Interview: Priceless Professional Theater Entertains Every Summer at PPT

During June, July, August and often through warm Octobers, summer theater abounds across the country. In Door County's Fish Creek, Wisconsin, Penninsula Players Theatre (PPT) has enchanted summer audiences for more than 80 years on the shores of Green Bay where the sunsets surprise each show night. Even when a close to an 80 miles per hour wind storm arrived one August afternoon and blackend the lights and power for an entire peninsula, the show went on. PPT plugged in the generators and lit candles to illuminate the tables and walkways so the classic farce Lend Me A Tenor played to an audience of approxiimately 300 people. The dedication to excellent performance extends far beyond what might be expected by the residents and tourists.

This one event relates to the resilience of Artistic Director Greg Vinkler's company who all eat live, rehearse and work together for the entire summer. In an actor's perfect world, if a production or project offers two of the four "p's"-pay, people, project and place--then Peninsula Players produces winning combination for actors. According to the four actors sitting around a table before the evening performance, a PPT summer suceeds in delivering all four.
Well before the 8:00 p.m. showtime, the four actors relaxing befoe the show include Matt Holzfeind, Tim Monison, Sean Fortunato and Joe Foust. Everyone except Holzfeind has been with PPT for more than 10 yesrs, although Holzfeind is experiencing his second season. All agree PPT transforms into a summer family where the actors develop close friendship and working relationships that ultimately project on the summer stage.

Foust explained that when a person, a traveler, crosses the bridge at Sturgeon Bay the Door Peninsuals offers a step back in time and the natural beauty of the county-- ice cream parlousrs with red and white striped awnings, home made fugde at candy stores, free outdoor concerts from well known musicians along with picnics in the park and of course, professional summer theater.

To expand on that thought, Fortunato concnurs with Foust, and they believe summer theater at the Players produce, "beautiful old pieces of British and American theater, produced by a professional acting company. Often pieces that are overlooked by large regional theaters. This company has the opportunity to excel and demonstrate how these classic plays were performed when first produced, with exquistit sets and costumes, to give the audience an exceptional theatre expereince."

In the 2015 season, Dial M for Murder, an iconic who done it, and Ken Ludwig's award winning Lend Me A Tenor represent two plays produces with elegant costumes and set to entertain and engage the audience. Each production offered a look at these timeless plays set in the past that audiences can relax and enjoy.

Ludwig's Lend Me A Tenor featured all four actors, Holzfieind as the young Max, Monsion plays Saunders, head of the Cleveland Grand Opera Company,, Frotunato disguised as the famour opera singer Tito Morelli and Foust in a brilliant cameo role as the bellhop. Each actor added a unique element to this stellar production that delighted audiences and included a special operatic duet by Fortunato and Holzfeind, which introduced an audience to the opera genre. The two actors received a standing ovation.

Fortunato's wife Linda, also a PPT company member, directed the production where her precise comic and operatic pitch inhabited this talented cast (seen in the picture, with these four actors) and helped audiences understand what can be utterly charming about the "theatrical farce." A production where the comedy, fellowship and joy between those actors on stage flows directly into the audience.

Whether on stage on in the rehearsal room, each produciton transforms into what these actors affectionately name "summer camp." A more than 15 year veteran, Monsion says, "The eden-like qualities [on the premises} over a summer create a space for the three week turn around time between productions. You rehearse in the afternoon, and perform at night. When you break bread together every day, this feeds into the rehearsal room."

The rehearsal room also gathers actors together for world premieres, including the 2015 A Real Lulu, Foust's Once Upon a Ponzi and Sean Grennan's The Tin Woman, plays which continue to be performed around the country. Vinkler believes in his actors and their new work, while also using their abilities as directors, designers and playwrights. This philsophy attracts actors of all ages and experience, while currently Foust collaborates with Milwaukee's First Stage John Maclay on a play for that company's 2016-2017 season based on Robin Hood's life.

Holzfeind adds to this ongoing promise of acting in innovative plays: "They've [PPT} done a world premiere four years in a row. Everything is done well, and it's exciting they, including Vinkler, are receptive to new worl. There's something for everybody, and the fact that we get multiple oppotunities in any one sesaon is part of the fun.'

Each actor agress in any given season, oppotunities appear to play characters and roles an individual may not otherwise have the chance to do. The incredible variety of PPT performances can be considered part of an actor's expanding repetoire, as is consistently perfecting their craft in a vareity of theatre genres, all in one season. Holzfeind offers that he "feels fortunate to be immersed in one thing [a company], in one place, without worrying about meals and transportation, and for actors, this can be therapeutic."

During one Door County summer, the company entertains first time and returning theater goers, and presents an oppotunity to realize a small piece of theater history. In each performance staged live their exists the happenstance for improvisation, where every night transforms the unique chemistry of actor and play so the audience has a remarkable experience and keeps returning.

Summer theater remains, and will be, a valuable professional extension of numerous fall and winter seasons, instead of merely "pure seasonal entertainment." These priceless productions staged at PPT and steeped in theater tradition revisist wonderful memories that as Monsion explains with a wistful smile across his face, "transcend generations for actors and audiences."

For more information on Door County's Peninsula Players Theatre 2015 Summer Season in Fish Creek which includes Lend Me A Tenor through August 16, Outside Mulligan, August 19-September 6, and closes with the musical Nunsense, September 9 through October 18, or special back stage tours and programming, please call 920.868.3287 or www.peninsulaplayers.com.