C&C Heating and Air Offers Free Furnace Giveaway

The fragile state of our economy is affecting homeowners throughout the metropolitan Detroit area. For some, providing heat for their family with winter right around the corner is a major concern, particularly if their furnace is old and inefficient.

C&C Heating and Air Conditioning has teamed up with THAW to install a free furnace in the home of a deserving Southeastern Michigan family that’s having difficulty coping with a subpar furnace. The Heat And Warmth Fund, THAW, is an independent non-profit (501(c)(3) agency that provides low-income individuals and families with emergency energy assistance and advocates for long-term energy solutions. During the 2009-2010 heating season, THAW distributed more than $7.4 million in energy assistance to more than 8,700 households.

If you know of a family that can use some heating help this winter you can nominate them for a chance to win a free furnace starting November 17th, 2010. Nominations will be open till December 5th, 2010 at their Facebook page or click on www.candcheatcares.com.

Finalists for the free furnace will be announced on Friday, December 10th. Online voting will be held during the month of January, 2011, and the winning family will be announced during the THAW Radiothon on January 29th, 2011. To learn more about these events, please visit http://www.thawfund.org.

MIX: Marketing Idea Exchange

If you’re interested in attending our best practices idea exchange, please RSVP, then meet us at The City Kitchen this Friday. Our central theme for this expo will be “A look at traditional advertising and marketing in these non-traditional times.”

Thanks-
Eric M. Turin Exec VP / Partner
313-347-0333

Learn More About the Benefits of a Montessori Education

Families interested in the benefits of a Montessori education will be able to learn more and personally experience the Montessori educational approach during Montessori Information Night at The Grosse Pointe Academy on Wednesday, November 17 at 7 p.m.

During Montessori Information Night, parents will observe demonstrations from Academy Early School teachers highlighting the Montessori method’s child-centered, individualized approach to education.  The evening event will detail the areas of the classroom, learning experiences, and benefits of the Montessori program at The Grosse Pointe Academy.

Call the Admissions Office at 313-886-1221 or log onto www.gpacademy.org for more information. See the story at www.grossepointetoday.com.

Audition Notice Seeking African American Actors: The Exonerated

UPDATE: A tremendous cast is coming together, but the role of Robert remains open. Please help us spread the word (see below for contact information for director Lois Bendler as well a description of this part).

Grosse Pointe Theatre and Director Lois Bendler announce auditions for The Exonerated, an extraordinary play and the true story of six death row prisoners who have been proven innocent and set free.  The show will be presented through the Purdon Studio Theatre, a performance division of GPT.

Auditions are Friday, Nov. 12, 7 – 9 p.m. and Saturday, Nov. 13, 1 – 3 p.m., at the Grosse Pointe Theatre rehearsal facility, 315 Fisher Road (at Maumee/Grosse Pointe Boulevard) in Grosse Pointe.

The Exonerated, written by Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen, is told in the words of those who were unjustly convicted, and in the actual words of guards, police officers, lawyers, judges, lovers and friends.

The cast includes seven men (three African-American; four white) and three women (one African-American; two white).  The racial specificity in casting is necessary in that the play addresses the preponderance of African-Americans in U.S. prisons.

Roles:

Men:
DELBERT, African-American, Middle-aged.  A seminary dropout, radical, and Chicago poet.
ROBERT, African-American, 30’s.  A former horse groomer from the Deep South .
DAVID, African-American, 40.  A gentle, sad man, born and raised in northern Florida .
GARY, white, early 40’s.  A Midwestern hippie and an organic farmer.

Women:
SUNNY, white, middle-aged.  A bright, pixyish yoga teacher from California .
GEORGIA, African-American, 30.  Robert’s wife, also southern; loudmouthed, outspoken, warm.
KERRY, white, early 40’s.  A 19 year old trapped in a 40 something year old body, born in Texas .
SANDRA, white, 40.  Sandra is married to Kerry.  Sweet, loves Kerry dearly; a great sense of humor.
Plus  2 Character Male or Female Ensemble roles

This is a community theatre production and actors are not paid.  Grosse Pointe theatre will furnish head shots, costumes, makeup and refreshments.

Rehearsal days and times will be arranged between individual cast members and the director.  For questions about the characters and the script, please contact director Lois Bendler at 586-779-1296 or lobend@aol.com.

Annie Get Your Gun at Grosse Pointe Theatre: A new take on a classic musical

Grosse Pointe Theatre presents the classic musical, Annie Get Your Gun, music and lyrics by Irving Berlin, book by Herbert and Dorothy Fields.  The show will be performed in the Fries Auditorium of the Grosse Pointe War Memorial, 32 Lake Shore Road , Grosse Pointe Farms . It opens with a 2:00 p.m. matinee on Sunday, November 7. Annie Get Your Gun continues with shows on November 11-13 at 8:00 p.m., November 14 at 2:00 p.m. and November 17-20 at 8:00 p.m. Tickets are $24. Group rates are available. Call 313-881-4004 for tickets or visit the Grosse Pointe Theatre website at http://www.gpt.org for more information. Free tickets are being given away on the Theatre Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/GrossePointeTheatre.

Annie Get Your Gun is a fictionalized story of the life of Annie Oakley (1860-1926), who was a sharpshooter from Ohio , and her husband, Frank Butler. The show was conceived by writer Dorothy Fields as a show to star her friend, Ethel Merman. The 1946 Broadway production was a hit, and the musical had long runs in both New York and London , spawning several revivals, a 1950 film version and television versions. The show’s legacy is the number of well-known songs from the show which, for years, reminded the public of its original belting star.  Audience members will enjoy these musical standards: There’s No Business Like Show Business, Doin’ What Comes Natur’lly, You Can’t Get a Man with a Gun, They Say It’s Wonderful, and Anything You Can Do.

The story of Annie Oakley, as told in the musical is inaccurate, according to an Oakley family descendant, Bess Edwards, who was recently interviewed on the 150th anniversary of Annie Oakley’s birth. Nevertheless, this fantasized tail of the female sharpshooter is a rousing tribute to the traveling “Wild West” shows in which she starred back in the latter part of the 19th Century.

Director Jacqueline Di Sante (of Grosse Pointe) has put a new spin on the show for the Grosse Pointe Theatre production, setting it in a country-western bar, where the patrons reenact the story.

Cast and Crew
The cast features residents of several Metro Detroit communities including:  Deb Dworkin (Clawson) as Annie Oakley, Dennis B. Martell (Livonia) as Frank Butler, Jerry Nehr (Grosse Pointe Woods) as Charlie Davenport, Peter Di Sante, (St. Clair Shores) as Buffalo Bill Cody,     Bill Giovan, (Grosse Pointe) as Chief Sitting Bull, Terri Turpin-Amato (Grosse Pointe Woods) as Dolly, Mike Evans (Grosse Pointe) as Foster Wilson, Dante Bufalini (Harper Woods) as Tommy, Bianca Calisi (Grosse Pointe Park) as Jessie, Kyle Bischoff (Macomb Twp.) as Little Jake. Also in the cast are Tom Woodman, Perry Calisi and Rachelle Blachut (Grosse Pointe Park); Frank “Scott” Davis (Ferndale); Christina Amato, Mike Edick and Stephanie Rinderknecht (Grosse Pointe Woods); and Don and Tracy Bischoff (Macomb Twp.)

Crew members of Annie Get Your Gun include producer Christine Kaiser (Grosse Pointe), technical director Art Thompson,  (Grosse Pointe Park), music director John Dickinson (Pleasant Ridge), vocal director Kelly Smith (Eastpointe), Stage manager Marisa J. Di Sante and set dresser Kerry Edick (Grosse Pointe Woods), makeup chair Jackie Pfaff (Chesterfield Twp.), Choreographer Joy Raya, and assistant stage manager Matt Raya (Sterling Heights), sound chair, Ed Thomas (Center Line), properties chair Arlene Marie Schoenherr (St. Clair Shores), special choreographer Donna Miller ( Harper Woods ), set dresser Gretchen Archinal ( Grosse Pointe Park ) and lighting designer Blair Arden (Macomb Twp.)

Grosse Pointe Theatre’s 63rd Season Continues
Following Annie Get Your Gun, Grosse Pointe Theatre will present Relatively Speaking by Alan Ayckbourn, January 16, 20-23, 26-29, 2011; Dixie Swim Club By Jessie Jones, Nicholas Hope and Jamie Wooten, March 6, 10-13, 16-19, 2011; and The Scarlet Pimpernel, based on the works by Baroness Emmuska Orczy, book and lyrics by Nan Knighton, May 8, 12-15, 18-21, 2011.  In addition to the adult offerings, Grosse Pointe Theatre’s Youth on Stage will produce a children’s version of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, December 11 & 12, 2010.  All shows will be in the Fries Auditorium of the Grosse Pointe War Memorial. GPT will also produce The Exonerated, by Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen, through its Purdon Studio Theatre program, Feb. 18-27, 2011 at the  Edsel & Eleanor Ford House Activity Building , 1100 Lakeshore Road , Grosse Pointe Shores .

For more information about Grosse Pointe Theatre call 313-881-4004 or go to the website at http://www.gpt.org.