Hello everyone!

Honestly, back in April, I didn't know if I'd make it to this weekend in one piece.

It was a tough month with the second Hutchinson Theatre Guild production opening on May 8th.  The production is Lucky Stiff (many thanks to those of you who have attended) and has been very well received.  I was really the one man show with this production as I served as Director, Music Director, Scenic Designer, Lighting Designer and Sound Designer.  As a preview of all of the work that was put into this production (215 lights cue, 41 sound cues and 135 hours of rehearsal later), the cast, crew and I put in around 3000 hours on Lucky Stiff.  That is the equivalent of working 125 days, 24/7.  It was a little crazy to think that since November of 2013, I have put in nearly 630 hours on this production. 


The production has been very well received.  For those of you who are unaware, I thought I'd share my director's notes about the production as well as some information about the production.

DIRECTOR'S NOTES
In 1988, Lucky Stiff premiered at Playwrights Horizon. This company is based on West 42nd Street in New York City and is, in their own words, “a writer's theater dedicated to the support and development of contemporary American playwrights, composers and lyricists, and to the production of their new work.” Notable alumni of Playwrights Horizon include Bruce Norris, Alfred Uhry, Stephen Sondheim, James Lapine, Edward Albee, Sarah Ruhl, Doug Wright, Annie Baker, William Finn, Christopher Durang and our authors, Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty. Productions that have originated at Playwrights Horizon include Sunday in the Park with George, Dead Man’s Cell Phone,  March of the Falsettos, Clybourne Park, Assassins, and Driving Miss Daisy, to name a few.

Lucky Stiff is based on the novel The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo by Michael Butterworth. Scholarship about the book, which was published 1983, does not speak highly of it, with
“too morbid” and “far too silly” being used regularly in reference to its concept, plot and otherwise. And while Mr. Butterworth’s critics and fans might not have appreciated the novel’s quirkiness, it was that very quality that attracted Ahrens and Flaherty. Like any adaptation, there are parts of the book which were tossed in favor of more interesting relationships, comedic value and simplicity of story. But the morbidity and silliness of the novel is broadly evident in Lucky Stiff. While to my knowledge Flaherty and Ahrens have stayed silent about their influences in this production, it is clear that a good portion of this musical is a throwback to American musical theatre. Music theatre buffs will recognize the imitation of musical theatre styles from Sondheim to Rodgers and Hammerstein and everywhere in between. I’m particularly taken by musical numbers in this production which I can clearly draw the conclusion that they were influenced by specific production numbers from specific productions. One, example of this is “Harry’s Nightmare”. Having recently seen Hutchinson Community College’s production of Fiddler on the Roof, it is clear that our nightmare sequence is
inspired by, if not lovingly ripped off of, “Tevye’s Dream”.

As Ahrens’ and Flaherty’s body of work has grown, their source material has often been based on quirky stories. Besides Lucky Stiff, other works which display the same playful writing as seen in Lucky Stiff include Suessical! the musical (which is based on the stories of Dr. Suess), Once on this Island and the current Broadway production of Rocky which is based on the film series featuring Sylvester Stallone of the same name. They also have ventured into literature with a much more serious bent, the best of example of which is the epic musical Ragtime, whose original cast featured Broadway powerhouses Brian Stokes Mitchell and Audra McDonald, among others.

The conceptualization of the production you see today is quite different than I suspect most of you are used to. With ten people on our small stage and the production’s numerous locales, our story
must be told using minimal scenery, costumes and properties out of necessity. Working under these
parameters resulted in a happy accident. The production harkens back to the very basics of theatre which boils down to a group of actors telling a story. Lucky Stiff does not claim to be anything other than that. And while our story is “strange, we know”, it does something which I think theatre should do more often: give us the ability to enjoy ourselves without pretense.

INFORMATION ABOUT THE PRODUCTION
Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens’ (authors of Suessical! The musical and Ragtime) musical comedy Lucky Stiff will be presented by the Hutchinson Theatre Guild at their production facility, Stage 9 at 9 S. Main in Hutchinson, KS, May 8th musical is the second production of the 2014 Season. Lucky Stiff follows the adventures of Harry Witherspoon, a recent beneficiary of his Uncle Tony Hendon’s will. Prior to inheriting the six million dollars bequeathed him, Mr. Witherspoon has to take his deceased uncle on a vacation of a life time to Monte Carlo. The trip will be anything but a vacation.  Annabel Glick, employee of the Universal Dog Home of Brooklyn, is watching Harry’s every step - for if he does not execute the requests of his uncle for the vacation preciously, the Dog Home will become the benefactor of Hendon’s will.

Little do Annabel and Harry know that the six million dollars at stake does not really belong to Hendon as he stole the money from his lover’s husband, an Atlantic City mob-affiliated casino owner. Hendon’s lover, Rita, and her brother Vinnie, head to Monte Carlo to track down Witherspoon and the money. A daring game of cat and mouse plays out to hysterical effect as Witherspoon and Glick battle for control of the inheritance, all while being chased by Rita and Vinnie who are desperate to get the money back. Set to an imaginative score featuring many different musical styles, Lucky Stiff is sure to keep the laughs coming as complications and a special twist keep the audience on the edge of their seats.

Lucky Stiff is performed by special arrangement with Music Theatre International.

Cast members include Lynn Hase (Harry), Piper Harding (Annabel), Whitney Lansdowne (Rita), Matt Lansdowne (Vinnie), Aaron Parker (Tony), Ben Jones (Luigi), Amy Brownlee (Dominique and Ensemble), Kathy Lansdowne (Ensemble), Kelly Gauthier (Ensemble) and Amanda Moore (Ensemble). The production is directed by Charles A. Johnston and stage managed by Blaine Teter.

So that's what I've been up to.  I am pretty much in Artistic and Managing control of all production aspects of each individual production and thus, the Hutchinson Theatre Guild.  It's a lot of responsibility but hopefully it will pay off handsomely. I'm in discussions to stay on another year (or at least part of it) with the Guild.  The church that use to be Northminster Presbyterian (now called New Covenant) has an opening for their choir director.  I've been floated as a possibility for that job as well.

So...stay tuned.  Who knows what may ensue.

Visits and Change

Hello again from the Rutherfords!

It has been a strange spring at our house with lots of disappointments followed by great things. With a thankful journal in tow for Lent this year, I'm going to say that we have even more to be thankful for than all the little day to day things.

In short, Mary lost a job at Radio City with Heart and Lights closing before it even began and then gained another great one at Aladdin doing four permanent days of day work. Plus, her now permanent 3 shows a week at Jersey Boys makes for a good week of work before any swing work comes in addition. When that does happen, Mary is generally working a 50+ hour week and trying to fit in a bit of guitar and yoga in between all the normal things that need to be completed.

Kurtis is looking forward to a great deal of change coming up! He was left behind on the spring tour that Cedar Lake took out across the West Coast and found himself in a rocky Spring with his company with no artistic director and the executive director being let go. Then, his boss and good friend, Andy decided to leave the company. With no hope for any significant raise in pay, but a promise for a raise in the workload and an under appreciation for the work done, he made the difficult decision to move on. His last day with the company will be at the end of July. As he always intended to work more in the theatrical world, Kurtis wanted to shift his focus toward that area in New York again and, having gained a lot of knowledge and skill from his current position, decided it was time to move himself in to a position where he could move forward in that. So, back to free lancing for a while! Beer continues to go well and he is enjoying the spring now in New York.

The most exciting thing recently was a visit from Mom and Dad! They came for the weekend, Dad a short one and Mom a long one. As Mary was working both Aladdin and Jersey Boys for the weekend, the two of them and Kurtis decided to see the shows, got back stage tours at both and seemed to really enjoy the visit. I know we loved having them here!!!

Mom, Kurtis and I went to visit The Cloisters on Monday. It was a beautiful day and an interesting branch of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

This little woodchuck was out front of The Cloisters, protecting his territory. Fort Tyron Park is apparently home to many critters and is a beautiful walk through on the North end of the island of Manhattan, only a few blocks away from our home.

Winter in Chicago is Rough!

Hello Family!

It's been quite a busy spring, but especially the last couple of weeks.  Let's see if I can cover the highlights of the last 4ish months.

Katie's birthday gift in January was tickets to see Phantom of the Opera during it's tour stop in Chicago.  While she was approaching a second hand on number of times seeing it, this was my first experience.  It certainly lived up to its billing!  In February, we attended the Chicago Auto Show which was a lot of fun.  Every dealer you can think of is there and you can sit in most of the cars.  The Bugattis and McClarens were only viewable from a distance unfortunately.  A trip to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Field Museum, and a Blackhawks (NHL) game rounded out the rest of winter.  In a quick list it sounds like we did a lot but that was spread over 10 weeks or so.  The rest of the time we were huddling in our apartment with the heat on high!

This winter has been one of the worst in decades.  We set top 5 marks for average temperature and most snow.  There were multiple days where the high was below zero and multiple days where the snowfall totals were in double digits.  It felt like every weekend usually had a snowstorm that beat estimates by at least 3 inches.  Our gas bill was quite expensive, especially when you consider we only heat 900 square feet or so.  It's become the city's pastime to dodge potholes deeper than wheels.

Fortunately, we've had moments of spring!  Even though snow accumulated as recently as two weeks ago.  We traveled with Katie's family to Milwaukee in March to see the comedian Mike Birbiglia do a show.  He's an excellent comedian than doesn't rely on crude humor or language to get you laughing.  He genuinely has a funny outlook on life and can make most stories seem hilarious.  He's also had sleep issues that led to him producing a whole comedy sketch about it, including the movie "Sleepwalk with Me."  Spring break came early for me with Mom and Dad's arrival for a conference in Chicago.  We did the standard tour, seeing the building formerly known as the Sears Tower, Chicago History Museum, Field Museum, Shedd Aquarium, and the Lincoln Park Zoo.  We were also able to do dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, which Dad went back to with his students later in the week.  Mom and Dad upgraded from the inflatable mattress on our floor to a two room suite at the Marriott on Michigan Avenue thanks to NASM, which was especially nice when Dad came down with the flu for a couple days.

Since then, the Cubs have started their season and we are the first option for disposing of unused tickets in the family.  Katie's father is a season ticket-holder but a combination of April weather and the Cubs lack of talent makes games difficult to sell when they're not intending to go.  So I went to 3 of the first 13 home games of the season.  We also went to Cincinnati for Easter.  Katie's brother John lives there and works for Tesla Motors, which has the nice side-benefit of allowing us to ride around in a Tesla all weekend!  We visited their favorite restaurants (which meant we missed Skyline) and went to the Zoo as well.  We hadn't seen him and his girlfriend since the Wedding so it was great to catch up.

Of course we do have jobs/school as well.  Katie is in the middle of her travel cycle this month because it's the slow season in risk modeling.  She went to Tennessee in early April for 3 days of business.  Then she went to Washington D.C. last week for her orientation trip to the American Farm Bureau Federation that she was supposed to do a year ago.  Now next week, she's at a conference downtown again!  So 4 weeks of April and 3 of them had multiple nights away from home.  I'm finishing up school in two weeks.  The big highlight of this semester has been my Master's Project which looked at bus delay caused by large weather events.  It was submitted and accepted a couple weeks ago so I can move forward from that.  I only have a paper, a presentation, and two finals left!  However, then I become unemployed.  The job search is starting but unfruitful so far!

We keep thinking that the next month will be quieter, but are realizing that's always an illusion.  Our summer is already filling in with weddings vacations and hopefully employment!

I'll leave you with a couple pictures I found on our phones in between the chronicles of Scout's daily adventures.

This was the usual state of our weather in January and February.

The PVC pipe drip water out at a very slow rate.  This is 4 months of build-up behind the apartment building.  It was tangible proof of spring as it melted!

The Chicago Symphony Concert from the nosebleeds.  If I had known how many stairs we were going to have to climb I would have had us arrive an extra 20 minutes before hand.

We rode the old carousel at the Lincoln Park Zoo!

A view of the capital from the top of the Farm Bureau Building in D.C.

The interior of our Tesla ride for the day.  The picture doesn't do the car justice.  Space and technology abound!

We paws ….

It’s time to bring everyone up to date on our daily life.  As everyone knows, we have a pack of dogs living with us.  They bring us joy, laughter, frustration and much fur.  But, we enjoy them.  Here’s a picture of Tim’s newest acquisition-Liza Doolittle.

  Liza is a character and we like to call her the hedgehog.  She is settling in nicely, but is a sneaky girl.  She darts under the bed very quickly before Tim can catch her so she doesn’t have to go in the crate.  I mean, Tim could get down on his hands and knees and dig her out, but with our luck that would throw his back out of wack.  Ellie Mae and I finished our first agility class.  She liked it a lot.  The teacher taught it like we were all going to compete in dog shows but Ellie Mae and I just did it for fun.  What this translates into is, that once again we were in trouble quite a bit in class.

Here is a video from our last night of class.

Jobs are going okay.  With the end of tax season, Tim is slowing down.  He did have his first customer make a break out of a nursing home.  He was safely returned and has remained there since.  My job has been more stressful than usual.  There is lots going on and it seems everyone needs something.  I’m going to have to start telling people no so I can get things in order for camp.  We are hoping to do some painting on our deck over Memorial Weekend.  Of course, you are all invited for that activity.  Last weekend, Chris was home and we all went to the doggy Easter Egg hunt.  Here is Ellie Mae in her Easter “Bonnet”. 

  Summer should bring lots of fun and new adventures.  We will be helping Chris campaign, attending a dog class that Kate is helping teach, planning our entry for the 4 ^th of July parade and Kate and I will be working on our “bedazzled bra” to enter in the State Fair.

Until next time…