Ten Cook County High School students participated in the One Act Play this year. The show was We’re Not Making This Play Up—Honest by Bradley Walton. The play is a comedy about the backstage crew and some extras forced onstage in front of an audience to perform a play when all but one of the actors gets sick.
Grand Marais Playhouse Director Sue Hennessy stepped in as director this year to give Mr. McHugh a break to spend more time at his daughter’s basketball games.
The cast included Cy Fortunato, Luke Fenwick, Mikala Schliep, Sam Kern, Sam Deschampe, Selien Morawitz, Emily Terrill, Melanie Stoddard and Michaela Peterson with Julia Larsen as Stage Manager.
Rehearsals began in December with the cast meeting four days a week and during Christmas break. The students spent many hours memorizing their lines and blocking and developing their characters. Rehearsals fit between studying, ski practice, illness, other appointments and the distractions. The effort these students put into this play is highly commendable. The company did a wonderful job of delivering the nuances of comedy with perfectly timed pauses to convey the tension of not knowing what to do with an audience watching your every move! The play was performed for a very appreciative community audience twice and once for the highly entertained high school students. Unfortunately, due to Minnesota State High School League academic rules, the play was not eligible for competition at the time of the subsection meet but congratulations are still in order for the hard work and spirited performance!
We’re Not Making This Play Up—Honest players are (L-R, front) Julia Larsen, Melanie Stoddard, Selien Morawitz (L-R, back) Sammy Deschampe, Mikala Schliep, Cy Fortunato, Michaela Peterson, Luke Fenwick, Sam Kern, Emily Terrill.
The Grand Marais Playhouse is very pleased to announce the performances for the Murder Mystery Dinner Theater and the Summer Repertory for 2013!
The Playhouse will once again collaborate with the Harbor Light Supper Club to present a murder mystery dinner theater. This year’s production will be Fit to Kill by Victor L. Cahn. Samuel French Publishers describes the play as “a thriller about strategy, deception and betrayal.”
“Adrian, a charming, but self-indulgent chess master, enjoys a life of luxury thanks to his marriage to Janice, an older but still sexy and vibrant woman who made her fortune as a CEO of an exercise empire. The arrival of Amy, a reporter with an agenda of her own, unleashes a whirlwind of deadly schemes that will keep audiences guessing until the final seconds,” writes the publisher.
The Grand Marais Playhouse has applied for a grant to hire a director for this production. Auditions will be May 7 at 7 p.m. at the Arrowhead Center for the Arts. Rehearsals will be Monday – Thursday, 6:30 – 9 p.m. except holidays. Performance dates are June 27- 30 and July 4 – 7, 2013 at the Harbor Light Supper Club.
The Playhouse will once again present a summer repertory with two shows rotating performances each weekend for four weeks. This year the Playhouse will rotate a musical with a comedy from July 18 – August 11.
The musical is Church Basement Ladies by Jim Stowell and Jessica Zuehlke with music and lyrics by Drew Jansen, inspired by the books of Janet Letnes Martin and Suzann Nelson, authors of the bestseller Growing Up Lutheran.
As described on the play’s website, Church Basement Ladies is: A celebration of the church basement kitchen and the women who work there. It is a new musical comedy featuring four distinct characters and their relationships as they organize the food and solve the problems of a rural Minnesota church about to undergo changes in 1965.
From the elderly matriarch of the kitchen to the young bride-to-be learning the proper order of things, we see them handle a record-breaking Christmas dinner, the funeral of a dear friend, a Hawaiian Easter Fundraiser, and, of course, a steaming hot July wedding. They stave off potential disasters, share and debate recipes, instruct the young, and keep the pastor on due course while thoroughly enjoying (and tolerating) each other as the “steel magnolias” of the church. Funny and down to earth, audiences will recognize these ladies as they witness the church year unfold from below the house of God.
The script is by Jessica Zuehlke and Jim Stowell with music and lyrics by composer Drew Jansen, who gave us the music for the popular long-running hit musical, How To Talk Minnesotan, The Musical. The cast of characters includes Pastor E.L. Gunderson, Mrs. Lars (Vivian) Snustad, Mrs. Gilmer (Mavis) Gilmerson, Mrs. Elroy (Karin) Engleson, Miss Signe Engleson and a church organist.
Auditions will be March 28 at 7 p.m. at the Arrowhead Center for the Arts. The rehearsal schedule is to be determined.
The comedy to pair with the musical will be Moon Over Buffalo by Ken Ludwig. The play synopsis at Samuel French Publishers, describes the play as in the madcap comedy tradition of Lend Me a Tenor. The hilarious Moon Over Buffalo centers on George and Charlotte Hay, fading stars of the 1950s. As the play unfolds, they’re playing Private Lives and Cyrano De Bergerac in rep in Buffalo, New York with five actors. On the brink of a disastrous split-up caused by George’s dalliance with a young ingénue, they receive word that they might just have one last shot at stardom: Frank Capra is coming to town to see their matinee, and if likes what he sees, he might cast them in his movie remake of The Scarlet Pimpernel.
Unfortunately for George and Charlotte, everything that could go wrong does go wrong, abetted by a visit from their daughter’s clueless fiancé and hilarious uncertainty about which play they’re actually performing, caused by Charlotte’s deaf stage-manager mother who hates every bone in George’s body.
The play has roles for four men and four women. Auditions will be May 9 at 7 p.m. at the Arrowhead Center for the Arts. Rehearsals will be Monday – Thursday 6:30 – 9 p.m.
The Grand Marais Playhouse will be having a fundraiser on July 20 featuring A Century of Jazz with Sky Blue Trio and Orange Girl. The concert will be a continuation of exploring jazz through the ages with this outstanding local jazz group. A silent auction will take place in the lobby before the concert and during intermission. Hors d’oeuvres will be served in the lobby.
The Playhouse will be accepting applications for assistant technical director, director for the Murder Mystery in June, a director for the yet to be determined play for late August/Labor Day weekend and summer interns. All actors and technical crews for summer productions will receive a stipend for each performance to help alleviate some of the personal costs of participating in summer production. Please contact the Playhouse office at (218) 387-1284 for more details. Grand Marais Playhouse Artistic Director Sue Hennessy provides this behind-thescenes look at Grand Marais Playhouse activities.
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