Millie is a Dilly at the Quad-City Music Guild

"Thoroughly Modern Millie" is an average old fashioned musical with high energy production numbers and tunes that are humable but unfortunately not really rememberable. It needs a full fledged star performance to keep it on track. That was provided by Julie Andrews in the first Broadway run and in last night's Quad City Music Guild production it was the turn of the vivacious and multi-talented Melissa Anderson-Clark. She has a smile that can capture your heart all the way to the back row, a fully controlled belting musical theatre voice, and the acting ability to attack the sentiment and the broad physical comedy with equal facility. She is definitely up to the challenge.

I must admit to a bit of predjudice here. Anderson-Clark is a former student of mine and a Monmouth College (Illinois) graduate. I remember Melissa most fondly as the good queen Hermione in my production of Shakespeare's "The Winter's Tale", but also, some years after graduation, as Nellie Forbush in the Guild production of "South Pacific."

She has matured into a major musical theatre talent and the entire Guild production glows with solid depth and consistancy throughout. The villains (especially Mary Bouljon as Mrs. Meers and Chris Thomas as Ching Ho) garnered plenty of laughs and Erika Brown-Thomas had a glorious soprano voice. The chorus churned out the Charleston flavored dances with gusto and the 1920's costumes literally exploded with flashy colors and swirling fringe.

Attempting traditional musicals in a space without mechanization and a true fly system challenges the best of designers and it is clear that more of the show's budget went into the costumes than scenery. Neither the fluidity or the glossy execution of Broadway was apparent in the settings, but the scenery did function well and was moved on and off efficiently by a well managed crew. On the auditory side of things I am not always a fan of today's over-miked musicals, but the Guild's sound system delivered all the voices crisply and kept the orchestral balance intact. Another nice directorial/technical touch was the computer generated graphics that accompanied the Chinese interchanges.

Overall it was an enjoyable summer evening fueled by several good performances and one truly outstanding one. It left me wanting to return to see the Guild's next production of "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" which runs weekends from July 6th through the 16th.

OFTA Hosts Amateur Art Competition Winners

Above the various winners were asked to talk briefly about their entries.


Host Jim De Young fields questions from the audience for the panel.

On Wednesday, June 13th OFTA (Old Friends Talk Arts) hosted the winners of the Buchanan Center for the Arts 4th annual Amateur Artist Competition. Almost fifty people attended and were treated to comments by several of the category winners and a short talk by Cherry Simmons, West Central High School Art teacher, who was the judge for the show.

Best of show ribbon and $100 cash prize went to Karen Buenneke of Peoria. Mary Schweitzer of Oquawka took home the best of category in Mixed Media. Rene Burton of Cameron won the Photography Division, Betty Gaskill of Monmouth took the honors in the Painting Division, and top prize in the Three Dimensional category went to Lyle Welch of Monmouth. There were several other honorable mentions given in the various categories to Brian Kjellenberg of Yates City, Marilyn Kloeppel of Monmouth, Pat Rea of Dallas City, Lorraine Heady of Monmouth, Jim Miller of Oquawka, and Leonard Schultz of Monmouth.

Amateur Artists Featured at June 13th OFTA

The 4th annual Amateur Artist Competition is sponsored by the Midwest Bank of Western Illinois. Terri Ryner and Cynthia Gillen, employees of the bank, look over some of the entries.

Judge Cherry Simmons talked to the guests at the opening reception for the exhibit.

Two of the category winners, Lyle Welch in Three Dimensional, and Rene Burton in Photography, pose in front of their works.

Midwest Bank President, Chris Gavin, enjoys refreshments at the opening with Lila Blum and Terri Ryner, both of whom are members of the Buchanan Center Board of Directors.

For the past three years OFTA (Old Friends Talk Arts) has supported the Amateur Artist competition by inviting entrants to appear at their June meeting and talk about the ideas in their work and how they got interested in art.

This year's OFTA program will be at 10:00 AM on Wednesday,June 13th at the Buchanan Center for the Arts in downtown Monmouth, IL. Two of the main prize winners, Rene Burton and Lyle Welch (pictured above) have already committed to appear and this year's judge, Cherry Simmons (pictured above), will also be on hand.

The fourth annual Amateur Artist Exhibition can be seen through June 23rd at the Buchanan Center for the Arts during their normal opening hours of 9-5 Mon-Fri and 10-2 on Saturdays. There is no admission charge but donations are accepted.

OFTA (Old Friends Talk Arts) programs art related presentations on the second Wednesday of each month. There is no admission charge and complimentary refreshments are offered. OFTA is partially supported by grants from the Buchanan Center for the Arts and the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency.

John Ohler Presents Lincoln Carving to Library at OFTA

John Ohler a painter, designer, architect, carver, and a publisher of fine embroidery patterns (Puckerbrush Needlework Company), gave the program at the OFTA (Old Friends Talk Arts) meeting in the Buchanan Center for the Arts in Monmouth, IL on Wednesday, May 9th. He displayed a full range of his work in several media and talked about his philosophy of art and the creative process. Ohler, who is seventy-nine years young and still going strong, graduated from Monmouth High School in 1947 and just received a Distinguished Service Award from the Monmouth-Roseville Public Schools. Well represented among the almost fifty people attending his talk were several members of his high school graduating class.

At the end of his remarks Ohler and his wife presented a carving of Abraham Lincoln to the Lincoln Collection at the Warren County Public Library. This collection of Lincoln books and memorabilia was started some years ago by Ralph Whiteman. The gift was formally accepted by Jan De Young, current President of the library board of directors.

Monmouth Meets Minneapolis (and wins)

What's the connection between Monmouth, IL, the Minneapolis Star Tribune and the Minneapolis/St. Paul City Pages?
The connection resides in a very special theatre just off Broadway at Monmouth College. Does that sound a bit confusing? Let me enlighten you. Last Tuesday there was be a panel discussion at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. Two of the "internet phenoms" on the panel, David de Young and Mike Fotis have Monmouth connections.

Mike Fotis attended Monmouth College and studied with Dr. Jim De Young of the theatre department. Both De Young and Bill Wallace, his Theatre Arts colleague, have PhD's from the U. of Minnesota and always recommended warmly the theatrical climate in the Twin Cities. Neither of them ever recommended the actual climate in the Twin Cities, but that is another story.

Mike Fotis and his partner Joe Bozic, who also graduated from Monmouth, had starring roles in DeYoung's production of Tom Stoppard's ARCADIA when they were in school. A reference to that play now provides the title of Dr. De Young's blog called Stirringthepudding. Things now begin to get a little incestuous. Though Fotis is currently single, Bozic married another Monmouth College graduate, who just happened to be the business manager of the Monmouth College Theatre. She is alluded to in the recent article in the Star Tribune as the social worker who studies kick boxing on the side. It gets worse since Fotis Mike has a younger brother Fotis Matt, who is a budding playwright and also attended Monmouth College and appeared in theatre productions directed by De Young and Wallace. Brother Matt also married a Monmouth grad. She is a nanny and part-time actress, but not as far as I know a student of kick boxing. She just appeared in a play in Chicago called DEVILED EGGS by Nick Ryan--A Minneapolis playwright by the way. That play was directed by her husband Matt. Two other people in that Shantz Theatre cast (Vickie Kunz and Becky Duncan) and the Technical Director (Kyle Anderson), who just married Ms. Duncan last year also have Monmouth College Theatre connections.

Meanwhile in another parallel universe David de Young (who insists on the small "d" as a mark of independence from his Monmouth parents, settled in Minneapolis to do computer work for the Honeywell Corportation. Computers provide the "jack" but David 's long time love has been popular music and five years ago he started a web site called How Was the Show.com that has become a major chronicler of the Twin Cities music scene. David met the Fotis boys when his Mom and Dad came to town to see a play of Matt's that was done, quite successfuly I might add, at the Minneapolis Fringe Festival.

We are now almost to the final connection. Mike Fotis/Joe Bozic of the Brave New Workshop and David de Young of How Was The Show.com are both recipients of a "Best" from the Minneapolis/St. Paul city pages.

"BEST THEATER FOR COMEDY
Winner: Brave New Workshop
<>
It finally happened. In See Dick Shoot, a night of sketch comedy loosely based on our light-hearted jokester of a vice president, BNW artistic director Caleb McEwen's head exploded. Sure, he was playing a spelling bee competitor hopped up on steroids, but we knew the folly of the world was going to make his cranium pop open one of these days. If the BNW is taken for granted here in town, it's the victim of its own consistency. For those who make its cozy confines a regular stop, it's a night that guarantees smart laughs from a crack rotating cast. (We're partial to the panic-prone Mike Fotis, the twisted Joe Bozic, and the clearly mad Lauren Anderson.) Probably the troupe's best show was Saturday Night FEMA, which somehow managed to extract laughs while offering a clear-eyed denunciation of the government's response to Hurricane Katrina. While every show has a theme, each is actually a series of sketches and songs that always seems filled with promise—in other words, if the one you're watching is a stinker, there's another one right around the bend. Much credit goes to McEwen, who's never encountered an idiocy he can't scorn. If the Guthrie is the aircraft carrier on the waters of local theater, BNW is its resilient tugboat—with a pirate flag bearing a defiantly raised middle finger.
www.bravenewworkshop.com

BEST LOCALLY GENERATED WEBSITE
How Was the Show
www.howwastheshow.com
Tireless local-rock evangelist David de Young and his hardy band of contributors (most notably Cyn Collins and Karla Ludzack) have created a nearly comprehensive guide to local live rock. The sheer number of shows they witness and write about is flat-out remarkable. In February alone--a month in which even the most devoted music scenester is tempted to huddle on the couch with a blanket and a bottle of wine--they managed to chronicle 18 different gigs, ranging from the 23rd Annual Battle of the Jug Bands at the Cabooze to art-metal veterans Queensryche at First Avenue. The site also provides a comprehensive set of links to local music venues and resources, as well as de Young's immensely informative (if sporadically updated) blog. The write-ups can occasionally be clunky and overly reverential, but that's certainly understandable. As de Young noted in a recent pan of Norwegian duo Kings of Convenience, "If a show is horrendous, we often don't write about it so we can save precious writing and editing time for the awesome shows we live to share with you."

So there! Back here in Monmouth the retired De Young sits looking at a "plastic Plautus"* and is proud of them all and waiting to see what will happen next! *A reference that can only be deciphered by knowing Tom Stoppard's ARCADIA.

Yale Deans Do About Face on Prop Weapons in Plays

Here's a real "Looney Toon" for you! Last week, in the wake of the VA Tech shootings, administrators at Yale University, decreed that realistic prop weapons would henceforth be banned from university theatrical productions. The reasoning process that permitted this action at one of our supposedly top universities provides no reassurance about the state of modern academia. I suppose it is conceivable that substituting a red plastic revolver for one that looks authentic or a wooden sword for a metal one will somehow keep a maniac from murdering several of his fellow human beings, but in a country in which many citizens fight background checks and even registration of real weapons and are increasingly allowing real ones to be carried concealed on the streets, a move to ban a fake weapon in a play seems ironic at best and nonsensical at the worst. It would seem to me that the Bard had it right when he observed that the actor holds the mirror up to nature not the other way around. Thank God the Yale Deans recovered their senses within a week and rescinded the ban. Unfortunately, theatre producers will apparently still be required to notify audiences if weapons are to be used in a show. In the long run I guess that is better than being required to rewrite Hamlet to climax with a deadly duel of Rock-Paper-Scissors.

Steinbeck Expert Robert DeMott Speaks at the WCPL

De Mott chats after his lecture with John Vellenga, President of the Buchanan Center for the Arts Board of Directors.

De Mott with Jim De Young, OFTA (Old Friends Talk Arts) coordinator and Gary Tomlin, the Executive Director of the Sandburg Days Festival for the Mind.

Dr. Robert De Mott of Ohio University and a noted expert on the work of John Steinbeck gave a lecture on Wed. April 25th at the Warren County Library. He was in the area helping to promote this year's Sandburg Days-Festival for the Mind and the National Endowment for the Arts "Big Read" program, which features Steinbeck's novel, The Grapes of Wrath.

DeMott's talk suggested some ways to both read and interpret Steinbeck's novel and also included some interesting personal stories about how a chance encounter with Steinbeck's widow at an academic conference gave him special access to several important Steinbeck archives.

The lecture was co-sponsored by Old Friends Talk Arts (OFTA) and the Warren County Library Board. Some thirty local residents attended the presentation and also enjoyed the informal reception that followed.