We hope you're staying warm out there. It's been a crazy week for weather and we're looking forward to a little bit warmer February!

One thing that the January weather has done is allowed us to spend a little time getting ready for some of our artist driven upcoming events. We're excited that as a part of our mission here at the Arts Collective we've been gathering projects that are near and dear to the artists who have been collaborating with us this past year. 
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Other artist driven projects this year include Hello Again, Becky's New Car, Always Patsy Cline and a series of musical evenings being organized by Kevin James Sievert under the title "The Forst Inn Sings...". A lot of our music events happen because musicians contact us looking for a place to do their art as well, and Catherine is busy collaborating with those folks and making sure the pub and the stage are hopping with great musicians.

Do you have a dream project that you've always wanted to make happen? Contact us and start the process. Who knows? Stay warm!!
-- Michael

Our upcoming production of November opens on February 22. We've assembled a great cast for this show with a mix of Forst Inn favorites and new faces.

Leading off the cast as the embattled Commander In Chief, Charles Smith, is Jeremy Pelegrin. Jeremy has a challenging task ahead of him filling the shoes of Nathan Lane, who originated the role on Broadway back in 2008. Jeremy returns to the Forst Inn after appearing in 2018’s Hello Again and Putnam County Spelling Bee. In the Green Bay area, Jeremy has enjoyed performing with Daddy D Productions, Birder Players, St. Norbert Music Theatre, Theatre Z, and Evergreen Productions, where he was last seen in the title role of Lombardi. Jeremy earned his Theatre Arts degree from UW Stevens Point and went on to perform at dinner theaters and theme parks around the country. His Florida credits include Walt Disney World, Universal Studios, Busch Gardens Tampa Bay, Mark II Dinner Theatre and The Golden Apple. Some of Jeremy’s favorite roles have been in They’re Playing Our Song (Vernon), Into the Woods (Jack), You’re a Good Man...(Charlie Brown), The Baltimore Waltz (Carl), Annie (Rooster), and Monty Python’s Spamalot (Sir Galahad). 

Filling the role of Charles' intrepid sidekick, Archer, is Forst Inn favorite Sean Stalvey. Sean was in our first production, “The Glass Menagerie”, and played the lead in “The 39 Steps”. Sean began his interest in theatre in high school and with the Peter Quince Performing Company, playing Flute and Piccolo in the pit orchestras. He started to pursue theatre on-stage at UW-Manitowoc, where he earned the 2018 UW-Manitowoc Fine Arts in Theatre Award. Having graduated with an Associate of Arts and Science Degree at UW-Manitowoc, Sean is currently a student at UW-Green Bay pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Theatre. In his free time, Sean enjoys astronomy and watching movies.

Laurie Conrad is a new face at The Forst and is playing the determined speech writer, Bernstein. Laurie is a recent transplant from Madison, Wisconsin and now resides on the shores of Lake Michigan.  She is elated to be with The Forst Inn. Laurie is affiliated with The Collective Writers Group and The Wisconsin Screenwriters Forum.  Laurie is an avid writer, and heads the Cool City Writers Group at the Lester Public Library in Two Rivers, Wisconsin. Laurie has performed with the Isadoora Theatre Company and Third Avenue Playhouse.

Margi Diny plays "The Turkey Gal"...we'll let you imagine what that means. Margi is well-known to audiences in the Green Bay Area and beyond, having performed onstage for several years. She particularly enjoys acting and volunteering at the Forst, where she played Agnes in “I do, I do!”, Mickey in The Odd Couple female version, and other roles. You may have even seen her bussing tables or seating patrons. When not helping at the Forst, Margi is a commercial actor, appearing on billboards, print ads, and film. She also keeps busy playing the violin with the Civic Symphony of Green Bay and for weddings and other events.

Rounding out the cast in the peculiar but exciting role of Dwight Grackle is Kana Coonce. Kana was recently seen on the Forst Inn Stage in a number of productions including Mistletoe Musings, Black Patent Leather Shoes and The 39 Steps. When it comes to biographical details, Kana leans toward whimsy and tends to leave all summary to outside and mystical forces. For this particular show and character, that would probably mean that you'll need to look to the Native American spirit world to learn anything useful about Kana's experiences or plans.

The show itself was written by David Mamet in 2008 and was well received by the reviewers in New York. It depicts one day in the life of a beleaguered American commander-in-chief. It's November in a Presidential election year, and incumbent Charles Smith's chances for reelection are looking grim. Approval ratings are down, his money's running out, and nuclear war might be imminent. Though his staff has thrown in the towel and his wife has begun to prepare for her post-White House life, Chuck isn't ready to give up just yet. Amidst the biggest fight of his political career, the President has to find time to pardon a couple of turkeys — saving them from the slaughter before Thanksgiving — and this simple PR event inspires Smith to risk it all in an attempt to win back public support. With Mamet's characteristic no-holds-barred style, November is a scathingly hilarious take on the state of American politics (today, yesterday, forever) and the lengths to which people will go to win.

We have kept the time frame the same rather than attempting to update it. The setting is the final days of a fictional presidential candidate and this lovable commander in chief bears no resemblance to any of our recent occupants of the office. Rather, Charles Smith is created as a broad representative of politicians writ large...with an extreme nod to the way that the exigencies of politics can cause them all to lose sight of their more serious and idealistic values. Mamet takes a shot at just about everyone on both sides of the aisle and manages to offend just about everyone along the way. You should be able to see all your least favorite politicians in his desperate antics, but also some of the lovable traits of your favorite politicians as well.
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The show is definitely rated R, with Mamet's usual employment of adult jokes and liberal use of words that start with "f". 

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"This is satire with a scorpion's sting" - Variety
"A professional skeptic and an inspired word jockey, David Mamet can lay claim to the same connoisseurship of human folly as H. L. Mencken, who once observed that, in America, 'only the man who was born with a petrified diaphragm can fail to laugh himself to sleep every night.' Mamet's new Oval Office satire, November... is a hilarious demonstration of the fact that we live in an age of equality: all classes are criminal... Broadway comedy is generally a testament to Twain's maxim that honesty is 'the best of all the lost arts.' On the boulevard, laughter is meant to distract, not galvanize, to enchant, not disenchant. Into this weak hand, David Mamet has dealt an ace." - John Lahr, The New Yorker
"Ferociously original... and crisply performed, [November] rollicks from one politically incorrect punch line to the next." – San Francisco Chronicle
"Vaudeville meets current events... David Mamet just couldn't resist the bully pulpit of satire." – San Jose Mercury News
"Remarkable... one of the most profoundly laugh-out-loud plays that I have seen in many years." – BeyondChron.org
"The big, explosive laughter that starts early in David Mamet's November is of a kind I haven't heard in decades." – The Village Voice
"November gets my vote! Like an expert marksman in a shooting gallery, the playwright takes aim at just about every hot-button issue of the day, scoring a bull's eye every time." –Backstage East
"Sublime! One of the first breezy and intelligent comedies of substance we've seen in a long time" – The Villager
"Extremely funny" – The New York Times

It’s snowing today. Light fluffy stuff that’s easy to move around and looks pretty on the trees. Although I like having distinct seasons, I find that every year gives the arrival of spring more weight and relief. The lifting of the dark of winter is a palpable physical and emotional moment that I anticipate with growing passion each year. Meanwhile, I find that I am more interested in hibernating each year as well. No doubt this is a widely shared outlook.
 
With that in mind, we elected to close down The Forst for the month of January. This has the benefit of giving Catherine and I some needed time to recharge, plan and renew. As a part of that planning process, we are looking forward to our first board meeting of the year and the introduction of some new board members. We are also enjoying the involvement of new voices in creating plans for many aspects of what we do. This is all much needed and good. Still, it is strange to sit in the pub looking out at the winter in a building that is largely cold and still. Over the past year and a half it has been such a vibrant hub of activity and energy.
 
The quiet does provide some time for reflection. We have gone a long while without posting new musings…it’s hard to muse when you are neck deep in the intensity of the doing. So, while the cold and dark might inspire melancholy at times, it is also a fertile space to ponder and reflect and, voila, a musing emerges.
 
There is much I could muse upon; the challenge of doing so much with limited resources; the joy of seeing audiences enthused and inspired; the satisfaction of the slow and steady growth in attendance; the relief of receiving important patron support at year’s end; the growing community of artists and volunteers…it’s all worthy of consideration.
 
Gratitude and hope come to mind as obvious things to reflect upon. A little cliched perhaps, but still these are the two strongest threads in this morning’s thinking. The scope and nature of gratitude is pretty obvious here. I am grateful for the good fortune that has led to this moment, to the hard work of those around me, to the dedication of Catherine Egger in joining in this crazy adventure, to the support of the community, to the positive events that have allowed us to manage to pay the bills as we go…all of these things have allowed me to immerse myself in an adventure that I can be nothing but thankful for having. I am thankful.
 
Hope is more complex. While the first phase of the project has gone well, there is much to do in order to ensure the continued survival of this newest incarnation of The Forst Inn. Attendance needs to keep edging higher, more and more people need to be plugged in to more and more tasks to ensure that the place runs smoothly and that our audiences have amazing experiences, new patrons and sponsors are needed to help pay our artists and make much needed improvements in the facility…it’s a long list and fear rather than hope stands out as a rather substantive emotion. Which is where the gratitude comes in.
 
Because it is all of the things that I am grateful for which give me hope for this next year. Success for The Forst Inn Arts Collective will come not because of what I do, but because of what you do. It will be the moments when volunteers, artists, sponsors and patrons own the success of this magical place that will create hope and, ultimately, ensure its sustenance. That’s a pretty cool thing to get to be part of.
 
When I taught in the public schools a colleague and I shared a phrase that we would toss to each other in challenging moments. We would simply say, “twig in a stream”; invoking the Buddhist notion of acceptance and release of control. Some things are bigger than you are, and one must accept and trust. There is a path to success and it is a stream that cannot be easily directed. In the quiet dark of winter it is good to embrace that stream, float to the surface, and savor being carried along in its power.

Of course, the stream has to thaw first! :-) Happy Winter!

-- Michael