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A Little Bit About Theatre in the Woods
Theatre Group Finds Home in Church By Julie Hustvet, Spooner Advocate, Thursday, December 31, 1998 No longer will Theatre in the Woods (TitW) have to scrounge for a place to put on its productions, staging performances in community centers, vacant stores, skating rinks, and bookstores. The community theater group will soon have a home, the United Methodist Church-turned stage and meeting hall in Shell Lake. The church's congregation is in the process of constructing a new building, and once it's complete---possibly early next summer---TitW will take possession of the present historic structure. "Getting the building has really re-invigorated the group. It's rippled out. We've gotten new actors in. We've gotten so much enthusiasm and support in the community that it's awesome," said Carolyn Burnett, TitW vice president. TitW's first production was "Fools," presented at the Palace Theater in Spooner in 1990, with Burnett as its director. Danny Bergman, formerly of the Spooner area, had encouraged the start of a community theater group, and Scott Savage, the University of Wisconsin-Extension agent at the time, had arranged initial exploratory meetings. The third meeting was out on a lawn after the six or seven theater-hopefuls arrived at the building where they were to meet and found it locked. Patti Fox, a founder and now the president, said she believed at the time "it wasn't going to fly." She remembers the words of Lori Bakkum, another charter member. "Let's just do it. Why are we just talking about it? Let's just do it." | So, without a director and nowhere to stage a performance, the group chose as its first production "Fools" by Neil Simon---a "brand-name author," Burnett said. And, with teenagers outnumbering adults at the time, the fledgling group selected its name, Theatre in the Woods, the designation topping by only one vote the second choice, Stage Smut. Most of those in that early group had been involved in enough productions to understand the amount of behind-the-scenes work necessary to stage a play, Burnett and Fox said. "TitW is blessed with people who want to make it happen," Burnett said. "We have people who are not ego-centered, and they're more centered on the group and more willing to do whatever needs to be done." "We weren't founded by a group that wants to be on stage and want somebody to put them there. They help make it happen." The founding members has a sense of commitment, but did they have an audience, they wondered. Bakkum, the "eternal optimist," Fox said, was sure TitW would sell out its first performance. "Really? You're sure about that," Burnett recalls asking. "Oh yeah, no problem," Bakkum assured her. "The audience reaction from the start was awesome," Fox said. "It was obvious we had an audience." TitW still sells out, depending on what the play is, Burnett said. "Some are more popular than others. We have a steady audience. We have people who have been to almost every show we've done." |
ShawnT |
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