Dogwood

Dogwood Community Theater presents Crimes of the Heart on Friday, August 6 and Saturday, August 7.  Performance begins at 7:30 p.m. both evenings.  Michael Coon has returned to the Dogwood Center to direct the performance.
The scene is Hazlehurst, Mississippi, where the three Magrath sisters have gathered to await news of the family patriarch, their grandfather, who is living out his last hours in the local hospital. 
Lenny, the oldest sister, is unmarried at thirty and facing diminishing marital prospects;  Meg, the middle sister, who quickly outgrew Hazlehurst, is back after a failed singing career on the West Coast;  while Babe, the youngest, is out on bail after having shot her husband in the stomach.  Their troubles, grave and yet, somehow, hilarious, are highlighted by their priggish cousin, Chick, and by the awkward young lawyer who tries to keep Babe out of jail while helpless not to fall in love with her. 
In the end of the play is the story of how its young characters escape the past to seize the future – but the telling is so true and touching and consistently hilarious that it will linger in the mind long after the curtain has descended.
The play is headlined by Melissa Baker, Meghan Voss, and Chelsea Pummill portraying the three sisters.  Supporting roles are played by Sarah Brown, Jason De Jager, and Mark Ayers.
Director Michael Coon states “This play is a comedy about tragedy.  All three sisters each have their own set of tragedies, but there is one tragedy that they share in common.  In the past it has searated them, but come to the play, and you will see how a terrible event can turn into the bond that brings people together.  Sometimes the best way to get through the tragedies in our lives, we just need to find a little laughter.”
Tickets:  $10 in advance, $12.50 day of show.  Main Stage.  7:30 p.m.
The Dogwood Center Box Office is open Monday – Friday, 9:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. and one hour prior to an event.  For information, phone 231.924.8885.

Fremont High School Theater presents a timeless family classic Anne of Green Gables on May 6, 7 and 8 at the Dogwood Center.   Written by L.M. Montgomery and dramatized by Joseph Robinette, this classic follows the life of orphan Anne Shirley as she tries to find her place in a quiet Canadian town.
When again brother and sister, Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert, send to the orphanage in Nova Scotia for a boy to help them on the farm, they get more than they bargain for.  Due to a mix-up, they are instead left with 11-year old Anne Shirley.  Over the course of six years, this romantic, hot-headed, and energetic girl wins their hearts and turns the stodgy, rural Canadian community into a bright world of kindred spirits.
The cast is led by seniors including Cassondra Murphy as Anne Shirley, Heather Warfield as Marilla Cuthbert, and Zach Francis as Matthew Cuthbert.  Other seniors include Emily Zahrt as Rachel Lynde, Sarah Smith as Diana Berry, and Tonya Pell as Josie Pye.  Gilbert Blythe is played by senior Trevor Bacon, while Matt Cummings plays the role of a conscientious teacher.  Twenty-three other actors are included in the cast under the stage management of Kaylah Berndt.  Tim Bitson and Briana Jones run the technical aspect of the production while the entire production is managed by Anna Deur.
Tickets on sale at the Dogwood Box Office beginning April 20. 
Tickets: Adults – $10 in advance, $12 evening of show.  Students – $5.
The Dogwood Center Box Office is open Monday – Friday, 9:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. and one hour prior to an event.  For information, phone 231.924.8885.

Join in on the fun and kick off the 2010 Fremont Baby Food Festival by watching this film based on the “American Girl” series of dolls and books.  This film will be shown at NCRESA, the building directly across the parking lot from the Dogwood Center.
Kit Kittredge is a young girl living in the struggles of the Great Depression in a boarding house with her parents in Cincinnati, Ohio.  Kit has a passion for writing and dreams of having her work published someday.
The 2008 film is rated G and runs 101 minutes.
The film will be shown at NCRESA, the building directly across the parking lot from the Dogwood Center.  7:00 p.m.  Free admission, donations accepted at the door to help support the programs of NCCA – Artsplace and the Dogwood Center for the Performing Arts.
The Dogwood Center Box Office is open Monday – Friday, 9:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. and one hour prior to an event.  For information, phone 231.924.8885.

Dogwood Center’s Summer Youth Theater presents “Pride and Prejudice”. 
“Pride and Predjudice” is based on the novel by Jane Austen.  The Dogwood Summer Youth Theater will be directed again this summer by Chelsea Webb.
“Pride and “Predjudice” is a humourous story of love and life among English gentility during the Georgian era.  Mr. Bennet is an English gentleman living in Hartfordshire with his overbearing wife.  The Bennet’s 5 daughters; the beautiful Jane, the clever Elizabeth, the bookish Mary, the immature Kitty and the wild Lydia.  Unfortunately for the Bennets, if Mr. Bennet dies their house will be inherited by a distant cousin whom they have never met, so the family’s future happiness and security is dependent on the daughters making good marriages.  Life is uneventful until the arrival in the neighborhood of the rich gentleman Mr. Bingley, who rents a large house so he can spend the summer in the country.  Mr. Bingley brings with him his sister and the dashing (and richer) but proud Mr. Darcy.  Love is soon in the air for one of the Bennet sisters, while another may have jumped to a hasty pre-judgement.  For the Bennet sisters many trials and tribulations stand between them and their happiness, including class, gossip and scandal.
Friday, July 16, 7:30 p.m.  Main Stage.  Free admission, donations accepted at the door.
Saturday, July 17, 7:30 p.m. Main Stage.  Free admission, donations accepted at the door.
Sunday, July 18, 3:00 p.m. Main Stage.  Free admission, donations accepted at the door.
The Dogwood Center Box Office is open Monday – Friday, 9:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. and one hour prior to an event.  For information, phone 231.924.8885.

Fremont John will combine his original tunes from his vocal CD’s with his recently released instrumental CD Guitar Songs and some carefully selected old favorites to deliver a great performance at the Dogwood Center!  
Fremont John’s show will feature a full-band sound and beautiful vocal harmonies in a variety of formats that include solo, duo, trio and full-band arrangements.  The songs carry great lead-ins, catchy melodies and infectious hooks.  His lyrics bring a powerful message that inspires all who hear the songs, that it is never too late to live your dream.
Fremont John’s songs are Acoustic Rock for people with life experience.  He serves up a melodic insight into what is really important in our lives.  The songs bring to light real stories everyone can relate to.  Often autobiographical in nature, Fremont John reminds us that it is truly important to follow that inner voice.
Visit www.fremontjohn.com to listen to some music samples of Fremont John.
Black Box.  Tickets $10.  7:30 p.m.
The Dogwood Center Box Office is open Monday – Friday, 9:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. and one hour prior to an event.  For information, phone 231.924.8885.

The Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp Faculty Winds, a 30-piece concert band, will perform an Independence Day-themed program on Wednesday, July 7 on the Main Stage at 7:30 p.m.
The program, conducted by Kent Krive will include The Star Spangled  Banner, America the Beautiful, and works by Morton Gould (American Salute, Battle Hymn, and Fourth of July), William Schuman (George Washington Bridge), Frank Meacham (American Patrol), Robert Russell Bennett (Suite of Old American Dances), Dan Emmett (Fantasia on “Dixie“), Jerry Bilik (American Variations), John Philip Sousa (Fairest of the Fair), and Richard Rodgers (The Sound of Music).
Conductor Kent J. Krive of North Muskegon is Associate Professor of Humanities Emeritus, Ferris State University and taught in several public school systems in Michigan.  Associated with Blue Lake since its founding, Krive has performed as a member of the Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp Festival Band, conducted student ensembles and the Staff and Festival Bands, and led the International Symphony Band on its European tours in 1991, 1999, and 2000.
The performance will honor Fremont residents Ray and Phyllis Jansma.  The Jansmas have been affiliated with Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp since its inception and have assisted in the creation and administration of several successful programs, including Chamber Music for Fun and the Stewart Piano Workshop.
Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp, a summer school of the arts located in Twin Lake, offers fine arts education for all ages.  The summer camp annually serves gifted elementary, junior high, and high school students with diverse programs in music, art, dance, and drama, while offering public performances during its Summer Arts Festival.  Blue Lake also operates a widely acclaimed International Exchange Program, two public radio stations and a series of adult programs recently profiled on CNN.
Tickets:  Donations accepted at the door to benefit the programming of the Dogwood Center.  Main Stage.  7:30 p.m.
The Dogwood Center Box Office is open Monday – Friday, 9:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. and one hour prior to an event.  For information, phone 231.924.8885.

Auditions will be held on Monday, June 14 at 7:00 p.m. at the Dogwood Center for Performing Arts for “Crimes of the Heart”.  Auditions wil be everyone together at 7:00 p.m.  If you are unable to arrive by 7:00 p.m., please contact the Dogwood Center at 231.924.8885 (9:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.).
The story:  The scene is Hazlehurst, Mississippi, where the three Magrath sisters have gathered to await news of the family patriarch, their grandfather, who is living out his last hours in the local hospital.  Lenny, the oldest sister, is unmarried at thirty and facing diminishing marital prospects;  Meg, the middle sister, who quickly outgrew Hazlehurst, is back after a failed singing career on the West Coast;  while Babe, the youngest, is out on bail after having shot her husband in the stomach.  Their troubles, grave and yet, somehow, hilarious, are highlighted by their priggish cousin, Chick, and by the awkward youn lawyer who tries to keep Babe out of jail while helpless not to fall in love with her.  In the end of the play is the story of how its young characters escape the past to seize the future – but the telling is so tru and touching and consistently hilarious that it will linger in the mind long after the curtain has descended.
Directed by Michael Coon.
Auditions:  2 men, 4 women.
Location:  Dogwood Center for Performing Arts, 4734 S. Campus Court, Fremont.
Audition Time:  Monday, June 14 at 7:00 p.m.
Performance dates are August 6 and August 7.  For more information contact the Dogwood Center at 231.924.8885.

Experience true magical entertainment from comedy, extraordinary magic, lots of audience participation and spellbinding illusion with magician Kevin Heller’s “Theater of Magic”!  
Kevin is a professional magician who has devoted over 2 decades of performing and perfecting his special brand of magical entertainment.  His mastery of enchanting magic and sleight of hand, combined with world-class illusions and hilarious audience participation, will blow you away!
As a child, Kevin Heller was obsessed with becoming a magician.  Throughout the years, he has meticulously studied thousands of books, watched literally thousands of magic shows, and through thousands of performances has spent countless hours developing a magical style that he could call his own.
Kevin tours throughout the midwest with what has been described as a roller coaster ride of magic, comedy and illusion.  Along with his wife Robin, the couple has become a magical tour de force.  Bring the whole family for a great night of entertainment!
Main Stage.  7:30 p.m.  Tickets $10 adults, $5 children 18 and under.
The Dogwood Center Box Office is open Monday – Friday, 9:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. and one hour prior to an event.  For information, phone 231.924.8885.

I learned the truth at seventeen That love was meant for beauty queens….
Known for her revolutionary hit “Society’s Child” and memorable song “At Seventeen”, Grammy award winner Janis Ian will be performing at the Dogwood Center!  Dogwood Box Office opens at 6:30 this evening for at-door sales of remaining tickets for Janis Ian’s performance.
Janis Ian is counted among the great songwriters in America today.  She wrote “Jesse”, a song recorded by so many others that few remember Ian wrote it…. “Stars” – possibly the best song ever written about the life of a performer, recorded by artists as diverse as Mel Torme and Cher… and the seminal “At Seventeen”, a song that brought her five Grammy nominations in 1975 – the most any solo female artist had ever garnered and which is now reaching its third generation of listeners.
Reviewers have called her live performances “overwhelming to the spirit and soul” and “drenched with such passion, the audience feels they’ve been swept up in a hurricane.”  Not to mention her short stories, her songs for film and television…. and she runs a foundation, named for her mother, that works with various universities and colleges to supply scholarships for returning students…quite a broad spectrum of interests!
Ian also wrote  Society’s Child:  My Autobiography. She is not an artist for the faint of heart…her music and book offer an outspoken look behind the scenes, not just of her life, but of the music industry as well.  Check out her website at www.JanisIan.com for much more on her music, writing and more!
Ian trivia includes:  Janis Ian was the first musical guest on NBC’s premiere broadcast of Saturday Night Live in 1975!   She also states, “I’m 4’10”. People always say ‘I didn’t know you were so short!’  Please don’t tell me that. I already know it.”
Main Stage.  Tickets $15 in advance, $20 day of show. Performance at 7:30 p.m.  Tickets available now!  Call today to reserve your tickets!

The Dogwood Center Box Office is open Monday – Friday, 9:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. and one hour prior to an event.  For information, phone 231.924.8885.  Dogwood Box Office opens at 6:30 p.m. this evening (Saturday) for at-door sales of remaining tickets.

Celtic with a Kick with Chelsea High School Students!  The Chelsea House Orchestra consists of very talented young people from Chelsea High School, located on the east-side of Michigan.  The group performs on Celtic Festival stages and fairs throughout the region. 
Musically, Chelsea House Orchestra provides a varied and colorful performance repertoire with the majority of the music derived from traditional Celtic sources.
Past performance venues have included Alma Highland Games, St. Andrews Highland Games, Saline Celtic Festival, Scottish Society of Southwestern Michigan, Kalamazoo Irish Festival, and Edinboro, Pennsylvania Highland Games, as well as many varied festivals around the Midwest.  The group has performed on stage with Barrage, Jerry Holland, Simon Mayor and Hilary James, Bowfire, and Pub Domain.
Main stage.  Tickets $15 adult, $5 children 18 and under.  7:30 p.m.
The Dogwood Center Box Office is open Monday – Friday, 9:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. and one hour prior to an event.  For information, phone 231.924.8885.