Masquers Holds Actor Workshop

The Masquers Education Committee is organizing and Actor Workshop on January 11, 2025 at our home, the Masquers Coach House 616 N. 8th Street in Manitowoc. The event is open to active Masquers members and non-members. The workshop will start at 2:00 pm and run through 3:30 pm. The cost for this workshop is $5 for active Masquers members and $10 for non-members.

Special guest presenters will be Deborah Clifton and John Kishline. These two professional actors have "trod the boards" for a combined 77 years. They have agreed to share their knowledge with us at this event.

Deborah Clifton

Deborah Clifton has been acting professionally for 25 years. She has performed at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, Madison Repertory Theatre, Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, First Stage, Next Act Theatre, Milwaukee Chamber Theatre, and 120 productions with Milwaukee’s Theatre X, where she also wrote plays. One of the plays she wrote put her on the cover of American Theatre magazine. She has performed across the U.S. and in England, Wales, Holland, Sweden, Germany and Japan. Also Deborah along with her husband, John Kishline and son, Sam Kishline toured India via the US State Dept. with a piece written by John Kishline.

John Kishline

John Kishline lives in Waukesha WI and has been an actor, director, playwright and designer in professional theatre for 52 years. He served one or more of the above functions in 200 professional productions performed in 16 of the United States, and in Holland, England, Wales, Ireland, Sweden, Germany, Japan and toured India in 2011 in his play, SUCCESS, presented by the U.S. State Department in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai and Hyderabad. He has written 14 produced plays and helped create at least 50 more from scratch as a founding member of Milwaukee’s Theatre X and has performed for most of the theatres in Milwaukee. Other work includes Madison, Rockford, and in Chicago at the Goodman Theatre, Seanachai Theatre and the Chicago Shakespeare Project. Some of his plays have been nominated for national and regional awards and his design work won an OBIE in New York in 1978.

Everyone who wishes to participate in this workshop must register online prior to January 7, 2025. Space is limited to the first 20 people to register, and there is a mimum of 10 participants to hold the workshop.

To register use click the button below.

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94th Season Directors Appointed

The Masquers board of directors have appointed two of three directors for their upcoming 2024-2025 season. As is their custom, the board reviewed applications and interviewed the applicants for 12 Angry Jurors and Comelot.

Leading the creation of the first show of the season, 12 Angry Jurors, will be veteran director and actor Warren Schmidt. Warren has served as director seventeen times for several local theatre groups with seven of those shows Masquers productions. The most recent Masquers show directed by Warren was the drama The Last Lifeboat. Warren has also been named director for several musicals at Two Rivers High School and Howards Grove Middle School. The balance of his directorial experience has been with Treehouse Theater.

The second show of the season is the dromedy Making God Laugh. Tim Brey has been appointed as the director who will be leading the production of this show. Tim is a veteran of the stage for several Masquers shows and directed Sex Please We're Sixty in our 88th season. We're looking forward to another great preformance with Making God Laugh

The third show of the Masquers season, the award winning musical Camelot will be lead by director, Claran LaViolette. Claran is no stranger to the Masquers stage either on-stage or behind the scenes. Her true love is costuming, but we've noticed her influence on four of our shows. She served as director of Suite Surrender, The Spoon River Project, Clue and, most recently Ripcord in our 93rd season. Claran has also directed several shows for St Johns Players.

Both directors are excited to begin the process of planning for their indiviual productions. Serving as producer 12 Angry Jurors will be the veteran producer Luan Leonardelli, while Lisa Heili will serve as producer for Camelot. We are very excited to have these directors on board and look forward to their visions coming to life on the stage.

You can learn more about each show in this article below and by following the link to our 94th season.

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Announcing Our 94th Season

The Masquers has been around since the first Community Chest fundraising event in 1931 when a few friends got together to put on a show. What set them apart from other performers that night is that they kept putting on shows every year since.

The Masquers seasons consisted of two to four shows every year making them one of the oldest continuously operating community theater groups in the state. "The show must go on" seemed to be the motto for the group as they continued to present a slate of shows each season; even during WW II.

The last few seasons we found ourselves in the middle of a pandemic which shortened our 89th season and caused us to rethink our 90th season. Not willing to give up without a fight, the Masquers resolved to "put on a show" even if it meant doing so on our own front lawn! And so, we continued our tradition and presented two shows in that 90th season even though we were forced to find alternative venues for each show.

Now that we are back to the Capitol Civic Centre on "The Masquers Stage" for the fourth season in a row we are proud to present our 94th Anniversary Season.

Our first selection of the year is 12 Angry Jurors. Adapted from the made-for-TV movie 12 Angry Men by Sherman L. Segal. This show has been renamed to allow us to cast women along with the men in our production.

A 19-year-old man has just stood trial for the fatal stabbing of his father. "He doesn't stand a chance," mutters the guard as the 12 jurors are taken into the bleak jury room. It looks like an open-and-shut case—until one of the jurors begins opening the others' eyes to the facts.

"This is a remarkable thing about democracy," says the foreign-born juror, "that we are notified by mail to come down to this place—and decide on the guilt or innocence of a person; of a man or woman we have not known before. We have nothing to gain or lose by our verdict. We should not make it a personal thing." But personal it is, with each juror revealing his or her own character as the various testimonies are re-examined, the murder is re-enacted, and a new murder threat is born before their eyes!

This show will be presented November 7-9, at the Capitol Civic Centre.

Our second show this season will be the comedy Making God Laugh.

Making God Laugh follows one typical American family over the course of thirty years' worth of holidays. Starting in 1980, Ruthie and Bill's grown children -- a priest, an aspiring actress, and a former football star -- all return home, where we learn of their plans and dreams as they embark on their adult lives.

The empty-nester parents contend with their own changes, too, as old family rituals are trotted out and ancient tensions flare up. As time passes, the family discovers that, despite what we may have in mind, we often arrive at unexpected destinations.

As Woody Allen once said, "If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans..."

Making God Laugh will be performed March 6-8, at the Capital Civic Centre.

The final show of the year is Lerner and Loewe’s award-winning, soaring musical. We proudly present Camelot

Borrowing from the Arthurian legends, Lerner and Loewe’s Camelot is the duo’s fantastical masterpiece which triumphed on Broadway in a legendary original production that led to a film version, and numerous revivals in New York, London and across the globe. Its Original Broadway Cast Album topped the charts for 60 weeks, with a rich score boasting such gems as "If Ever I Would Leave You," “I Loved You Once in Silence,” "The Lusty Month of May," and of course, "Camelot."

Camelot will be performed May 8-10, and the Capitol Civic Centre.

94th Season