It's A Wild World....

Listen to Joe and Gary perform WILD WORLD: (click here)

It’s a Wild World..  This past weekend was wildly wonderful, and next weekend is shaping up to be the same.
 
​Last weekend we closed the four-week run of our premier show, The Glass Menagerie – a beautiful, poignant, and sometimes gut-wrenchingly honest autobiographical portrayal of playwright Tennessee Williams’ family life.  Our cast, Zach Lulloff, Laker Thrasher, Vicki Svacina and Sean Stalvey put their heart and souls into their roles and gave the audiences a riveting performance every single night.  Our sound and lighting genius, Jeff LaFond, made sure every moment was perfect.  It is hard to adequately express our appreciation much less to say goodbye to such a cast and show.

(Also a huge thanks to Chase Dazig, Cole Egger, Jacob Williams, Justin Knapp and Threse Powell for all of your help behind the scenes!)

We had wonderful musicians come out and entertain before and after shows: Erin LaFond, Pete Honzik, and David Bowman.  (Singing with Jim and Susie Miller around the piano as David Bowman played?  Priceless.)
 
We held The Forst Inn Art’s Collective’s monthly Board of Directors meeting in the Art Gallery, where with great enthusiasm we reviewed the 2018 season (which will be announced soon!), and had a robust discussion about the mission of the Forst Inn.
 (Thank you to the board members, Mary Mauer,  John Brunner, Scott Dollinger, Kevin Voysey,  Brian Van Ells, Chris Honzik and Connie Hendries who came out even after a Packer defeat for the meeting - some coming directly from Lambeau Field!)

We also launched our Sunday Music in the Pub series with Gary Koepke and Joe LaForce – who brought the Pub alive with an altogether new energy as people relaxed and enjoyed their soulful music.
 
Next weekend we will be presenting Patrick Dewane’s  one-man multi-media show ‘An Accidental Hero’, the true story of his grandfather’s experiences as a WWII American Officer who helped liberate Czechoslovakia, to two nearly sold-out audiences.  Then we'll be enjoying Pete Honzik’s music for our Sunday Music in the Pub.
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​And we’ve only been open for five weeks...  Not that long ago all of these were just ideas in our heads.
 
As Michael and I are usually consumed in the little (endless) details from do we have enough creamer, to getting the piano tuned and the fire extinguishers serviced, to advertising deadlines, to liquor inventory, to…. (on and on - it really is endless), as well as juggling this with our other jobs and the rest of our lives, we often don’t have the time to sit back and take in what’s been created so far, and the experiences we’ve already been able to provide for our guests.
 
But on Sunday night, as the cast was still saying their goodbyes and hugging one another, the board meeting was complete, and Joe and Gary played to a very appreciative crowd, I took it all in and had a moment where I welled up with tears.  Everything about it was beautiful.  It’s definitely a wild world, and this has been a wild ride.  But every minute has been worth it.  And I hope we keep riding it for a long, long time.
- Catherine