2013-14 Season Announcement

Well folks, if you’ve seen our May 2013 newsletter, then you probably already know  what next season is looking like – but if not, we’d like to proudly announce our 2013-14 Season!

Awesome huh? It’s going to be a great season! Important information regarding next season to note right now: we’ll be holding auditions for Peter Pan on June 3 and 4! Audition packets will be available in the next day or two, so keep posted on our website and social media for when those are available. And next week we’ll be blogging about Peter Pan auditions, so you’ll get the inside scoop there too.

Start getting excited for next season – we sure are!

Godspell Photo Blog

We just finished our 3 week run of Godspell, and WOW was it a fun show! If you missed it, we completely rearranged our seating, built a whole new stage basically, had a pool in the stage, water falling from the ceiling, trampolines built into the stage, and we flew Jesus in the end! Hopefully you had the chance to see the show, but if not, here are some photos! If you did see the show, what did you think?

Oh, Coward! Q&A

Our first full run of a production down in our new space The Underground will be Oh, Coward! Featuring music from the one and only Noel Coward, Oh, Coward! is produced and directed by Playhouse and Playground veteran Bob Mitchell. We met up with Bob to ask a few questions about the production and to learn more on what its all about.

The Underground Grand Opening

We did it! Thanks to all of our amazing volunteers The Underground will open, as scheduled!

The Underground will celebrate it’s Grand Opening on Friday April 26th and April 27th! Please join to help us celebrate this new event center in Duluth in the Historic Depot Heritage and Arts Center!

Here’s what you can expect:

Why Mallory is Pumped for Godspell

I won’t lie to you, when I first started working here about 8 months ago, I’d have to say that Godspell was one of the shows in our season I was skeptical about. Not only have I never seen the show, I had never heard the music, never heard anything about the concept – all I knew was the title and it didn’t sound like my cup of tea.

But of course, through working here, I got to learn more and more about the show little by little. I starting hearing my boss Christine Seitz talk about seeing the show in New York and how blown away she was. Once casting occurred, two of my fellow office members (Tonya Porter & Sarah Diener) were in the show, and it wasn’t long before the Godspell soundtrack was on repeat on Spotify all day. One day, Tonya showed me a promo video from the Broadway production and I got officially excited (take a look below).

Piece by piece I started to learn more tid-bits along the way once we got closer to the production. With this being the first time I’ll see Godspell, I thought that maybe others might be seeing for the first time too, and maybe some of you had the same skepticism I did. Well, from one once-skeptic to another: here are the things that changed my mind:

1) We’ve totally re-vamped our seating chart. Half of my job at the Playhouse is working the Box Office side of things with our Box Office Manager (and cast member) Tonya Porter. So it’s safe to say that I have gotten real familiar with the crazy awesome new seating chart for this show! We’ve actually removed the front three rows (A-C) and relocated them up on stage to accommodate for the fact that the show is performed in the round! Take a look at the seating chart below to see what it looks like and if you’d like to reserve seats onstage, please call or stop by our office for that reservation – those seats will not be available online.

2) The show is being performed in the round! If you watched the video above, you’ll see how this works. I’ve never seen a musical of this caliber done in the round, so I am super excited! It will be really interested to see how the staging is done, what types of set pieces will be used, and how the actors address the audience on all sides.

3) The music rocks. Literally. My fear with this show before I heard the music, was that it was going to be nothing but hymns. The music in this show couldn’t be farther from what I thought! There is literally a genre for everyone, from gospel, to pop, to folk rock, to vaudeville. Personal favorites of mine that are CONSTANTLY stuck in my head (thanks to Tonya, haha) are “Bless the Lord” and “Save the People” and “Prepare Ye.” Check out the Broadway recording on Spotify or just YouTube the songs – they are awesome!

4) The characters of this show are really interesting and unique. Of course you’ve got Jesus and Judas (who doubles as John the Baptist), but the rest of the cast members got to basically create their own characters. What they got to do is choose an aspect of their personality and heighten it, creating a character all their own. For example, Sarah Diener, who is a Playhouse staff member, works with kids in our education program. She focused on the child-like aspects of her personality and created a character who is like the kid of the group. This will be why you see characters listed as themselves in the playbill! Oh, and their costumes are awesome and fun too, check it out below!

5) And of course, holding true to our season’s tagline, we will be Making a Splash yet again with Godspell, as this show incorporates water too! Don’t worry, it won’t be like Singin’ in the Rain, but definitely expect to encounter water being used onstage

Well, hopefully my list has made you get as excited for Godspell as I am! I can’t believe the show is already opening this week – make sure to get your ticket reservations, we’re selling fast! You can order online (remember, onstage seating won’t be available there), over the phone (218.733.7555), or in person. See you there!

Casino Night Thank You’s

We’re going to keep it simple this week and give a bunch of shout outs to all the wonderful people that made this year’s Casino Night possible!

Professional support from: Event Lighting by Design, Mickey Greene, Arrowhead Printing, Greysolon Ballroom staff, All Over Media, Teri Glembin and the over 100 businesses who donated to the auction!

Committee members: Annie Carmichael, Jena Evans, Sandy Liles, Cathy Markham & Sheila Sutton

Staff and Volunteers: Jeff Brown, Tonya Porter, Mallory Cleveland, Sarah Diener, Dean Tschider, Anissa Zeman, Larina Adlre, Katie Caskey, Katie Martineau, Amanda Abrahamson, Kendra Carlson, Aaron Westlund, Paige Kohler, Suzie Baer, Amy Ward, Alaina Konstinius, Erin Blazevic, Katie Blesner, Louisa Guggisberg, Rachel Landon, Angela Sheilds, Matias Valero, Ben Hanson, Scott Hebert, Johanna Dittus, Pascal Pastrana and Drew Autio

Dealers: Lee Gundersheimer, Dylan Olmsted, Diane Alexander, Justin Liles, Susie Stockinger, Laurie Stribling, Maude Dornfeld, Lawrance Bernabo, Kevin Jacobsen, Josh Miller, Jason Manning, Stuart Stomberg, Cheryl Skafte, Luke Moravec, Amber Griffith, Christina Case, Allisun Zagar, Lindsay Kolu and Jennifer Walch

Evening Entertainment: Matt Wasmund, Jeremy Ehlert, Drew Autio and Rachel Landon and the Cast of Godspell!

Photographer: Becky Ekstam

Sponsors: AtWater Group, Hanft Fride, Northland’s Newscenter, Duluth News Tribune, Gallery Dental, A Touch of Plasch, Northern Engine Supply and National Bank of Commerce

And thanks to Susie Stockinger and Wine Merchants for the generous donation of champagne!

We hope everyone had a great night and thanks again to everyone involved!

Tessa’s Top 10

We here at the Playhouse are getting UBER excited for Casino Night on Friday! Here’s Tessa’s Top 10 things to look forward to at this year’s Casino Night:

10. Dress to Impress | We don’t have a theme this year, but be sure to come dressed in style – this party is going to be snazzy!