Cheese and Packers Stories Help a Wisconsin Theater Thrive | New York Times
An early fan was Fred Heide, currently Northern Sky’s artistic adviser. “It was songs of the Great Lakes sailors, the lumberjacks, the early immigrant farmers,” he said of the show. “They were authentic folk songs, but Dave arranged them with complex Broadway harmonies. And he combined them with interesting bits of our history and humorous things he had pulled out of books. There was a tremendous depth to these songs, and power and universality to the stories they were telling.”
Heide joined the Heritage Ensemble in 1972, and performed in and wrote many shows. In 1990, he rebooted the troupe as American Folklore Theater with Gerald Pelrine and Fred Alley — the latter a tireless director, performer and writer whose hits with James Kaplan, “Lumberjacks in Love” (1996) and “Guys on Ice” (1998), have been produced around the country and are regularly revived at Northern Sky.
Being multi-hyphenate is as much a part of the company’s D.N.A. as the shows’ subject matter. As production interns (they are paid and receive housing), Giorgione and her “No Bones About It” co-star Owen Foulds, who plays Ronny, also help put up and take down sets, prep for meals and more. Giorgione said she found internships “to be very invaluable when it comes to learning the tricks of the trade and what I need to know outside of acting.”
Foulds said he loved the need to “commit to everything 110 percent.”
Northern Sky Theater was co-founded by UW-Green Bay alumnus Fred Heide, who now serves as Artistic Adviser.
To read the full article, visit the link below:
Source: Cheese and Packers Stories Help a Wisconsin Theater Thrive | New York Times
