George Beeby, House manager must work with those who volunteer. It is a tough job but someone has to do it!

Cast List:

Ken Gorman ---- Rick Korndorfer
Chris Gorman--- Jill Anton
Lenny Ganz ---- Phil Callighan
Claire Ganz --- Karen Haspas
Ernie Cusack --- Max Hobbs
Cookie Cusack --- Denni Don Hunting
Glenn Cooper --- Tom Pritchard
Cassie Cooper --- Michelle Perez
Officer Welch ---- Dan Robinson
Officer Pudney --- Margaret Mulcahy

Production crew:

Director ---- Don Kuehlhorn
Producer --- Deb Bowman
Stage Manager --- Gary Bolton
Poster Design --- Phil Murphy
Set Construction --- Al Lien
Set Dressing --- Kathy Verstreate
Set Design --- Don Kuehlhorn
Lighting Design --- Deb Bowman
Costumes --- Jeanette Mason
Props --- Kerri Moses
House Manager --- George Beeby

'Rumors' goes heavy on farce , OTP's newest mainstage production
BY RICK GOULD
Record-Eagle's staff writer
"Rumors" opens with a character who shoots himself in the ear. From there, the play ricochets along as his arriving guests try to make sense of it all.
The mainstage production from Traverse City's Old Town Playhouse is an atypical comedy by playwright Neil Simon. The plot - at first- simple; Four couples get together at'the home of never-seen Charlie and Myra's to celebrate their anniversary. Aside from the host with the gunshot in the ear, the hostess is also missing.
As each couple arrives, they attempt to conceal details from the others and find out what actually happened. Of course, with everyone at cross purposes,chaos and chuckles ensue.
Opening night had a bit of intrigue of its own when, before the play's start, it was announced that director Don Kuehlhorn would fill in for Max Hobbs as psychiatrist Ernie Cusack because of an "unfortunate accident."
The plot is heavy on the farce and light on the wit that one usually associates with Simon's signature plays such as "Barefoot in the Park" or "The Odd Couple." "Rumors" is like an episode of "Three's Company" meets "Weekend at Bernie's." But the opening night audience was eating it up, a testimonial to light fare served well.
Kuehlhorn performed double duty efficiently, not surprising for an OTP vetean. His mellow style is a welcome contrast to the frantic plot twists and performances swirling around him. Denni Don Hunting adds another quirky role to her repertoire as his wife Cookie who, appropriately, is a TV cooking show host.
Rick Korndorfer and Jill Anton play Ken and Chris Gorman, the first couple to arrive on the scene. They have the toughest job among the cast, since their characters set up what seems to have happened to Charlie. Korndorfer's playing of his broad role contrasts appropriately with Anton's straight take on the rightfully nervous wife.
Phil Callighan makes the most of his scene-stealing Lenny, who hilariously attempts to explain what has transpired to a local cop near the play's climax.Karen Haspas offers amusing support as Claire, who enjoys the shenanigans as much as her husband is alarmed by them.
Another highlight is Michelle Perez as beautiful but caustic young wife Cassie Cooper. Her character's insecurity sparks some verbal fireworks.
The able ensemble cast includes Tom Pritchard, Dan Robinson (amusing as the deadpan police officer) and Margaret Mulcahy.
Aside from the usual smooth OTP production values, of note is costumer Kathy Verstraete's first time as set dresser, which benefits from her fine hand.
"Rumors" plays Thursdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m.through June 7. Tickets are $14, with discounts available to students and senior citizens on Thursdays.
Rick Gould is special sections editor at the Record-Eagle and writes occasional entertainment reviews.

Don Kuehlhorn(director)
June 9, 2003
I wanted to write several more entries but time is short. This is the day after strike. The show has ended and the stage has been cleaned for the season. Now we look forward to the 2003-2004 season and hope we get some roles. This play has taught me many things. The most important lesson was of flexibilty. The cast and i had to remain open and ready for whatever came our way. We had to rehearse in odd settings. We gave up our stage for situations not normally found. We had cast and crew changes at the most inconvenient times. Yet through all this we remained flexible and treated each situation with humor. I think that helped us become the cast we were and able to present a great show. The difficulties made us focus more on the play. I don't wish for thi sto happen again but i hope, next time i direct, I can generate the same kind of focus.
June 5, 2003
Here we are at the last weekend of "Rumors". It has been a challenge and a treat. Now we must dig deep to keep the enrgy up for the three remaining performances. Our audience, and ourselves, deserve only the best. I have seen many a show where the cast jsut loses enrgy because it is the last weekend and they just want to be done with it. Then, on closing night they think, "this is the time i will give everything I have" and go over the top, not in a nice way either.Emotions will run high this week. I haven't llooked at the reservation book yet, but i feel that we will have a packed house. I have heard many good things and oen significantly bad thing. Some one wrote a letter to the editor concerning the use of foul language in our play. I agree with her that some notification should be available for ticket purchasers about content and actions in the play. Unfortunately, i think it is up tot he purchaser to ask questions. Neil Simon does not use foul language in many of his plays but this one he did and we kept true to the author. We, in this case, were only the messenger. Oh well. Because of that letter i believe we will have more come to see the show just to understand what all the fuss was about. They must come this weekend because it is our last.
May 30, 2003
The play is a success! We have crowds of people in the theater, something that dramas and comedies don't normally do. It certainly has charged the cast. A small audience doesn't laugh very much, has to do with not exposing onesself. But when you get large audiences, the energy from the laughter only heightens the effort of the actor. Last night we lit up Cass and 8th street and the audience loved it. Now we must keep this energy every night, no matter the audience size. For myself, i am getting into the role of Ernie Cusack. I must carry a book on stage for the second act because i don't know where my cues are. I have the lines close enough to work without a book but i can't tell, yet, where i am to insert my one line. Unfortunately, this will come at the end of the run due to the practice i get in performance. You may well ask why we don't rehearse to get me off book. My choice, and simply because of such a short run, if we rehearse the two or three nights i need then we end the play that weekend what was the need? People tell me it is not a bother to them as audience so i will keep the book for the last 5 performances. Tonight, another huge house! the play is a success.
May 27, 2003
The opening week end is behind us. We have had problems but we presented a very good performance. I had to go on stage with book for the weekend. Max hobbs had an injury that will keep him out for the entire run. I hope to be off book for the remainder of the shows. I have never had a situation like this. We have had people get sick and gotten a subsitute but never for the duration of a show. I can count on my right hand the number of times i have seen some one go on stage with a book in hand. It isn't a fun thing i assure you. We have had a lot of feed back about the show. All positive, thank you very much. Our audiences have laughed at the places we expect so we must have the jokes in the right order. Two more weekends and the show and season end. The summer I take off and in July i audition for the first play of the new season, "Fantasticks". Will it ever end?
May 23, 2003
I had left the depression sentence dangling because on dress rehearsal night I, as director, leave the show. I believe that the show can only grow so far in rehearsal then when it is time for produciton the director can fiddle no more. Like a child setting off into the big bad world, I said my piece to the cast and will not pontificate any more about the show, unless asked. That is where the depression come's in. The cast takes this play to an audience and receives the reward of applause and appreciation. The director sits in the back, all alone and forgotten, pouting.. ho. hum. Until something bad happens.
In this case, Max Hobbs the actor to play Ernie Cusak, slipped and banged his head. The injury does not appear life threatening but he will not play the opening weekend. That puts this out of work director back at work in the play as Ernie Cusack. I can tell you Max does not like his position. He worked hard and now must wait for the doctors to release him. I don't like the situation because Max has worked hard and now i have to fill in for him. I can tell you I love being on stage and this is just as much fun, but not at this expense. Hurry and get well Max, i need my pout time.

May 21, 2003
Gosh! I just looked at the last entry date. It has been a long time since i have been here. Lots has happened too! The Studio theater had a production going so we were not allowed to be in the theater and rehearsing during their show. We had to practice off site, which means we can run lines but not stage movement. We tie words with places on stage and just running the show without movement both frustrates and educates. The frustration comes from knowing that a line is spoken when a performers moves to a place on stage. With no movement, the line doesn't come to mind as easy. The education comes from not knowing the lines well enough to say them without movement. Some of our performers went back to book for a serious read. We couldn't use out stage, as well, because an audition had been scheduled for one of our nights. This is community theater and some competition for resources always muddies the water. Knowing that we must be flexible gave a measure of challenge to our actors to perform whereever they were put. I think it helped. Tonight we have a dark night. We have worked all week to put the technical parts of the show into this play, lights, sound and so forth. Now we finish the painting, carpet laying while the actors polish their lines or just rest. Tomorrow begins the performance part of our run. No more rehearsing. No more being told what went wrong from me, the director. Tomorrow the actors and the script "Rumors" take to the boards and become a play. My job is done. i can feel the depression coming on already!

May 5, 2003
Already into May! We have had minor problems all along. It has to do with the fact that we are community theater and have lives outside this place. The need to make a living and pay the rent has caused some to miss rehearsals. We try to make up for it but only the individual can help themself. One of our players doesn't seem to have read the script since last we met. I will have a talk and get that person in gear, one direction or the other. We must have everyone committed and at the same performance level or the play will suffer and the audience will not receive full measure. Only three weeks left from this date. We are in good shape. We could use more rehearsals but then i would say that at anytime. We'll find more if we really want it. I'll ask at rehearsal tonight.

April 30, 2003
Rehearsals are going well! We have the bulk of the blocking complete. Meaning we can start changing it and getting some life into the play. The first step in putting a play on the boards is to plot where people will go when they have to move. The second is to make this more realistic, which means changing it. At least you had a starting point to change from.
Some of the players are off book now! It is early to be off but they are and it shows. They can start playing with their character and with the stage space. Now we need props to give them some other play things. I can see how all the players move and act better when their book don't get in the way. I must get stage props for them to work with and not lose this momentum.

April 28, 2003
Seems as if i haven't had time to write a new entry in the journal. Well, i haven't! I was stage managing for Crazy for you and just being busy with life. Now it has calmed down since Crazy.. has closed. I can focus on my play now. We have had several rehearsals, all blocking types. That means that we don't try too much character development. We are just looking for the furniture and play spaces to move in. In the next couple of days we will bring characters to the stage and find which attributes we keep and which we throw away. Consider, if you will, any person you know. Sometimes you may not enjoy their company as other times. When an actor brings a character to the stage for the first time, we should see many personality traits presented. Over the course of the rehearsal process we winnow the traits down to those that make the most sense for that character. The more traits an actor can bring, initially, the larger the character on stage at the end of the process. The actor, now, must consider all the aspects of his charcacter. I will keep them away from furniture. Together we will carve out a character.

April 15, 2003
Time to get you taxes done! We have cast the show and had three people drop out for various personal reasons. So far, I have not had a problem with this, unlike other times when i had to scramble all over the place to get people. Our auditions were large enough to enable us to ask another person to take the role. All is well so far. We had our first read through last night. The voices sound good together. I feel confident in the cast selection. We begin slowly to discuss the character development by the actors. I believe that the director must see the stage as a canvas, using actors as an artist would use paint to color the stage and make a good picture. Just like paint, the director can add subtle shifts to the color but the paint brings its original color. So the actor must work on character and allow the director to modify the character as needed for the whole picutre to work. This, of course, is the creative part of the business and an actor is as creative as a director. There are fireworks when creativities collide. But the play will go on. Stay tune.

April 9, 2003
Day two of auditions. Usually we hold auditions for a play on consecutive days, Monday, Tuesday, etc. Because we had a special speaker in town the auditions for Rumors was changed to Monday, Wednesday. Tonight, we hold the second of as many days for auditioners to try out for this play. The first night was wonderful, 18 players showed up. We had enough talent to cast a show. Don't get me wrong, all the auditioners were good but we had enough people who looked like they could play together, right age, size, shape, that we can cast this show. Too bad some will not be cast but that's the nature of auditions. Tonight we look at the new people who audition and review the ones that come back. At midnight tonight we should have a cast posted and ready to go. Let me tell you up front we normally have 6 weeks to rehearse a comedy, this one, though, has 5 weeks. The schedule is tight and we will need concentration. Stay tuned to see what happens.

We discover a couple on stage when the curtain rises. They obviously have a problem. We find out that the host and hostess of the house are not available, the husband has shot himself and the wife has left the building. Through the first scene we find out that more couples will arrive. How do we keep the secret of the shot and the disappearance from them?

On april 7 and 9, Monday and Wednesday I will audition people to play these roles for the Old Town Playhouse's upcoming production of Rumors. Be prepared to read from the script. I will choose selected passages but a general familiarity with the entire script would help you immensely. One director note to those auditioning. Each character has a single focus. One specific idea that the character will work towards throughout the play. Find that focus and you will have a leg up on anyone else auditioning.

Wear comfortable clothes and be ready when called. Good skill.

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