{"id":24417,"date":"2021-08-02T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-08-02T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/library\/?p=24417"},"modified":"2021-05-06T12:23:38","modified_gmt":"2021-05-06T17:23:38","slug":"warhawk-almanac-comedy-community-collaboration-1968","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/library\/archives\/24417","title":{"rendered":"Warhawk Almanac: Comedy, Community, Collaboration &#8211; 1968"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The arts have a way of bringing people together. This was certainly true for the cast of the 1968 production of &#8220;The Irregular Verb to Love,&#8221; performed at the University of Wisconsin Center \u2013 Rock County (now UW- Whitewater at Rock County) on August 2<sup>nd<\/sup> and 3<sup>rd<\/sup>. Having only just opened two years prior, this play was Rock County&#8217;s first collaboration with local community theatre. As a result, the cast for this piece was composed of theatre enthusiasts of all ages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.uww.edu\/images\/library\/blog\/rockcounty1.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><figcaption><em>In Rehearsal, <\/em>in the Janesville Gazette (Janesville: Janesville Gazette, August 2, 1968).<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; \u201cThe Irregular Verb to Love\u201d is an English comedy play written by Hugh and Margaret Williams. The plot of the play focuses on one mother\u2019s meddling in the lives of her family.<a href=\"#_ftn1\">[1]<\/a> The play&#8217;s main characters are Hedda Rankin, her husband Felix, and their children Andrew and Lucy. In the Rock County performance, Hedda and Felix Rankin were played by local community members Dawn Stephenson and Charles Niles. Both actors had ties to the Janesville Little Theatre (JLT). Stephenson had participated in many JLT shows, while Niles was the company\u2019s director. The role of Andrew Rankin was performed by Janesville High-School theatre alum Terry Parr, and Lucy was portrayed by Eva Pawelek, a Rock County student. The rest of the cast was filled out by Rock County students Nancy George and John Miller and local community members Elsie Van Tassell and Georgia Dietz.<a href=\"#_ftn2\">[2]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.uww.edu\/images\/library\/blog\/rockcounty2.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><figcaption><em>Three of the players\u2026, <\/em>in the Beloit Daily News (Beloit: Beloit Daily News, July 27, 1968).<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Despite the cast\u2019s varying levels of experience, \u201cThe Irregular Verb to Love\u201d received raving reviews. In her review \u201cRock County Players Dissect Love Deftly,\u201d Hermione Knapp praised all aspects of the play. According to Knapp, the casting choices perfectly fulfilled each role and brought the play to life. Director Judith Forusz kept the play fast-paced and exciting, even as the plot relied more on conversation than action. Furthermore, Knapp only had compliments for the play&#8217;s set, saying Gary Lennox&#8217;s design &#8220;delighted the eye.&#8221;<a href=\"#_ftn3\">[3]<\/a> Overall the play was a successful production that highlighted the beauties of community collaboration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref1\">[1]<\/a> Hermione Knapp, \u201cRock County Players Dissect Love Deftly,\u201d <em>Janesville Gazette <\/em>(Janesville, WI.), August 3, 1968.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref2\">[2]<\/a> \u201cFirst Campus-Community Play Aug. 2 and 3,\u201d <em>Clinton Topper <\/em>(Clinton, WI.), July 25, 1968<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref3\">[3]<\/a> Hermione Knapp, \u201cRock County Players Dissect Love Deftly,\u201d <em>Janesville Gazette <\/em>(Janesville, WI.), August 3, 1968.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On August 2nd and 3rd, 1968, a mixed cast put on the first play organized through the collaboration of the University of Wisconsin Center \u2013 Rock County and local theatre companies. <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/library\/archives\/24417\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8388,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[318635],"tags":[231,318634,2051,1347395],"class_list":["post-24417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archives-arc","tag-history","tag-uw-w-archives","tag-uw-whitewater","tag-warhawk-almanac"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24417","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8388"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24417"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24417\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24536,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24417\/revisions\/24536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/library\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}