curtain call 14.4 march 2009

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Curtain CallQuarter ly Newsletter of Theatre in the Woods, Ltd. March, 2009olume X1V

The Terminal Wonder DialogueClaudia Schmidt & Kevin Kline

March 6 at the Quam

Ever wondered about those lights that hang over the stage or

how they work? With our new equipment its easier than ever to

bring our stage to life using light. Weve scheduled two lighting

workshops to take you from the basics of how the lights work

and where to put them, to programming sequences and special

effects with our new automated controller. On March 14 from 1

to 3 pm, the mysteries of our new lighting setup will be revealed.

Come back on May 2 from 1-3 pm to learn how to program the

new system. If youve yearned for an artistic behind the

scenes role at the Quam, these workshops are for you!

Spotlight on Lighting at Quam Days

storyteller has been heard on Na-tional Public Radio and seen onthe Guthrie stage in Minneapolis.

Together, Schmidt and Kling take

the audience on a journey into theimprovisatory potential of storiesand songs. In their show The Ter-minal Wonder Dialogue the two-some share their enchantment withthe strengths and fragilities of ourspecies. These two are masters oftheir craft and the stage is theirnatural habitat.

Be ready Friday, March 6 at 7:30

for an emotional ride which willhave you holding your sides fromlaughter and perhaps wiping a tearfrom your eye as well.

Admission is an affordable $13for this magical duo. Reservationsmay be made at 715 468 4387

We say historic, they say histeric!Claudia Schmidt - wonder womanof inventive, dynamic vocal rangefrom moodful musings to rollercoaster rides of scat rhymes and

rhythms - has played to capacityaudiences in Theatre in theWoods Erika Quam theater sev-eral times. She will be joined willby masterful storyteller KevinKling for his first time in ourvenue on Friday, March 6. Tohave these two incredible enter-tainers on stage together is, in to-days jargon, to die for.

Claudia Schmidt has performedhere in North America and inEurope in settings as intimate asour theater in Shell Lake, and asvast as a festival stage in front of25,000 listeners. Kevin Kling, na-tive of Osseo, MN, a nationallyrecognized playwrite, actor and

by Carolyn Burnett

QUAM DAYSMarch 14 & May 2

The social and culinary

highlights of the season!!

by Bob Olsgard

Starting around 9 in the morn-ing, continuing through a pro-vided lunch (you can look at itas free if you wish) and peteringout around 3, friends, neighbors,people you wish you knew,some you hope to know better,maybe even family memberswill be out in the spring airclearing away the debris of win-ter, making our joint home all

fresh and neat and recoveredfrom the dark days. Inside worklurks as well. There'll be taskssuitable to all interests. Techieswill want to participate in Bobslighting workshops (see left, be-low).

Dont miss out! Saturday March14. Wear green to celebrate St.Pat's Day early! You'll have so

much fun that you'll immedi-ately look forward to Saturday,May 2 when another free lunchis scheduled.

See you on March 14 & May 29:00 am to 3:00 pm. Comewhen you can. Stay and work aslong as you can (or wish). Bringa pal. Bring someone new toTITW to share the fun!


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Vol. XIV Curtain Call March, 2009

Ever wonder how a directorchooses a particular play? In thecase of Theatre in the Woods revis-iting William Shakespeare the di-rectors had a rough go of it. We(Carolyn Burnett and Karen Kauf-man) had decided, as we did whenchoosing 12th Nightseveralyears ago, to limit ourchoice to one of the come-dies. We narrowed the se-

lection to four, eliminatingthose comedies with multi-ple twin characters, too fewgood female roles, and prob-lematic (to us) plot lines.This left Much Ado AboutNothing, Taming of the Shrew, AsYou Like It, and MidsummerNight's Dream.

We both reread each of the four

and evaluated them based on anumber of criteria. Eventually weeliminated Shrew andAs You LikeIt. Then the two of us met and dis-cussed the pros and cons of the re-maining two plays.Dream is astrong ensemble production. Thehumor is light. We could envision adream-like setting. We couldimagine having children, teens, andadults in the cast. Much Ado has a

terrific set of interchanges betweenBeatrice and Benidick. There areseveral interesting female charac-ters and we could envision creatingmore. We could set it in any timeperiod. The main characters could

be in the general age range of mostof our actors. Whereas neither ofus had been overly enthusiasticaboutDream initially (it seems tobe The One done by amateurgroups) we found ourselves com-ing up with a good list of pros and

no really major cons. With MuchAdo we knocked off the cons oneby one. We went round andround. At one point we considered(for about 15 seconds) doing them

both in repertory format or switch-ing to a darker choice such asMacbeth, King Lear, orMerchantof Venice. Eventually we flipped acoin. Then we went for two flipsout of three.

We expect to carry some of whatwe liked aboutDream into MuchAdo. Notably, we will be strivingfor an ensemble production where

each character is a strong contribu-tor to the whole. Additionally, weexpect, intend, and will plan for asmuch fun as we can possibly fitinto both the rehearsal process andthe final product.

We are looking forward to gettingas many people involved in thisproduction as possible. We will beholding a reading of the play onSaturday April 4th at the ErikaQuam Memorial Theatre from 9

a.m. to noon. We welcomeany and all to participate byreading or just listening.

Watch for future articles asthe process of bringingShakespeare back to TITWdevelops. We anticipate tripsto other productions, work-shops, movies, and whatever

else we can Dream of to makeMuch Ado about Shakespeare atthe Erika Quam Theater.

Anyone interested in more informa-

tion about this project or wanting tobecome a part of the general pro-duction crew, please contact Caro-lyn at 354-3803 or [email protected] or Karen at635-7641 [email protected].

Announcing:In the spring of 2010,

TiTW will be producingMuch AdoAbout Nothing

by William Shakespeare.

ShakspeareRevisited:Choosing the play

by Karen Kaufman & Carolyn Burnett

December 9, 2009TiTW Xmas Party


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Vol. XIV Curtain Call March, 2009The first days Grant Proposal Writ-ing workshop was all new informa-tion for Fox but mostly review forBurnett, who has been the primarygrant writer for TitW since our firstapplication. TitW has been a recipi-ent of WAB grants in the past, in-

cluding most recently a $2500Creation & Presentation Grant in2008. The deadline for our 2009grant application was February 20th,and Burnett (with minor assistancefrom Fox) put in dozens of hours onthe WAB eGrant website completingthe on-line application for funding.Burnett has stated that she wouldlike this to be her last year on thiseffort, and Fox has volunteered to beher under-study.

Burnett, who has been a key leaderwith TitW since its first play in1989, has also expressed an intentionto retire from key TITW responsi-bilities within the next few years.For this reason the second workshopof the day Succession Planning,was a timely offering. When askedat the workshop about term limitsBill Taubman, SLAC board member,stated it was his understanding re-

tirement was accepted only withpresentation of a death certificate.Many recommendations were putforth as means of managing leader-ship succession, most important ofwhich was the pronouncementdont wait until its too late.

The December 3 workshop was onProgram Evaluation. The WAB hasfound that section on most grant ap-plications to be a weak area. Usingrecommendations and examples pro-vided in this workshop, TitW will bedoing more to develop methodologies

to measure whether or not we aremeeting our short and long termgoals. Your anecdotal input would bevery welcome, and we will likely beworking to systematically collectfeedback in the form of surveys, ques-tionnaires and letters of support.

According to a follow-up email fromKaren Goeschko of the WisconsinArts Board, everyone who partici-pated in all 3 workshops in the series

essentially received the equivalent ofa $1,500 technical assistance WI ArtsBoard grant .

Wisconsin Arts Board is the stateagency that nurtures creativity, culti-vates expression, promotes the arts,supports the arts in education, stimu-lates community and economic devel-opment and serves as a resource forpeople of every culture and heritage.

All the handouts provided during theworkshops can be found on the fol-lowing website:http:/www.artsextensionservice.org/index.php/training-consulting/evaluation

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES:Curtain Call is published in March,June, September and December. Copydeadline is on the 15th of the previousmonth. Submit text as a simple, unfor-matted e-mail or attached Word docu-ment. Photos or other artwork shouldbe sent as an attached file, preferablyJPEG. Send to:

[email protected]

Check out our our website:

titw.org

including the new interactive

beta site. Sign in and let us

know what you think!

Shawn Tisdell, Webmaster.(715) 822-3222

Curtain Call is published quar-terly by:

Theatre in the Woods, Limited

605 First Street

P.O. Box 156

Phone (715)468-4387

Carolyn Burnett, President, 354-3803Carolyn Seehafer, Vice PresidentKathy Mitchell, SecretaryPatti Fox, TreasurerMargaret Olsgard, Curtain CallEditor,

(715) 635-8171

Bob Olsgard, Curtain CallTech Guru

by Patti Fox

This past December 2nnd and 3rd,TitW officers Carolyn Burnett andPatti Fox attended a series of Wiscon-sin Arts Board seminars at the EauClaire Regional Arts Center. Thetraining was made possible by a grantfrom the National Endowment for theArts. Our community was also repre-sented at the workshops by Shell LakeArts Center directors.

WISH LIST1. TiTW is seeking the donation of an electrickitchen range with working oven for such events asPizza and Play, Quam Days, and strike pot lucks.2.TiTW is also seeking a volunteer to produce a goodquality DVD work sample to use in future grant ap-plications.

Burnett & Fox

Attend Arts Board

Seminars


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Vol. XIV Curtain Call March, 2009

Upcoming Events at Erika Quam Theater

Call 468-4387 to Reserve

March 6 Kevin Kling/Claudia Schmidt 7:30 p.m.

March 9 TitW Monthly Meeting 7 p.m.

March 14 Quam Day & Lighting workshop 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

April 2 & 3 Ernest in Love 7:30 p.m.April 4 Brunch & a Play:Much Ado reading 9:00 a.m.

April 4 Ernest in Love 4 p.m. & 7:30 p.m.

April 14 TitW Monthly Meeting 7 p.m.

April 25 Small Potatoes in concert 7:30 p.m.

May 2 Quam Day & Lighting workshop 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

May 12 TitW Monthly Meeting 7 p.m.

June Youth Theater Production TBA

Non-ProfitOrganizationU.S.Postage

PAIDShellLake,WI54871

PermitNo.31

Pleaserecyclethisnewsletter-Shareitwithafriend!

by Carolyn Burnett

No, thats not a typo. Maybe weshould say Much Ado aboutBrunch. Heres why: Pizza anda Play- that social event wherewe sit around a table and readaloud for enjoyment the words ofsome playwright - is scheduledfor Saturday, April 4, from 9 amto 12 noon - or until the end ofAct V. As pizza for elevensesdoesnt quite appeal, it will beBrunch and a Play for that day.

Much Ado about Nothingis, asyou may have just read (see page2), the selection for TITWs sec-ond ever Shakespeare production.

Were getting an early start on theexploration, understanding, andenjoyment of this comedy, fa-mous for the Beatrice and Bene-dick exchange of barbs. Pleasejoin us.

Unleash your inner Elizabethan orjust munch and listen. Come tothe basement of the Quam wherethe table will be spread, thescripts will be available, and thecompany select.

ERNESTin LOVEAPRIL 2, 3 & 4

LYRICS BY ANNE CROSWELL

MUSIC BY LEE POCKNESS

Join us at Erika Quam MemorialTheater for a delightful trip back intime to Victorian England. Thismusical theatre event of the seasonis based on Oscar Wildes classiccomedy of manners, The Impor-tance of Being Ernest.

Showtimes are Thursday, Friday &Saturday April 2,3 and 4 at 7:30p..m. with a New Never Been

Tried Before by TiTW - SaturdayMatinee on April 4th at 4:00 p.m.Admission $10.00, with a special$7.00 Senior Matinee Admission.

ReturnServiceRequested

Munch Ado

April 4

Jacquie Manning & Rich Preziosoare no small potatoes! Hear thisentertaining and sought-aftermusical duo at their April 25 con-cert at the Quam Theater 7:30 pm.

SmallPotatoes

curtain call 14.4 march 2009

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