As another year comes to a close, we at GEM Theatrics want to take this opportunity to thank all of our loyal friends for supporting us in our endeavors over the past twelve months. Your faith in us and encouragement for the kind of theatre we do truly keep us going. So, let me try to be all things to all people in this blog and give you some Adams history (for those who only read these for that reason), as well as a preview of our coming attractions (for the marketing department – Mary Beth). |
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We're thrilled to announce officially that Norm Foster's delightful romantic comedy, "Old Love", will be GEM Theatrics' next production. We've been in negotiations with Mr. Foster's agent to bring this work from one of Canada's top playwrights to Grand Rapids, Michigan for its West Michigan premier this coming February as part of the Lake Effect Fringe Festival! We've spent the better part of a week beginning work on the set pieces in our backyard scene shop. As you can see, we're taking a somewhat "cubist" approach! We have lots of painting still to do! Our show will debut February 13, 2015, with additional shows February 14 and 15 at The Dog Story Theater. Watch our home page for additional details and how to get tickets. This is a challenging and wonderful show for us and will be perfect for Valentine's Day!
For those of you on the Sunrise Side of Michigan, we've just finalized arrangements to bring "Old Love" to The Snug Theatre in Marine City, Michigan for 10 performances beginning July 10, 2015!. "My Dearest Friend" played to enthusiastic houses this past Summer and we're thrilled to be invited back! If you are keeping score, our upcoming schedule looks like this: Oct. 15, 2014 -- "My Dearest Friend" 2-Act version, Loutit District Library, Grand Haven, MI, 7:00 pm; Oct. 22, 2014 -- "Love Letters", Donnelly Center, Aquinas College, Grand Rapids, MI, 1:30 pm; Dec. 2, 2014 -- Holiday Storytelling, Caro Area District Library, Caro, MI, 6:30 pm; Feb. 10, 2015 -- "My Dearest Friend" 1-Act version, Caroline Kennedy Library, Dearborn Heights, MI, 7:00 pm; Feb. 13 - 15, 2015 -- "Old Love", Dog Story Theater, Grand Rapids, MI, 8:00 pm (3:00 pm Sunday); Apr. 23, 2015 -- "My Dearest Friend" 2-Act version, Marcellus Township Library, Marcellus, MI, 7:00 pm; July 10 - 26, 2015 -- "Old Love", The Snug Theatre, Marine City, MI, 7:00 pm (2:00 pm Sundays); July 16, 2015 -- "My Dearest Friend" 1-Act version, Women's City Club, Grand Rapids, MI, 11:00 am. We hope to see all our friends at these events! Come on out and watch us play! Wow! I’ve just realized how long it has been since I updated this blog. In part, that’s because we at GEM Theatrics have been busy planning for the months ahead – and, boy, have we got some things going! Fall will be a busy season for us. First, we are thrilled to bring our One-Act version of Mary G. Kron’s “My Dearest Friend” to the Morton Township Library in Mecosta, Michigan at 7pm on September 18. Then, on October 15, we celebrate the 250th Wedding Anniversary of John and Abigail Adams with a performance of the Two-Act version of “My Dearest Friend” at the Loutit District Library in Grand Haven, Michigan at 7pm. (The actual anniversary is October 25 – to get your history jones satisfied, click the “read more” link below). Both performances are FREE! Just one week later, on October 22, we bring our signature piece, “Love Letters,” by A. R. Gurney to OLLI at Aquinas. The show begins at 1:30 pm and tickets are very reasonable, especially if you are a member! We performed there last Spring and look forward to seeing a lot of our friends there! Finally, we are thrilled to announce that GEM Theatrics will have a new show for the new year! We’ve found a wonderful script by Canadian playwright Norm Foster entitled “Old Love”, and it will be our entry in the 2015 Lake Effect Fringe Festival at Dog Story Theater. “Old Love” tells the story of Bud and Molly, who met at a time when each was attached to others, but whose lives intersected over the years, and their relationship grew. It’s a story of romance, courtship and relationships between older adults and we love it – we think you will, too. “Old Love” has its West Michigan premier February 13 – 15, 2015, just in time for Valentine’s Day. AND, if all goes as planned, we hope to bring “Old Love” to the East side of Michigan with 11 performances at The Snug Theatre in Marine City, Michigan in July, 2015. Stay tuned for details! GEM Theatrics usually doesn’t get on a soap box about anything, but I’m going to take this opportunity to get on the soap box about the 2013 Annual Report from the Michigan Humanities Council that’s been sitting on the ottoman since we received it earlier this year. Why? Well, GEM Theatrics’ production of My Dearest Friend is listed in the 2012-2015 Arts & Humanities Touring Directory. Non-profit organizations interested in bringing the show to their venue can apply for a mini-grant that covers up to 40% of the cost of sharing this historical program with students and patrons. We’ve been gratified to bring this great show some libraries and universities, but have been disappointed that we haven’t been able to share it with high school or middle school audiences, and very few local libraries. I wrote last time about our first week playing Marine City's The Snug Theatre with "My Dearest Friend." We were very pleased with the critical review from Encore Michigan and the audience reaction to this wonderful historic play by Mary G. Kron. Since we opened, word of mouth has accelerated reservations for this coming week! Thank you to all who enjoyed the show! Tickets are going fast, but good seats are still available for all shows, online or by calling 810-278-1749. But, there is more to do in our thumb area besides attend the theatre! Last Friday, Mary Beth, her Mom, and Step , and I took the Blue Water Ferry across the St. Clair river to Sombra, Ontario, Canada for lunch at The Aft Cabin and a little shopping. Sombra has only about 250 residents, but the little town is charming and the food at The Aft Cabin was delicious! While in Sombra, I located the local historical museum, where I'm told a car owned by Al Capone for bootlegging is on display. Our older companions weren't up for the tour, so I didn't get to find out for myself -- maybe this week. Saturday was bright and sunny and so Mary Beth and I took the opportunity to indulge in another of our passions -- visiting lighthouses! Michigan is home to more than a hundred lighthouses and we've been to a lot of them, but our trip to the Fort Gratiot Lighthouse in Port Huron ranks as one of our best experiences. Yep, that's Mary Beth waiting to go into The Snug Theatre for our first performance in Marine City, Michigan! We've been gearing up for this for weeks, because it is the first time we've been able to perform this show on the Eastern side of the state. The Sunrise Side is a bit of a tough nut to crack, but we're ecstatic that the Snug had an open slot and was willing to take a chance on an original work by a Michigan playwright, Mary G. Kron. To be honest, we didn't know what to expect. WE knew we had a quality entertainment experience, but what would theatre goers and critics on the East side of the State think. Maybe, we would go out on stage and find the theatre looking like this picture! Fortunately, for us and for the theatre, that wasn't the case. In fact, our first week's audiences were larger than normal for The Snug and they were very enthusiastic about the show! Encore Michigan even sent a reviewer. John Quinn called "My Dearest Friend" a "charming play" and remarked: "The fact that Mitchell and Quillin are married brings a spark of real-life to their performances. . . ." He also called our handling of the 18th Century language "well articulated," which we take as a high compliment. (See the full review here). Of course, actors do not live by theatre alone (as much as we might like to think so)! I'll tell you about some of our other adventures last week in my next installment. They don't call this area the Blue Water side for nothing! Stay tuned! To get tickets for "My Dearest Friend" next week go here, or call 810-278-1749. Good seats are still available for all performances - but that will change, if you wait too long! John Adams was born in a seafaring Colony. Boston, Massachusetts and the surrounding area in 1735 were already full of thriving ports and makers of ships. Whaling, which had started near Cape Cod as early as the Pilgrims' arrival at Plymouth Rock, was by 1740 a powerful industry in the New World. Adams' family was not in the shipping trade, but he had clients as a lawyer who undoubtedly were and his compatriot John Hancock had a fleet of ships that he used for his business. So, it is, perhaps, fitting that GEM Theatrics' version of John Adams will spend a part of this Summer in a Michigan city known, in its heyday, as a shipbuilding center. "My Dearest Friend" by Michigan playwright Mary G. Kron will play eight performances at The Snug Theatre in Marine City, Michigan. Shows run from June 12 - 22. Tickets are just $20 and are available online or by calling 810-278-1749. Marine City, situated at the convergence of the St. Clair and Belle Rivers, was, in the years before John Adams crossed the Atlantic ocean six times in his life. That is six more times than most others of his generation. Adams was no stranger to the ocean; his homes in Braintree and Boston, Massachusetts overlooked the Atlantic and he had had contact with that wide expanse his entire life. But, living near the sea and actual seafaring are two entirely different things, although it appears that John Adams suffered from seasickness less than others in his party and, indeed, less than some of the experienced sailors on his ships. We at GEM Theatrics celebrate these journeys with a crossing, of sorts, of our own. In less than a week, we will open our production of "My Dearest Friend" by Mary G. Kron across the state of Michigan from our home base in the cozy Snug Theatre in Marine City. Performances are June 12 - 22 and tickets can be obtained on the theatre's website or by calling 810-278-1749. Adams was sent three times across the Atlantic Ocean It's time for a celebration here at GEM Theatrics, because this year marks the 250th Anniversary of John and Abigail Adams! The actual date isn't until Fall, but we're kicking the festivities off a little early with eight (!) performances of "My Dearest Friend" by Mary G. Kron this month at the cozy Snug Theatre in Marine City, Michigan. Show dates are June 12, 13, 14, 19, 20 and 21 at 7 pm and June 15 and 22 at 3 pm. Tickets are just $20 are available online or by calling 810-278-1749. This is a wonderful opportunity for our friends on the East side of Michigan to see this wonderful production! We hope to see many of you there! On October 25, 1764, not everyone was certain the
Yes, that's me as Abigail Adams and me in real life sometimes! Abby was a busy, busy woman, had an opinion about everything and when the world was not going the way she wanted to see it go, she took charge! I'm not all of those things...well... While Gary and I are getting ready for our next public performance of My Dearest Friend on April 7 at the OLLI at Aquinas, I am also directing two one act plays at East Grand Rapids Middle School, set to perform on April 2 and 3. I'm calling the evening, Alien Encounters: Two One Act Plays. Both of the scripts are by our dear friend and playwright, Mary G. Kron and both feature Alien Girls who visit Earth to learn more about us or help some young Earthling with a common problem. Back to You, Brenda features teens taking over the local TV newscast on "Take Your Teen to Work Day", when the roving reporter is suddenly transported in time to interview an ancient Mayan warrior, a little girl in Hiroshima, Japan, a girl in 1846 Ireland, and others. The Alien Visitor is writing a term paper, but also teaches the young newscasters that if you don't know your history and learn from it, you are doomed to repeat it. In Tell and Show, the Alien Visitor comes to retrieve a valuable part of her ship which has mysteriously landed in Alex's backyard in the form of a geode. Its magical powers to freeze his bully classmates enable him to learn a valuable lesson about how to deal with bullying. This is a great, family-friendly evening of entertainment. Tickets will be available at the door (2425 Lake Dr. SE, East Grand Rapids, MI 49506) both nights of performance and are $5/adults and $2/students and seniors. To further complicate Abby's (or rather my) life, I'm getting ready for auditions March 22 and 23 for the next Stark Turn Players' production. I'll be directing Andrew Wernette's A Whale In Hilton Head in a World Premiere, May 1-4 at the Dog Story Theater. It is part of a double-bill that includes Todd M.Lewis' new play, Conversations with a Chimpanzee. Both local playwrights were winners of Stark Turn's 10-Minute Playwriting Competition last season and have been commissioned to write longer works by the Company for this season. For information about those shows and auditions, go to www.starkturnplayers.org. I hope to see some of our friends and fans at one of our upcoming performances or auditions! Happy Spring!! |
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