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         FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                               September 11, 2012    

        

          Contact: Holly Feldman, Manager of Marketing and Audience Development

          (920) 854-6117x104

          [email protected]   

 

American Folklore Theatre announces two special fall events open to the public

 

Tickets are on sale now for the return of American Folklore Theatre's (AFT's) popular Equinox Concert as well as a staged reading of a new musical by AFT favorite Laurie Flanigan-Hegge. Both events are being held to support AFT's mission to provide theatrical experiences at affordable prices, allowing families to enjoy original theater together.

 

"The Equinox concerts given during the fall season in past years were annual events dear to AFT co-founder Fred Alley," stated AFT Board Chairperson Mary Seeberg. "From the beginning they were intimate, warm and delightful occasions for both our audiences and the small groups of talented performers who staged them. We are excited to pick up and continue the tradition this year after a seven-year hiatus."

 

"This year's event is entitled, 'Autumn makes me Sing', and features twelve AFT company members as they weave a unique tapestry of song and poetry," explained Music Director Colin Welford. "In one unbroken 'act' we will take a colorful journey through the year's varied seasons, beginning in autumn, then traveling onwards through winter, spring and summer until we wind our way back in celebration of our fall season once more." 

AFT has been given special permission to hold their event in the intimate surroundings of The Great Room at Bjorklunden. Guests will be seated 'in the round' in lamplight creating an intimate performance space. At the end of the evening, audience members will be invited to remain and mingle with the performers while sharing some warm seasonal refreshment.

This special "Autumn Makes Me Sing" evening will be held on Monday, October 1st at 7:30 PM at Bjorklunden in Baileys Harbor. Doors open at 7:00 PM. Tickets are $35.00 and are on sale now at the AFT box office at the Green Gables Shops in north Ephraim or via phone at (920) 854-6117.

AFT will also offer a rare glimpse at a new musical when they present a staged reading of Twenty Days to Find a Wife by Laurie Flanigan-Hegge and Marya Hart.    

AFT fans will recognize Flanigan-Hegge as the co-author of the hit musical, Loose Lips Sink Ships, which premiered at AFT in 2001. While working as an actress in Door County, Flanigan-Hegge came upon the story of David Corbin, the first lighthouse keeper of the Pottawatomie Light on Rock Island, the first of Door County's lighthouses. Keeper Corbin was ordered off his desolate island by the district inspector for the lighthouse service, who granted him leave on the condition that he find himself a wife.

 

"Twenty Days to Find a Wife tells the fictional story of Corbin's search for love," explains Flanigan-Hegge. "He took the leave, and famously, returned alone - but census records later showed a widow and her three children living in the lighthouse."

  

The authors began their collaboration on Twenty Days to Find a Wife after they met in the Nautilus Music Theatre Composer-Librettist Studio. Flanigan-Hegge and Hart found inspiration on the stone-covered shores of Rock Island, home of Corbin's lighthouse and the location of one of the most treacherous passages for ships traversing the Great Lakes, known as Death's Door. 

  

The musical premiered at the History Theatre in Minnesota in 2009 where it was named to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune's "Best Of" list and has been heralded as "a funny and moving meditation about what it means to be alone and together."   

 

Twenty Days to Find a Wife will be held on Monday, October 8th at 7:30 PM at the Ephraim Village Hall in Ephraim. Tickets are $25.00 and are on sale now at the AFT box office at the Green Gables Shops in north Ephraim or via phone at (920) 854-6117.    

 

American Folklore Theatre is a non-profit professional theatre organization that produces original musical shows in repertory from June through August in Peninsula State Park.  AFT continues its performances into the fall with shows at the Door Community Auditorium and Door County town halls September through October and over the Christmas holidays.  American Folklore Theatre is a member of Theatre Wisconsin an organization that promotes non-profit theatre groups in the state.


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Autumn Equinox Concert

20 Days to Find a Wife Lighthouse Logo