Funny Money is now entering it's final week of performances with a matinee performance on Wednesday Aug. 1st and evening performances Thurs. Aug. 2nd thru Saturday Aug. 4th's closing.  Don't miss this hilarious comedy, well reviewed by the Battle Creek Enquirer here.

We also have entered our first week of rehearsals for Cole Porter's Nymph Errant musical, the final show of the season.  One gentleman, who is involved in both of the shows is Dick Baker.

Dick plays Detective Sargent Slater in Funny Money.  The detective is very straight laced and professional as he has been given a task of delivering gravely bad news to the lead character's wife Jean Perkins.  However, Dick's fun personality begins to reveal itself as his character unravels along with the multitude of situations snowballing before him.

In Nymph Errant, Dick plays all the male characters, and I mean ALL of them.  A comical and very entertaining thru line of Nymph Errant is that all of the men, the main character Evangeline Edwards meets along her journeys, are played by Dick.  His roles include a British horticulturist, a French producer, a Russian orchestra leader, a German nudist, an Italian Count, a Greek shipping magnate, a burly Turkish officer, and a friendly Eunuch; Dick Baker is busy to say the least in Nymph Errant!

Dick was also in On Broadway 1956 and played the sly, fast talking lawyer Billy Flynn in Chicago this summer.  Dick is originally from Canandaigua, NY, and like many this summer at Tibbits, holds a BA in Musical Theatre from SUNY Cortland University.  This is Dick's third summer at Tibbits and said that he thinks the renovation of the theatre is so exciting it adds excitement to the experience of being here as an actor.  He sees himself, and all of us company members, like the community members of Coldwater, pulling together as part of the overhaul of Tibbits.  He said "it makes you feel important performing with something so important going on."

Dick's first show ever was during his Freshman year of high school, when his cousin Pete, who was a year older and involved in sports like Dick, but also in theatre, talked Dick into doing the show, 42nd Street.  After that, Dick's high school music director encouraged him to pursue this as a profession, and by Dick's Junior year of high school, he had made the decision to go into theatre professionally.

Dick feels like being in theatre is much like being a part of a team, like he was of both Football and Lacrosse.  It takes everyone involved to pull a show together.  Dick has worked at Geva Theatre in Rochester, NY, Freefall Theatre in St. Petersburg, FL, and also American Stage Theatre also in St. Petersburg, FL.  A dream role of Dick's is Gabe in Next to Normal. 

Dick's advice to young hopefuls is to START SAVING NOW!!! Funny, right?  But an honest answer appeared from Dick immediately following, saying "don't forget to have fun." 

Come see Dick, and all us former hopefuls, having fun in Funny Money, closing this week and then opening Thursday Aug. 9th with Nymph Errant.

See you at the show!!!

Funny Money is up and running with one more week of performances including Wed. matinee Aug. 1st and evening performances Thursday Aug. 2nd thru Saturday Aug. 4th.  Our set designer, Brittany Elias, has been creating the worlds in which you have enjoyed the shows this summer.

Funny Money, shown above, takes place in the 70's with mustard yellow walls, a pea green dining room, plus many furnishings, all transporting our audiences back to the 70's.  Brittany is originally from Palm Harbor, FL.  She holds a BFA in Theatre Design from University of Central Florida, but also attended the University of Cincinnati for 2 years as well.  This is Brittany's first summer here at Tibbits and loves designing in this space, especially with the historical aspect of Tibbits.

Brittany started performing at age 2, when she began ballet as well, but started competing in scenic design competitions in FL at age 16.  She won several state competitions and then went on to attend Carnegie Mellon's pre college program to see if she wanted to do this for real.  Brittany said she grew up wanting to be an architect and loved legos, so designing sets wasn't too far off from her childhood dream.  Brittany has extremely supportive parents who wanted her to follow her dreams of scenic design, she also had great inspiration from judges at those design competitions, who kept urging her to go to college for scenic design.

Last summer Brittany designed 2 shows at Weathervane Playhouse in Newark, OH along with being the prop master for all 8 shows that summer.  She has worked as a painter for Utah Festival Opera and a carpenter/painter for American Stage Theatre.  Brittany's dream show to design is Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and advises young hopefuls to take lots of art classes.  She said her most challenging set of the season will be Nymph Errant.  It is a big show with a lot of locations.  Brittany said she had the most fun designing the On Broadway 1956 set.  She loved the inspiration behind it and it's free form style. 

Sound designing for us this summer is Shaun Reis.  Originally from Johnsburg, IL, he just graduated from Lindenwood University in St. Charles, MO with a BA in Theatre.  This is Shaun's 3rd summer here at Tibbits.  He is a carpenter as well as our sound designer.  He returned stating he loves the area and the theatre.  It helps in his position knowing the theatre as well as he does.  By knowing how Tibbits works, he can think outside the problem and come up with a creative solution.

Shaun is responsible for the amplified sound you hear onstage (our monitors) and out in the house as well.  You may have noticed the 1920's microphone used by many on the top platform of Chicago.  Shaun rigged that piece to a modern usable microphone for speech to be heard better.  Shaun ran the show backstage, pulling up the mic when needed throughout our run of the show.  As you sit back and listen to the morning farm noise in Charlotte's Web, it is Shaun who has found that sound effect and made it happen.  Also he found, and is responsible, for the BBC music before, during and after Funny Money.

Shaun started performing in 7th grade, his older brother was a jack of all trades in theatre and by high school, Shaun had entered the technical side and had a hand in all sort of backstage work.  While in college, Shaun worked for a local sound company, an after school theatre program and often for a production and AV company.  These gigs often came through connections with his college and allowed Shaun more hands on training.

Eventually Shaun wants to be a stage hand that tours for a couple of years.  He likes the idea of the venue changing and traveling, which he thinks is a good lifestyle challenge.  He advises young technical people to "put your heart into it and never let it go, theatre takes all of you."  Well said Shaun.

See you at the show!!!

Funny Money opens tomorrow Thursday July 26th, with a matinee and evening performance.  This farcical comedy by famed playwright Ray Cooney, known for his farces, such as Run for Your Wife and Out of Order, will be playing on the Tibbits stage for two weeks, closing on Sat. Aug. 4th.

Playing the heated cab driver, Bill, who continually gets pulled into all the mischief of the money Henry Perkins has found in a mistaken briefcase off the subway, is Doug Robbins.  Doug was born in Reno, NV but moved around quite a bit as a kid.  His parents settled during his high school days in Cortland, NY, where he then attended SUNY Cortland University, graduating with a BA in Musical Theatre and minor in Communications.

This is Doug's second summer here at Tibbits.  He was last here in the summer of '10 and spent last summer at New Bedford Festival Theatre in New Bedford, MA.  Doug said he was excited to return to Tibbits because of the wonderful people here and especially how well done the shows are at Tibbits.  Doug began in theatre during high school, when a group of his friends kept asking him to join them in shows.  He was involved in sports at the time, but after doing his first couple of shows, the sports side of his life started to fade away. 

Doug remembers being little, reenacting Disney movies in his backyard with his sister, and says he was inspired to enter theatre as a profession because theatre is still like that fun play in the backyard for him.

Since graduating, Doug has worked at Cider Mill Playhouse in Binghamton, NY and also at the Palace Theatre in Manchester, NH.  A dream role he hasn't gotten the chance to play yet is Frederick C. Douglass in Kiss Me Kate.  Doug advises young hopefuls to not be afraid to really go for it, you may make mistakes but "you can't learn unless you try."


Our Props Master this summer for all the mainstage shows is Stephanie Baugher.  She has done a wonderful job collecting and building props, from those feathered fans in Chicago to the 70's paraphernalia in Funny Money.  Stephanie is from West Bloomfield, MI and just graduated from Northern Michigan University in Marquette, MI.  This is Stephanie's first summer here at Tibbits.

In past summers she has held two internships, in 2010 with Princeton University Theatre in NJ and 2011 with Central City Opera in Central City, CO.  Stephanie has an Illustration Degree with a minor in Theatre, she decided prop design was her forte around her Sophomore year in college.  She began in theatre doing church productions as a kid, and then migrated to backstage work from middle school on. 

Stephanie says her biggest challenge this summer will be with Nymph Errant, because of all the different locals in which the play takes place.  She has found her assistant, local Graham- Rowe Bultnick, very helpful in facilitating the borrowing of things from locals for the shows.  She said it is nice for locals to see a familiar face when asking to borrow something for a Tibbits show. 

Stephanie's advice to aspiring prop designers is to stay organized and figure out where to find or borrow things.  You have to be very resourceful and "be able to make something out of nothing."

Come check out both of these talented people's work this week and next at Funny Money.  I dare you to leave the theatre without your sides hurting from laughter!

See you at the show!!!

Henry Perkins has returned home from work on his birthday, accidentally grabbing the wrong briefcase on the subway. He finds his new briefcase filled with 735,000 pounds. Set in London in the late 1970's, when the British pound to dollar ratio was more than 2 to 1, you can only imagine how much money he has now found in his briefcase!!!  Henry decides to forgo his birthday celebrations and fly to Barcelona with his new fortune and his wife Jean, never to return. However, his soon arriving birthday guests and reluctant to leave wife, along with the true owners of the money briefcase, upset all of Henry's plans and hilarity ensues.

Playing Henry Perkins, is returning Tibbits company member Chad Tallon. This is Chad's second summer here at Tibbits, and has just recently played Amos Hart in Chicago. Chad is originally from Essex, IL, just 50 miles south of Chicago. He holds a BA in Theatre from Lewis University and has just completed an MFA degree in Acting from Western Illinois University.  Chad said he loved returning to the community of actors Charles Burr has cast. Chad states that Charles always seems to cast talented people who get along well together and are supportive of each other.

Chad was inspired to get into theatre by his 7th grade science teacher who was very involved in the arts and needed more boys for their production of Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe. Chad joined the cast as Mr. Beaver, and tells me he is still in contact with that special teacher, who started it all for him.

Henry Perkins

Chad began his undergrad days studying to be a Math teacher, but by his Sophomore year, he changed his mind to pursue theatre, transferred schools, and began his theatre path.  Chad has worked at Summer Music Theatre in Macomb, IL and this last year was on tour with National Players performing Of Mice and Men and Taming of the Shrew. Chad's dream roles include Horton in Seussical and Nathan Detroit in Guys and Dolls.  Chad advises people perusing theatre to always keep learning, reading, and working. "If you make your craft a priority, you can control your destiny."

Playing Chad's best friend in Funny Money, is TJ Besler as Vic Johnson. This is TJ's first summer here at Tibbits, he was featured as Olaf in Frog Prince and also fills out the ensemble in Chicago, most notably as Sergeant Fogarty.  TJ, originally from Manchester, IA, holds a BA in Theatre with a minor in Music and Dance from University of Iowa.  TJ mentioned how beautiful he thinks the theatre is, how efficiently Tibbits works, the great staff of people he is working with, and how supportive the Coldwater community is of the theatre in attendance of the shows.
TJ began in theatre during elementary school, and by his Freshman year in high school he was performing along side of his older sister. He said that the show they did together his Freshman year, Anything Goes, was when he decided he wanted to perform for a living.

Vic Johnson

TJ has worked at Old Creamery Theatre in Amana, IA, Winged Lions Players in LA, Nashville Children's Theatre and he has toured with National Theatre for Children.  TJ's dream roles include Bobby in Company, The Baker in Into the Woods and the MC in Cabaret.  His advice to young hopefuls is only do this if you are positive you can't see yourself doing anything else, "those are the people who stick with it and are successful."



Jean Perkins

Heather Jessup, our costume designer for Funny Money is bringing the late 70's fashion back to the Tibbits stage. Originally from Largo, FL, Heather has attended Florida School of the Arts, holds a BA in Technical Theatre from University of Mississippi and is entering her 3rd year as an MFA Costume Design student at North Carolina School of the Arts. This is Heather's 1st summer at Tibbits and is enjoying all the people she is working with here. Heather also designed our costumes for On Broadway 1956 earlier this summer. While in that show she was designing using several vintage items from the 50's, this show allows her to pull from the great stock the costume shop has due to the vast amount of donations received from locals here in Coldwater matching the era of this show. She tells me she has focused on the 70's silhouette in costuming this show and has stayed away from mustard yellow color, since the walls of the set will be in that color family. 


Sergeant Davenport

Heather began performing in middle school, was involved in show choir and has always loved singing. Heather has always enjoyed the analytical side of theatre as well. She found her place, as she continued to read plays and enjoyed the communication through design of the plays' intentions. In high school she got involved in FL State Thespians and enjoyed the opportunity to work beside professional costume designers. Heather has worked as a designer at Oxford Shakespeare Festival in Mississippi, at Maltz Jupiter as wardrobe supervisor and was assigned upkeep and styling of the wigs as well.  Also, Heather has worked as a costume apprentice for two years at Santa Fe Opera, but last year was a costume assistant at Santa Fe Opera.


Heather hopes to design a Tennessee Williams play in the future. She loves the text and relationships in the world he creates.  Heather advises aspiring costume designers to draw... a lot, paint, get experience and talk to people who are in the field. She stated, "You must love the substance of the play" to design well.

Betty Johnson

Funny Money, opens Thursday July 26th with both a matinee and evening performance and runs for two weeks closing on Saturday Aug. 4th.

See you at the show!!!