Raue Center for the Arts

Happy New Year Everyone!

We hope you had a wonderful holiday season with your families and friends.

Our office is busy these days and we are in need of a few volunteers to help us with answering the phones, filing and general office work. The hours are 9:00 till noon and noon till 2:00 pm, Monday through Friday. We do offer volunteer points for this work.

Please let me know if you are interested or maybe you have a friend that would be available. We would be happy to share more information about the position or meet with you if you are interested. 

Please contact Laurie Teator, director of special events and volunteer services, at 815.356.9010 x 19 or info@rauecenter.org.

Thank you!!

We have had a great start to the 2012-13 season and we need your help to spread the good news! We have had 3 sold out shows thus far and we are so proud of Amy Grant for her fantastic performance on and off the Raue Center stage. After her show Amy held an impromptu concert for some of her biggest fans with special needs and stuck around for a highly anticipated meet and greet with various community members. The after hours party in the upstairs lounge (26 North) went on for more than 3 hours! What a GREAT night.

Performing Committee Chair, Glenn Chelius, Richard Kuranda
and Amy Grant celebrate in the Green Room with Raue Volunteers!

An Evening With Amy Grant was sponsored by Countryside Flower Shop and Garden Center, Crystal Lake Bank and Trust and INTREN — thank you so much!

Check out the new video on Raue Center! Thanks so much to Dobbe Marketing and PR, Inc for all your help with this project! So cool!

The Fantasticks (Williams Street Repertory’s second season opener) comes to a close this weekend at Raue Center For The Arts. The production, complete with a fun circus theme, has been a huge success for Williams Street Repertory and provides a great start to an exciting 2012/2013 season. The community is raving and the positive word-of-mouth has lead to a SOLD OUT performance to close out the run on Sunday, August 26. Tickets are still available for tonight’s 8pm performance and those that do attend will be treated to free Georgio’s pizza starting at 7pm. Additional performances include Friday and Saturday at 8pm.Tickets available online or by calling the Box Office at 815.356.9212.

Williams Street Repertory is pleased to announce they will embark on their second season with “The Fantasticks”!  The show opens at Raue Center For The Arts THIS Friday, August 10 at 8:00 pm and runs through August 26, 2012.

Along with claiming the title of the longest running musical in history, “The Fantasticks” is also an American classic. This timeless story of neighboring widowers plotting to romantically unite their son and daughter by pretending to feud and forbidding the two children to associate with each other, will be re-imagined for the small second stage by producing director, T. Paul Lowry. His inventive circus concept is sure to send tingles up your spine! The book and lyrics are written by Tom Jones with the music by Harvey Schmidt.

“T. Paul has put together an amazing vision for this show and we are thrilled that he continues his Directing work with us,” Richard Kuranda, Artistic Director. He spent 15 years working in New York City and Connecticut before coming to Raue Center. As the Creative Director of New Haven Theater Company he created unique and diverse programming ranging from Hispanic children’s theater to street performance art. Lowry also served as the Associate Producer at Long Wharf Theater producing and managing several shows. Lowry’s prior experience includes artistic, management and production experience at The Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, Playwrights Horizons, Signature Theatre Company, and several New York commercial theater productions. Mr. Lowry is also the founder of the Hispanic Heritage Month at Raue Center.

The cast includes new Williams Street Repertory company members Matthias Austin (El Gallo), Dana Parker (Luisa), Evan Johnson (Matt), John McNally (The Mute/Magician), as well as some the audience may be familiar with including Frank Gaughan (Hucklebee), Paul Anderson (Bellomy), Amanda Flahive (Henry/Mute’s Assistant) and Kate Hein (Mortimer/Mute’s Assistant). Cast members recently got into character on Raue Center and WS Rep’s Fantasticks-themed float for the Lakeside Festival 4^th of July Parade

This professional theatre company right in your own back yard is excited to build on its outstanding opening season and provide quality entertainment all year long!  The 2012/2013 season will include the return of “The Rocky Horror Show” (opening October 19) as well as “It’s A Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play” (opening November 23), “Company” (opening February 1), “Short Stories and Tall Tales of the American Hero” (opening April 13) and “Steel Magnolias” (opening April 26).

Over the past year Raue Center has attracted regional and national attention as recently as a July article on their successful National Piano Conference with Huffington Post.

Steve Cochran of WIND Fox Radio praised WS Rep calling its work, “Challenging, provocative and, oh yeah… Fun.”

Rick Kogan of WGN also had rave reviews of Raue Center and WS Rep saying, “You must, must see this amazing work at this beautiful theater. Outstanding.”

Tickets to “The Fantasticks” are $30 general admission. They can be purchased online at WWW.WSREP.ORG, WWW.RAUECENTER.ORG or via the Box Office at 815.356.9212 or 26 N. Williams Street in downtown Crystal Lake. This show is sponsored by Advocate Good Shepherd Hospital, BMO Harris Bank and RFP Photography, Inc.

William Street Repertory (WSR) is a theatre company dedicated to sustaining an artistic process of innovative and emotionally charged work, telling diverse stories with an ever growing company of well-respected local, regional and national artists.

In-residence at Raue Center For The Arts, the theatre company came to life this inaugural season with innovative adaptations of The Rocky Horror Show and Santaland Diaries. Now WSR shifts gears from the musical hilarity that was I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change into something you’ve never seen before: Run to the Capulets, Raise up the Montagues (RCRM).

Think William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet REMIXED.

Okay.  You’ve heard and seen all sorts of retellings. Maybe you read the story in high school, maybe you wore out your VHS tape of the movie remake with Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes. What makes WSR’s version so special?

We could give you a run down of the logistics. Instead let’s instead let Raue Center’s Producing Director and Director of RCRM, T. Paul Lowry, explain how you go about giving Shakespeare’s classic tale a modern facelift and how the story lends itself to all things social media.

(We apologize T. Paul looks like he’s joining the witness protection program. Technical difficulties ensued, will improve in the future!)

Find out all the deets on Williams Street Rep and RCRM at www.wsrep.org.

William Street Rep is holding open auditions for their 2012/13 Season. Auditions will be held at the Raue Center for the Arts, March 4 & 11 (12pm to 6pm) and March 5 & 12 (4pm to 9pm). Looking for Equity and Non-Equity actors 18 years of age or older. All types encouraged to audition. Please prepare a monologue and a song or two short contrasting monologues. No longer than five minutes in total. Accompanist will be provided. Reservations are strongly encouraged, walk-ins are allowed. To reserve an audition slot please contact the Raue Box Office, 815-356-9212.

The WSR 2012/13 Season is anticipated to include; THE FANTASTICKS music by Harvey Schmidt and lyrics by Tom Jones (show dates Aug 10 – 26, 2012), THE ROCKY HORROR SHOW by Richard O’Brien (show dates: Oct 19 – 27, 2012), IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE: A LIVE RADIO PLAY by Joe Landry (show dates: Nov 23 – Dec 16, 2012), COMPANY book by George Furth with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim (show dates: Feb 1 & 17, 2013), STEEL MAGNOLIAS by Robert Harling (show dates: April 26 – May 12, 2013). Shows and dates are subject to change. Those auditioning will also be considered for other WSR projects, including GET LIT, a short story reading series, and two new works in development. Pay involved for all roles.

Callbacks will be held for each production and will be by invitation only. To reserve an audition slot please contact the Raue Box Office, 815-356-9212.

Williams Street Repertory adds another production to its belt today with the opening of Santaland Diaries, an anti-Christmas classic that celebrates the darker side of the holidays, tonight at 8:00 pm.

This theatrical production based on David Sedaris’ short story tells the story of Crumpet (our hero) as he takes a job as an elf during the holiday season. While donning a green elf hat and tights, Crumpet battles through crazy parents, weirdo Santas and yellow fake snow, with fantasies of making it big writing for One Life to Live. For this production, audience members will be seated on stage as to not miss a moment of this hilarious production.

The show runs through Saturday with showings tonight @ 8pm, Friday @ 8pm and Saturday @ 4pm and 8pm.

Limited tickets are still available by calling the Box Office at 815.356.9212. We hope you can come out and share the season with us and Williams Street Repertory!

Check out a quick clip of what’s in store tonight by watching a reading from last year’s Get Lit. See you tonight!