Theater   

• EMU Theatre: The Rocky Horror Show 

• In-Person Pre-Play Class: Friday, February 12, 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.
  Elderwise classroom at the Vineyard Church
  Presenter: Phil Simmons
  
  In-Person Live Performance: Sunday, February 16, 2:00 p.m., Legacy Theatre, EMU Campus.
        Book Music, and Lyrics by Richard O’Brien
        Directed by Phil Simmons           
        Music Direction by R. MacKenzie Lewis
        Note: Suggested for mature audiences only
  
  In-Person Post-Play Class: Tuesday, February 25, 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.
  Elderwise classroom at the Vineyard Church
  Presenter: Phil Simmons

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  Fees:
  Members: $20 for the pre-play and post-play classes, plus a $12 ticket fee
  Nonmembers: $30 for the pre-play and post-play classes, plus a $12 ticket fee

  Emeritus Faculty: Members $20; Nonmembers $30
  Includes two tickets to the performance and the pre-play and post-play classes.
  Please contact the Elderwise office to register for the Emeritus Faculty tickets and the online Pre-play class,
  you cannot do this yourself online.
  
  Extra Tickets are $12 each.
  Please contact the Elderwise office to purchase extra tickets. This cannot be purchased online.

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  Parking: 
  Driving directions and parking instructions will be emailed to class registrants a few days before the performance.
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  In this cult classic, sweethearts Brad and Janet, stuck with a flat tire during a storm, discover the eerie mansion of Dr. Frank-N-Furter, a transvestite scientist. As their innocence is lost, Brad and Janet meet a houseful of wild characters, including a rocking biker and a creepy butler. Through elaborate dances and rock songs, Frank-N-Furter unveils his latest creation: a muscular man named "Rocky." We will talk about this show, how it came to exist, and what genres of musical theatre and theatre make up this romping piece. Phil Simmons is the Director and a professor of Musical Theater at Eastern Michigan University, and a card-carrying member of the Actors Equity Association. He has lectured and taught master classes in dance across the United States. Phil’s passion is teaching the next generation of actors, singers, and dancers to be happy, thriving, career-long performers.

  

   

• Fee: $30.00

• Instructor(s): Phil Simmons

• Dates: 2/12/2025 - 2/25/2025

  Times: 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM

• Sessions: 2

  Days: Tu W

• Building: Vineyard Church

  Room: Classroom at the Vineyard Church

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• PTD Theatre: The Hat Box 

• In-Person Pre-Play Class: Thursday, February 13, 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.
  Elderwise classroom at the Vineyard Church
  Pre-Play Class Presenter: Karrie Waarala

  Matinee LIVE Performance: Wednesday, February 19, 2:00 p.m.
  Riverside Arts Center, 76 North Huron Street, Ypsilanti, MI

  Written by Eric Coble
  Directed by Karrie Waarala
  Note: Mature content and language.
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  Fees:
  Members $25; Nonmembers $30
  Includes pre-play class and one ticket to the performance.
  
  Extra Tickets are $15 each.
  Please contact the Elderwise office to purchase extra tickets. This cannot be done online.

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  Do we ever really know our parents? Do we want to? Really? Two sisters are about to find out when they discover a hat box hidden in the back of their recently deceased father's closet. What sits inside sends them off to visit eccentric Aunt Esther and on an increasingly wild ride down memory lane. With surprising twists and hilarious turns, Eric Coble's new comedy of family lore revels in the bizarre and beautiful mysteries that make up a life. Karrie Waarala holds a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from the University of Southern Maine, for which she wrote, produced, and performed her one-woman show, LONG GONE: A Poetry Sideshow, which debuted in Ypsilanti, MI, in 2011. She has directed, served as technical director, and appeared onstage for a number of PTD productions, and currently serves as PTD Productions Treasurer.

  

   

• Fee: $30.00

• Instructor(s): PTD Productions Karrie Waarala

• Dates: 2/13/2025 - 2/13/2025

  Times: 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM

• Sessions: 1

  Days: Th

• Building: Vineyard Church

  Room: Classroom at the Vineyard Church

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• Gilbert and Sullivan: HMS Pinafore 

• IN-PERSON: The Elderwise classroom at the Vineyard Church

  An arranged partnership between England’s foremost composer of classical music and its leading creator of light comic verse might appear to be a recipe for impossible expectations. And, for the first few years of their collaboration, the comic operas produced by William S. Gilbert and Arthur S. Sullivan proved to be a mixed bag of successes and disappointments. Beginning in 1878, however, with the debut of HMS Pinafore (or The Lass That Loved a Sailor), the team of Gilbert and Sullivan became an international sensation, evolving into a cultural institution in Great Britain and in her former colonies around the world. In this presentation, Todd Maslyk invites you to enter the Topsy-Turvy world of Gilbert and Sullivan, to investigate why their work continues to be staged more often than that of any author not named William Shakespeare, and to take a closer look at HMS Pinafore, which will be staged by the University of Michigan Gilbert and Sullivan Society (UMGASS) this April. Todd Maslyk is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures at the University of Michigan, and the current president of UMGASS. He has been a Gilbert and Sullivan fan since a childhood encounter with The Mikado and is regularly to be found around campus in Ann Arbor pushing people in the direction of the nearest theater.

  

   

• Fee: $15.00

• Instructor(s): Todd Maslyk

• Dates: 3/13/2025 - 3/13/2025

  Times: 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM

• Sessions: 1

  Days: Th

• Building: Vineyard Church

  Room: Classroom at the Vineyard Church

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