December 19, 2018 at 5:01 p.m.
Wabeno theater group receives $4,000 grant from Green Bay Packers Foundation; 2019 schedule announced
Wabeno theater group receives $4,000 grant from Green Bay Packers Foundation; 2019 schedule announced
The grant will be used for a new fine arts series and community programming, the troupe announced in a press release. The Players will also be adding two concerts in conjunction with the three mainstage productions in 2019.
The performing groups will also be spending the day with area school students working with them on music, theater and dance. Included with the concert additions, the Players will host several workshops throughout the year for adults. The workshops will range from beginning acting to short play performances.
The three mainstage productions for 2019 are "On Golden Pond," "Working" and "Farce of Habit."
The Players are a community-focused non-profit organization. For information visit www.wabenoareaplayers.org or on Facebook, @wabenoareaplayers. Or contact the group at [email protected]. For tickets, call 800-838-3006 or go online at wabenoareaplayers.brownpapertickets.com.
Listed below are the Wabeno Area Players mainstage productions for 2019:
On Golden Pond
March 21, 22, 23, 28, 29 and 30 at 7 p.m., 24 and 25 at 1 p.m.
Madonna Hall (1793 Elm Ave., Wabeno)
This is the love story of Ethel and Norman Thayer, who are returning to their summer home on Golden Pond for the 48th year. He is a retired professor, nearing eighty, with heart palpitations and a failing memory - but still as tart-tongued, observant and eager for life as ever. Ethel, 10 years younger, and the perfect foil for Norman, delights in all the small things that have enriched and continue to enrich their long life together. They are visited by their divorced, middle-aged daughter and her dentist fiancé, who then go off to Europe, leaving his teenage son behind for the summer. The boy quickly becomes the "grandchild" the elderly couple have longed for, and as Norman revels in taking his ward fishing and thrusting good books at him, he also learns some lessons about modern teenage awareness - and slang - in return. In the end, as the summer wanes, so does their brief idyll, and in the final, deeply moving moments of the play, Norman and Ethel are brought even closer together by the incidence of a mild heart attack. Time, they know, is now against them, but the years have been good and, perhaps, another summer on Golden Pond still awaits.
WORKING
July 18, 19, 20, 25, 26 and 27 at 7 p.m. 21 at 1 p.m.
Nancy Volk Auditorium (Wabeno High School, 4325 Branch St., Wabeno)
Working is the extraordinary genre-defining musical from Grammy and Academy Award-winner Stephen Schwartz (Wicked, Godspell) based on Studs Terkel's best-selling book of interviews with the American workforce: "Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do."
This highly original and universal portrait of the American workday is told from the perspective of those that the world so often overlooks - the schoolteacher, the millworker, the mason, the housewife, the fireman and the waitress amongst many - whose daily grind and aspirations reflect the truths of the people that make up a nation. "Working" employs a range of musical styles and genres from contributing composers, including five-time Grammy Award-winner James Taylor. Nominated for six Tony Awards, this classic has been updated for a modern age, featuring new songs by Tony Award-winning and Pulitzer Prize-winner Lin-Manuel Miranda.
Farce of Habit
Nov. 21, 22 and 23 at 7 p.m., 23 and 24 at 1 p.m.
Madonna Hall (1793 Elm Ave., Wabeno)
Comic fireworks explode in "Farce of Habit," an absurdly funny Southern-fried romp that takes us back to the Reel 'Em Inn, the finest little fishing lodge in the Ozarks.
The proprietor, D. Gene Wilburn, is looking forward to a peaceful weekend on the lake. But there are only two chances of that happening: slim and none. Why, for example, has his wife, Wanelle, picked these three days to white-knuckle her way through caffeine withdrawal? Why is his son Ty's marriage to Jenna falling apart so fast? Could it have something to do with the French can-can costume Ty is wearing? How on earth would D. Gene's feisty sister, Maxie, allow herself to get caught up in such a bizarre undercover police assignment? And that's just his family. If this isn't enough to thwart D. Gene's weekend plans, he's got a gaggle of nuns who've converged on the Inn, hell-bent on experiencing a nature retreat - which might be tolerable if D. Gene didn't have a chronic fear of anything in a habit. Add to this the presence of Jock McNair, a nationally known relationship guru whose colossal ego threatens everyone's sanity; a shy retiree anxious to cut loose and embrace his "inner caveman" and a couple of wild women who may or may not be who they claim to be.
Throw in the storm of the century that's fast bearing down on Mayhew, Arkansas, and D. Gene has no prayer of baiting a hook any time soon. Oh, and did we mention there's an axe murderer on the loose? If you enjoy gloriously preposterous hilarity, then laughing your way through the take-no-prisoners lunacy of a Jones Hope Wooten comedy is one habit you'll never want to break!
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