Archives for April 2010

The Dogwood Summer Youth Theater will be holding auditions on Wednesday, May 12 and Thursday, May 13 from 5:30 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. at the Dogwood Center for Performing Arts for their summer production “Pride and Prejudice”.
“Pride and Prejudice” is based on the novel by Jane Austen.  The Dogwood Summer Youth Theater will be directed again this summer by Chelsea Webb.
“Pride and “Prejudice” is a humorous story of love and life among English gentility during the Georgian era.  Mr. Bennet is an English gentleman living in Hartfordshire with his overbearing wife.  The Bennet’s 5 daughters; the beautiful Jane, the clever Elizabeth, the bookish Mary, the immature Kitty and the wild Lydia.  Unfortunately for the Bennets, if Mr. Bennet dies their house will be inherited by a distant cousin whom they have never met, so the family’s future happiness and security is dependent on the daughters making good marriages.  Life is uneventful until the arrival in the neighborhood of the rich gentleman Mr. Bingley, who rents a large house so he can spend the summer in the country.  Mr. Bingley brings with him his sister and the dashing (and richer) but proud Mr. Darcy.  Love is soon in the air for one of the Bennet sisters, while another may have jumped to a hasty pre-judgment.  For the Bennet sisters many trials and tribulations stand between them and their happiness, including class, gossip and scandal.
The auditions will be for 9 male roles, 11 female roles, extras and dancers.
Dogwood Summer Youth Theater is for youth grades 7 through college.
The performance dates for “Pride and Prejudice” are July 16 – July 18.  Dogwood Summer Youth Theater is funded through a FACF Summer Youth Initiative grant.
For more information please contact the Dogwood Center at 231.924.8885.

The Boogie Woogie Babies tour throughout the Midwest and are known for their tight hamonies, beautiful blend and entertaining shows!
The group features three of West Michigan’s finest singers:  Mary Rademacher, Barbara Wisse, and Francesca Amari and includes premiere pianist Mark Kahny.
Their “Cabaret Show” will feature songs from the 1940’s, Broadway hits, and even a few pieces that give tribute to “girl groups” from over the years!  A fun and entertaining show that you will not want to miss!
This performance is funded in part by the Michigan Humanities Council.
Tickets: $10.  Black Box.  7:30 p.m.
The Dogwood Center Box Office is open Monday – Friday, 9:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. and one hour prior to an event.  For information, phone 231.924.8885.

The Ragbirds return to the Dogwood Center!  Ask the Ragbirds how to describe their hard-to-define Folk Rock and World fusion and they will tell you it is “infectious global groove”.  Led by fiery front-woman Erin Zindle, they put on a show that is designed to engage the audience on many levels – to get people thinking, listening and dancing! 
As the bands founder and songwriter, Zindle has an earthy sweet voice that is the center of the storm of energy around her – the whirlwind of guitarist T.J. Zindle and dynamic bassist Dan Hildebrandt spinning over the ethnic grooves of drummer Randall Moore and percussionist Tim Dzieken.  Zindle skillfully switches between violin, mandolin, banjo, accordian, and percussion all while singing lead vocals….and dancing!
The Ragbirds are passionate about their music, but they are also concerned with doing their part for the green movement.  Their newest CD, “Finally Almost Ready”, released this year, is being made from recycled plastic trays.  The biggest impact the band has on the environment is from their travel.  To reduce their carbon footprint by 90 percent, The Ragbirds has a Ford E-350 diesel van converted to run on waste vegetable oil.  To power this van, the band will literally drive up to fast food restaurants and ask for their used oil that otherwise would have been thrown away.  This up and coming band is very conscious of how everything they do affects the earth.
Tickets:  $10.  Black Box.  7:30 p.m.
The Dogwood Center Box Office is open Monday – Friday, 9:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. and one hour prior to an event.  For information, phone 231.924.8885.

Vanessa Trouble brings her New York style jazz to the Dogwood Center!  Vanessa is based in New York City where she lives and works full time as a jazz vocalist, an occupation and lifestyle that has sent her to various locales around the world. 
Expect to hear a mix of jazz standards and obscures, songs from classic American Cinema and Songbook, and selections from her two CD’s, “The Summer Sessions” and “Too Darn Hot”.  Vanessa will be accompanied by the Chris Copeland Quartet.
On a recent adventure Vanessa Trouble was 75 days at sea performing on the mega-ship Celebrity Equinox, traveling to various locales in the Caribbean Islands and South America.  This summer she will be part of the Prelude Series for the Great River Shakespeare Festival in Winona, Minnesota  and doing a steady performance schedule in New York.  She is also looking ahead to February 2011 where she will perform at the Retroback Film Festival in Granada Spain.
Visit her website www.vanessatrouble.com for a taste of her incredible voice!
Tickets: $10.  Black Box.  7:30 p.m.
The Dogwood Center Box Office is open Monday – Friday, 9:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. and one hour prior to an event.  For information, phone 231.924.8885.

Spectrum Brass Quintet presents “Who Could Ask for Anything More?” – an All-Gershwin Revue!
Program featuring Porgy and Bess for Brass Quintet, Rhapsody in Blue with pianist Anthony Patterson, and with soprano Elizabeth Stoner singing your favorite Gershwin songs!
In this all-Gershwin revue, you will hear favorites like It Ain’t Necessarily So, Embraceable You, Summertime, I Got Plenty of Nothing, and The Man I Love.
Committed to creative collaboration, the Spectrum Brass Quintet works with innovative performers to enrich and enliven the chamber music experience.  Their performance at the Dogwood Center will include trumpeters Scott Thornburg and Brian Buerkle, French hornist Eric Reed, trombonist John Rutherford, tubist Jacob Cameron, drummer Alex Trajono and features soprano Elizabeth Stoner and pianist Anthony Patterson.
This performance provides a brass quintet that commands the stage with power and grace, a concert pianist displaying dazzling virtuosity, and a soprano sweetly singing heartfelt songs…..now, Who Could Ask for Anything More!
September 10 is also “Dogwood Center Volunteer Appreciation Night”!
Tickets $15.  Main Stage. 7:30 p.m.
The Dogwood Center Box Office is open Monday – Friday, 9:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. and one hour prior to an event.  For information, phone 231.924.8885.

Bob Milne is a world renowned “Boogie-Woogie” ragtime pianist who has performed in Japan and Ireland.  Bob has been recorded by the Library of Congress, played at Bill Gates’ private club in Palm Springs, and for the past president George Bush.
Bob’s enthusiasm is contagious; he loves to share his knowledge, and is excited about keeping  ragtime music alive.
Bob is regarded as an American Treasure. As a recording artist, he has produced ten collections of solo piano rags, blues, boogies and folk/traditional tunes, and has written a Concerto for Orchestra and Ragtime Piano.  The Library of Congress has collected memorabilia and made a film of a day in his life to be stored for posterity as part of the American Music Project.  Bob lives in La Peer, Michigan.
Tickets $15.  Main Stage.  7:30 p.m.
The Dogwood Center Box Office is open Monday – Friday, 9:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. and one hour prior to an event.  For information, phone 231.924.8885.

Trop Rock in Michigan!  Join Living Soul and Don Middlebrook in the Black Box for an evening of tropical music that will feed your soul!  Known for their feel good, warm weather Caribbean soul sound with a kick, their music parallels to Jimmy Buffet’s style.

Dogwood Community Theater presents Crimes of the Heart on Friday, August 6 and Saturday, August 7.  Performance begins at 7:30 p.m. both evenings.  Michael Coon has returned to the Dogwood Center to direct the performance.
The scene is Hazlehurst, Mississippi, where the three Magrath sisters have gathered to await news of the family patriarch, their grandfather, who is living out his last hours in the local hospital. 
Lenny, the oldest sister, is unmarried at thirty and facing diminishing marital prospects;  Meg, the middle sister, who quickly outgrew Hazlehurst, is back after a failed singing career on the West Coast;  while Babe, the youngest, is out on bail after having shot her husband in the stomach.  Their troubles, grave and yet, somehow, hilarious, are highlighted by their priggish cousin, Chick, and by the awkward young lawyer who tries to keep Babe out of jail while helpless not to fall in love with her. 
In the end of the play is the story of how its young characters escape the past to seize the future – but the telling is so true and touching and consistently hilarious that it will linger in the mind long after the curtain has descended.
The play is headlined by Melissa Baker, Meghan Voss, and Chelsea Pummill portraying the three sisters.  Supporting roles are played by Sarah Brown, Jason De Jager, and Mark Ayers.
Director Michael Coon states “This play is a comedy about tragedy.  All three sisters each have their own set of tragedies, but there is one tragedy that they share in common.  In the past it has searated them, but come to the play, and you will see how a terrible event can turn into the bond that brings people together.  Sometimes the best way to get through the tragedies in our lives, we just need to find a little laughter.”
Tickets:  $10 in advance, $12.50 day of show.  Main Stage.  7:30 p.m.
The Dogwood Center Box Office is open Monday – Friday, 9:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. and one hour prior to an event.  For information, phone 231.924.8885.

Fremont High School Theater presents a timeless family classic Anne of Green Gables on May 6, 7 and 8 at the Dogwood Center.   Written by L.M. Montgomery and dramatized by Joseph Robinette, this classic follows the life of orphan Anne Shirley as she tries to find her place in a quiet Canadian town.
When again brother and sister, Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert, send to the orphanage in Nova Scotia for a boy to help them on the farm, they get more than they bargain for.  Due to a mix-up, they are instead left with 11-year old Anne Shirley.  Over the course of six years, this romantic, hot-headed, and energetic girl wins their hearts and turns the stodgy, rural Canadian community into a bright world of kindred spirits.
The cast is led by seniors including Cassondra Murphy as Anne Shirley, Heather Warfield as Marilla Cuthbert, and Zach Francis as Matthew Cuthbert.  Other seniors include Emily Zahrt as Rachel Lynde, Sarah Smith as Diana Berry, and Tonya Pell as Josie Pye.  Gilbert Blythe is played by senior Trevor Bacon, while Matt Cummings plays the role of a conscientious teacher.  Twenty-three other actors are included in the cast under the stage management of Kaylah Berndt.  Tim Bitson and Briana Jones run the technical aspect of the production while the entire production is managed by Anna Deur.
Tickets on sale at the Dogwood Box Office beginning April 20. 
Tickets: Adults – $10 in advance, $12 evening of show.  Students – $5.
The Dogwood Center Box Office is open Monday – Friday, 9:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. and one hour prior to an event.  For information, phone 231.924.8885.

Join in on the fun and kick off the 2010 Fremont Baby Food Festival by watching this film based on the “American Girl” series of dolls and books.  This film will be shown at NCRESA, the building directly across the parking lot from the Dogwood Center.
Kit Kittredge is a young girl living in the struggles of the Great Depression in a boarding house with her parents in Cincinnati, Ohio.  Kit has a passion for writing and dreams of having her work published someday.
The 2008 film is rated G and runs 101 minutes.
The film will be shown at NCRESA, the building directly across the parking lot from the Dogwood Center.  7:00 p.m.  Free admission, donations accepted at the door to help support the programs of NCCA – Artsplace and the Dogwood Center for the Performing Arts.
The Dogwood Center Box Office is open Monday – Friday, 9:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. and one hour prior to an event.  For information, phone 231.924.8885.