethany Edlund as Inga, and Penelope Alex as Frau Blucher (whinny of distant horses). Emily Flemming is the doctor’s beloved Elizabeth. And fresh from his role as the ogre Shrek, Eric Parker will be The Monster, “still wearing the green,” Ragotzy said. White is looking forward to singing songs such as “What Great Knockers.” “Definitely. When I was reading the script and saw that, I said, ‘Yes!’” White said. But, the monster looming over everyone’s performance is a film that’s had nearly 40 years’ worth of views. “It is somewhat intimidating, because the cast in the movie, they are legends of comedy,”
IF YOU GO ‘Young Frankenstein’
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Roy Brown as Igor in “Young Frankenstein.”
White said. The cast viewed the film, and “we all noticed how straight they played it. We remembered it being so funny and wacky and crazy, but when you go back they really do play the situations so straight and honest, and that is what makes it so funny,” White said. Another challenge is the set. Scenes change from classroom to train station to castle. There’s a dream sequence
with a giant monster and dancing Frankensteins in “Join the Family Business,” and a rolling hay wagon gets a couple of dancing horses in “Roll in the Hay.” “There is a crazy load of scene changes that Steven Lee (Burright) and the design staff are working to make that as quick as possible, because the show just moves so quickly,” White said. “For years I’d thought, this
When: Tuesday-Sept. 1. 8 p.m. Tuesdays-Fridays; 5 and 8:30 p.m. Saturdays; 5 p.m. Sundays Where: Barn Theatre, 13351 W. M-96, Augusta Cost: $35 Contact: 269-731-4121, barntheatre.com
would be a fun stage show,” Ragotzy said. But, he said, as he faced a day of planning how the dancing horses, hay wagon, and rolling Frederick and Inga would work on the Barn’s stage, “We’ll see what we come up with.” Whatever it is, it should be Brooksian. “It’s a show that is pretty dangerous, because it is known so well in another genre. You have to be true to it,” Ragotzy said.
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