The Thrill is Still There

              Russ came into The BOX Theatre nearly breathless earlier this week and said to me so quietly I barely heard him......"I get SO excited at the beginning of the season."

Looking up into his bright eyes I whispered back...."So do I."

              In about six weeks, LAMB Arts Regional Theatre will be presenting the first production of our 33rd Season.  That's a lot of productions.   A lot of seasons.   But it goes without saying that despite the blood, sweat and tears that inevitably come with each season, those negatives are balanced with the joy, laughter, and creative collaborations that also occur.  We look forward to sharing our productions with all of Siouxland.   We love observing and participating in the growth of all our students and our fellow actors.   It sometimes amazes me that we can still feel that inevitable excitement that "it all is starting up again.....and we just can't wait!"

                  "If you love what you do, you'll never work a day in your life."-Confucius

                Well, we found "something that we love"---but we also end up "working at that something we love" every day of our lives.....so go figure!

               Melissa is busily getting students registered.  Jessica is working on advertisers for the playbill program for the season and getting sponsors for the shows.    Jade and Olay are hard at work organizing the prop shop and large furniture storage, cleaning the shop and painting around the theatre.   Russ is busy designing the PILLOWMAN set and doing all those things that need to happen at the beginning of the season.  Donny is working on recording music for rehearsals for PUTNAM COUNTY and THE MARVELOUS WONDERETTES.  Karen is pulling costumes for PILLOWMAN, ANNE FRANK & ME, MURDER AT CAFE NOIR and the Caravan.   I am getting the LAMB Caravan ready for their 2100 miles 10 day tour in September and working with Russ, Jessica, Melissa and Donny on getting all our class curriculums and materials ready to go. 

The theatre is buzzing and the excitement is mounting.   Wednesday, September 6 classes will begin.   September 12 the Caravan begins their tour.   September 14  PILLOWMAN opens our 33rd Season.   And we are off and running.

                Join us for what will be another adventure full of great memories.

Diana Guhin Wooley
CEO LAMB Arts Ltd
417 Market Street
Sioux City, IA 51103
 712-293-0930
Keep current with LAMB--:www.lambtheatre.com

Thoughts on Christopher Gaul

My heart skips beats...the clock ticks erratically and nothing seems the same.

Our hearts were wounded upon hearing of the death of Christopher Gaul.   A beautiful man inside and out.   A gentleman, if such a thing can exist in this day and age.   And a consummate actor....no, I should say chameleon who enchanted, invigorated, annoyed, perplexed, and always engaged his audience.   We will miss Christopher in so many ways….ways that we cannot even imagine as we grieve his death today.

I first met Christopher just before he was to enter junior high school…so he would have been about 12 years old.  I was an ambitious college student who wanted to think that I could actually make money in the summer teaching what I just was taught in theatre to younger kids as my ‘summer job’.   I had what was called “Diana’s School of Theatre and Music” which was conducted for two summers at Grace United Methodist Church in Morningside.   Christopher was one of the students that came into my life those summers.   I had written two musicals (one for each of the summers) and cast Christopher as a Wad of Bubble Gum.   That sounds insulting, but it wasn’t.  I was amazed at his ability to BECOME a wad of bubble gum.   There was no doubt in my mind what I was observing.   As it turned out, Christopher’s wad of gum genius would never be seen publicly as the role of the King (the show was titled THE LITTLE PRINCESS WHO COULDN’T SMILE) became available and I recast Christopher in that role.   Even then his talents were so evident.

Christopher has been a very important part of the LAMB family forever.   I will always remember his German Orchestral Conductor being interrogated by an American Captain (Michael Vinson)in TAKING SIDES.   Those scenes were terrifying and so real….As real as scenes later in DIARY OF ANNE FRANK (a show which I was fortunate to direct) where his Otto Frank dealt with the harsh realities of living in hiding with his beloved family (Debra Marqusee, Aubrey Sea, Emily Dorsett) and total strangers (Karen Sowienski, John Mangan, Luke Saunders).   Christopher was able to morph himself physically, vocally and more important..he was able to emotionally connect and completely embrace the essence of the character he was portraying.   In contrast to the dramatic, he was just as comfortable and fluid with the comic and displayed his spot on timing with the LAMB farce “team” of Karen Sowienski, Mary Madsen and Michael Skaff.   Farce couldn’t get any better.   Whether high drama or crazy farce to heartwarming comedy (LEAVING IOWA with Debra Marqusee, Matt Rixner, Angela Iversen, Melissa Hunt and Rick Myers) or musicals such as ANYTHING GOES (where I was fortunate to play opposite him) or SWEENEY TODD (where we all learned how low his singing voice could go as he enveloped the sinister Judge Turpin.), Christopher was a joy to be onstage with, to direct, to just be around.  

Our hearts go out to his beloved Cyle and to the rest of Christopher’s family.   His theatre family will feel this huge hole for a long time.   However, we can count ourselves lucky that we were able to witness first hand the genius of Christopher Gaul.   He was Sioux City’s Own and we all were the fortunate beneficiaries.

Diana Guhin Wooley
CEO LAMB Arts Ltd
417 Market Street
Sioux City, IA 51103
 712-293-0930
Keep current with LAMB--:www.lambtheatre.com

In the Throes of a Busy December

            Whoa!   This week really went by fast with the opening of MARRIED ALIVE and all that getting a new show ready for an audience brings.   We will be holding auditions for The Musical Adventures of FLAT STANLEY next week with the kids.  What a darling and creative show that will be.   And one in which we can really utilize those awesome moving lights!   That production will open the end of January for a two week run and we will have LAMB students from 8 - 14 involved in that musical.   You will be amazed at the talent of these young people.....I mean AMAZED!  We were fortunate to be asked by Jill Miller to perform in her annual Christmas concert on December 17 at the Orpheum.   The musical extravaganza will benefit The Sunrise Retirement Community and our elementary and middle school musical theatre students will be performing a solo number (with some incredible LAMB School soloists!--"LAST CHRISTMAS") and then will combine our talents with those of Jill and the Mount Zion Children's Choir for a couple of numbers.   So...we will be competing for audiences that Saturday evening as that will also be the final Saturday performance of MARRIED ALIVE.   A big thank you to the high school students and parents who are being "me" in my place so that I can be two places at once.  (YES, THAT is how it is done.....one must have great friends!)

          MARRIED ALIVE is going so very well and is such a fun show for both performers and audiences alike.   This playwright really writes well and the songs are very clever.   We were quite pleased with the enthusiasm of the audience after seeing the show.   What a great regional premiere opening weekend.

              We finished up our final day of our first 8 week session of Kindermusik with the young mothers and their children at Jackson Recovery's Women's and Children's Unit.   That experience is worthy of a blog itself, which I will write in the very near future.   Every new experience teaches me how very important and essential arts education is to the future of our local, national and world communities.   I just wish that I was more articulate so I could fully express how powerfully the arts help define us and make us all better in that definition.   Maybe I will find the words someday.   Right now I just feel it deeply in my heart.

                Need something fun to do this weekend?   Meet me at the theatre.   Shows this Thursday, Friday, Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and a Sunday matinee at 1:30p.m

 

Diana Guhin Wooley
CEO LAMB Arts Ltd
417 Market Street

Sioux City, IA 51103
712-293-0930
Keep current with LAMB--:www.lambtheatre.com