August 4, 2005
Warren Gerds
What’s old is new again at Venture Theatre in De Pere.
“Hansel and Gretel” opens there today as the first full production in the companion theater to the established ComedyCity.
The show is an original, homegrown musical based on a familiar story.
“The big thing is I don’t think a lot of kids are exposed to the old Grimm fairy tales,” says playwright Pat Quigley of Green Bay. “They’re something I grew up with, and we thought it would be fun to work with something like that.”
Along with adapting the story, Quigley wrote the lyrics for the show’s seven songs. Music is by Kevin MacLeod of Green Bay.
“It’s all original music based on an updated German folk theme,” MacLeod says.
Songs include “Nine,” a take on the German word for “no;” “You’re a Nut,” sung by a new character, Chippy the Chipmunk; and “Let’s Lose the Children,” sung by the wicked stepmother before Hansel and Gretel are left in the woods to the mercy of the Witch.
The Witch’s bookshelf includes “Cooking With Children,” meaning children as an ingredient. One recipe is for bratwurst — “brat” as in child.
Scary? That’s the Brothers Grimm.
“They write a couple of good villains in every story,” Quigley says. “This one certainly has that in both the Witch and the stepmother.
“We didn’t go p.c. (politically correct) with the stepmother. I think p.c. is kind of cliche. Let’s go back and don’t apologize about the fact that the stepmother is evil. That’s the way it was written.”
The musical aims at today’s kids in other ways. At a dress rehearsal Monday, the stage got messy from the tossing of bread and candy. The show also finds adults slopping water and Hansel and Gretel trading belches.
“I think it’s ideal for about 7-, 8-, 9-year-olds — the burp scenes and things like that,” says Peggy Eserkaln, director of the musical and co-owner, with her husband, Mike, of Venture Theatre and ComedyCity.
De Pere eighth-grader Elin Mixer plays the Witch, but the other performers are adult comedy veterans: Joe Abrahamson, Hansel; Maribeth Weidner, Gretel; Carrie Masse, Esmerelda, the stepmother; MacLeod, Friedrich, the father; and Christianne Jacobs, Chippy.
“Hansel and Gretel” will open to a sold-out house of 60.
“That was just from us announcing it (when ComedyCity was located in downtown Green Bay),” Eserkaln says. “We sold out the first show before we ever opened sales to the public or sent out the press release.”
The show was fostered by the Write Club, a gathering of writers that usually meets every other Monday. The group generates ideas and offers views on scripts, some of which will be produced. Today’s performance “means I’m no longer writing to entertain my small group of Write Club friends,” Quigley says. “That’s the big thing.”
“To have it so homegrown is just so cool,” Eserkaln says.
Audiences have found ComedyCity in its new location in the former De Pere Library, she says. Now Venture Theatre in the same building is starting the first production of its five-play season.
“It’s been great,” Peggy Eserkaln says. “It has already exceeded my expectations and my dreams as far as Venture Theatre and what this space has done.”
If you go
* Who: Venture Theatre
* What: “Hansel and Gretel”
* When: 9:30 a.m. today (sold out)-Saturday and Aug. 11-13
* Where: Venture Theatre, 380 Main Ave., De Pere
* Tickets: $5, with group discounts available; (920) 983-0966
