Racine Theatre Guild Inc.

As community theaters in this area go, this is a very good one. Its theater was built for it, rather than converted from some other use; the sound and light boards are up to date; and it has a professional director and technical director. Corporate sponsorship also helps with show budgets. It is good enough that it draws cast members from all over Southeast WI – the show I’m rehearsing now has three or four of us commuting from Milwaukee. My own participation is unusual – I haven’t done a show there for 10 years – but this one is a reprise of the first show I did there 34 years ago, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, and I’m playing the same part. I only tried out way back then because they were taking the show to a couple of festivals in Europe, so it helped pay my way to England and Austria – a later show took me to what was then Soviet Georgia. I don’t know that they still do the international festival stuff, but the costume budget, at least, seems to have increased. The last show I saw there was well done, but I can’t offer any guarantees for the show I’m in now since we are still in the scary stage of rehearsals, where things have yet to come together – fortunately, we have till May 10.