CONGRATULATIONS!

I promise to add more pics and stories tomorrow......but wow.
What a night. Tonight's performance was the best ROSE to date.
The audience was totally with us- cheering, laughing, and tears.....
all the good stuff that ROSE is made of.
The alumni office sponsored a preshow reception with over 100 alum, family, and friends. President and Mrs. Bultman were gracious along with honored guests, Jim and Donna Brooks who have presided over the Patrons for the Arts, the organization that funded the original Nathan Allen residency. Congressman Peter Hoekstra was also in attendance. Can't wait to include some pictures from the day- but it is time for some stress free sleep!
More tomorrow....

6 Hours till opening!

Preparations are being made!!!!



The technicians are finishing their work and the actors are getting into costume for some final rehearsals before inviting our audience in!

WISH YOU WERE HERE!

Rose's new home

THE KENNEDY CENTER!!!!!
Today is the day!
It is so hard to believe that the day has finally arrived.
We are all trying to soak up all the magic- the day will go fast- the memories will last a lifetime!

Springtime in Washington

Today was amazing. Sun. Flowers. Everything was just lovely. We all arrived in Washington safe and sound- the van group even arrived in time to see the Pope as his motorcade came down the street where they were sitting having lunch. This afternoon we were the guests of Mr. and Mrs. Nowotny for a reception. Eva Nowotny is the Austrian Ambassador to the US and Mr. Nowotny was a 1959 Hope graduate. He spoke very eloquently about his time at Hope and his fondness for the formitive time that he spent with excellent professors and experiences in Holland. Off we went to the Kennedy Center in the evening to see the University of Oklahoma's production. As we walked up to the Kennedy Center we saw the poster for the festival- which is a picture of our very own ROSE with the RIME WITCH! WOW!!! We are so anxious to perform ROSE. Tomorrow we load in starting at 6:45am. It will be a VERY long day- but I am sure the excitement and adrenaline will carry us through. just hours now.....

ROSE Flies!

WOW! SO much preparation, so much planning, so much energy......we are ready to roll!!!!

There is a lovely Hope Bus waiting to wisk us away to the GR Airport. Many thanks for all the kind words and support from the Hope Community and beyond. We'll do you proud!
Washington DC Here we come!

Life Backstage in Radio Falls

For all the action that happens onstage, backstage has twice the action and craziness. In this show there are many more props than usual and many of these have to be set in specific places backstage before the show even starts. The assistant stage managers are in charge of prepping the props, handing them off to actors, taking them when the actors are done, and putting them out of the way. Currently there are also four people backstage specifically for running the fly rail where we take out or let in the stalactites and make it snow onstage. There are three wardrobers to help the actors with fast costume changes and one person to run the fog machine so there are quite a few extra people backstage! It is a crazy time backstage with all the actors, wardrobers, and assistant stage managers running around but there are also moments where we are able to enjoy what's happening onstage. because this show relies so much on the technical aspects-like props and sound, etc-the work backstage is very rewarding to see. So even though the audience-hopefully-never sees us in the wings and backstage, we are there running around with crazy jobs and troubleshooting anything that goes wrong, and in radio falls, we wear white to blend in with the set!

Back together a year later!

It has been a whole year since Rose and the Rime originally appeared on the DeWitt stage. Now cast and crew are back together one more time. This past weekend was full of long rehearsals, but people still had a good time just being around each other.

Please feel free to attend our final dress rehearsal tonight at 7:30pm in DeWitt.

A Note from Co-Costume Designer Amanda

Because of the recent remount in Milwaukee, thankfully most of the costumes are all set already! The one big project we have to tackle still is remaking the 10+ foot long Rime Witch overskirt--that gigantic mound of interfacing we love so much! Because it has been worn through the inital run last spring, worn for the Hope College remount performance and then again in Milwaukee, the original is pretty tattered and dirty. So the Rime Witch will be getting a brand new, re-engineered overskirt fashioned out of well over 100 yards of lightweight non-fusible fabric stabilizer! We can't wait to unveil it!

KC-ACTF... in January!

To see pictures from our first remount in January of 2008, click on the link below.

http://www.hope.edu/pr/gallery/08theatrefestival.html

Why does Rose and the Rime have a blog?

Hope College Theatre Department's production of Rose and the Rime will be performed at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC on April 17, 2008. Remounting our show and moving it to Washington DC will involve many people to make it a success. This blog will allow you to hear from faculty, cast, and crew members as they make their way through the next few weeks. Look for pictures and posts from people in all areas of our company!

Read the Press Release!

"We are incredibly excited and honored to be selected to perform 'Rose and the Rime' at the Kennedy Center in our nation's capital," said Michelle Bombe, who is director of theatre, professor of theatre and resident costume designer at Hope. "This honor is the culmination of an amazing journey - from humble ideas of what might happen if we brought in a guest artist to write a play with and for our students, to a challenging and motivating process of creation, to the incredible success it had on our campus last spring, to having college theatre students jumping to their feet at the regional festival in Milwaukee, and now to be recognized on a national level - truly amazing."


The non-competitive national festival - Bombe noted that selection is the recognition -- will run Monday-Sunday, April 14-20, at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Hope College Theatre will present "Rose and the Rime" on Thursday, April 17, at 7:30 p.m. in the center's Terrace Theater.


The last Hope production invited to be presented during the national festival was "Tea and Sympathy" in 1983. The last time that a Hope production had been chosen for presentation during the regional festival was "The Dining Room" in 1988. The other Hope productions selected for regional presentation through the years have been "Hallelujah" (1971), "Bull Moose" (1975), "Mack and Mabel" (1981), and "Tea and Sympathy." Most recently, in 2004, a scene from Hope College Theatre's production of "Iphigenia and Other Daughters" was chosen for presentation during the regional festival's "Evening of Scenes."


Hope College Theatre originally presented "Rose and the Rime" during the 2006-07 school year, on Friday and Saturday, April 20 and 21, and Wednesday-Saturday, April 25-28, in the DeWitt Center main theatre. The show was written and created by guest artist Nathan Allen, who was also the production's director, in a collaborative effort with the cast and design team.
"Rose and the Rime" is set in the fictional town of Radio Falls, Mich., where it is always winter. The community has been laid waste by the terrible Rime Witch, and is a world without flowers, apples, mail or dancing -- but with an abundance of snow, wind and ice cream. The shining beacon in the wintry gloom is a young girl named Rose, who takes it upon herself to make a treacherous journey to the frozen cave of the Witch in the hope of changing her town's fate.
Several of the original cast members have been reprising their roles in the production: 2007 graduate Jennifer Blair of Libertyville, Ill., as Ethel May-Bell; junior Isaac Bush of Muskegon as Charlie Sutherland; senior Dane Dandridge Clark of Grand Rapids as Hank; 2007 graduate Chad Coe of Birmingham as Gary Smackhouse; 2007 graduate Kate Finkbeiner of Haslett as Adelaide Avram; 2007 graduate Youngmee Sharon Kwon of Ann Arbor and Tae-jon, South Korea, as Granny Sadie; 2007 graduate Cody Masalkoski of Lansing as Uncle Roger; senior Brandon Ruiter of Grand Rapids as Jimmy Sutherland; sophomore Brittany Stock of St. Charles, Ill., as Hazel Davis; and senior Rachel Wells of West Bend, Wis., as Rose. The original cast has been joined by seniors Katherine Bramley of Northbrook, Ill., as Betty Duncan, and Jocelyn Vammer of Midland as Loretta Laroche and the Rime Witch.


The production team includes a mix of Hope students and faculty and staff. The scenic designers are faculty member Richard Smith and seniors Sarah Watkins of Bloomfield Hills and Stephanie Gavin of Granville, Ohio. Costume design is by faculty member Michelle Bombe and senior Amanda Spaanstra of Wyoming. Erik Alberg of the staff is lighting director, and senior Mike Olson of Holland is student lighting designer. Sound designer is faculty member Perry Landes. Stage manager is 2007 graduate Kate Goetzinger of Indianapolis, Ind., while the assistant stage managers are 2007 graduate Katie Eagan of Highland Park, Ill.; sophomore Jeri Fredrickson of Wheaton, Ill.; and sophomore Lenore Ojibway-Gifford of Lansing.


Senior Stephanie Lawson of Mount Vernon, Ohio, is production manager and house manager. Freshmen Christine Worden of Midland and Jackie Richards of Worthington, Ohio, are doing wardrobe. Serving on the lighting set and crew are sophomore Sara Gosses of Amherst, Ohio; sophomore Kenneth Chamberlain of Metuchen, N.J.; junior Laura Van Tassell of Spencer, Iowa; freshman Ben Hertel of Fennville; and junior Katie Terpstra of Zeeland. Working on front-of-house crew is senior Stacy Thomas of Clare.


Allen is the artistic director of the House Theatre Company in Chicago, Ill., and worked with the students throughout the 2006-07 school year in creating the play. He began in October 2006, with monthly intensive workshops for actors, directors, technicians and writers which culminated in his residency at the college in March and April of 2007.


Originally from Colorado, Allen graduated from Southern Methodist University in 2000 with a BFA in acting. After his experiences in college and abroad, Allen and friends from SMU and the BritishAmericanDramaAcademy moved to Chicago to start their own theatre company. Their mission was to collaborate and create a non-elitist theatre community where they could write, act, direct, and realize their own work. Within a year and a half, they had incorporated the House Theatre Company.


The Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival is a national program designed to encourage excellence in college and university theater in the United States. Started in 1969, the program involves 18,000 students from more than 600 academic institutions throughout the country.


The program is divided into eight regions. The Great Lakes "Region III" includes colleges and universities from Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin.


In addition to "Rose and the Rime," the full-length, college- and university-staged productions chosen for the festival are "In the Blood" by Suzan-Lori Parks, from the University of Alabama-Birmingham; and "Ernestine Shuswap Gets Her Trout" by Tomson Highway, from the University of Oklahoma. The festival will also include two finalists for the John Cauble Award for Outstanding Short Play; productions to be featured during the event's "Short Play Festival," with selections from Weber State University's "The Musical of Musicals (The Musical!)" by Joanne Bogart and Eric Rockwell; a showcase performance from Wichita State University's production of "Wild Party" by Andrew Lippa; and "A House Full of Letters" by Kit Steinkellner of the University of California-Los Angeles.



Additional information about the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival may be obtained online at http://www.kennedy-center.org/education/actf/