Final Dress! “Looking for Normal”

It’s final dress night! Looking for Normal opens on Thursday and we are all excited over here! Make sure you get your tickets to opening night at: www.atgr.org

Check out this great cast:

Dave Benson (Frank)

Dave was last seen at Actor’s in the 2012 Grand Award winning production of August: Osage County. His role in this production marks the third time that Dave has been directed by Fred Sebulske; a fact that he is very proud of. Dave has also been seen on the Grand Rapids Civic theatre’s stage in Our Town, Charlotte’s Web,Harvey, and The Heart is a Lonely Hunter.

Carlee Bleeker (Patty Ann)

Carlee makes her Actors’ Theatre debut as Patty Ann. Having appeared in 15 community theatre productions, some of her favorites include; Grand Rapids Civic Theatre: Willie Wonka, Sara Plain and Tall, The Wizard of Oz and A Christmas Carol; Youth Theatre Grand Rapids: 13, The Musical for which she won National Youth Theatre’s 2010 Outstanding Supporting Actress award in the role of Lucy in NYC; Circle Theatre: Annie and Honk!; Rockford High School:Footloose!.

Kitty Carrico Carpenter (Grandmother Ruth)

A veteran of many Actors’ Theatre productions, Kitty was last seen on the Actors’ stage in Frozen. Other Actors’ credits include: How I Learned to Drive, Our Country’s Good, Sideman. Most recently, Kitty was seen in Circle Theatre’s production of Steel Magnolias.

Jim Chervenka (Roy Senior)

Jim is excited to be returning to the Actors’ stage after last appearing in last year’s Grand Award winning August” Osage County. This time, he returns with his wife Linda at his side. After 36 years as the Technical Director for the Grand Rapids Civic Theatre, Jim has retired and is now moving from backstage to on-stage; recently performing in The Heart is a Lonely Hunter at Civic Theatre.

Linda Chervenka (Em)

Linda was born in NYC, the oldest of 6 and an Air Force brat. She met her husband, Jim on the stage in high school in Dayton, Ohio. They were married on the stage at Aquinas College after they had both graduated; Jim with a degree in Speech and Drama and She with a BA in Theatre and Psychology. They have 4 children, all of whom are somewhat involved in theatre. Linda has directed plays at Circle Theatre, Aquinas, various high schools and Stepping Stones Montessori School where she taught creative dramatics for more than 27 years. She also taught acting and improv classes at Aquinas College for 10 years. Linda has been on stage at Circle a lifetime ago and in Free to Be You and Me at Civic Theatre.

Samantha Gauthier (Irma)

Samantha was last seen on stage in Circle Theatre’s production ofSame Time Next Year and she is thrilled to be working opposite Craig Hammerlind once again. She is also excited to once again perform with Kitty Carpenter, one of her cast mates from Steel Magnolias also at Circle Theatre.

Craig Hammerlind (Roy)

Craig is happy to be returning to the stage of Actors’ Theatre. He has previously been seen in Actors’ productions of The March of the Falsettos, Les Liaisons Dangeruse, Angels in America: Millennium Approaches, A Man of No Importance and Rabbit Hole. He has also been seen in productions for Circle Theatre, Civic Theatre and Jewish Theatre of Grand Rapids. Professionally, he has worked at Tibbits Summer Theatre in Coldwater and Turkeyville in Marshall.

Andrew McClelland (Wayne)

Andrew makes his second appearance at Actors’ Theatre since performing in last season’s Grand Award winning production ofAugust: Osage County. His recent theatre credits include Taming of the Shrew, Antigone, The Wednesday Wars, Hamlet, Sense and Sensibility, and Milosevic at the Hague which was performed at the Joakiminterfest in Kragujevac, Serbia. Andrew is pursuing acting and theatre as a career and will be moving to Chicago in the fall.

Don Vanden Heuvel (Reverend Muncie)

Don is making his third appearance on the Actors’ Theatre stage. He was previously seen in Bach at Leipzig and last season’s production of Ampersand. Other area credits include Duck Hunter Shoots Angel,Funny Money (Grand Award nomination), Rumors and See How They Run (Grand Award nomination), at Circle Theatre. He has also appeared in Laughter on the 23rd Floor and The Value of Names at Jewish Theatre of Grand Rapids.

Photo credit: Dave Kagen

Behind the Scenes of “Looking for Normal”

A Brief History of Looking for Normal:

Director Fred Sebulske gives feedback as the cast and crew rehearse a scene for the upcoming Actors’ Theatre production of “Looking for Normal”, which opens May 23, 2013. Photo Credit: Dave Kagan, Sensitography

First performed as a workshop in the 1998 New Work Festival at the Mark Taper Forum, Looking for Normal received its first full production at the Geffen Playhouse in 2001 and featured Beau Bridges in the role of Roy. The Hollywood Reporter described it as “thoughtful and touching and full of wit and wisdom.” The play was subsequently adapted as the HBO original movie Normal (2003) and starred Jessica Lange as Irma, Tom Wilkinson as Roy and “Nashville” star Hayden Panettiere as the couple’s teenage daughter Patty Ann. The Actors’ Theatre production marks the first production of Anderson’s play in West Michigan

Jane Anderson, Playwright

Jane’s plays have been produced Off-Broadway and in theaters around the country, including Actors Theater of Louisville, The McCarter Theater, Long Wharf, ACT, the Geffen Theater and The Pasadena Playhouse. Her published plays include Looking for Normal, The Baby Dance, Defying Gravity, Smart Choices for the New Century, Lynette at 3AM and The Last Time We Saw Her. Her most recent play, The Quality of Life, premiered at the Geffen Playhouse and was directed by the playwright.

Ms. Anderson resides in Los Angeles and in Marin County in Northern California with her spouse Tess Ayers and their son, Raphael.

Fred Sebulske, Director

Next to Normal marks Fred’s 59th directed production for Actors’ Theatre. Recent directing credits include 2012′s Next to Normal,August: Osage County (Winner: 2012 Grand Award for Best Production of a Play), 2011′s Spring Awakening (Winner: 2012 Grand Award for Best Production of a Musical), 2010′s Distractedand recently, at Circle Theatre, Hair.  Among his many awards and accolades, he is the recipient of 12 Grand Awards for outstanding direction, the Norma Brink Lifetime Achievement Award and the Arts Council Arts Award.

Fred is the founder of Actors’ Theatre Grand Rapids.

To see more “behind the scenes” photographs, check out this album of rehearsal photos on Actors’ Facebook page: Rehearsals for Looking for Normal.

Reserve your tickets for our final show of the 201202013 Season at www.actorstheatregrandrapids.com!

“Looking for Normal” Article on mlive.com

Did you see this great article by K.D. Norris on mlive about “Looking for Normal”? Here is an excerpt:

Actor’s Theatre closes its season with a timely take on normal life

Samantha Gauthier, of GR, as mom and Craig Hammerlind, of GR, rehearse scene.
Photo by Brian Forde

K.D. Norris | Mlive.com

The Actors’ Theatre Grand Rapids likes to choose plays that examine the human experience, are often thought provoking, and usually leave the audience with a smile on their face.
The group certainly has a play which lives up to that billing with Jane Anderson’s Looking for Normal, running May 23 —June 1 at Grand Rapids Community College’s Spectrum Theater, 160 Fountain St. NE.

“Looking for Normal will close out our season with the kind of play we are known for producing: entertaining, innovative, and thought-provoking live theatre,” said Jonathan Clausen, Actor’s Theatre director of development. “We felt Looking for Normal explores the transgender issue in a way that was sensitive and timely. It’s a warm, yet funny play.”

(Read the rest of the article here.)

“Looking for Normal” Opens Thursday night! Performance dates are May 23-25 and May 30 – June 1. Be sure and click over to www.actorstheatregrandrapids.org and reserve your tickets today!

Spotlight Gala – Special Ticket Price Ends Tomorrow!

Join Actors’ Theatre on May 2,2013 at 6:30PM for our 2013 Spotlight Gala honoring Tom Kaechele and Amy Osborn Kaechele for their ongoing dedication and stewardship to Actors’ Theatre.

HURRY! ONE DAY left on this Special Ticket Price:

$40/person or $70/couple*  (Advance offer, Exp. 4/25/13)

$50/person (at the door)

*Includes buffet dinner, beer/wine bar & entertainment.

 

More information can be found and tickets can be purchased at the Actors’ Theatre website.

Actors’ Theatre Congratulates the Cast of “Looking for Normal”

Opening May 23, 2013:

Roy and Irma have been married for twenty-five years and have two children. Roy works at a tractor plant in the heartland and both are active in church and in their community. When Roy and Irma see their pastor for marriage counseling, though, Roy reveals that he’s a woman trapped in a man’s body and wants an operation to correct the situation. Looking for Normal is a powerful, often funny, play about an individual’s journey to personal truth, the cost of that journey on those he loves, and the hope that transformation brings.

We would like to congratulate the following individuals on their roles in the upcoming production. The cast list is as follows:

ROY: Craig Hammerlind
IRMA: Samantha Gauthier
PATTY ANN: Carlee Bleeker
WAYNE: Andrew McClelland
ROY SR.: Jim Chervenka
EM: Linda Chervenka
GRANDMOTHER RUTH: Kitty Carrico Carpenter
REV. MUNCIE: Don VandenHeuvel
FRANK: Dave Benson

Learn more at Actors’ Theatre’s website: www/atgr.org

Student Directed One Acts at GRCC – This week!

GRCC’s Student Directed One Acts take place this week in Room 201. Titled “Puppets of Good Intention” the one acts will run Wednesday, 4/10 through Friday, 4/12 at 8pm.

Cost: FREE!

Get more information on the GRCC website.

“RUST” on Stateside

Just in case you missed it – on March 27th, “RUST” was featured on Michigan Radio’s Stateside! Here is an exerpt from the piece:

It’s a familiar Michigan story. In 2008, General Motors decided to shutter a stamping plant in Wyoming – just outside Grand Rapids.

But to Austin Bunn, a new professor of writing at Grand Valley State University, the close of the plant wasn’t the end of a story, but a beginning.

For the next four years, Bunn interviewed the workers at the plant about the experience of job loss, displacement and their lives after the close.

From these transcripts he created a documentary play, RUST. It was originally produced at the Actors’ Theatre of Grand Rapids

Go to www.michiganradio.org to listen to the complete story, and hear an exerpt from featured actors including Tracey Walker, Rena Dam, Chris Nye, Wayne Swezey, GF Korreck, Paul Arnold, Fred Stella, and Laurence Drozd.