Machickanee Players

On behalf of the cast and crew of “Frankenstein” and of the Machickanee Players, I want to say “thank you” to all of our patrons, donors, volunteers, and every single person who helped put this production together. I am deeply humbled by the support of so many communities… our local community, the haunt community, and so many friends and family.

I am overwhelmed by a swell of emotions today. This production was more than 14 months in the making, and now it has come to an end. I am relieved. I can relax for the first time in a very long time. I can start turning my attention toward many other things in my life that I have been neglecting. I am sad. I already long for the company of my cast and to enjoy watching them perform several times a week in rehearsals and in shows. I feel some shame for parts of the script that – in hindsight – I wish I had written better, and would have with more time and resources.

But mostly, I feel pride and joy. This whole production was an amazing experience – one that I would not trade for anything. I had an amazing cast that successfully pulled off a very difficult script – particularly the three leads whose combined lines consumed more than 75% of the script. My cast also had amazing chemistry together on stage, which paved the way for a unique encore performance in “Frankenstein: In Stitches”.

Not only was the show a success with the cast and the audience, but it was also a huge success for the theatre. Since we began meticulously tracking sales data post-pandemic, Frankenstein didn’t just break records – it SHATTERED them. I’ll list off some of the more impressive bullet points from the newly-updated sales reports:

– 524 tickets sold (a 257% increase over the average of the shows prior).
– Our first completely sold-out show, plus three more shows that had 12 seats or fewer remaining. 74% of our total available seats were reserved.
– Patron growth of 286%.
– Patrons from 51 zip codes (more than double our previous record) and from 4 states outside of Wisconsin, including visitors from Colorado.
– Donation growth of 548%.

When I joined the Machickanee Players in 2022, we were on the verge of collapse. I took on the role of president as a way to test out some theories I had on how to make live theatre viable and competitive in the 21st century when all of our customers have so many other options for entertainment: be it cable tv, streaming services, modern cinema, sporting events, music concerts, or even just the corner pub. For two years and through no small amount of personal sacrifice, I have worked to reinvigorate this theatre with new blood and energy. It’s been a difficult (and often demoralizing) journey. But with the success of this show, I can confidently say that we’ve made a huge progress in furtherance of our business goals, and I hope the momentum we’ve built will continue to carry us through many more years to come. To have accomplished so much and to have had so much fun in the process is a true blessing!

I have so many individual people to thank…

First of all – Paul Lanner and Haunters Against Hate – thank you for collaborating with us and designing these dope t-shirts we had. Also, I want to thank everyone who bought a shirt. Not only did you support this production and the Machickanee Players, but you also supported another great nonprofit organization in the process.

Thank you to the Wooden Spoon for the catered dinners and thank you to OJ’s Midtown Cafe for the pies. Thank you to Laurel at Bay Impressions for the posters and programs. Thank you to WBAY, WOCO, and the Peshtigo Times for the pieces they did for us. And thank you to Green Bay Fear and The Good Place for hosting our cast parties. And a posthumous thank you to the author of the source material – Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley!

Thank you to everyone who assisted with publicity. And I know a lot of people did – more than I probably even realize. But I’m especially aware of just how much work Travis Rysewyk, Jamie “Bones” Braunsdorf, and Leigh Moore did.

Thank you to all of our wonderful house staff: Sue Bornemann, Ariana Cooper, Jenni Fabry, Rich Gillette, Sam Henry, Lynn Hollander, Kris Hull, Jackie Kapla, Randi Kluge, Julius “Juju” Lindsey, Leslie Linney, Tammie McCarthy, Kelly McDougal, Leigh Moore, Cathy Nelsen, and Noah Warpehoski-Fulcher. And a special thank you to Adam Reinke for organizing the house staff!

Thank you to everyone who assisted building the set and props – including Jamie “Bones” Braunsdorf, Rich Gillette, Leigh Moore, Susie Mozey, Cathy Nelsen, Kyle Patrick, Adam Reinke, Travis Rysewyk, and Noah Warpehoski-Fulcher.

Thank you to Michael Hollander for managing the lights and sounds for a play that had… perhaps not the most complex special effects cues – but certainly not the easiest!

Thank you to Cathy Nelsen and Leigh Moore for costuming the cast. Lord knows I have zero sense of fashion. I would have dressed them all in black and they would all have blended into the dark set!

Thank you to our amazing stage managers, Marla Van Lanen and Addison Dakins, who had to juggle a lot of difficult, awkward, and poorly-scripted set changes!

A special thank you to Kyle Patrick for filling in for one of our castmates who became ill. Also thanks to Devon Wauters, Jenny Warpehoski-Fulcher, and Jon Bornemann for assisting with other cast rearranegments. I had never worked with Jon before, but he thoroughly impressed me over the course of this production, and I’m looking forward to seeing more of him on stage in the future. Jenny, who I had worked with before and who has served as our unofficial voice projection coach – thank you for being every bit the scream queen I needed you to be.

Thank you to Alfred Osmon who not only persevered through some adversity but also made some dramatic changes in the process. Thank you to Jahn Mozey for – among other things – taking one of my favorite pieces of acting direction and turning it into a great joke during “In Stitches”. Thank you to Arissa Dakins for a perfect performance in what was arguably the most intense scene of the entire show. Thank you to Adam Reinke for anchoring (get it? it’s a PUN!!) the story, for being our surrogate audience, and for bringing in Molly, our unofficial mascot and sled dog.

A great big thank you to Susie Mozey. Not only did she play three roles in this play, and not only did she execute some glorious blood vomiting, but she also served as my assistant director. But more importantly, when I was president, she was my vice president. No question about it – I would have been up a creek without her help and hard work. And now that she is president, I feel especially obliged to thank her for permitting us to go forward with “In Stitches”. It was a bit of a PR risk – not gonna lie – and I’m grateful that she trusted us enough to let it happen.

Last, but certainly not least… thank you to two of my closest and dearest friends in the world – Jamie “Bones” Braunsdorf and Travis Rysewyk. Bones is a fellow haunter at Green Bay Fear. I’ve known him for over 6 years. I could spend hours sharing stories of our adventures both in the haunt world and on some wild road trips. But it was his passion for “Frankenstein” (and specifically the novel) that made me realize that I couldn’t do this project without him. Travis I met more recently – we performed together in “The Mousetrap” in October 2023. His acting skills were amazing and I knew immediately that if I was ever going to do “Frankenstein”, that I could not ask for a better actor to play Victor. Their combined passion and pride and dedication is all that any director could ever hope for. It has been my great honor and privilege to work with these two fine gentlemen – and the rest of the cast and crew – on this project. I love you both.

I can never thank all you guys enough. “Is it not hard to quit you all?”

Greg “Captain” Holbus