Tag Archives: Williamston Theatre

Pic Post Wednesday: The Usual, Zombies in Space, Rhizopus

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Rehearsals for The Usual are going well, we’re having a great time putting it together.  The production team is doing some great work too!  Here are a few shots:

So this would be your basic 8-bit fireball…

I learned a word this week… the Scrabble app for iPad has a fun “teacher” feature, so after you play a turn, it says “Wrong.  You got a few points, but if you had a brain you would’ve done THIS!” and then it shows you how dumb you are.  Apparently it didn’t like my 48 point word (“sizer”, on a triple word score), because “Rhizopuses” would’ve been 99 points. 

Rhizopuses:  plural of Rhizopus – a bread mold, any zygomycetous fungus of the genus Rhizopus.  

And now we know.  And knowing is half the battle.

Lastly, just for fun – this comes from Geek Alert, and it’s got Star Trek and zombies… so how could I not post it?  Check out their link if you’d like to buy it!

“Star Trek III was an excellent movie, but it would have been completely different if zombies were involved. Would it be better or worse? Most certainly better. Zombies make everything better. Now you can imagine how a zombie Star Trek III might have been with this “Star Trap III The Living Dead Search For Spock” Poster.“

And another Wednesday has come and gone.

Tuesday’s Miscellaneous Goodness…

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There’s a terrific article, all about the Williamston Theatre, that was recently published by the Livingston Post. Written by Susan Parcheta, it says a whole bunch of nice things about us!

Check it out here: “Williamston Theatre Amazes”

This fake movie trailer from Jimmy Kimmel is hilarious, and has a ton of stars enjoying being ridiculous!

“Academy Award Winner Helen Mirren.  In a hovercraft.”

In other Tuesday news, my friend and colleague Joseph Zettelmaier is featured in the March edition of American Theatre!  A nice 4 page article about him as a playwright, and it discusses the production of Dead Man’s Shoes that we just ran at Williamston Theatre.  There’s no online version yet, but here’s a picture of the cover with his name!  Nice publicity for a great writer and a great guy.

And today’s last Tuesday tidbit – we’re in rehearsals now for The Usual: A Musical Love Story, and it’s a ton of fun. I did some recording of the cast going through some of the music, and maybe I’ll try and post a snippet of it sometime this week… in the meantime, here’s a shot of more research we’ve been doing for the show…

No, seriously, the way the taps attach to the wall, how they look, the various types of tap handles you can get.  I’ll post pics of the final version from the set in a few weeks!

HAPPY TUESDAY!

Pic Post Wednesday

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First, since it’s Ash Wednesday, I’ll start with a couple of fun things relating to that:

This made me laugh.  (In a related note, THIS IS HERE ALSO.)

 

I made this on the fun iPad app Skitch, because, well, it also made me laugh!

 

Last night was first rehearsal for The Usual, at Williamston Theatre.  This isn’t a great pic, but I forgot to take more!  You can see, in the theatre seats, a couple of our Production Assistants (who will also appear as chorus in this show) – Carolyne and Brandon.  Also Dana Brazil the choreographer, Alex our apprentice, and Chris Purchis (WT Managing Director.)  Onstage left to right are Stef Din (Stage Manager) and the cast: Joe Zettelmaier, Emily Sutton-Smith and Leslie Hull.

 

I mentioned a while back that Max was building a trebuchet for Science Olympiad.   His regional meet has come and gone, and today we did some modifications to the trebuchet, and he’ll start charting the distances and weights again!  Here we are in the school gym experimenting this evening before dinner!

And, because it’s fun, here’s a video of the first test fire where, thanks to the improvements we made, it works even better than we predicted!

Darn, now that I’ve listened to the video, it’s hard to hear Max explain it.  He says “Okay, this is a 2 kilogram counterweight and a 38 gram projectile on an awesomely modified trebuchet!  3-2-1 Launch!”

And another Wednesday has passed!

Saturday good things

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Good things on a Saturday!

My daughter turns 14 today. How is this possible?!

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Dead Man’s Shoes at the Williamston Theatre continues to get rave reviews!
“The world-premiere production, a joint offering by Williamston Theatre and Performance Network Theatre with direction by David Wolber, marries component skill and tight cohesion into a masterpiece of workmanship with entertainment value to match.”

Sci-Fi fans, if you’re not watching Fringe, you’re missing out on a great show! I just watched last night’s episode, and the show just gets better every week!

I never got my motorcycle license…maybe I should.

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The Detroit Tigers first Spring Training game is only two weeks away!

Announcing the 2012-2013 Williamston Theatre Season!

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boom 

by Peter Sinn Nachtrieb
Sep 20 – October 21.
 “Sex to Change the Course of the World”—A grad student’s online personal ad lures a mysterious journalism student to his subterranean research lab under the pretense of an evening of “no strings attached” sex. But when a major global catastrophic event strikes the planet, their date takes on evolutionary significance and the fate of humanity hangs in the balance. Will they survive? What about the fish in the tank? And who is that woman pulling levers and playing the timpani? An epic and intimate comedy that spans over billions of years, boom explores the influences of fate versus randomness in the course of one’s life, and life as we know it on the planet.

Ebenezer 

by Joe Zettelmaier
Nov 15 – Dec 23
A World Premiere
It’s a cold Christmas Eve in London, and Ebenezer Scrooge sits in a hospital room. 15 years have passed since his miraculous transformation by the Ghosts of Christmas. Now renowned for his generosity and selflessness, his spirit still yearns to bring cheer to the world, but his flesh is weak. Such a little thing isn’t likely to stop the old man, though, for he has a plan up his sleeve that he hasn’t shared with his two troubled companions – Miss Poole, the nurse assigned to his care, and Tim Cratchit, recently returned from war in America.  Over the course of the evening, these two lost souls bear witness to events they do not fully understand as the spirit of Christmas descends on Ebenezer once again.

End Days 

by Deborah Zoe Laufer
Jan 24 – Feb 24
Sixteen year old Rachel Stein is having a bad year. Her father hasn’t changed out of his pajamas since 9/11. Her mother has begun a close, personal relationship with Jesus. Her new neighbor, a sixteen-year-old Elvis impersonator, has fallen for her hard. And the Apocalypse is coming Wednesday. Her only hope is that Stephen Hawking will save them all.  “Both poignantly redemptive and hilariously funny, it begs the question of what we would hold most sacred if we knew the end was near. And it brings to life our broad range of choices, including laughter, and the treasured traveling companions who are there even when we face our own personal Armageddon.” – Huffington Post

“…rapturously funny play about a family trying to survive in a world hurtling toward Armageddon, proves that the right playwright can inspire healing laughter in even the most sobering subjects.” – The Miami Herald

Shirley Valentine 


by Willy Russell
Mar 21 – April 21
What can you do when you realize that you’ve hit middle age, and your life has been shaped by choices made by everyone except you?  The heroine in this actor’s tour-de-force is an ordinary middle class English housewife. As she prepares chips and egg for dinner, she ruminates on her life and tells the wall about her husband, her children, her past, and an invitation from a girlfriend to join her on holiday in Greece to search for romance and adventure. Ultimately, Shirley does escape to Greece, has an “adventure” with a local fisherman… and begins the process of shaping her life into something wonderful. This one-woman play became an instant classic the minute it premiered!

“Absolutely smashing.”-The New York Post
“A joyful, captivating piece of theatre.”-The New York Daily News

10:53 


by Annie Martin
May 16 – June 16
A World Premiere
The worst part of a hospital waiting room is normally the waiting but, in the midst of a prolonged family medical crisis, Kathryn Fuller regards the waiting room as a welcome refuge from her increasingly chaotic life. However, the real world quickly invades her new home away from home, and she’s surrounded with her over-the-top family life, rebellious, love-struck daughter and a mysterious stranger who, oddly, shows up at the same time every night.  What happens when the universe decides our lives need a shaking up, whether we like it or not?  Will Kathryn get drawn into the ridiculous comedy, drama, and potential romance swirling around her beloved waiting room, or will she burrow deeper into her seclusion from the world?

Tuna Does Vegas


by Jaston Williams, Joe Sears, Ed Howard
July 11 – August 18
Tuna Does Vegas re-unites the lovable and eccentric characters from the ‘third smallest town in Texas’ as they take a rambling romp in Sin City. The hilarity begins when oddball-conservative radio host Arles Struvie announces on air that he and his wife Bertha Bumiller are heading to Vegas to renew their wedding vows…but everyone in Tuna, Texas goes along for the ride!  Tuna Does Vegas is both an affectionate comment on small-town life as well as a hilarious satire of the same. The eclectic band of citizens that make up this town are portrayed by only two actors, making this send-up on life in rural America even more delightful as they depict all of the inhabitants of Tuna — men, women, Vegas showgirls, Elvis impersonators and more!

Pic Post Wednesday

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Last week I posted the preliminary sketch of the set for THE USUAL, which we’ll start rehearsals for next week.  Here’s the White Model of the set.  This process is another step in refining what we want the thing to be.  Later come the final versions, groundplans, paint elevations, etc…

I posted this on Facebook, after seeing it shared by several folks, but I’m still laughing at it, so here it is! 

 

Maggie said “Dad, in health class we learned that, for men, two glasses of wine every couple of nights can be healthy for your heart!”

Now I just have to find the two biggest glasses in the house…

So, Sci-fi fans, THIS is coming:

Doing research for The Usual, I came across these, which I love.  Don’t know who made them, but for anyone who played early video games, they’re fun!  Anyone up for a little Legend of Zelda in the real world? 

Or (for you early arcade fans), Duck Hunt?!

And another Wednesday comes to a close!

Dead Man’s Shoes: The Music Video!

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Well, technically it’s the music video for “The Ballad Of Injun Bill”, which is the song that Joe Zettelmaier wrote and wove through his play “Dead Man’s Shoes”.

Well, The Potter’s Field recorded a great version of that song, and we decided to make a music video featuring the cast of the show and Rochelle Clark, of The Potter’s Field.  We had a great time making it, and I think it turned out well.  Check it out!

Prepping to start rehearsals

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I’m getting ready to launch into rehearsals for the next show I’m directing, The Usual: A Musical Love Story at the Williamston Theatre. One of the fun parts of directing (one of the many) is doing the research and prep work!  This quirky, odd, sweet little musical has a lot of very fun stuff going on in it –

Here’s a sampling of what I’ve been checking out!

Bars and Pubs!

Old Computers!

Pic Post Wednesday

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A big mix of pics today!

It’s fun to look at what the bookshelf of an 11-year old boy contains. Old roller skate, tiny metal robot, picture of himself as a baby, microscope, train whistle, Charlie Brown/Detroit Tigers bobblehead, plastic bin containing eyebolts…and a bunch of other fun things.

The Williamston Theatre is in…well, Williamston…which is also known, in slang by the local youth, as Billtown. This graffiti on the back of our theatre is, rather than bothersome, inspiring in a couple of ways… ways that will be revealed later in our season.

Dinner tonight – chorizo/potato/scrambled egg tortillas! SO good. Recipe from the great blog Two Good Eggs

This is for all the sci-fi nerds out there, and it makes me laugh!

Anyone else ever have a Family Movie Night where you rent a DVD, but still go to the movie theatre to get two large buckets of popcorn with butter?

Props from old productions: Decorating Scene Shops since…forever!

I love this shot – Saturday morning in bed with the family! Jeanne’s reading, the kids are playing a game on the iPad… Lots of relaxing and snuggling, the way a weekend morning should be.

A Fistful Of Raves…

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Okay, so it’s only two rave reviews so far, not quite a fistful, but – y’know, it’s a Western… “A Fistful Of Dollars”? So I was tying it all together? Oh, nevermind! Maybe just read these excellent reviews? 🙂 Then head over to Williamston Theatre and see the show!

First, Paul Wozniak of the Lansing City Pulse says the show is “Zettelmaier’s strongest script yet, sharply witty and gripping.” See the rest of the review here.

Also, Michael Margolin reviewed the show for Encore Michigan, and said it was destined to be “One of the best of the season” – you can read the review here.

I’m very proud of the work that everyone at involved in the show has done: guest Director David Wolber, the cast, company, playwright, staff and crew. Putting a big ol’ Western onstage is a bit of a risk, but one worth taking, and everyone did some wonderful work!