In This Issue Coming Up: The Drowsy Chaperone 2 * Psych Recap 3 *

Leaving Iowa Auditions 4 * From the President 5 * BGCF Grant 6 *

OCTA News 7 * Join Our Board 8

Black Swamp Players

Established July 21, 1968

Incorporated Fall 1970

P.O. Box 601

Bowling Green, OH 43402

Website: www.blackswampplayers.org

E-mail: president@blackswampplayers.org

Facebook: Black Swamp Players

Board of Directors

President……..………………………..Heath A. Diehl

Vice President…………………………….Deb Weiser

Treasurer………………………….Stephanie Truman

Secretary…………………………….Alexandra Levine

Trustees…………….Monica Hiris, Inge Klopping,

Karen Long, Hali Malecki, Bob Marzola,

Tom Milbrodt, Penny Parker, Melissa

Shaffer, and Bob Welly

Board Meetings

Board meetings are held on the second

Wednesday of each month beginning at 6:30

PM at 115 E. Oak Street. Meetings are open to

subscribers, patrons, and the general public.

Email president@blackswampplayers.org for

additional information.

The Fresnel Staff

Editor……………………………………Heath A. Diehl

Proofreading…….... Lane Hakel and Bob Welly

Photography … Heath A. Diehl, Inge Klopping,

Stephanie Truman, and Gary Thurman

The Fresnel currently is printed and mailed

three times a year—in fall, winter, and spring.

Deadline for content for the next issue, which

will be mailed early April 2020, is Friday,

March 20 by 5 PM. All newsletter content

should be e-mailed to

president@blackswampplayers.org.

Season Subscription and Ticketing

Season subscriptions for the 2019—2020 season

are $50 for adults and $47 for seniors (65+) and

students(<18); a season subscription includes

one general admission ticket to all three

mainstage shows, as well as exclusive access to

other, subscriber-only events like opening night

receptions, talkbacks, and similar.

Individual tickets can be purchased online or at

the door on the day of a performance. Tickets

for the musical are $17/adults, $15/senior &

student; tickets for straight plays are $15/adults,

$13/senior & student.

The

Fresnel The newsletter of The Black Swamp Players, Inc.

Bowling Green, OH

Winter 2020

JOIN US FOR NEW FIRST MONDAYS PROGRAM ON 2/3

By Melissa Shaffer

Beginning February 3, we will be hosting arts-related programming at our Oak Street

Theater on the first Monday of each month.

The February 3 event will include live music by Tim Tegge and the Black Swamp

Boys. There also will be two short staged readings featuring local performers.

One of the readings for the February 3 event will be excerpted from Lily, The Felon’s Daughter: A Gay Nineties Melodrama in Three Acts, which was the first play

performed by the Players in May 1968. The other reading will be excerpted from

The Most Villainous Laugh, an original melodrama by Bob Hastings.

The event will run from 7:00 to 9:00 PM. There will be no admission charge, but any

and all donations are appreciated. Attendees are encouraged to bring their own

snacks and beverages.

This event will recur indefinitely on every first Monday of the month.

Annual Meeting

Wednesday, May 13 6:30 P.M.

115 E. Oak Street

Annual Report * Election of

Officers and Trustees * Annual

Awards * Dessert and Coffee

The Fresnel * Winter 2020 * page 2

By Lizzie Edwards

Rehearsals for our winter production, The Drowsy Chaperone, are in full swing. Director Heath Diehl,

Music Director Lizzie Edwards, and Choreographer

Joelle Stiles have been working hard since the fall to

put together this amazing show.

With the cast and production team back from their

holiday festivities, they have been putting together the

musical numbers, choreography, and blocking almost

every week night. During most rehearsals, you will

find the cast learning music, growing into their

characters, and laughing along the way. The

production team is very excited to see the cast

working hard and can’t wait to present this show to

you! Performance dates are February 21, 22, 28, and

29 at 7:30 PM and at 2:00 PM on February 23 and

March 1.

The Drowsy Chaperone is a parody of American

musical comedy in the 1920s featuring Jazz-Age style

showstoppers and dance numbers. It follows a

woman in a chair (Annelise Clifton), who is listening

to her favorite record: the cast recording of the

fictitious 1928 musical, The Drowsy Chaperone. The

recording comes to life as we meet the characters

involved in a wedding, including two lovers (Bridget

Harrington and Zachary Robb), the bumbling best

man (Kamron Girardot), a desperate theater

producer (Lexington Stuber), two gangsters posing as

pastry chefs (Mariah Clawson and Emily Penton), a

not-so-bright hostess (Deb Shaffer), and an

intoxicated chaperone (Beth Giller). This comedic

musical has all of the elements that are sure to make

for a fun and exciting show for the cast, crew, and

audience.

Tickets are now on sale and can be purchased at our

website (http://www.blackswampplayers.org/ticket-sales/).

Tickets are $15 for students/seniors and $17 for

everyone else. You will not want to miss this

entertaining musical full of very talented people!

Cast members of The Drowsy Chaperone on the set of the production at First United

Methodist Church during rehearsals in early-January. Pictured (L-R) are Zachary Robb,

Beth Giller, and Annelise Clifton. Photograph by Heath A. Diehl

SEASON 52 CONTINUES WITH HOMAGE TO THE 1920S: THE DROWSY CHAPERONE

The Fresnel * Winter 2020 * page 3

PSYCH PLAYWRIGHT SURPRISES CAST, CREW WITH VISIT

By Inge Klopping

Our fall production of Psych was

a huge success, selling out all six

performances. Opening night

brought an especially wonderful

surprise when, unbeknownst to

either the production team or the

cast, the playwright, Lisa Rowe,

showed up in the audience.

After the performance, Rowe met

with our production team and

cast. She said that she enjoyed the

show and that our production was

one of the best she had ever seen.

(Rowe makes a habit of seeing as

many productions of her play as is

possible.) Rowe also said that the

BSP production added many

fresh aspects to the show that

other productions have not.

Rowe spent nearly forty-five

minutes visiting with the cast and

production team, providing

autographs and taking lots of photographs. It was a once-in-a-lifetime evening!

In addition to writing, Lisa Rowe works for justice as an attorney in northern Michigan. Her monologue Sixty Pounds, debuted in November 2012 at the University of Wisconsin-Washington County's Theatre on the Hill, and

her next play, Los Muertos, a light drama exploring immigration, death and war, is waiting in the wings.

The cast of BSP’s Psych, which was produced in November 2019, with playwright Lisa Rowe. Pictured (L-R) are (front) Heath A.

Diehl, Lisa Rowe, Mark T. DeNucci, Jr., and Deb Shaffer; (back) Inge Klopping, Andrew Varney, James Freeman, Garrett

Hummel, Karen Noble, and Veronica Oliver. Photograph by Stephanie Truman

The cast of BSP’s Psych, which was produced in November 2019, during a dress rehearsal in November 2019. Pictured (LEFT) (L-R) are Karen Noble, Deb Shaffer, Heath A.

Diehl, Garrett Hummel, and Mark T. DeNucci, Jr. Photograph by David Dupont, BG Independent News; (RIGHT) (L-R) are Heath A. Diehl, Deb Shaffer, and Mark T.

DeNucci, Jr. Photograph by Lori King, The Toledo Blade

The Fresnel * Winter 2020 * page 4

UPCOMING AUDITIONS: LEAVING IOWA

By Inge Klopping

Auditions for Leaving Iowa, BSP’s third and final show for the

2019—2020 season, will be held on Monday, March 2 and Tuesday,

March 3 from 6:30 to 8:30 PM at 115 E. Oak Street in Bowling

Green.

Leaving Iowa is the story of Don Browning, a middle-aged writer,

who returns home and decides to finally take his father's ashes to his

childhood home, as requested. But when Don discovers Grandma's

house is now a grocery store, he begins traveling across Iowa

searching for a proper resting place for his father. This father-and-

son road trip shifts smoothly from the present to Don's memories of

the annual, torturous vacations of his childhood. Don's existential

journey leads him to reconcile his past and present at the center of

the United States.

The cast calls for three men and three women. Auditions are open

to adults of all ages, races/ethnicities, orientations, sexes, and

abilities.

Rehearsals are tentatively scheduled for Mondays, Tuesdays,

Wednesdays, and Thursdays depending on cast schedules. Those

who want to audition should be prepared to cold read from the

script and can see the Black Swamp Players website for additional

audition information. Any questions can be directed to Jim Toth,

the director, at jaytee060@gmail.com.

BSP SEEKS FIVE DIRECTORS FOR 2020—2021 SEASON

By Heath A. Diehl

Our Season Selection Committee currently is accepting applications to direct a BSP production for the 2020—2021

season. Interested parties are encouraged to complete the brief online application, which can be accessed at https://

www.surveymonkey.com/r/LX6SKYR. Prospective BSP directors also should email a cover letter and current

resume to president@blackswampplayers.org. Prior directing experience is welcome, but not mandatory.

Select applicants will be invited to interview with a small group of current Board members at some point in March/

April and then those persons chosen to direct for the 2020—2021 season will be notified prior to the Annual

Meeting in May.

In the coming year, we will expand our season from three to five productions. Although the Season Selection

Committee is still engaged in reading scripts and deliberating our choices, we anticipate that our 2020—2021 season

will consist of a comedy, a drama, a musical, a holiday show, and a full-scale production of the script selected from

Telling Stories, our newly-inaugurated playwriting competition.

The Fresnel * Winter 2020 * page 5

FROM THE PRESIDENT: FIND YOUR PLACE AS BSP GROWS, EVOLVES

Big things have been happening for the Players in just the past few months.

In November, we opened our fifty-second season with the uproarious farce Psych, and, on opening night, the cast

and crew were treated to a surprise visit by playwright Lisa Rowe, who was very generous with praise of our

production and very accommodating to our requests for photographs and autographs.

In early December, I was notified that Black Swamp Players had been awarded a grant from the Bowling Green

Community Foundation for the 2020 calendar year to support the purchase of seating for our Oak Street Theater.

This is the second consecutive year that Black Swamp Players has been selected for one of these highly competitive

awards and we are so very grateful for the generous support that the Bowling Green Community Foundation has

shown toward the Players and our mission over the years.

Shortly after we were notified that we had been awarded a Bowling Green Community Foundation grant, we

learned that a church in Lorain, Ohio, was selling its gently-used chairs for a very reasonable price. After some

expedient research, board vice president Deb Weiser facilitated the purchase of 80 chairs, just in time for our First

Monday series, which will start in February 2020.

Speaking of our First Monday series, Trustee Melissa Shaffer and Ex Officio President Lane Hakel have been hard

at work planning for this fun event. The idea is simple: every first Monday of the month, we will host some arts-

related event in our Oak Street Theater. We might have live music and a short reading. Or we might have an art

exhibit. Our goal is to showcase local artists of all stripes and to provide our community a site and a common time

at which they can indulge their shared interest in the arts. Look for more information about upcoming First

Mondays very soon!

Over the past few months, a small group of our board members has been actively engaged in the application process

for State Capital Funding. At the end of November, we submitted an initial questionnaire outlining a proposed

project for renovating the Oak Street Theater. In mid-November, Trustee Inge Klopping and I delivered an oral

presentation to a panel of approximately 40 local leaders in industry, business, and the non-profit sector. And at the

end of December, we submitted the formal application to Rep. Haraz Ghanbari. Awardees should be notified by

April of 2020, so stay tuned!

Our Murder at the Pie Auction fundraiser in September was so wildly successful that we’re now planning another

one-night-only fundraising event. In early summer 2020, we will host a Spaghetti Dinner. Look for more

information about this event on our website, on social media, and in the spring 2020 issue of The Fresnel. In anticipation of a more robust season in 2020-2021, we inaugurated a playwrighting contest for local playwrights.

We received a wealth of submissions by the December 31 deadline and the Season Selection Committee currently

is at work reading through and evaluating these submissions. The winning playwright(s) will be notified in February

2020 and the selected play(s) will be produced during our first season in the Oak Street Theater, 2020—2021.

And, finally, we are knee-deep in the rehearsal process for the second show of our fifty-second season: The Drowsy Chaperone. As Director of this show, I can guarantee that even if you’ve seen The Drowsy Chaperone before,

you’ve never seen a production quite like this one and I hope you’ll come out to support a tremendous cast and

production team!

This is an exciting time to be part of Black Swamp Players. As big things continue to happen for our organization, I

hope that you will find your place and play your part in the momentous evolution that we are experiencing!

The Fresnel * Winter 2020 * page 6

SEATING PURCHASED FOR OAK STREET By Deb Weiser

As we look to our first season in the Oak Street Theater, we now have seating to accommodate our patrons.

In September 2019, we started a GoFundMe with the purpose of buying suitable chairs for our new space on Oak

Street. To date, that effort has raised $3,150. When we started that fundraiser, we were looking at new chairs that run

between $35 and $45 (without shipping & handling and with some assembly required upon receipt). We wanted

comfortable, stackable, padded, fabric chairs.

In early December, our friend Sandy Leuck at the Bowling Green Community Foundation emailed us about some

chairs she saw on Facebook Marketplace. We arranged for someone to see the chairs the next day in Lorain, Ohio,

at a church. We rented a truck in anticipation of a deal and, indeed, we came back to BG that day with 80 chairs at a

cost of less than $24 each, including (our own) shipping and handling. (Or we can say at a cost of $18 each, because

all the other money was in truck rental and labor.) And no assembly was required!

Since the total cost of the chairs was less than what we raised, the remainder of the GoFundMe donations will be put

toward the many renovations (small and large) that need to be made to our new space to make it a functioning

theater. Thanks to everyone who contributed!

BSP AWARDED BGCF GRANT FOR SECOND CONSECUTIVE YEAR

By Lane Hakel

BSP has been awarded a grant from the Bowling Green

Community Foundation (BGCF) for the second

consecutive year.

This past fall we applied for grant funding to help support

the purchase of seating for the Oak Street Theater. In

December, we were notified that we had been awarded

$4,156.88. We are very grateful to BGCF for the support

and faith they have given and extended to us. It does take

a village to raise a theater.

In the 1994, The Bowling Green Community Foundation

was formed to help support organizations in and around

Bowling Green that served the greater good of the

community. Their successful fundraising over the years

has allowed them to disburse a total of over $500,000 to

many, many organizations, including BSP.

In 2018, the Foundation awarded BSP $1632 for the

purchase of four personal microphone units so that our

audiences can better hear our productions.

Dr. Kacee Ferrell Snyder presents a check from the Bowling Green Community

Foundation to Heath A. Diehl at the January 15 grants reception, held at Simpson

Garden Park. Photograph by Gary Thurman

The Fresnel * Winter 2020 * page 6

OCTA NORTHWEST REGIONAL REPS CONVERGE ON OAK STREET FOR MEETING

By Inge Klopping

The Northwest Ohio Regional

Representatives from the Ohio

Community Theater Association

(OCTA) held their meeting at the

Oak Street Theater on Saturday,

January 11.

Joe Barton, President of OCTA,

attended to bring everyone up to date

on the festival activities for 2020. The

Northwest region OCTAFest will be

held June 27 and 28 at Owens

Community College. Directors who

plan to excerpt at the festival will be

asked to attend “Walk the Stage” on

Saturday, May 9 at 10 AM. This

event gives directors the opportunity

to see the space limitations of the stage and to bring mics and other technical equipment in order to make sure that

equipment works with the existing technology at Owens.

Barton reminded those present that all festival forms are available digitally and that individual theaters will not

receive any paper documents. He stressed the importance of obtaining rights for excerpts. He further reminded

representatives that, in addition to excerpts, there are awards given for set design, costumes, newsletters, season

brochures, programs, and website at OCTAFest.

There was discussion about the benefits of joining the American Association of Community Theatre (AACT).

AACT is the national association for community theaters and, this year, finalists from OCTA’s festivals have the

opportunity to compete on the national level in

Louisville, Kentucky, from June 14 through June

19, 2021.

Barton also spoke about the guide/responder

program available to OCTA members. This is a

program that assigns responders to visit area theater

productions prior to performance and offer helpful

suggestions for improvement. The first time a

member theater uses the program, there is no

charge. After that, the cost is $35, which covers

mileage for a responder. To take advantage of this

program, individuals can email Deborah Wentz at

deborahwentz@att.net or call 216.860.0883.

The next meeting for Northwest Ohio Regional

OCTA Representatives will be held on February 15

at 10 AM at Fort Findlay Playhouse, 300 W.

Sandusky Street, Findlay.

Select representatives from OCTA’s Northwest region during the January 11 meeting at the Oak Street Theater.

Pictured (L-R) are (front) Jason Neymeiyer, Joe Barton, Brittany Kupresanin, and Shirley Nebergall; (back) Bob Welly,

Bill Quinlan, and Jeffrey Albright. Photograph by Inge Klopping

AUDITIONS

Dinner at Eight,

Dead by Nine A Murder Mystery by Michael Druce

Directed by Stephanie Truman

May 4 & 5

6:00—8:00 P.M. @ 115 E. Oak St.

Script calls for 6 M, 5 F

Performance Date: Saturday, June 20, 2020

JOIN BSP’S BOARD OF DIRECTORS IN 2020

Current and past BSP Board members trade white elephant gifts during a holiday

party at the Oak Street Theater in December 2019. Pictured L to R are Heath A.

Diehl (and Swampy the Elf), Lane Hakel, Heidi Hakel, Inge Klopping, and Deb

Shaffer. Photograph by Gary Thurman

By Heath A. Diehl

Our Board of Directors is actively seeking persons interested in

joining our ranks when elections are held in May. At least one

vacant seat will need to be filled, and more seats may open up

by the Annual Meeting where elections occur.

Board Trustees are elected to two-year terms and are expected,

at a minimum, to attend monthly meetings, to serve as a co-

producer for one of our mainstage productions, and to serve in

some other significant capacity. This can include chairing one

of our permanent or ad hoc committees, serving as an OCTA

representative, or planning a major fundraising event.

Anyone interested in joining the Board can attend one or more

of our remaining meetings for the 2019—2020 season to get a

feel for the organization, the board dynamic, and the

responsibilities. Board meetings are held at the Oak Street

Theater on the second Wednesday of each month beginning at

6:30 PM. These meetings last no longer than two hours.

Black Swamp Players, Inc.

P.O. Box 601

Bowling Green, OH 43402