SkyWords Spring Newsletter 2016

Your Northern Sky News • SPRING 2016

Did You Hear the One About…?

Jeffrey Herbst, Artistic Director

W

hat a chock full season we have planned, with six shows between the summer and fall, instead of our usual four.

The line-up, as always, includes a world premiere along with returning shows from last year and fan favorites from seasons past, and that’s no joke. Although, did you hear the one where …

Two doctors walk into a bar but the bartender didn't know what to do with a paradox. Our world premiere, Doctor! Doctor!, with book, lyrics, and music by Matt Zembrowski, is a charming tribute to small-town life in Door County, where residents reluctantly but humorously adapt to change. Matt has had a 20-year dream of seeing a musical that he wrote produced on the Northern Sky stage.

And he’s only 32! Matt was with us in 2009, performing in Sunsets & S’mores, for which he also contributed some original

Did You Hear the One About…?, continued from the front page songs. Molly Rhode will direct the production after shepherding it through a workshop last summer. The cast will feature returning company members Doug Mancheski, Fred ‘Doc’ Heide, Chase Stoeger, Eva Nimmer, Bill Theisen, Rhonda Rae Busch, Kelly Doherty and new intern Rachael Zientek. Our remaining intern crew comprises returnees Michael Kocken, Maylea Bauers (also Props Charge), and Becca Sheehan along with newcomer Elly Walsh-Rock. Our quartet of designers for the season will be Lisa Schlenker (set), Karen Brown-Larimore (costumes), Dave Alley (lights), and Nic Trapani (sound). Helping us, as always, to build things new and retrofit things old will be Stewart Dawson in the shop. Tim Lenihan returns as music director, and Alissa Rhode will assist him throughout the rehearsal period. Alissa will also music direct Lumberjacks, which she did for us last fall. In the pit, Tim will be joined again

by Bruce Newbern and newcomer, Jay Kummer. Neen Rock returns as Production Stage Manager and prop designer for the season. She will be aided again this year by Lisa Mion, stage manager and Shawn Galligan, assistant.

A rack of barbecue ribs walks into a bar, and the bartender says, “I’m sorry, but we don’t serve food here.” No Bones About It, by Paul Libman and Dave Hudson, will return for two performances a week this summer. This loose spoof on Romeo and Juliet, with warring barbecue families standing in for the Montagues and Capulets, delighted audiences last year. The flashback scene is not to be missed! The cast will remain the same with the one exception of Michael Kocken taking over the role of Young Larry, who is part of the aforementioned flashback. Co-director Pam Kriger will be back to help me “relight the grills” and get in good again with the gods of smoke.

A Hero, a Villain, and a Sidekick walk into a bar. “What is this,” says the bartender, “some kind of joke? When Butter Churns to Gold, by Ron Barnett, Peter Welkin and Randi Wolfe, was a departure for us last year, being the first time we had ever presented a melodrama on our stage. We had a great time playing this show, and we hope that bringing it back for a single performance each week will give those who missed it a chance to catch it and those who loved the audience interaction a chance to participate anew. Our Villain (Doug), Heroine (Molly), Narrator (me) and trusty Sidekicks (Kelly and Chase) from last year will be 2

Did You Hear the One About…?, continued from page 2 returning, and Alex Campea will take over the role of the Hero. We can’t wait to hear the enthusiastic booing, hissing and ahhhing every Tuesday night.

A lumberjack walks into a bar.

He seemed like a decent feller.

Lumberjacks in Love, written by Fred Alley with music by James Kaplan, returns after a 2015 fall run and fiveyear hiatus from our summer stage to celebrate its 20th anniversary. It’s hard to believe that it’s been two decades since Fred and James proposed the show and we hurriedly readied it for the 1996 season.

The cast from the fall will return with the exception of Doc Heide stepping back into the role of Muskrat, a role he originated in the world premiere production.

It’s such a joy to perform this show, and it remains an all-time favorite for a lot of Northern Sky fans.

A man walks into a bar with a buck and says, “What can I get for a buck?” The bartender says, “We don’t serve deer here.” Guys & Does, by Fred Heide, Lee Becker, and Paul Libman, is one of our bestreceived fall shows ever and returns this fall after last being presented at the DCA in 2010. Jim Maronek’s delightful set will again be on display, as will Neen Rock’s inventive costumes. Doug Mancheski, Lee Becker and Doc Heide will all return from their original production.

A man walks into a bar with a crocodile under his arm... MAN: Do you serve politicians here?

BARTENDER: Well, of course we do! MAN: Good, I'll have a beer and my friend will have a politician.

Yes, every four years the race for the White House brings out And If Elected, by Fred Alley and Dave Peterson with additional material by me. While the hunting will be going on with Guys & Does at the DCA, we’ll be doing some skewering of our own at the Old Gibraltar Town Hall, rollicking through presidential campaigns past and doing our best to bring some levity to all that is currently happening. There is certainly a joke or two in that, right?

We look forward to seeing you under the Northern Sky.

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Room Enough to Grow…

Beneath the Northern Sky Dave Maier, Managing Director

In the fall of 2015, Northern Sky was able to purchase a 17-acre parcel at the corner of County A & F, in Fish Creek, through a generous donation.

Northern Sky has partnered with the renowned architectural firm Strang, Inc, out of Madison, Wisconsin, and is currently working to finalize plans for a new creative center to house rehearsals, workshops, a scenery and carpentry shop, box office operations and intimate performances.

Peninsula State Park will continue to be our performance home for the summer seasons. The park is our brand, our heart and soul, and what happens there will hopefully always be our “Main Event!”

The goal of this new chapter in Northern Sky’s development is to safeguard our financial security and offer new o p portunities for mission-focused, strategic growth. This project, which will be unveiled in more detail in 2017, will allow the organization to thrive and to expand on our unique legacy.

Our new creative center will house a performing arts center, and a new theater

space designed to blend intimacy, p r o f e s s i o n a l i s m and patron comfort.

We’ll be able to do more new works development, and easily host workshops and public readings. Which translates into more programming, plus the opportunity to host fundraising and special events at will. And you’ll see more community outreach – the campus will be a center for creative collaboration and fusion.

Few organizations take more responsibility for promoting and building the next generation of theatergoing audience than we do. We’ve been told as much by reviewers that see shows throughout Wisconsin and the Midwest. Through our mission, our pricing, our branding, our programming and our outreach – we’re not aware of any arts organization that fosters a more inviting, cross-generational, familyfriendly cultural experience. Consider t h e r e s p o n sibility we have for building the next generation of theatergoers. Who will do that if not us?

Few theaters have an artistic legacy like ours. Look at the tremendous artistic pedigree this organization has fostered.

Not just fostered - dozens of our brilliant artists have gone on to lead (three Richard No Bones About It, 2015 - photo by Len Villano

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Room Enough to Grow…, continued festive fellowship celebrating sublime, honest human joy and purpose in such a magnificent, natural cathedral?

We are at a pivotal chapter in our development. We’ve come a long way since Dave Peterson had his inspired vision for that little ranger stage hidden away in a sleepy northern Wisconsin state park.

The new creative center will make everything that we offer at the park come together more efficiently. We’ll be able to do more, do it better, and do it more economically. For the first time, and for all time, all of our scattered pre-production resources will be unified and completely focused on bringing you more great theater.

Most importantly, the park and creative center will support, sustain and strengthen each other, our mission, and the future of the theater you love.

Rogers awards!) and influence the art form across the region and beyond. This is a place where inspired, talented people want to work.

Look at the next generation of performers, writers and artistic leadership we’re grooming and imagine what they're capable of if they have the right resources and support! Imagine the caliber of talent we will continue to attract with these improved resources…

“For musicals, there is New York City and Fish Creek, Wisconsin… I view Fish Creek as equal to Manhattan when it comes to nurturing musicals and the people who write them.” - Dave Hudson, Richard Rodgers award-winning writer Where else can a person get what we can only describe as the “Northern Sky Experience” – that extraordinary blend of relaxed and

Want to Share in the Applause?

who camp at Peninsula State Park for a week and want to volunteer at every show during their stay, and volunteers who help at just one or two shows.

In other words, we’re looking for you!

Become a

What qualifications do we require? The main requirement is enthusiasm about Northern Sky! As a show volunteer, you’re almost always the first representative of Northern Sky that a patron sees. We need you to be a friendly face for our guests and to be able to stand for about an hour and a half – those are about the only tools you need. We’ll train you on any task we give you.

Northern Sky Volunteer!

Northern Sky relies on, and is always looking for, fans ready to step up and lend a hand! To make a show go, we need volunteers to usher, sell merchandise and concessions, assist with traffic flow in the parking lot, assist patrons to our handicapped seating area, and to drive the golf cart shuttle. All told, there are more than 80 opportunities to volunteer at our shows each week – that means you have about 1000 chances to volunteer over the course of the summer!

If you’d like to volunteer or just to get more information, we want to hear from you! Just tell us, “I want to volunteer at Northern Sky!” in person at the office, over the phone at (920) 854-6117 x104, or email ann@northernskytheater.com.

What type of commitment are we looking for?

We love to have volunteers who can commit to helping out once a week through the summer season, volunteers whom we can call at the last minute in case someone else cancels, volunteers 5

Doctor! Doctor!

Matt Zembrowski, Playwright

written (on actual paper!) and submitted a couple of shows that didn’t quite hit the mark. But the dream lived on.

In 2012, I was waiting for a table at Al Johnson’s when I came across an article in the Door County Pulse about Dr. Joan Traver, a soon-to-be retiring physician from Sister Bay, one of the last of the oldfashioned country doctors who spent as much time in her office as she did on the road visiting her patients on house calls.

I became enchanted by the thought of this bygone profession and those brave souls who dedicated their lives to looking after their patients. I imagined the story of a fictitious physician who, after years of being called upon to deal with the most mundane of maladies, decides to take a vacation and enlists his nephew from Milwaukee (also a doctor, of course) to look after his patients in his absence. Later that day, I found a copy of a book about a real-life Door County doctor named Edward Farmer and pored over it in a matter of hours. The charming anecdotes struck a nerve and immediately set off some creative sparks.

However, real life took over and Doc Takes a Vacation (as it was then called) languished in silent slumber for over a year. One day, while I was in rehearsals for a show in Milwaukee, it re-surfaced. I was only on stage in that show for 20 minutes or so, which left me ample time offstage to write. So I dusted off “Doc” and completed a first draft by the time that production closed. I gathered together a number of my theater friends and held a reading of the show. Extensive re-writes and a half dozen subsequent

In a way, I’ve been working on writing this article for twenty years.

To a young AFT fan growing up in the 1990’s, the surest sign of summer’s return was the arrival of the Folk Tales newsletter, that annual love letter from our favorite singing lumberjacks. Back in the days before Facebook and round-the-clock news updates in the palm of your hand, we waited for many long, cold months to find out what adventures Fred, Doc, Jeff and Jimmy had in store for us.

My family and I have been camping in the wild woods of Peninsula State Park since before I could walk. I know its trails and shorelines better than I do my own neighborhood. Yet I had not experienced Musical Theater Under The Stars until one cold August evening in 1995 when my brother Zach and I attended a chilling performance of Bone Dance. I had no idea that show would lead to a life-long love affair with live theater, and this company.

I had my first true taste of life under the Northern Sky in 2009, when I was hired as one of the company’s music directors and was given the opportunity to perform in and co-write songs with Doc Heide and Lee Becker, two icons of my formative years, for Sunsets and S’mores.

I’d never been so simultaneously excited and terrified!

By that point, I had written - mostly in my head - a dozen shows that I was sure would be the next Lumberjacks In Love.

None of them were, of course. I’d even

continued on next page 6

Doctor! Doctor!, continued support I’ve received from my soon-to-be wife Lori. (We’re getting married a month after Doctor! Doctor! opens!)

One of my most prized possessions is a playbill from the 1999 AFT season that Fred Alley signed for me after a performance of Belgians in Heaven. It now resides in a frame above my desk. Every time I got stuck while writing “Doc” (which was often) I would look up at Fred’s picture and ask him to lead me out of the proverbial woods. He came through for me every time. I dearly wish that Fred could be there to see what he inspired, and though I am painfully aware that he won’t be in the audience, I know his spirit lives on in the eyes of every kid bundled up in a blanket on those wooden benches experiencing the magic that is Northern Sky Theater. Perhaps twenty years from now, one of them will be writing their own SkyWords article.

readings followed, and before I knew it, the process of bringing the show to the Pen Park stage was set in motion.

Thanks to the invaluable help and guidance of Molly Rhode, a staged reading of What the Doctor Ordered was presented by an incredible cast of Northern Sky performers last summer. Let me tell you: having a roomful of exceedingly talented people spend an entire week analyzing and critiquing something you’ve poured your heart and soul into is quite a humbling experience! But the encouragement and suggestions the Northern Sky team gave me were simply extraordinary.

Naturally, more work (and another name change) followed, but at last, Doctor!

Doctor! is headed to the place where it all began for me. I have to thank Jeff Herbst for believing in me, and for greenlighting this dream come true. I must also thank my parents, and acknowledge the unwavering emotional and artistic

Creative Kids Day Friday, July 8 9:30 am - 12:00 pm or 1:00 pm - 3:30 pm 2016 Creative Kids theater workshop sessions take place on and around the Northern Sky stage in Peninsula State Park and are led by Northern Sky company members.

For children ages 6-16. Register early!

Limited number of children accepted.

Fee is $25 per child or a maximum of $60 for 3 siblings or more.

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“… a buck well spent.”

Doc Heide, Co-founder of Northern Sky, Playwright, Artistic Advisor approaching it as a sacred act.

Lee and I came to realize that these hunters were also serving an ecological purpose. Deer are the most plentiful large animals in America, and many ecologists believe hunting is the best method of deterring them from destroying the habitat of countless other creatures.

All this knowledge went into Guys & Does, along with giant dollops of humor, lovable characters, and Paul Libman’s invigorating score. The result was a show that completely sold out its initial run in Ephraim in 2009, with 2500 people turned away for lack of seats. People drove up from Indiana just to see it. Two guys flew in from LA. The show then drew even better when it moved to the Door Community Auditorium in 2010. On tour across the state, it again brought giant houses and standing ovations.

If you’re one of those who wonder how you could make a hilarious musical out of deer hunting, we hope you’ll check it out this fall.

As one patron said, “Talk about a buck well-spent.”

When I was eight, my family moved from Stevens Point to the outskirts of Wisconsin Rapids and settled in a modern home on the edge of a great woods. A creek ran deep into those woods, and soon I was gallivanting daily through its swampy environs like Tom Sawyer. We’d fish for bullheads in the creek, and our Dad would take my brother and me hunting for small game. But I never really understood the urge to hunt. I was content to simply soak up the vital spirit of Nature.

So it may come as a surprise that many years later I suggested to my good friend Lee Becker that we write a musical comedy about deer hunting. Lee agreed immediately.

The result was the smash hit Guys & Does, back on stage this fall at the Door Community Auditorium.

We were attracted to the theme because deer hunting is such a fundamental part of Wisconsin culture. Like 94% of Americans, we weren’t hunters ourselves, but wanted to understand all those folks driving around in orange outfits with does on the roofs of their cars.

It may sound like a cliché, but what we found out really opened our eyes. The hunters we interviewed treasured Nature as much as we did. Their bookshelves overflowed with volumes about deer. Some seemed less like hunters than Zen masters. They’d rise by starlight, sit silent as statues hour upon hour in numbing cold, and only take a deer’s life if they had the perfect shot. Then they’d use every edible part. In other words, they embodied the ethic of hunting that unites every society since the dawn of humanity,

Guys & Does, 2009 - photo by Len Villano

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Out of the Woods What have Northern Sky company members past and present been up to during the off-season? In no particular order, DOUG MANCHESKI performed again with STEVE KOEHLER and BO JOHNSON in Guys On Ice, playing to sold-out houses at the Milwaukee Repertory Theatre. The production was the all-time leading ticket seller in the history of the Rep’s Stackner Cabaret.

Doug also starred in the film Appleton, which opened the Wildwood Festival at A p p l e t o n ’s PAC . M O L LY R H O D E d i rected The Flick for Forward Theater Company in Madison and Just a Little Critter Musical at First Stage in Milwaukee, in which hubbie CHASE STOEGER appeared as the guitar-playing Critter Dad. They both were in Fallen Angels at Milwaukee Chamber Theater. BILL THEISEN finished his third year as Director of Opera at the University of Iowa and has just recently completed the rigors of the tenure process. He now awaits the verdict from the Iowa Board of Regents. Last fall he directed Sondheim on Sondheim and this spring brought two Puccini one-act operas, Suor Angelica and Gianni Schicchi. JAMES VALCQ continues as co-Artistic Director at Third Avenue Playhouse, where he directed The Amish Project and his own creation Irving Berlin’s I Love a Piano. His collaboration with Fred Alley, The Spitfire Grill, premiered in London to unanimous acclaim, earning a spot on London’s “10 Best of 2015” list. This summer James directs the vintage musical Madame Sherry at TAP and looks forward to the workshop

of Boxcar at Northern Sky. His collaborator LAURIE FLANIGAN-HEGGE, who’s writing book and lyrics for that show, returned to Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story at the History Theatre in St. Paul over the holidays, and played Mrs. Frank in The Diary of Anne Frank at Park Square Theatre. The History Theatre announced Laurie’s new musical Sweet Land (co-bookwriter, lyricist) as part of their upcoming season, featuring her husband JON HEGGE in the role of Frandsen. This past fall, Jon appeared in An Octoroon at Mixed Blood Theatre in Minneapolis. Their daughter Celia will be ringmaster at Circus Juventus in May. EMILIE COULSON has been writing grants for the literacy and publishing nonprofit 826 and articles about food for magazines – and running Daughter's Granola, her membershipbased breakfast business. Meanwhile, KATIE DAHL has been busy touring (including a trip to California to play shows with Claudia Russell and Bruce Kaplan, and to see fellow playwright Emilie Coulson get married) as well as bringing the newest Northern Sky family member, Guthrie Carl Higdon, into the world in late March. DOC HEIDE appeared with CRAIG KONOWALSKI and AMY CHAFFEE in Northern Sky’s Home for the Holidays in December, where their political Christmas carols brought down the house (e.g., a parody of The Little Drummer Boy with lyrics such as “Run they told me, a Trump-a-pum-pum”).

Craig reports, “the rest of the winter has included a pleasant mix of singing, writing and dreaming in front of my continued on next page 9

Out of the Woods, continued fireplace.” Amy, who’s still teaching at UCLA, did vocal coaching for a movie called Heart, Baby and a new pilot for A B C c a l l e d P re s e n c e , a r e b o o t o f M a g num P.I. with a Latina lead. Amy also wrote a one-act play that’s performing a five-city tour this summer at venues including Barcelona's Altafulla Festival, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Hollywood Fringe Festival and Dublin's Smock Alley (and soon Chicago). LEE BECKER is doing fulltime dadding, some corporate role-play gigs, an Ace Hardware commercial, a few Houston theater auditions and working with Doc Heide on Hell’s Belgians, the prequel to Belgians in Heaven. Famed slacker COLIN WELFORD took a lead role in the music departments for productions of Billy Elliot in Kansas, Long Island and the current U.K/Ireland National Tour. He also played on and/or conducted productions of Oklahoma, White Christmas, Bye-bye Birdie and West Side Story at The Drury Lane and Paramount Theaters in Chicago. He’s currently preparing to be Music Director of the Chicago production of Broadway smash-hit Hamilton.

RHONDA RAE BUSCH played Milly Bailey in A Wonderful Life at The Fireside during the winter holidays, then spent February and March in sunny Arizona doing a production of Fiddler on the Roof at Arizona Broadway Theatre, where she enjoyed many days hiking in the deserts and mountains. EVA NIMMER spent part of her winter with Children’s Theater of Madison in A Christmas Carol. At the start of the new year, she relocated to Chicago, where she took up a few odd jobs and fun classes. Shortly after that,

she was thrilled to visit her newest family member, her sweet nephew Jordan.

After finishing his MA in Scotland, DAN KLARER spent the holidays in Wisconsin reviving The Santaland Diaries at TAP. Now he’s back in Glasgow living and working before returning for a nice summer in the Door. PAM KRIGER choreographed My Fair Lady at the Skylight in November and directed Little Shop of Horrors at Cardinal Stritch University. She also spent 10 days in Boston (grandchild happiness) and New York in October and saw the aforementioned Hamilton, which she reports is “worth the money and all the hype.”

Along with his BMI Workshop collaborator Gary Apple, PAUL LIBMAN completed the first draft and held a successful reading of Sold, a screwball musical comedy set in the high-stakes world of the New York auction scene. Paul is also working with longtime collaborator DAVE HUDSON on a new small-cast Northern Sky show scheduled for a reading this summer. TIM MCNURLEN continues to work at a community bank in Madison to pay the bills. He also appeared in Arsenic & Old Lace and Bucky & Lena Get Hitched in Stoughton WI, and performs at numerous senior facilities through the Dane County area as The Minstrel of Memories. PAMELA SKOCIR (NIESPODZIANI) is busy enjoying her newly married life to Michael and decorating their new home. This past year, she was seen as Anne Egerman in A Little Night Music, performed in the musical Chess, and had the pleasure of working with Adam Pascal (of Rent fame) in a workshop for 10

Out of the Woods, continued Radio Hour in Oxford, MS (home of William Faulkner), an hour-long live radio show featuring new musicians and authors with readings, performances and interviews. Eric has also started recording a new CD that he hopes to have available this fall. LISA SCHLENKER reports that she’s been playing psychological ping pong in the scene design realm this off-season, moving from design of a minimalist and highly dramatic p r o duction of Puccini’s tragic Tosca, through puppetry for Wizard of OZ, to designing a playful environment for the First Stage production of Just a Little Critter Musical! w i t h M o l l y R h o d e a t t h e directing helm. Finally, STEWART DAWSON tells us he spent the winter doing exhausting research on hardboiled eggs and finally finished his book, I'd Rather Live in a Museum than in Lubbock. He inadvertently discovered that, no matter what method you use, hardboiled eggs are ridiculously hard to peel.

the Chess production. KAREN BROWNLARIMORE wintered in Madison and recently designed the costumes for Madison Opera’s production of Little Women. CLAUDIA RUSSELL had her appendix out on her husband Bruce’s birthday, November 23rd. (Claudia says, “Whoo hoo! Do I know how to give a gift or what?”). They are starting to work on their 5th CD this year, and will perform at Fishstock with RICH HIGDON and Katie Dahl on July 10th.

Claudia is also lead vocalist on Better Angels, a single just released by Doc Heide’s new studio band Zen of Thieves.

The song, recorded in part at DAVE ALLEY’S Utopia Soundwurks studio in Sister Bay, includes performances by KAREN MAL, TIM LENIHAN, HANS CHRISTIAN, and legendary Memphis organist REVEREND CHARLES HODGES (who’s recorded with Al Green, Bonnie Raitt, and others). ERIC LEWIS produced the single. He’s the new bandleader for Thacker Mountain

Lumberjacks in Love, 2015 - photo by Len Villano

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Tickets on Sale Now! Tickets for all shows are now on sale now. Reserved seats sell for an additional $7 per seat. And of course, there will always be 350 general admission tickets for sale at the park box office one hour prior to each performance.

How to buy advance tickets: To buy advance tickets visit our web site at www.NorthernSkyTheater.com Or stop at our office in the Green Gables Shops 1.5 miles north of Wilson’s Ice Cream. Office hours are 10am-4pm Monday thru Friday and 10am-3pm Saturday, June thru October.

Order via the phone, 920-854-6117: Visa and MasterCard accepted.

Gift cards are available for any occasion!

Please review us on TripAdvisor.com for those unfamilar with the Northern Sky experience!

You can also follow us on:

Thank You to Our Sponsors!

A huge thank you to our sponsors of this year’s shows.

Their support ensures the future of Northern Sky while keeping our ticket prices affordable.

Season Sponor: The Cordon Family Foundation

Doctor! Docter!

Sponsored by Ministry

Door County Medical Center

No Bones About It! Sponsored by

Coyote Roadhouse and Wilson’s Restaurant and Ice Cream Parlor

When Butter Churns to Gold Sponsored by Joe

Jo’s Pizza and Gelato and Parkwood Lodge

Lumberjacks in Love Sponsored by Julie’s

Park Café & Motel and Oneida Nation

Guys & Does Sponsored by

Main Street Market, On Deck Clothing Company and White Gull Inn

And If Elected Sponsored by Cookery

Restaurant and Wine Bar 12

The Power of Plays (and Playing!)

Molly Rhode, Associate Artistic Director

have seeped into my home-life in the offseason in a way that I never anticipated. And I am thrilled to pieces about it. Because these plays are a powerful learning tool for my daughter. Every visit to the theater is an opportunity to learn empathy. Playwright Lauren Gunderson, wrote in a blog this month:

Even though I grew up seeing a good deal of theater, even though I’m fully aware of the positive impact it had on me, even though I’ve worked in theater education and witnessed the powerful effect of theater on young people, I completely under-estimated how heavily the theater would shape my life as a parent.

My daughter Silvia turned 4 this winter.

Her Grandma brought her out to the Northern Sky amphitheater for the first time when she was 18 months old. The first song she ever sang pieces of in her tiny squeaky voice was “Something’s Not Finished Yet” from Muskie Love. All summer long, her most requested lullaby was “the motor boat song.”

She still refers to Jeff Herbst as “the Muskie Love guy.”

All that winter she asked me to sing “Sweaty Pies” at bedtime. Try and make Sweaty Pies soothing! I challenge you! When Silvia had her first full-on terrible-twos tantrum, the magical curative that finally calmed her down was putting on the Victory Farm soundtrack.

At 2 and a half, when Silvia’s older cousin asked her what she wanted to be when she grew up, she answered confidently, and without hesitation, “Space Bear!” And I found myself singing “Interplanetary Emissaries of Peace” at bedtime for nearly 8 months.

This winter’s lullaby has been “Good Night, My Boy, Good Night” from Strings Attached (which we always switch to “my girl.”) And Silvia’s newest parlor trick for friends last Fall was to re-enact the spit-take scene between Slim and Dirty Bob in Lumberjacks.

Northern Sky plays have become part of her life’s timeline. These stories and songs

Theater is like a gym for empathy. It’s where we can go to build up the muscles of compassion, to practice listening and understanding and engaging with people that are not just like ourselves. We practice sitting down, paying attention and learning from other people’s actions. We practice caring.

If you take a child to the theater, not only will they practice empathy, they might also laugh uproariously, or come home singing about science, or want to know more about history, or tell you what happened at school today, or spend all dinner discussing music, or learn how to handle conflict, or start becoming future patrons of the arts.

Attending our plays, my daughter is learning and exercising valuable life skills. What is most exciting to me is knowing that our experience isn’t special. Thousands of families make play-going at Northern Sky part of their summer tradition. Thousands of children are carrying these stories and songs with them through the year. And thousands of parents are experiencing how these plays get woven into the fabric of their family life. Since becoming a parent, my respect for what we are doing at Northern Sky has grown tenfold. I didn’t truly understand the reach of our impact before. It is a joy and an honor to create theater for the entire family. As I watch Silvia grow, I am living my life immersed in the positive ripple effect of our plays. This has made me both a proud artist and a grateful parent—a parent so happy to know that my family is just one of many that has made Northern Sky Theater a part of their journey.

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2016 Summer Schedule

SUN

MON

TUE

JUNE

DD

WED

15 DD - 8:00

19 NO SHOW

26 NO SHOW

World Premiere!

Begins Wednesday, June 15 at 8:00 pm Mondays at 6 pm; Wednesdays at 8 pm Fridays at 8 pm

JULY

LIL

3

20 DD - 6:00 NB - 8:30

27 DD - 6:00 NB - 8:30

4

NO SHOW

17 NO SHOW

24 NO SHOW

NB

28

22 DD - 8:00

29 DD - 8:00

BTG - 8:00

17

LIL - 6:00

23

DD - 6:00

11 DD - 6:00 NB - 8:30

18 DD - 6:00 NB - 8:30

25 DD - 6:00 NB - 8:30

5

24

DD - 8:00

12 BTG - 8:00

19

13 DD - 8:00

20

BTG - 8:00

26

DD - 8:00

27

BTG - 8:00

DD - 8:00

18 LIL - 6:00

25 LIL - 8:00

DD - 8:00

LIL - 6:00 NB - 8:30

30 LIL - 6:00 NB - 8:30

7

6

BTG - 8:00

SAT

DD - 8:00

DD - 8:00

10

Begins Thursday, June 16 at 6 pm Thursdays at 6 pm; Saturdays at 8 pm

BTG - 8:00

16

FRI

1

NO SHOW

Celebrating its 20th Anniversary!

21

THU

LIL - 6:00 NB - 8:30

14 LIL - 6:00 NB - 8:30

21 LIL - 6:00 NB - 8:30

28 LIL - 6:00 NB - 8:30

8

2 LIL - 8:00

9 LIL - 8:00

DD - 8:00

15

16

DD - 8:00

22

LIL - 8:00

23

DD - 8:00

29 DD - 8:00

LIL - 8:00

30 LIL - 8:00

31 NO SHOW

AUG 1 Begins Monday, June 20 at 8:30 pm Mondays & Thursdays at 8:30 pm

DD - 6:00 NB - 8:30

7

8 NO SHOW

BTG

14

NO SHOW

21 NO SHOW

2 BTG - 8:00

9

DD - 6:00 NB - 8:30

15 DD - 6:00 NB - 8:30

22 DD - 6:00 NB - 8:30

BTG - 8:00

16 BTG - 8:00

23 BTG - 8:00

3 DD - 8:00

10 DD - 8:00

17 DD - 8:00

24 DD - 8:00

4 LIL - 6:00 NB - 8:30

11 LIL - 6:00 NB - 8:30

18 LIL - 6:00 NB - 8:30

25 LIL - 6:00 NB - 8:30

5 DD - 8:00

12 DD - 8:00

19 DD - 8:00

26 DD - 8:00

6 LIL - 8:00

13 LIL - 8:00

20 LIL - 8:00

27 LIL - 8:00

Begins Tuesday, June 21 at 8 pm Tuesdays at 8 pm

Adult - $22 Student - $11 Child - $6 Reserved Seating - $7 additional

• Limited handicapped parking is available backstage – Please reserve in advance.

• Advanced tickets for both summer & fall seasons may be purchased • Rain policy – Northern Sky never cancels a show until show online, over the phone, or at our office. time. If the show is less than half over when interrupted due • Box office opens at summer and fall venues 1 hour prior to bad weather, we give out refund applications or rain to each performance. checks. If the show is more than half over, we issue rain • Will Call tickets can be picked up at Merchandise Stand one checks, good for any future summer show without expiration. hour before the show.

14

2016 FALL SHOW SCHEDULE

at Door Community Auditorium

at the Old Gibraltar Town Hall

September 2 - October 15

September 29 - October 16

With your help… We make amazing things happen!

Name ________________________________________________________________________________________ Address ______________________________________________________________________________________ City ____________________________________________________ St ________ Zip ________________________ Phone _______________________________________ E-Mail __________________________________________

BENEFACTOR CATERGORIES (For General Operating):

❑ $25,000 & up - Belgian Angel ❑ $10,000 to $24,999 - Victory Farmer ❑ $5,000 to $9,999 - Spitfire Griller ❑ $2,500 to $4,999 - Windjammer ❑ $1,000 to $2,499 - Ice Fisher ❑ $500 to $999 - Happy Lumberjack ❑ $300 to $499 - Music Lover ❑ $125 to $299 - Galactic Packer ❑ $75 to $124 - Bone Dancer ❑ $1 to $74 - Cheesehead

❑ My employer will match my gift Paperwork: ❑ is enclosed

The Fred Alley New Musical Fund is the creative engine behind all of Northern Sky’s new play development.

❑ Please accept my gift of $ ________________ for the Fred Alley New Musical Fund.

The Northern Sky Endowment Fund, managed by the Door County Community Fund, helps to ensure Northern Sky’s long-term financial health and stability.

❑ Please accept my gift of

$ ________________ for the Endowment Fund.

Employer Name: _______________________________________

❑ will be sent

❑ My check for $ _______________________ payable to Northern Sky Theater is enclosed. ❑ Please charge $ _______________________ to my ❑ MasterCard ❑ Visa (Please provide info below) ____________________________________________ ____________ _________________________________ ACCOUNT NUMBER

EXP DATE

Please clip & mail to: Northern Sky Theater - PO Box 273, Fish Creek,WI 54212

SIGNATURE

Thank You!

Your donation from May 1, 2016, through April 30, 2017, will be recognized in our 2017 playbill.

Michael J. McCoy Carla Peterson John Sawyer Paula Wright-Keller

Northern Sky Theater is dedicated to maintaining standards of artistic excellence; celebrating and illuminating the human condition; reaching a large audience of all ages, including families; and fostering a humanistic work environment with adequate and appropriate emotional, financial and creative support for all those associated with us.

The mission of Northern Sky Theater is to create, develop, and present professional musical and dramatic productions which will further the knowledge and appreciation of the culture and heritage of the United States.

Our Mission

Mark Breseman Katie Dahl George Gorchynsky Frederick J. Heide

Thomas A. Moore Treasurer

Cynthia Stiehl Vice-Chairperson

Mary Seeberg Chairperson

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Northern Sky Theater, Inc. PO Box 273 Fish Creek, WI 54212-0273