“Panic” Setting in at America’s Oldest Summerstock Theatre in Door County
Posted on 02. Sep, 2010 by Staff Reporter.
Midwest première of Joseph Goodrich’s award-winning suspense-filled thriller, “Panic,” on stage at Door County’s Peninsula Players Theatre, America’s oldest professional resident summer theater, Sept. 8 through Oct. 17 with two Sunday matinees at 4 pm Sept. 26 and the closing performance Oct. 17.
“Panic” is an homage to the stylistic film director, Alfred Hitchcock, and the play won the 2008 Edgar Award for Best Mystery Play. “Panic” made its debut at the International Mystery Writers Festival in Owensboro, Kentucky in 2007. Playwright Joseph Goodrich used Hitchcock as an inspiration for the main character in “Panic,” film director Henry Lockwood.
Lockwood, known as “the Sultan of Suspense,” is in Paris for the opening of his latest thriller and is being interviewed by a French writer prior to the première. Also staying with Lockwood in the plush hotel room are Miriam, Lockwood’s personal assistant, and Emma, his ill wife. While in Paris Lockwood is confronted with a past dastardly deed, which leads to attempted blackmail and murder. Will his career and marriage make it beyond Paris, or will they end on the cutting room floor?
Kristine Thatcher directs this stylistic thriller. Thatcher also directed “Over the Tavern” and “The Uneasy Chair” for the Players. Thatcher last performed on the Players stage as Eliza in “Pygmalion” and LCDR JoAnne Galloway in “A Few Good Men.” She wrote the Door County-themed play “Apparitions” that the Players commissioned for its 1995 season. Thatcher has directed several plays for BoarsHead Theater in Lansing, Michigan where she was artistic director from 2005 – 2009 and is founding director of Stormfield Theater.
The cast of “Panic” includes Players veterans and a newcomer to the Players stage. Gary Houston plays Henry Lockwood, and Carmen Roman is his wife and co-collaborator, Emma.
Houston makes his Players debut. His stage credits include Off-Broadway where he played Zig in Organic Theater’s “Bleacher Bums” in the American Place Theater and portrayed Barbara Feldon’s Russian tormentor in Jeffrey’s Sweet’s “Berlin ‘45” at the Ensemble Studio Theater. His regional credits include Albuquerque’s Fusion Theater’s production of Enda Walsh’s “Bedbound,” Yasmina Reza’s “The Unexpected Man” and Eugene O’Neill’s “Anna Christie.” In Chicago he created the role of Roger in the world premiere of “Grease” at the Kingston Mines Theater and productions of “Richard III” (Oak Park Festival) as Buckingham, “Hamlet” (Chicago Shakespeare Project) as Claudius and “The Tempest” (European Repertory) as Prospero.
Roman, cast as Emma Lockwood, returns to the Players for her 11th season where her stage credits include “Doubt,” “Master Class,” “Be My Baby,” “Red Herring” and “The Lion in Winter.” She is founding member of Chicago’s American Blues Theater, recipient of Chicago’s Joseph Jefferson award for “Wit” and was on the national tour of “Angels in America.” Roman also has numerous film and television credits including “Law and Order” and “Law and Order-SVU.”
Also returning to the Players stage are Kevin McKillip, as the French film critic Alain Dupay; Erica Elam as Lilane Bernard, a woman who attempts to blackmail Lockwood; and McKinley Carter as Lockwood’s personal assistant Miriam Stockton. McKillip and Elam shared the Players’ stage in “Comic Potential,” “Born Yesterday” and “Rumors.” Carter’s Players credits include “Into the Woods,” “Perfect Wedding,” “The Taffetas,” “Comic Potential” and “A Little Night Music.”
McKillip has received three Jeff nominations including Best Actor for “Richard III” (title role), Best Supporting Actor for “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” (Puck), and Best Supporting Actor for “Jeeves Intervenes” (Eustace) with First Folio Theatre, where he also appeared in more than 20 productions, including “Hamlet” (title role), and his one-man show “Will Rogers: An American Original.”
Elam’s recent credits include “The Trip to Bountiful” (Goodman), “Philadelphia Story” (Remy Bumppo) and “Inherit the Wind” (Northlight). As an improviser, she has performed with The Second City, iO, Annoyance, and The Comedy Shrine.
Carter’s Chicago credits include: “Ragtime,” Drury Lane Oakbrook; “John and Jen,” Apple Tree Theatre (Joseph Jefferson nomination); “Turn Of The Century,” “The Mamet Festival”,” The Visit,” “Floyd Collins,” Goodman Theatre; “Forbidden Broadway,” Royal George Theatre; and “Winesburg Ohio,” Steppenwolf Theatre.
All cast members are members of Actors’ Equity, the union of professional stage actors and stage managers.
The design production team for “Panic” includes scenic designer Keith Pitts, lighting designer Jason Fassl, costume designer Kärin Simonson Kopischke, all professional designers who are members of United Scenic Artists union. Sound will be designed by Players’ newcomer Nick Keenan.
The Peninsula Players 75th Anniversary season is sponsored through the generosity and support of Baylake Bank, which has been the Players’ financial partner for more than 50 years. This season is also supported in part by a grant from the Wisconsin Arts Board, with funds from the State of Wisconsin and the National Endowment for the Arts.
“Panic” will be on stage Sept. 8 through Oct. 17. Curtain times are Tuesdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 7p.m., except for Sunday matinees 4 p.m. Sept. 26 and Oct. 17. Group and individual tickets are available. Individual ticket prices range from $29 to $36; there are no performances on Mondays. For more information or to reserve tickets phone the Peninsula Players’ box office at 920-868-3287 or visit the website at www.peninsulaplayers.com.
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Peninsula Players is America’s oldest professional resident summer theater and is unique in the country for its diverse productions, continuing loyalty to a resident company, and its beautiful setting of 16 wooded acres along the cedar-lined shores of Green Bay. In the past 75 years, the theater has become a Door County landmark and its cornerstone arts institution, attracting audience members from throughout Wisconsin and across the country. For more information, please visit www.peninsulaplayers.com.
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Door County Land Trust Ceremony Formally Dedicates 332-acre Preserve in the City of Sturgeon Bay
Posted on 01. Sep, 2010 by Staff Reporter.
This past weekend the Door County Land Trust celebrated the dedication of the Sturgeon Bay Ship Canal Nature Preserve.
In December of 2009, the Door County Land Trust purchased 332 acres in the City of Sturgeon Bay along the shores of Lake Michigan on the south side of the Sturgeon Bay-Lake Michigan Shipping Canal. The preserve [...]
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Peninsula Players Company Members Honored at Jeff Awards and Black Theater Alliance
Posted on 01. Sep, 2010 by Staff Reporter.
Door County’s Renowned Summer Stock Theatre celebrates the Chicago’s Black Theater Alliance Awards (BTAA) and Joseph Jefferson Award nominations of several past and current company members.
The Joseph Jefferson Awards are Chicago Theater’s equivalent to Broadway’s Antoinette Perry “Tony” Award while BTAA honor productions featuring African-American artists and themes.
“Congratulations to our past and current company members [...]
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Door County Job Center Presents Fall Job Fair 2010, Sept 15
Posted on 31. Aug, 2010 by Staff Reporter.
Are you looking for new or different employment? If your answer is “yes,” then mark your calendar and plan to be at the Cherry Point Mall on September 15 from 2 to 6 pm.
You will have an opportunity to meet representatives from the Door County Job Center and their sponsor Great Lakes Staffing.
In addition ABR Employment [...]
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Midsummer’s Music Welcomes Renowned Pianist Craig Terry to Door County in Labor Day Concert Series, Sept 1-6
Posted on 31. Aug, 2010 by Staff Reporter.
Midsummer’s Music Festival continues the tradition of Carnegie Hall quality performances with its Labor Day concert series.
The series of six concerts begin on Wednesday, September 1 and continue through Labor Day – September 6. Returning to this year’s festival is esteemed pianist Craig Terry.
World-class musicians from organizations such as the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Pro [...]
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Newcastle (Poultry) Disease Confirmed in Door County
Posted on 30. Aug, 2010 by Staff Reporter.
Double-crested cormorants on two islands off the Door County peninsula have tested positive for a virulent form of Newcastle disease, prompting animal health officials to caution poultry farmers to step up their vigilance.
According to State Veterinarian Dr. Robert Ehlenfeldt, there is no human health threat from Newcastle disease, which is caused by a virus that [...]
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Dimension in Door County, Hardy Gallery Features Off-the-Wall Exhibit, Opening Sept 3
Posted on 30. Aug, 2010 by Melissa Ripp.
One of the first solely three-dimensional shows in recent Hardy Gallery history opens with an Artists’ Reception on Friday, September 3 from 5:30 – 7 pm.
The Hardy Gallery is pleased to announce the final exhibit of its 2010 season, entitled Dimension in Door County: Form Transcending Function. The exhibit will feature three-dimensional [...]
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This Week at Door County’s Crossroads We Honor Labor and the Land
Posted on 30. Aug, 2010 by Coggin Heeringa.
At Crossroads at Big Creek, we will celebrate both Labor Sunday and the Year of the Escarpment this week.
The first Labor Day was celebrated in 1882 and by 1884 it had become a National Holiday. The 1880s were a tragically violent time in our nation’s history and the Labor Day holiday was probably created [...]
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10th Annual Gills Rock ArtFest, North of the Tension Line at Charlene’s Gallery Ten, Sept 4-5
Posted on 28. Aug, 2010 by Stephen Kastner.
More than twenty diverse artists working in a tent village, a ginormous Choc-a-lot group-art painting project, a burning man bonfire and drumming circle and the world’s greenest runway fashion show – who in Door County still thinks it’s “remarkable that life exists north of Sister Bay?”
For the past ten years, Charlene Berg has been evolving [...]
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Wisconsin’s Leading HydroGeologist to Speak at Door County Environmental Council Program, Sept 8
Posted on 27. Aug, 2010 by Staff Reporter.
Dr. Ken Bradbury, with UW’s Geologicial and Natural History Survey since 1982, will speak at the Door County Environmental Council’s (DCEC) September Program on September 8 at 7 pm.
“Underground Water Conditions in Door County” will be the topic discussed by Dr. Bradbury at Crossroads at Big Creek, 2041 Michigan Street, Sturgeon Bay. There is no [...]
























