The Grand Marais Playhouse is winding down the 2013 Grand Marais Summer Theater Festival with the final performances of The Odd Couple (Female Version) on Thursday, Aug. 8 and Saturday, Aug. 10 at 7 p.m. and Church Basement Ladies on Friday, Aug. 9 at 7 p.m. and Sunday, Aug. 11 at 2 p.m. Tickets are still available for all performances. Advance tickets are available online at www.grandmaraisplayhouse.com or at the Arrowhead Center for the Arts box office one hour before each performance. Tickets are $20. Save $5 when you buy a ticket to both shows!
The Grand Marais Summer Theater Festival will return in 2014 July 17 – August 10 with two shows in repertory and theatrical classes. Check the Playhouse website for upcoming information this fall/winter.
Summer isn’t over yet and the Playhouse still has one more fantastic production to present!
Dix Tableaux by Mark Dunn will open August 22. According to publisher Samuel French, Inc. Dix Tableaux is the story of friendship between two women in their 60s, played out over 10 years, each year representing another reunion for Beverly Duggins and Addie Spool, participants in a series of annual “tableaux” sponsored by the Museum of Dix, in a small city in the south. Within human diorama settings as simple as a frontier cabin porch or the cow stall of a local dairy barn and as elaborate as the “Spit and Curl” beauty salon (circa 1930) and the front seat of Thelma and Louise’s plummeting convertible,
Bringing Dix Tableaux to the Grand Marais Playhouse are cast members Janet Healey, Beth Farone, Marcia Hyatt and director Susan Kelnberger. This story of friendship spans 10 years of the characters’ lives. The play opens Thursday, Aug. 22.
Beverly, the lonely urban professional, and Addie, the down-home pharmacist’s assistant, chart the course of each other’s lives, while fending off incursions from the officiously bothersome fellow poser Maureen.
Through the 10 scenes which comprise the play, the two women are forced to endure the constant interruptions of the museum’s “promenaders” who “ooh and ah” at the lifelike presentations, offering up their comical comments, both kind and cruel. Though they see one another only one weekend a year, and in spite of their very different backgrounds, Beverly and Addie nurture a growing and abiding friendship. In the end, it becomes the strongest and most sustaining friendship of their lives.
Dix Tableaux is directed by Susan Kelnberger with the cast of Beth Farone, Marcia Hyatt, Janet Healey and the “promenaders” still being determined. Performances are August 22 – 25, 29 and Sept. 1. Thursdays – Saturdays at 7 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m.
Tickets are $17 adults and $7 students. Playhouse members receive a discount. The Aug. 23 performance is “Food Shelf First Friday”—bring $10 or $5 items to donate to the food shelf and get one ticket free with the purchase of another of equal or higher value. Sunday, Aug. 25 is “donation at the door”—pay any amount for your ticket. Discounts available at the door only.
Advance tickets are available online at www.grandmaraisplayhouse.com. The ACA box office opens one hour before each performance.
School begins in September and so does rehearsal for the community youth play! This year’s play will be a musical by Stephen Schwartz called Captain Louie Jr. Captain Louie Jr. spins a tale of young Louie, the new kid in town who feels lonely and without friends in his new neighborhood. Looking for something to cheer himself up on Halloween night, Louie returns to his old neighborhood friends in an imaginary journey on the wings of his favorite toy, his little red plane.
The story is full of tricks and treats, as well as the incomparable music and lyrics of Stephen Schwartz. Most of all, Captain Louie Jr. is about friendship—the ability to make new friends and the importance of old ones.
There will be roles for 11 kids. (Primarily casting grades 4-8.)
This year’s production will include a community chorus that enhances the vocal numbers. The chorus will be seated upstage of the action and sing all the numbers with the cast. All ages welcome for the chorus.
Auditions for Captain Louie will be September 9 at 3:30 p.m. for a role in the production. Audition information is available at http:// broadwayjr.com/audition/ auditionlist.asp?ID=000323. There will be a chorus interest meeting September 9 at 6:30 p.m. for anyone interested in singing in the chorus. Song excerpts and show information available at www.mtishows.com/show_ detail. asp?showid=000323.
Costume help will be needed! Please contact the playhouse if you will help sew at playhouse@boreal.org.
Grand Marais Playhouse Artistic Director Sue Hennessy provides this behind-thescenes look at Grand Marais Playhouse activities.
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