Our Circus is Leaving Town (and a bit of Johnny Depp)

This is Jack 'R' Better, Heart-A-Rama's home for the past thirty- seven years. Since I have been involved, first an a performer, and now as a director, the venue has changed hands three time. First, it was The Boilermaker's Club, then, The Arrow Inn, and finally, Jacks.

Learning that Jack's had been sold, and consequently finding a new space for our show has been sad, exciting, frustrating, challenging...you name it. Many people are concerned about the move to Two Rivers and are confused about how that decision was made. I'll fill you in on what I know.

This was not an easy process. We had been so comfortable at Jacks that things just fell into place when we walked in the door - at least that's the way it seemed. Moving forced us to look at everything we did. The tiniest details were scrutinized to be sure that each spot we looked at would be able to accommodate what we needed to put on this show.

We looked at several sites before deciding on the Community House in Two Rivers. We had to consider the height of the ceilings so we could hang lights. The building had to have the proper electrical service to handle all the light and sound equipment we bring in. Was there kitchen space? Parking? Cast and crew prep space? Was the rent acceptable? Would the facility be comfortable for the audience? The list goes on and on.

We found some nice, wide open spaces that had basically what we needed, except for staging. That meant we would have to buy, rent, or build a stage, equip it with light, sound, backstage space and wing space. It seemed like a huge, expensive task for a temporary event,but not impossible.

I'm not exactly sure how we came upon the Community House, but when committee chairs met there to tour the space, we found it had most of what we needed already in place. Add to that, a very accommodating staff...it was the answer we were looking for.

Yes, some things will change. That's inevitable. Perhaps the show will be sprinkled with a bit more TR humor than normal this year. Does this show belong to Two Rivers? No. Being in a community, and performing in a municipal building has some nice perks, but Heart-A-Rama is a Lakeshore event. It's impact reaches far beyond Manitowoc, Two Rivers and the surrounding communities. The location is not nearly as significant as the cause.

Now, to ease some of the concerns I've been hearing....yes, we will be serving wine and beer. Hard liquor will not be allowed in the building. Yes, there will be brats, burgers, and fish (on Fridays) before the show. Yes, people will still be able to line up early to get in. Really, nothing much will change for the audience. The cast and crews will experience some changes, but we will adapt.

So, if you have friends and neighbors who are unhappy because we chose to move, ask them to read this; maybe they will get a better idea of all the things we had to consider. We need to work together, cast, crews, audience, community...to make this the Best Heart-A-Rama ever!

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This is Kevin. He has been with the show for a number of years, beginning as a tent pole. Really! His very first role in Heart-A-Rama was standing on stage with another guy, dressed in safari gear, holding up one corner of a tent. That is all he did. A lesser person would not have come back after that, but he did. Kevin is one of the most ambitions and talented people we have working with us currently. I love seeing him on stage. He has a sort of Bob Newhart vibe - he just stands there, twitches a little, and everyone laughs. Very deadpan delivery but very funny!

He also designs, builds and paints much of the scenery. He paints the advertiser hearts that hang around the perimeter of the performance hall. Kevin also works on the program - I think he did most of the program layout work this year. This year he also jumped in to design the shirts. Kevin has a little Tom Drill in him. You never know where he is going to turn up, but he's always there to hold a door open, carry clumsy set pieces around, pitch in on prop design, or dig into his costumes stash to provide extra character pieces. But best of all, when Kevin buys Heart dogs at intermission for a reduced cast and crew price, he sometimes shares one with me!

This picture is one of many I call "The Buddhist and the Beer." For some reason, for many years, I though that Kevin was a Buddhist. He was just so calm and focused all the time. Then I saw him clutching a beer for dear life one night, and I thought I was seeing things. Surely my Buddhist friend would not be partaking of the demon, alcohol! So, I asked him about it. After he picked himself up off the floor, still clutching his side lest it burst from the pressure of uncontrolled laughter (at me) he said he's is not, nor has he ever been, a Buddhist. I got the point. Since that time, each year he kindly poses for the yearly beer photo. Thanks, Kevin. (If you're a HAR person reading this, you will never know when you may be the subject for my next tale!)

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What am I reading? Well, it's not what I mentioned a couple blogs back. I got sidetracked by Love in the Time of Cholera (more on that on Monday), and Crooked Tree

Last week I stumbled across a news article saying that Johnny Depp recently bought the movie rights to a book called Crooked Tree. I think he picks unusual, and generally intelligent projects, and thought I'd check out the book. So far, I'm liking it. There's a bear attack, a dead lawyer, a judge who is more concerned with fishing than courtroom protocol, lots of Indian lore and legend, and hints of supernatural activity have begun to creep in between the lines. That's a lot in 42 pages. I'll keep you posted.

I Got Gollywhopped!

This is my new favorite not-for-kids-only book! I didn't start either book I was debating over this weekend, because, on Friday, I received a copy of this neat Harper Collins book with a request to write a brief review. If you're thinking, "Ya sure, why would they want her comments?", well, let me explain. My comments won't go on the book jacket; that space is saved for the big guns with recognizable names. However, one of the trade associations I belong to may use my quotes on marketing materials, and on their professional website.
To bend a famous country music phrase, this book had me at page one. Poor Gil Goodman is trying to rise above the public scrutiny leveled upon his family due to his dad's termination from the Golly Toy & Game Company. Dad was accused of a complex computer plot that ...well, stealing, basically!

Despite "the incident", as it is called, Gil enters a contest celebrating Golly's 50th anniversary with the hope of winning enough money to move his family to a new town. This is where the fun starts. Each phase of the contest resembles a popular reality show,with a twist of "Jeopardy" and "Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader" thrown in for fun. Contestants are whittled down through a series of cerebral, and physical challenges. Sometimes they work as a team, sometimes they work alone. The smartest, cleverest,strongest, luckiest, bravest survivor wins it all! Throughout, Gil is plagued by company officials who want anyone but Gil to win, cheating gaming partners, and challenges that would stress out Albert Einstein.

If this all sounds a little like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, here's what the author, Jody Feldman, says about that: "...what about the student who returned Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to the school library when I was volunteering? He asked the librarian for another story like it, but neither she nor his teacher could find a title to satisfy him. It was at that moment I decided to write a book for that ten-year-old boy, and I will forever be indebted to him...whoever he is."

Tomorrow I will start Skeleton at the Feast by Chris Bohalian (Midwives). This book, set near the end of WWII, is set to be released in May.

A Few Heartfelt Thoughts

It won't be long before the lights come up on our new Heart-A-Rama (HAR) home -the Two Rivers Community House. With about three weeks to go, everyone is in high gear, getting ready for this much anticipated show. Since I do a bit of directing, I suspect the next few blogs might be random thoughts, and some inside scoops on what's happening in our world of "shameless exploitation for the good of others."

If you've dropped by this blog while surfing, let me clue you in. HAR is an all volunteer fund-raiser for the American Heart Association. Basically, we write a variety show loaded with local humor. About two hundred volunteers step up each year to help write, perform, wait tables, build scenery...you name it, there is a job for everyone. Years ago, a group of friends organized this awesome event, and can certainly stand tall knowing that thirty-eight years later, the solid foundation they established has grown into what it is today. Last year, we donated about $110,000.00. All of the money stays right here in Wisconsin for research and education.

This year's theme is "HAR Goes Exploring" so all the sketches revolve around that idea. Indiana Jones will no doubt show up, along with a myriad of historic explorers. I've been rehearsing four small skits, most with music, so there has been a lot of singing and dancing filling the basement of the dental clinic where we practice. Yes, we can sometime hear that zhhhh-zhhhhh-zzzhhhh from the drill, and then everyone sings a little louder or tap dances a little faster. All in all, it's good fun, for a great cause.


Here are Brad and Rhonda after the last performance of HAR '07. We knew that Rhonda was moving to Rochester, New York the very next day. In the big thirty-eight year scheme, they are relatively new to the organization. These two have been friends since high school and have gone on to do many shows together. Rhonda is coming home for two weeks to do this year's show. This is a show, a cause and, and a family of friends that is hard to walk away from. Several of the originators continue to work on the show each year. They've seen their show grow from two nights to nine. They've witnessed the changes in the types of humor, and variety of entertainment in the show, and they've watched new people begin to take on leadership roles in the organization. I often wonder if, after that very first opening night, they sat back and marveled at what they had created, and dreamed about what it would be in the future.


What am I reading? Nothing. I'm waffling between Charlatan: America's Most Dangerous Huckster, the Man Who Pursued Him, and the Age of Flimflam by Pope Brock, and The Sorrows of an American by Siri Hustvedt.

I flipped though a little coffee table book called I'll Wait in the Car...charming pictures of dogs waiting for their masters!

The Grapes of Wrath and a Few Rabbits

I had forgotten how flawless this Steinbeck piece is until I picked it up this weekend...and didn't put it down until I was done. This was the first "grown-up" book I can recall reading - one I chose on my own, and one that didn't require a book report. Shortly after finishing the novel, the movie turned up on a Milwaukee TV station . We had a small TV with rabbit ears that picked up the Green Bay stations nicely. With some finnagling, others stations came in and, even though they faded in and out, I was able to watch parts of the movie. I remember that on this particular day, the rabbit ears worked just fine when I had one hand on them at all times. That's how I watched the entire movie...hanging on to the rabbit ears for dear life, lest I lose the Joads in a technical snowstorm to rival the dust bowl that was already challenging them.

Each year I try to read, or in this case, re-read, a classic. I'd like to sneak a Shakespeare and a Dickens in each year also, but that's not working as well. This book is rich in imagery and layers of meaning. Reading it now is certainly different than reading it at 15. I'm sure I found richness in it for different reasons then. Did I understand then that the title came from "The Battle Hymn of the Republic", and echoed even farther back to a passage from Revelations? Did I catch the fact that Steinbeck named this family that refuses to surrender to misfortune "Joad ", which sound a lot like "Job?" I know I caught the turtle metaphor , though. It fascinated me when I first read it, and had the same impact this time around. Steinbeck told the entire plight of those brave people in that single, eloquent passage.

What stuck me most this time were the parallels to today. Again, we have people in fear of losing their homes due to financial oppression; people are re-evaluating the meaning of the American Dream and finding it no longer means a three-car garage, a vacation home, and money left at the end of the month. The dream is simpler now - a house, a family, and a steady job. The need to solve problems cooperatively resounds as a major theme.

Steinbeck won the Pulitzer, and the Nobel Prize for Literature for The Grapes of Wrath. Woody Guthrie morphed the story into "The Ballad of Tom Joad" and Bruce Sprinsteen was inspired to title an early album "The Ghost of Tom Joad."

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These are a couple of my favorite bunny books:

Emily and Jacque (and Rick!)

If you peek back at my first post (which was really an experiment to see if I was going to like the blogging biz), you'll see a fine picture of two former employees, and the promise of more info on what they are up to now. That picture was taken outside our former, downtown location, on one of the hottest Krazy Daze in history! Since I had been given a beautiful Barney costume, made totally out of heavy-felt, Jacque and Emily thought it would be a brilliant idea to trade off wearing it during the day. They were right - it was brilliant! The kids loved visiting with Barney while mom shopped. If I remember correctly, Emily was the only one to actually wear the suit, Jacque being the wiser of the two that day. Emily was never one to complain much, and when she did ask to be relieved of Barney duty, I went into my best best Attila the Boss routine, and she returned to work.

I have been lucky to have had many quality people employed at LDD, and they will all get their star on this blog. These two got first up because I had pictures! Emily and Jacque were both students at Lincoln when I hired them. Actually, I had known Jacque for quite some time in a rather peripheral way. Each spring, one of her neighbors hosted a pre-Memorial Day picnic, and Jacque and her family attended. Somehow, each year, Jacque and I teamed up for a game of beanbags against our good friend,Jim Mellberg, and anyone he could con to play on his side. Jacque and I always won. Then she and I would go in opposite directions for the rest of the day. We won many games of beanbags over the years; then Jim went and died on us. The game didn't seem right after that, so we switched to Trivial Pursuit. We dragged the game out of the closet, set the dining room up to the owner's specs, divided into teams, and played for hours. Again, Jacque and I were always on the same team. Thank goodness for that. She amazed me! We were never very deep into the game when people would begin to wander off to the kitchen to dig into leftovers, or break off to the den for quiet conversation. Apparently, the game was not much fun when Jacque kept answering all the questions. As with the beanbag tournaments, that TP game would be the only contact I had with her throughout the year. When she popped into the store to apply for a job, she clearly read the puzzled look on my face and said "You know who I am don't you?" Of course, I lied and said "yes," knowing that when she filled out the application, I could put the pieces together.

I can't remember how long Jacque worked with us. She went off to college at Mt. Holyoke, earning a science related degree. She is currently doing AIDS research in a New York lab, and will most likely be attending law school in fall. She continues to amaze me.

Emily auditioned for a Masquer play I was directing when she was a senior in high school. She had some crazy, creative energy that I knew we needed at the store, so I hired her. Most days, she would bounce into work after school, with the opening line, "Hey Bev, what would you think if we would________?" Fill in that blank with just about anything. She had so many brainstorms over the years, most of them dealing with theatre. We were constantly scheming and dreaming up new performance projects, and we dragged so many others into our little plots. The picture at the top is of Emily and our friend,Rick, after a performance of "God's Favorite" at the Forst Inn. If you have heard stories about the wild parties that follow productions, well, that picture shows the extent of the partying. Most nights, people are just too tired to do anything but sit, stare, and, of course, talk about the next project. The Forst Inn was a wonderful sandbox for us, and the owner, Ron Kaminski, was amazingly generous, and trusting of the ideas that we pitched his way.

Emily graduated from Grinell with a degree in theatre, and has been working as an actor ever since. She was recently one of 12 people accepted into the MFA theatre program at Yale - the same program that Jody Foster and Meryl Streep graduated from! Not bad compnay, huh?

We stay in touch, Jacque and Emily and I. They both have family here in Mantowoc, so I am happy to see each of them at least once a year. I gave the Barney costume away. Jacque and Emily will never have to worry about me asking them to wear it out to Kurtzs on their next visit home.

I'm still reading Jea Feraca's book. The Grapes of Wrath and Miss Julia Speaks Her Mind are next.

Jean Feraca at LDD

Jean Feraca will be at LaDeDa on March 30, and to say I am thrilled would be an understatement. Her radio show, Here on Earth, is among my favorite NPR broadcasts because it is unpredictable. Her palate is so sophisticated that she covers a myriad of topics with apparent ease. Of course, the amount of research that goes into each program is evident, but her interview skills show that she not only does her prep work, but she is also a sincere people person.

I am reading her book, I Hear Voices, and am surprised with each page turn. She has made brave choices throughout the book. The one that impressed me most was her decision to begin, rather than end the book, with her brother's death. I can't wait to ask her how she made that choice. Jean tells about her life by recounting the stories of other people close to her.

She is adept at word selection - her opening sentences of each chapter alone are worth the price of the book. She begins chapter two by writing "My mother was a monster who lived well into her nineties." She follows that line with story upon story of a family haunted by generations of dysfunction. Just when you think you can't take any more, Jean adroitly pops in a whimsical little tale of the tightrope walking cat who plunged to his death in a gingham dress and bonnet.

My admiration for her grows with each bit I read.

Why? What? When?

I don't really know why I thought that LaDeDa needed a blog. Generally, I tend to be a few technological steps behind the masses (retro-techinical?!), but thought it wise to jump on the blogwagon sooner than later. There's a lot to be said for sharing words about words, and we do a lot of that here in our store every day. People share ideas, we learn from them, and try to pass on what we can. Hopefully, this will help us reach more of you.

As for what I'll include...that will depend on what muse is canoodeling when I sit down to write, but, I currently have a list of topics that will keep my fingers flying for years. Of course, books and reading will be a major theme, but there is so much good going on in the Lakeshore that I will try to comment on that as well. Maybe you'll get some behind the scenes scoops from Heart-A-Rama!

This is our 11th year in business, and much of that is due to many generous and loyal employees. Customers often ask, "Where is Emily? What's Jacque doing? Is Greg still in town? How are things for Jenny and the farm? " With their permission, I will keep you posted on the exciting lives of our former employees, and valued friends.

Since I have this wacky image of Emily and Jacque one very hot Krazy Daze in downtown Manitowoc, I will begin with them...next time!

As for now...well, Mondays are my days set aside to write, hence the blog name. So, check back next week, and in the meantime, keep turning pages!

What am I reading? I Hear Voices by Jean Feraca.