October 19, 2006

CAST FOR UW-WC FALL PLAY, Fuddy Meers ANNOUNCED

Performances the first two weekends in November

The University of Wisconsin-Washington County (UW-WC) is pleased to announce the cast for their fall theatre production, Fuddy Meers.  Produced and directed by Professor Brad Ford, Fuddy Meers will be performed at 7:30pm on Friday and Saturday, November 3 and 4 and November 10 and 11 in the University Theatre.  “Kidnapping, amnesia and oddballs make for a first rate farce,” according to the New York Daily News.  Amidst the laughter and wacky humor, the story compels the audience to think about those things in life we take for granted. For example, when we wake up in the morning, we know who we are and we recognize the room that we are in and the people around us.  That is not the case for the play’s main character, Claire, who suffers from psychogenic amnesia. Every morning, Claire wakes up to a clean slate and any strides made to fill in her blank spaces are lost again at the end of the day.

Surrounded by a cast of oddballs, Claire travels through a genuine fun house of mazes and funny mirrors to find out who she is and solve the mysteries of her forgotten life. According to the author, David Lindsay-Abaire, Claire’s world is one of “incomplete pictures and distorted realities,” with “mirrors and memories” important motifs in the symbolic economy of the play.  “It’s basically a whodunit,” said Lindsay-Abaire, “nobody’s been killed, but Claire is a detective following the clues to putting her life together. By the end, she knows who did what to whom.”
In addition to UW-WC seasoned actors, Mary Wittmann and Roger Retzlaff, Jr., the cast includes three UW-Washington County students (Laura Feider, Kris Holly and Tierney Ryan) and two UW-Whitewater graduates (Greg Barnes and Nick Brettingan). Brettingan is currently an 8^th grade Language Arts teacher at Kewaskum Middle School. Newcomer, Dawn Brulla rounds out the cast with her debut on the UW-WC stage, after an article in the paper prompted her to audition.

The play starts off as just another ordinary day for Claire, a woman of 40 (played by Dawn Brulla  of West Bend).  Her husband, Richard, (played by Nick Brettingan of West Bend) brings her a cup of coffee and patiently explains her amnesia problem that erases her memory each night when she sleeps. Things start to go amiss when Limping Man (played by Kris Holly of West Bend) kidnaps Claire and her husband stops at nothing to get her back. Other characters along Claire’s journey include her overgrown eighth grade son, Kenny (played by Greg Barnes of West Bend) and Claire’s mother, Gertie (played by Mary Wittmann of West Bend) who speaks in “stroke talk” – which is how the name of the play Fuddy Meers came about (from funny mirrors). Other zany characters include Millet, an ex-convict with a sock puppet (played by Roger Retzlaff, Jr. of West Bend) and Heidi (played by Laura Feider of Fredonia), an intense woman who may or may not be a state trooper.

Assisting Professor Ford is Tierney Ryan of Iron Ridge, a student at UW-Washington County, majoring in Communications. The set design is the creative and ingenious work of a former UW-WC student, Curt Enderle. His drawings and scale model of the stage will be on display in the theatre lobby.  Enderle won an Emmy in 2001 for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation for the “Phish Phry” episode in Gary & Mike. After attending UW-WC, Enderle transferred to Minnesota State, where he completed a bachelor degree in Technical Theatre in 1987. 

     Tickets are $12 for adults and $9 for seniors (over 62) and children (under 18). Fuddy Meers is rated PG-13 and contains some adult language. Admission for UW-WC students is free, with presentation of student id. For tickets and reservations, phone 262-335-5208.

     UW-WC is located at 400 University Drive in West Bend (off Hwy. 33). The theatre is on the second floor of the campus. Free parking is available.  More information is available online at www.washington.uwc.edu.