Holiday Theatre in the Area

I know that several of my recent posts have been about A Christmas Carol at The Milwaukee Rep. Can you blame me? That being said, there are many other wonderful holiday productions going on at community theatres around the area. Going to a show at Christmas is a great tradition to start or continue this year. The list below is fairly Dramagoon-centric. It contains shows at theatres where we have played or with people we have had the pleasure to play with or both.

Waukesha Civic Theatre presents Miracle on 34th Street. The performances run December 12, 2008 (tonight) through December 21, 2008. The show stars Brian Zelinski as Fred Gailey and Nicole Gorski as Doris Walker and contains many of the fine actors that performed in the holiday show at WCT last year. It is also directed by our director from last year’s show, Karin Cunningham. WCT always seems to put on an entertaining show.

Acacia Theatre Company is currently running It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play. It had two shows last weekend and three more shows this weekend; tonight, tomorrow afternoon, and Sunday afternoon. The show got a great review from The Shepherd Express. It stars John Pfannerstill as George Bailey, Elaine Wyler as his wife Mary, and Michael Chobanoff as Mr. Potter.

Theatre On Main is currently running The Big Bad Wolf Meets Santa Claus. It opened on December 5, 2008 and runs through December 21, 2008. I don’t much about this show. From the name it seems like it would be more kid-oriented than any of the others shows currently out there. Theatre On Main does a great job on those types of shows and their ticket prices are reasonable; especially for children.

Sunset Playhouse is currently running It’s a Wonderful Life. It also opened on December 5, 2008 and runs through December 21, 2008 with a special performance on New Year’s Eve. This is a different version than the Acacia one. This is show also got a good review; this one from the Waukesha Freeman. This show is directed by Howard Bashinski and stage managed by Donna Redmer. They are the team that successfully produced The Music Man and Lost In Yonkers and many others.

A Christmas Carol

On Wednesday, we went to see the “Family Preview” of A Christmas Carol at the Pabst Theater. We were very lucky and had seats in the fourth row on the first level. In fact, I was in the seat in the exact center of that row. As I have mentioned before, this was my first time seeing this show at The Rep. I just have to say that the show was amazing. All of the actors did such a phenomenal job that I really felt like I was in England in the 1840s and not in a theatre in downtown Milwaukee. When the first act was over, I was surprised at how quickly it had gone. I was just riveted by everything I saw.

The thing that amazed me the most, outside the total enjoyment of the show, was the efficiency of the scene changes. The Pabst Theater is the first theater that either A.J. or I has worked in that has a “Fly System”. Many of the set pieces are attached to ropes and raised and lowered into place during the scene changes. At the same time, the entire cast is singing a traditional English Christmas Carol while moving in and out smaller pieces like desks, tables, or stoves. The effect is wonderful to watch. The settings change before your eyes without some annoying blackout where stagehands scurry around in the dark.

I am so glad that A.J. got the opportunity to be a part of this wonderful show. This is truly one of the jewels of the Milwaukee theatre scene. I hope that it lives on for many years to come. I plan to see it at least once more this year and we have added it to the list of family traditions for Christmases yet to come. “God Bless Us, Everyone!”

A Christmas Carol at The Milwaukee Rep

In August, I mentioned that A.J. got an ensemble part in A Christmas Carol at The Milwaukee Rep. They have been rehearsing the show all month and they are in the middle of tech week right now. A.J. has been having a terrific time. He has met a lot of new people and made several friends. There are so many wonderful actors and actresses associated with the show. He is also very excited about getting to perform in the “historic” Pabst Theater. He says the set is awesome. The show opens on Friday, November 28th and there are 39 performances between then and the last show on Sunday, December 28th.

I have to admit that even though we have lived in the Milwaukee area for over eleven years, we have never seen A Christmas Carol at The Rep. With everything that A.J. has described and everything that I have seen while picking him up from rehearsals, I really can’t wait to see the show. It is going to be fantastic. Hopefully, seeing this show will become a new tradition for our family.

Winter Wonderland

We had a whole bunch of snow here in early December. So much so that we were in a panic over the the possible ice damns on the roof. About a week before Christmas, the weather warmed up and we lost most of our snow. We still had a “white” Christmas but there wasn’t much there.

Our family has a tradition of sledding on New Year’s Day if there is enough snow. Our back-up plan is bowling. It was looking like another year of bowling until yesterday. We received about 6 inches of the fluffy white stuff. More than enough for some fun sledding adventures.

Maybe we’ll break out the snowshoes too.

That’s a wrap

It started with auditions back on October 21st and we wrapped up with our eleventh performance this afternoon. Erin, A.J., and I have officially been in a show together and it was a lot of fun. There were some long nights and we learned a lot about being in “large cast” shows. But, in the end, it was a great show and we are all glad for the experience. I’m sure that we will miss it a lot during the next week.

The three of us owe a great many thanks to Kristi, the fourth member of our acting team. We would not have made it this far with out her keeping us fed, in clean clothes, and organized. On top of that, she helped in all thing theatrical by ferrying some of us to reheasals more than half of the time, helping backstage, and taking pictures of the production. Thanks for helping us to make it “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever!!!!”

The Run is Half Over

Six shows down and five to go. Things have been going really well. Last night we had a special “Donor Night” performance for all the people that donate to theatre. We played to a nearly packed house. It was a good audience to play to. Being donors, they seemed more appreciative. I heard many more positive comments from exiting audience members after the show than I have heard at other performances.

The review is out. Apparently, Julie McHale of the Waukesha Freeman was too busy going to shows at the Rep last weekend to attend a hometown production. Luckily, Russ Bickerstaff reviewed the show for the Shepherd Express. I am not familiar with how he normally reviews but it seems to be a good albeit short review. He doesn’t necessarily rave but also doesn’t have any negative comments either. A.J. seems to have weaseled his way into another review. “… Charlie talks to his parents without prying any attention away from a home video game he’s playing” refers to the character that A.J. plays. You can see the entire review here.

Another Opening Night! Wahoo!!!

Tonight is the night. The Best Christmas Pageant Ever officially opens tonight at Waukesha Civic Theatre. The curtain opens at 8pm. The preview was last night. It was our first performance in front of an audience of more than 6 or 7 parents and the tech crew. It felt good. We got some laughs and applause and there were no major issues. The audience members I talked to after the show said that they enjoyed it. Either they were being very polite and not wanting to hurt my feelings or the show was as good as I thought it was. I’m sure that tonight will be even better. There are eleven performances in the next two weeks. Come out and see us have fun with the Herdmans. You will have an enjoyable time.

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever

As I have mentioned before, AJ, Erin, and I are going to be performing in The Best Christmas Pageant Ever at Waukesha Civic Theatre this Christmas season. We have less than two weeks until the show opens and rehearsals have been going really well. Those familiar with this show will finds some interesting and enjoyable twists in our version.

I would post the cast list so you could see it if your favorite WCT performer will be onstage, but I don’t have to because it is posted here. Tickets for this special holiday show are reduced to $14.00. I have included the calendar of show times below. There will many performances at different times. Hopefully, this will allow more people to see the show.

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever Show Times

					Dec 7 8:00 PM	Dec 8 2:00 PM 6:00 PM
Dec 9 2:00 PM 6:00 PM	Dec 10	Dec 11	Dec 12 7:30 PM	Dec 13 7:30 PM	Dec 14 8:00 PM	Dec 15 2:00 PM 6:00 PM
Dec 16 2:00 PM

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever

Theatre On Main, Falls Patio Players, and Waukesha Civic Theatre are all staging the The Best Christmas Pageant Ever this year. If you like that show, there should be no reason why you couldn’t be able to see it this year. Now if you want to see THE BEST version of that show, I would suggest that you go to the one at WCT. A.J., Erin, and I all auditioned earlier this week for the show. The director called us this morning. A.J. accepted the role of Charlie, Erin will be a member of the Angel Choir, and I will playing the role of one of the two Firemen.

There are several reasons why this is going to be very special for us. This is Erin’s first community theatre show. Hooray for Erin!!! This is the third year in a row that A.J. has been involved in a play at WCT during his birthday. And this is the first show where any of us (much less all 3 of us) have been in the show together.

I’m sure that Kristi is grinning from ear-to-ear at the thought that we will all be gone at the same time for many nights during the next few weeks. Knowing her, she won’t take this time to relax and have some “me” time. She will undoubtedly use this time to catch up on many things. I’m sure she will put in many hours assisting in running lines and other support tasks for the rest of us.

AJ’s Broken Arm

AJ’s Broken Arm

Yesterday afternoon, as AJ was coming in from recess at school, he slipped on the wet floor and broke his arm. He has a buckle fracture of the radius bone. This morning, the fine folks at Children’s Hospital put this wonderful green and red cast on his arm. He will have to wear for about 4 weeks. Not the best Christmas present in the world but at least the cast will be off soon.