Interview: Marvelous Shanty Boy Doug Mancheski Returns to GUYS ON ICE at Milwaukee's Stackner

With only a few performances remaining of Northern Sky Theater's (NST) 2015 season, their fall selection Lumberjacks in Love draws to a close. Douglas Mancheski retires the Dirty Bob shanty lumberjack he has played on and off since meeting Fred Alley in 1997. An event when Alley first discovered the actor and asked Mancheski to collaborate on the "Little Dress" song that was immediately added to the popular NST musical. The solo song and dance continually brings smiles to audiences when Mancheski twirls in a ruffled white skirt on stage. Although Mancheski's burly lumberjack days are numbered this year, until NST's next production, he will still be a shanty boy through the holidays in Milwaukee.

The popular Mancheski has a short two week reprieve until rehersals begin for another shanty boy, a character from a production commissioned by Milwaukee Rep in the late 1990's and opened at Door County's Ephraim Town Hall in 1998. When Guys on Ice returns to the Stackner Cabaret this November, last seen in 2001, .Mancheski will have reprised the role of Marvin for approximately 1000 performances. In the Fred Alley, James Kaplan and Frederick Heide collaboration that imagined this beloved Wisconsin musical and returns to Milwaukee by popular demand, the city delights in one of the few, perhaps only, musical ever composed for ice fishing. Where a tiny wooden shanty houses most of the story's action for two football fans and fishermen, Marvin and Lloyd. After a performance of Lumberjacks in Love, Mancheski gives a few thoughts on the upcoming Milwaukee producttion afer taking off that little dress he has worn on stage this fall in Fish Creek.

While Mancheski originated the role of Marvin to Alley's Lloyd, since the untimely passing of Alley, the talented Steve Koehler (Skylight Mustc Theatre's Captain Von Trapp in Sound of Music), has made Lloyd in his own persona for numerous performances and subsequently returns to the Stackner. The two actors taped the production for Wisconsin Public Television in summer 2014 along with Lee Becker playing Ernie the Moocher. The now iconic musical pays tribute to Wisconsin's Green Bay Packers and a man cave on the frozen northern bay waters, a winning combination in any weather, although especially when the Packers boast a 5-0 winning start to the 2015-2016 NFL season.

Marvin and Lloyd both wear snowmobile suits, immortalized in a song of the same name and availabe for viewing on You Tube, Mancheski says whenever he plays this role, he prefers the original suit created from nylon by NST'S Neen Rock, who has replaced mulltiple zippers multiple times. Often when performing in other venues, costume designers create the suit from Gortex, which traps heat inside the suit, great for the outdoors, uncomfortable on stage. Since this song requires the zippers zinging up and down to the melody, it's a small miracle Mancheski's original suit remains intact.

Mancheski also shines in another shanty miracle, a duet with Lloyd titeld "Fish is the Miracle Food." and then solos in an Elvis impersonation titled "The King," an image represneted in the pciture taken form the 2014 taping for Wisconsin Public Television.The actor oontinually keeps Marvin's role fresh by knowing every audience enters into the theater new, and that the story revolves around a friendship where these two "guys' take a small journey in their personal lives metaphorically seen through ice fishing. A story that can be played equally sincere straight instead of dependent on any laugh lines. He says, "Fred loved kids and this play is intergenerational.... can develop new audiences because of the humanity of these characters."

Originallly from Northern Wisconsin, Mancheski worked with Paul Sills in Chicago/New York performing experimental and improvisational theater, while also adding Shakespeare to his then repetoire. When the troupe traveled to Door County, Mancheski encountered Alley, a co-founder of Northern Sky Theater (the former American Folklore Theater) which performs summers in Peninsula State Park and falls at the Door Community Auditiorium. The company composes all original works centered around Wisconsin history or folklore to create affordable and family friendly theater that has earned seveal honors for their 25 year legacy.

Mancheski remains a centerpiece of the NST company every summer season, and recalls that Guys on Ice is one show that his Father could appreciate and enjoy, a fond memory for the very dedicated actor. While Mancheski cetainly revels in the roles of Dirty Bob and Marvin, he almost defines these characters, he has relished returning to classical acting with recent appearances at Sturgeon Bay's Thrid Avenue Playhouse for Stage Door Theatre Company in A.R. Gurney's Love Letters and Michael Healy's award-winning Canadian playThe Drawer Boy.

In a few weeks Mancheski returns to Milwaukee antcipating his own classic role of Marvleous Marvin in the musical that has an official website: GuysOnICe@WIX.com. With the Packers perhaps short-listed for a 2016 Super Bowl appearance, Mancheski knows the reception will be wondrous for The Rep's Guys on Ice. He concludes by noting, "This is the only show that husbands drag their wives to and guys ask me for my autograph."

Who, man, woman or child, could resist these aodrable, laughable and lovable ice shanty guys in snowmobile suits?

The Milwaukee Rep presents Guys on Ice at the Stackner Cabaret in the Patty and Jay Baker Theatre Complex opening on November 13 and continuing through January 17.. For information on Northern Sky Theater, please visit www.northernskytheater.com For information on special events, performance schedule or tickets for Guys on Ice, please visit: www.MilwaukeeRep.com.

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