Sami Etienne (Host): Welcome back to Talking Cents. I'm one of your hosts, Sami.

Cierra Ziliak (Host): And I'm Cierra.

Sami Etienne (Host): And today we have two really awesome people with us today who we're getting to know, we got to know at lunch a couple weeks ago. We went to Hardgan's. Love Hardigan's, great spot downtown.

Cierra Ziliak (Host): Oh yeah.

Sami Etienne (Host): And so they are with the Civic Theater. We've got Dani and Emily, and I'll let you guys introduce yourselves.

Dani Scott: Hello, I'm Dani. I'm the Artistic and Educational Director.

Emily Durchholz: And I'm Emily. I am the Board President and a person. I guess. I do things.

Cierra Ziliak (Host): So to get started and just kind of loosen up, we want to do a new game. So 20 questions in two minutes. These are just rapid fire. So first thing that pops in your head, that's perfect.

Sami Etienne (Host): All right. Are we ready? Okay. Favorite cereal.

Dani Scott: Cinnamon Toast Crunch.

Sami Etienne (Host): Cat person or dog person?

Emily Durchholz: Cat.

Sami Etienne (Host): If you were a fruit, what fruit would you be?

Dani Scott: Kiwi

Emily Durchholz: Strawberry.

Sami Etienne (Host): Okay. Would you rather be 10 minutes late or 20 minutes early?

Dani Scott: 20 minutes early?

Emily Durchholz: 20 minutes early, but I'm usually 10 minutes late.

Sami Etienne (Host): Same. Do you recharge best alone or with others?

Emily Durchholz: It depends.

Sami Etienne (Host): Okay.

Emily Durchholz: Alone.

Sami Etienne (Host): Alone? If you could instantly master one skill, what would it be?

Emily Durchholz: Stage combat.

Sami Etienne (Host): Love it.

Dani Scott: Math.

Sami Etienne (Host): Love it.

Emily Durchholz: Also, same.

Sami Etienne (Host): Favorite holiday.

Emily Durchholz: Halloween.

Sami Etienne (Host): Okay. Morning routine. Must do.

Dani Scott: Coffee. Coffee, for sure.

Emily Durchholz: Agree.

Sami Etienne (Host): Favorite pizza topping?

Dani Scott: Green olives.

Emily Durchholz: Bacon.

Cierra Ziliak (Host): Green olives. Wow.

Sami Etienne (Host): What song always gets you dancing?

Dani Scott: Pink Pony Club. Yes.

Emily Durchholz: Honestly, same. Yes. Yes.

Sami Etienne (Host): Go to comfort movie.

Emily Durchholz: Pride and Prejudice.

Dani Scott: Princess Bride.

Sami Etienne (Host): Oh, similar. Okay.

Cierra Ziliak (Host): Oh, yeah.

Sami Etienne (Host): First job you ever had.

Emily Durchholz: I walked some kids to school. Their mom went to work really early, so I would wake them up, get them ready for school.

Dani Scott: I worked on a chicken farm when I was eight.

Cierra Ziliak (Host): A chicken farm.

Dani Scott: It was our bus driver. He would drive us from school to his farm and then we'd walk back home.

Sami Etienne (Host): Oh my gosh. Okay. Would you rather win the lottery or travel for free for life?

Dani Scott: Travel for free for life.

Emily Durchholz: Yeah, same.

Sami Etienne (Host): Okay. Favorite season?

Dani Scott: Fall.

Emily Durchholz: Fall.

Sami Etienne (Host): Oh, last show you binge watched.

Emily Durchholz: Twin Peaks.

Sami Etienne (Host): Nice. Okay. Okay. Would you rather never use social media again or never watch TV again?

Emily Durchholz: There's a lot of good TV out.

Dani Scott: Never social media.

Emily Durchholz: Never social media.

Dani Scott: Ever again.

Sami Etienne (Host): Yeah, I would agree with that.

Cierra Ziliak (Host): I feel like that could be a good thing.

Sami Etienne (Host): Yeah, I think so too.

Cierra Ziliak (Host): In some ways.

Dani Scott: No one can contact me more than I want them to.

Cierra Ziliak (Host): Back to the nineties.

Sami Etienne (Host): What app do you use the most?

Emily Durchholz: New York Times games.

Sami Etienne (Host): Are you, do you play Wordle every morning?

Emily Durchholz: I do. Nice.

Cierra Ziliak (Host): Did you get the word today? I don't even remember what it was.

Sami Etienne (Host): I did get it today.

Emily Durchholz: I got it today too. And I use the finch app too, which is really great.

Dani Scott: Ooh, the Finch app. That's good.

Sami Etienne (Host): Okay. What food do you refuse to eat?

Dani Scott: Meatloaf.

Emily Durchholz: Tofu. I can't, I can't have soy, so. Oh, well, yeah. You said no. My body said absolute. Absolutely not.

Sami Etienne (Host): What is it about meatloaf? Is it like the ketchup flavor?

Dani Scott: The texture? The texture, and the hot ketchup on top? Oh, no, boy. No. It's fair. Yeah. What if Pam Balinski made it for you though? I, I would try, if Pam did it, I would try if, if Pam.

Sami Etienne (Host): If you had a time machine, what year would you visit first?

Emily Durchholz: 2016. Save Harambe. Save her

Cierra Ziliak (Host): Golden answer. That's when her timelines fractured. Yeah.

Sami Etienne (Host): Alright, last one. What's your zombie apocalypse survival strategy?

Dani Scott: Drink coffee and take a breath.

Emily Durchholz: I gotta find Eric McCandless. Oh, hey, he's our buddy from undergrad. He has a plan. Yeah. And then other than that, like if I am injured, I do not wanna be eaten. So like the people I'm with can take care. Yeah, yeah. Like, like a horse with a lame leg. Yes.

Sami Etienne (Host): Right.

Dani Scott: I used to do Long Bow in 4-H, so I feel like I'm pretty ready.Yes. Well, I had a weird childhood. We can talk about that later. She, chicken farm. Some people said, did you grow up in the Dust Bowl? No, I just grew up in the country.

Cierra Ziliak (Host): Those were great answers.

Sami Etienne (Host): Those were amazing. Um. Yeah, we did it not really in two minutes, but it was fun. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Cierra Ziliak (Host): Well, we're so glad to have you guys on our podcast today, especially in this historic year for the Evansville Civic Theater celebrating a hundred years. Can you put in your own words the importance of the Evansville Civic Theater and share what the theater community brings to our local community?

Emily Durchholz: I think that, there are a lot of quotes that you see floating around here and there that theater is an art form that everyone says all the time throughout decades, that it's dying and it never has. You can really see that in our community with Evansville Civic Theater having survived 100 years through so many different events throughout the past century, this century as well. Whew, man. What a time. But, we made it through COVID. We made it through Great Depression. We made it through a couple wars, like no big deal. But we've been a constant in the community. Whenever you hear Evansville Civic theater, I think a lot of people, what comes to mind is that, historic theater on Columbia and Fulton, and we get to be back there.

So we're just so excited to continue on that legacy and be an arts haven for the community.

Dani Scott: It is an honor to have this opportunity to help lead and to help grow the theater community. As someone who just moved back a year ago, I went to college here and I wasn't really a part of it, but now I can be, and I see the fruition of what theater does in the community because what we go back to is we all want a moment to step away from our daily lives and to be told a story because stories are what make us human too, and understanding different stories and having conversations and it leads to opening up our perspective. And I think that's what's so beautiful about theater is, even in the darkest times, people will go and try to find some light and that's what we want to be, is hope and light and, an open door for anyone to step into.

Sami Etienne (Host): That was really moving. It was beautiful like that, that came from your heart. Mm-hmm. It was really good. Sounds good. We can tell you guys are really passionate about what you do. Oh yeah. So we love that. Yeah. But you mentioned like getting back into the theater, cause you guys had a different location for a little bit.

Emily Durchholz: Yes.

Sami Etienne (Host): So can you tell us about that?

Emily Durchholz: So, Bosse High School was very gracious in letting us be in their space for the last two years. It's actually where Evansville Civic Theater started performing. So we started at Bosse High School outta their auditorium, moved to the Colosseum, then moved to our little theater on Columbia and Fulton.

And it's so fun that in that moment where we were out of the building, we got to return to our roots full circle. Full circle moment. And they were such great hosts to us, and the kids were really gracious letting us use their space too. And, it was nice. It was home, away from home for a little bit.

 It came with its own challenges. Like we would build our sets at the old theater and have to transport all of that, plus props to Bosse, build the set again. Wow. And roll from there. So, it definitely had some challenges with logistics in that sense, but it was really nice. We got to do Fiddler On the Roof there a couple seasons ago and that in particular, I was part of that cast. It was before I joined the board. And it was such a great experience and there was so much room for everybody to be, we had a large cast and it was so nice. There are a lot of us, anytime we go back to Bosse, we're thinking, oh man, we're back at Anatifka, if we're back sharing this story that's so important to us.

But there were just some repairs that needed done on the building. The organization, we made it through COVID when a lot of arts organizations throughout the country had to fold, had to close. Yeah. We were lucky enough to make it through. And the only option it seemed was to sell the building.

And with that, we thought okay, we're going to plan for the future, maybe end up somewhere else.

Dani Scott: And, thankfully Lucas, who owns the building now, supports our vision of civic and is giving us the space to still be in the building, helping us do structural fixes. Some people are asking if we're doing anything really cosmetic and the answer is not at this moment.

We are making sure that ensuring that the things we do have in there are safe for the community, like our plumbing.

Emily Durchholz: What electric and, and all that good stuff. Yeah.

Dani Scott: We're hopefully gonna paint one of the bathrooms. Yes. I think right now it's, it's a nice orange and maroon. It is, it is bright and effervescent.

Emily Durchholz: Yes. She is getting a little bit of a facelift too. On the outside. We've got fresh blue paint going on. Oh. And she looks so pretty.

Sami Etienne (Host): I love that.

Dani Scott: She's an old queen.

Emily Durchholz: She is an old queen.

Sami Etienne (Host): Yeah. But still keeping like the history of it. And everything. Yeah. I love that. Yeah.

Cierra Ziliak (Host): I mean, a hundred years, that's a very, very long time. And now that you're hitting that, how are you celebrating that 100 year benchmark?

Emily Durchholz: Ooh. Well, in the spring we are gonna have a gala. So we're excited for that. So we're gearing up for that. Working on fundraising. Our opening show is a play called Our Town, and it just lands perfectly because it is about community and our lives, how they're interconnected.

And, here I'll like pass the baton to the director of the show who's sitting right next to me.

Dani Scott: So our town's really important because it is about community of growing up, finding love, and also handling death and the journey beyond. And that although we all have our own individualized memories of that, we have a community that also has handled that. You go to your community when these things happen. So it's about honoring memories. And that's kind of what's so beautiful about Our Town, is it's all about community.

Emily Durchholz: And it, it just fits right into our space because, I think a lot of us that have acted there before, have been in that space before, like I mentioned to you all the first time I acted there was about half my life ago. I guess it would just be 20 years. Okay. I'm not 40, but anyway, more than half my life ago. And there is just that sense when you walk in the building that it is saturated with those memories. A lot of people will say ghosts.

 We do have some ghosts, but like the echoes of performances past, you can feel that special things have happened in this space and, we're just thrilled to bring more, and to have more. We had our first read through, this past weekend and it was so cool.

Dani Scott: Cried a little.

Emily Durchholz: Yeah. You cried a little. Some of the cast cried a little. Like it, it's gonna be something very special.

Sami Etienne (Host): I think that's the one that we need to go see.

Cierra Ziliak (Host): Our Town. Yeah. Yeah. Definitely. I do.

Emily Durchholz: Yeah. Well come to the whole se we'll see you at the whole season, get your season tickets, $60.

Sami Etienne (Host): Yeah. Speaking of that, so I know you guys have other shows that are happening. Can you just tell us a little bit about each one? Yeah. Are they open? Like is it known public?

Dani Scott: Yes. It is known. After Our Town closes, our next show will be Perfect Arrangement that is set in the 1950s. It's a show that I was actually in in 2017 in DC during the Pride Festival. And it was Source Festival that no longer happens, but there's other theater festivals thankfully happening there now. But it is, about the lavender scare, which was during McCarthy's time. And they were trying to figure out who was homosexual, which was illegal, back then.

So this play kind of touches on that with humor, with brevity and with honesty, and it's about two couples pretending to be married, so they look like a normal 1950s family until it's a moment where they can no longer hide it as well as they thought they could.

And then Peter Wendy is our educational program for our next wave. Yes, that is when we will be auditioning mostly high schoolers, some mentor actors in the community who are adults. And this one is a very special play because it's also about growing up. It is about the magic of being innocent and that vitality of youth. And what my goal is for this is to kind of give it a like a pre-production programming where the students will also be in charge of designing. They'll be in charge of the lights, they will be in charge of the tech part. And also with the lines, it is a 75 minute play, mostly like in one act, and I think it will give them a opportunity to grow some different things instead of just acting.

I wanted to open up to, you are in charge of this production with the guides of the mentors and the directors.

Cierra Ziliak (Host): That's awesome.

Emily Durchholz: Right in between Perfect Arrangement and Peter Wendy, we have our first underground show, so those are our shows that are a little grittier. They might be a little darker. Sometimes they're a smaller cast. The first one is called, I'm Gonna Marry You, Toby McGuire. Set in 2004 at the height of The Spider-Man movie phenomenon. A 14-year-old girl, I believe, teenager, kidnaps, Toby McGuire. She's the head of the fan club and she wants him to marry her. So it's a dark comedy. It's got all of the nostalgia of the aughts.

Dani Scott: And especially if you were a fan girl.

Emily Durchholz: Dude, I totally was. Toby McGuire. Toby McGuire as Spider-Man. Yeah. I made many a collage to put in my binders of a Toby McGuire. So that one's really fun. I can't wait for that. It actually got a little TikTok famous like.

Dani Scott: It did.

Emily Durchholz: We had someone come up to our booth at a pride event. You're doing, I'm gonna marry you Toby McGuire. Somebody very young who like, I starstruck, starstruck. Just so excited. Yeah, I heard about it on TikTok. I was like, TikTok show. Woo. Love it. So it's gonna hit with the, with the youths. With the youths.

Yes. Um. After that, in the spring we have our musical, it's La Cage aux Folles which is, based off of a farce of the same name. And there's a, famous movie also based off this farce called The Bird Cage starring Robin Williams and Nathan Lane. And it is, so funny. It is about a couple who owns a drag club in France.

In France. And t heir son is getting married to a girl whose father is a politician who is working against gay rights. And so, the son asks them to tone it down or like,

Dani Scott: Oh, can we just not act like we are right now. Can we not Just don't tell them you own a drag club.

Emily Durchholz: Yeah. And there's some missteps in there. Like one parent, one of the fathers, one of the owners is game. He wants to do anything for his kid. It kind of delays talking to his partner about doing it. And that partner is actually the drag performer in the club or one of the drag performers and has a very, emotional reaction about it.

And what do you hide for other sakes? What do you do for family? How far will you go are the things that we explore in that? And it's just super funny too. It's gonna be a good time.

Dani Scott: It's a romp, it is a, that, that kind of like, I kind of said, gave it a little damper, like, oh, oh, it's, it's, it's so funny.

Like it just. It is going to be such a fun show. It's gonna be a blast. So many great songs. Oh yeah. And like Hidden Identity is a going to be a fun moment. It is, yes b.

Emily Durchholz: Then our final show of the season is another underground play. It is called People, Places and Things. And, that one I'm super excited about.

 I'm excited about the whole season, honestly, but this play follows the story of a woman experiencing addiction. She gets to a point where she decides to check herself into rehab, and, we see her detoxing, we see her navigating rehab and the playwright, Duncan McMillan did a lot of research with addicts, with centers who work with people experiencing addiction, to have a really authentic representation that I don't know that I've seen in theater before. But we actually see a scene in which the lead character, she starts to detox without medication at the rehab center and she starts hallucinating.

And that hallucination is represented with the other actors in the play, dressed as her, moving about the room, doing things as she watches herself move. And there's some other very cool elements to represent such a difficult concept to grasp unless you are going through it.

Right. So I'm excited for that one to bridge the gap for some people who don't have any experience with addiction. They don't know somebody, or they may not know that they know someone, with addiction. So we're hoping to work with some local organizations on that one and get some resources out to the community.

Dani Scott: Because that's one thing, like most of our shows are around family growing up or community, and although we don't talk about this part, this is a part of our community. How do, how do you deal with people who have addiction? How do you help them? How do you help yourself too while you see people going through it, even if you don't feel like you're having any emotions with it, there is a lot of stress that can go on with people dealing with it and also being a part of that.

Emily Durchholz: It's a heavy one. Heavy. Yeah. It, it's funny at times. But it does not shy away from the reality of what people experience. So it's, you really get to step into someone else's shoes for that one.

Sami Etienne (Host): Yeah, I think they all sound so great, and I love that you guys pick topics that kind of push the boundaries a little bit and like force sometimes uncomfortable conversations or, you get to see a different perspective of things. Like I, think that's necessary. And I wanna see them all. Yeah, me

Emily Durchholz: We do still have our season tickets on sale. I'll have to plug that up until September 28th, which is the last performance of Our Town. After the fact. Your tickets are $20 for our main stage show, $15 for the underground. So your season ticket gives you four shows for, three.

Dani Scott: Yeah, four shows. Four shows. And then you're just paying for three.

Emily Durchholz: There we go. That was easy.

Cierra Ziliak (Host): Buy three, get one free.

Emily Durchholz: Yeah. Yeah. There you go. Yes. Okay. That was a better way to say it.

Sami Etienne (Host): You guys have five shows this year though, right?

Emily Durchholz: We have six shows.

Sami Etienne (Host): Six shows.

Emily Durchholz: So our underground series is just not part of the season tickets. Got it. So, and we actually have one other production. So we have seven.

Oh my gosh. That's right. We forgot about the Vagina Monologues. Yes. So this will be our second annual production of Vagina Monologues.

Dani Scott: It is a one night event. And, we partner with the Albian Fellows Bacon Center. so the proceeds go to, that organization to help out, women in our community. Which is very important.

Emily Durchholz: We're really looking forward to that one too. It's, it's, another series of uncomfortable stories, right. Or funny stories, that you don't get to hide from.

Dani Scott: Right. Yeah. And it kind of gives you, it allows you to talk about things you normally are like, no, we don't really talk about that. Hush hush. So it, it allows people to laugh together, to bond together over these, basically monologues. And some of them are really honest, some of them are hilarious. Like I laughed and we did it last year at the Universalist Church. Uh, the Unitarian Univers. Unitarian Universalist Church.

Yeah. And it was packed. Wow. And it was so fun. And, and also thanks to sharing Dennis for making that happen Oh, yeah. Last year. She's great.

Sami Etienne (Host): Is that one you can like, drag your husband to and like make him sit here and like, this is what we have to go through?

Dani Scott: Yes. Yes. Perfect. You should, you should be like, actually this is mandatory.

Yeah. Mandatory, you said.

Emily Durchholz: So it's also a fun one to take your, your girlfriends too, like your girl group. I think there's a part, isn't there? Chanting, don't we chant? Yes. During the, there's some chanting that happens.

Dani Scott: There's some chanting that happens. There's some.

Cierra Ziliak (Host): Some audience participation in other ways too.

Dani Scott: Audience participation. Yes.

Emily Durchholz: Yes. But I think it is a good, like, bring a husband along. Bring your boyfriend. Because we, they'll also find, yeah, they'll learn, they'll find things to connect to also. And, why, ignore what half the population experiences. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Sami Etienne (Host): Love it. Okay. So we're doing our next segment now. It's Broke or Bougie. Okay. So we'll give you a scenario or like a for instance, and you have to explain, is this broke or bougie? Meaning, to you, is this broke or bougie? Okay, this is not, and not everyone's gonna have the same opinion. So, the first one is, are you broke or bougie when it comes to subscribing to multiple streaming platforms?

Dani Scott: Broke.

Emily Durchholz: Yeah, I would say it's bougie to have a lot, but it makes you broke. So all the prices keep jumping up and the quality isn't necessarily always keeping up. So broke.

Dani Scott: Basically, you're just paying for satellite at that point? Yeah, like direct tv.

Cierra Ziliak (Host): What services, what streaming services do you have?

Emily Durchholz: We have Netflix, Hulu, with ads. Gotta watch. It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. That just cracks me up.

Dani Scott: I think we have Netflix and Hulu. What's the one that, the game change that came Game Changer. Dropout. Okay. Dropout. This, I, I do pay for this and I also support them even though I don't have time to watch it. It's only $5 a month.

 Dropout is one of my favorite streaming services because it, they do new games like Game Changer, make some noise. They like D and D campaigns. So the, the nerd in me lives through this.

Emily Durchholz: It's one that I need to subscribe to. And it's definitely populated with people who are having the best time, and that is like so fun to see.

Sami Etienne (Host): Like feel good tv. Yeah. Like it makes you happy when you watch it.

Dani Scott: It's so funny and it's a lot of, they get comedians on there sometimes, they have actors that will pop in. They do like Shakespearean improv. It's wild.

Sami Etienne (Host): I've never heard of it. So the streaming service itself is called The Dropout?

Dani Scott: Drop Out. Drop Out TV.

Sami Etienne (Host): Drop out tv. I'll look into it.

Dani Scott: It's wild.

Sami Etienne (Host): Because I'm bougie when it comes to this. I feel like we subscribe to every single one. I'm not saying it's a financially smart thing to do, but I'm saying we do. Mm-hmm. And we bounce around from all of them.

Cierra Ziliak (Host): Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Us too. We have Apple tv and what do you Prime?

Sami Etienne (Host): Apple. Prime, Hulu. Netflix. Disney Plus. Disney. Mm-hmm. Paramount Plus Peacock. It's too many. Mm-hmm. You're right. I should just get like. DirecTV again, like old school.

Dani Scott: It'd probably be the same. We're just just going old school now. Vintage. Vintage.

Cierra Ziliak (Host): We're really big on, physical media, in my mm-hmm abode. So we've got a whole bunch of Blu-rays. We've got vinyl too, so we're making sure. Okay. In addition to the streaming services, we wanna own that too. Just, you know,

Dani Scott: I have vinyl, I have Bob's Burger's records. I have that too. My gosh. Yes. Oh, that's amazing.

Cierra Ziliak (Host): Do either one of you have a VHS player still?

Dani Scott: We have one at the theater that still works.

Sami Etienne (Host): Wow.

Emily Durchholz: I think we have one that does not work.

Dani Scott: I have one in my garage.

Emily Durchholz: My partner and I make movies, so we often have electronics that don't work to use as set pieces. Oh, yeah. No, that's a good idea. Yeah. Okay.

Sami Etienne (Host): Well I think that worked. Yeah. Segment. Okay. Yeah, it worked.

Cierra Ziliak (Host): Okay. So for anyone who is not in the theater community, how do you cast actors for your performances? Hmm.

Dani Scott: So usually what happens is we'll put out an announcement via Facebook or Instagram. Not sure if we did an email this time. I don't think so.

Emily Durchholz: I don't think we did. Um, but occasionally we'll do that. We'll send out an email, um, to our email list about upcoming auditions.

Dani Scott: And then, what we do is, we'll do cold reads of the script, which means we get some scenes that we'll do and they get to work on them. We give adjustments and then they do it again. And mostly what we look for is just people who want to work well together. And we had so many people come out for Our Town, it was, it was really hard to

Emily Durchholz: 36 or 37 people.

Dani Scott: Yeah.

Emily Durchholz: For a 20 person cast.

Dani Scott: For a 20 person cast. And it was so hard to, to say no to so many lovely actors. But we also have seven other things going on, so keep auditioning. But we had a lot of new people coming out audition too from Henderson. So we, we've kind of opened the doors a bit more with people who've never been on a civic stage.

Emily Durchholz: And, there were a lot of people that came back to audition saying, I never thought I would get to act on this stage. And so it's kind of like a dream come true. Yeah. Scenario. Like I said before, it feels like that you walk into this space and you're like something good's about to happen.

Dani Scott: But what's great about this is you can put the specifics online. So it'll be like, these are the ages we're looking for. This is who. We have children in Our Town ages 10 up to 70. So we have a whole broad spectrum and that's what Our Town's about.

It's about community and seeing all the different generations.

Emily Durchholz: Yeah. And there are several families that audition together. So we've got at least two, three, maybe four different, uh, family units that are part of the show, which was very cool to see. And for our other shows, the auditions are pretty similar. Sometimes, in the past we've had people prepare monologues. I don't love doing that, but, it's like a one or two minute memorized piece, and then you go on to cold reads from that. But, whenever you jump right into cold reads, you're working with the material that you're gonna be performing later.

Dani Scott: You're working with people you might be cast with, so that way you get to see how they bounce off of each other. And what's so nice about these auditions is that it, it's free to be a part of community theater, I know in some areas around the world, sometimes you have to pay to be a part of it and you don't.

The most you might have to pay for is some costume pieces at Goodwill. Mm-hmm. Yeah. But it's fun. So I'm always like, just come in if you're not sure. Just if you're nervous, join us.

Cierra Ziliak (Host): And anyone from the community?

Dani Scott: Anyone.

Emily Durchholz: Anyone can audition.

Dani Scott: And during the season we also will have different workshops. So I do an audition technique workshop to get people comfortable with auditioning if they've never done it before. I also do a monologue workshop. We're still working on getting our stage management workshop going, but we just finished a directing workshop, so, people that were a part of that are now our assistant directors for the main stage.

So we have four assistant directors that were a part of this two week directing workshop. So that's been really fun.

Emily Durchholz: It has been very fun. And they're doing such a good job. The workshop went so well, they got to direct each other in scenes and, giving them the opportunity to be part of the season this year. It was so cool. It's just so cool.

Cierra Ziliak (Host): And if I am interested in theater, but I am not gonna, I don't wanna be an actor per se, or maybe I'm dipping my toe in, is there other things I can do to help? Oh, involved.

Dani Scott: Yeah. That is where we need some of the most help. Yes. Is with, painting or the tech side of it, helping with lights, helping with the set. Like right now we've had, we're going to have a volunteer day, August 9th. So that will be going out soon with more information. But it's inviting and it's a meet and greet for everyone who wants to volunteer. And that's ultimately we're gonna be putting up some more of our, Our Town. Oh yeah. Set.

Emily Durchholz: And, it's like a. Come meet us, get to know us, we're gonna have pizza. It'll be a good time from two to eight PM.

Dani Scott: If you ever feel like you wanna volunteer for anything, we have our volunteer form online and we always are in need of volunteers.

Emily Durchholz: Yes.

Sami Etienne (Host): Okay. So best thing if people of the community wanna get involved, go to the website and fill out a volunteer form.

Emily Durchholz: Yes.

Sami Etienne (Host): Okay. Easy enough.

Emily Durchholz: Yeah.

Cierra Ziliak (Host): And if they're interested in auditioning, they should look at Facebook, Instagram?

Emily Durchholz: Yes. Okay. They can look at Facebook, Instagram. We will usually put information up on the website too. So the next one should be coming up in early Septe, it is coming up in early September, so keep an eye out for that.

Cierra Ziliak (Host): Yeah, and we'll have links on all of our posts to their stuff. Awesome. Yeah.

Sami Etienne (Host): Is the first audition, is it like they do on TV where it's like, like you don't want somebody to like send in a video, right? Like you come to the casting call and then you do the cold reads.

Dani Scott: For accessibility, sometimes if people are out of town or they have a work commitment, because not everyone has the ability to take that time off to audition; we have one on Saturday and then one on Tuesday from six to 9:30 mostly.

But if people are like, Hey, I can't make those times, but I can send a video, I've done that before. Just to help people out because I understand like schedules can be difficult to work around.

Sami Etienne (Host): Yes, yes. But that's not mandatory. If you make the days that when the auditions are being held right.

Dani Scott: If you have time during those days to make those days, it's good to show up for those. It's, it's much better to show up. Yeah.

Cierra Ziliak (Host): This is a hard question. And you're not playing favorites, but let's say you can only recommend one show of the seven this season. Of course you want everyone to see every single one. Which one would you pick?

Dani Scott: I'm gonna say right now I'm biased because it's going to be Our Town. Because I'm working with the cast. Yeah.

Emily Durchholz: I will say People, Places and Things. I'm very excited about that one. But everything is gonna be so great this season. I am excited to direct La Caux with Danny too, and Our Town is just, Our Town is going to be something special. So to me, that's the given, like, be there. Especially opening night, like yeah. It's gonna be so special to be back at that theater.

Dani Scott: The first opening in what, three years since the doors closed?

Emily Durchholz: Yeah.

Dani Scott: Yeah.

Sami Etienne (Host): When is opening night?

Dani Scott: September 19th.

Sami Etienne (Host): September 19th, okay. That's so exciting. What is one thing that you wish everyone understood about the Civic Theater? Just one thing.

Emily Durchholz: I think that, something that we are working on as a board and a as an organization and it's been great having Dani along for the ride with this, is reminding everybody that the door is open. We are here for what the community needs. A theater is a gym for empathy. And this is a place where people can go to learn, people can go to explore their creativity, to experience heartbreak safely, to experience those high joys and those low lows, in a space where afterwards you can have a conversation, and move forward. And Civic has been here 100 years and we'd love to be here for 100 more. I think it speaks volumes that we've been able to survive this long and, we're here for the community.

Dani Scott: And without community support, I mean, we are definitely boots on the ground. We are a small board, but we're a mighty board, and it takes a lot of effort to keep a theater running and going and organizing and cleaning. So the volunteer days are really important to us because it helps us to kind of get our feet back under us after a show or after we're done with opening night or we're closing a show and starting a new one.

 Without the community support, we would not be where we are today.

Sami Etienne (Host): Because Dani, you're kind of a one man show, right? Like boots on the ground. Like you do a lot of the stuff behind the scenes too, right?

Dani Scott: Yeah. So I also do the box office administration, the educational workshops, and then, artistic director as well.

Emily Durchholz: Yeah. It's a lot. You wear many hats. Yes.

Dani Scott: But with a lot of support. So I, I'm able to do all that.

Sami Etienne (Host): The support is needed, right? Yeah.

Cierra Ziliak (Host): Yeah. So it's been wonderful to hear about the theater. Just to wrap things up, we're gonna ask one more question that is completely off topic on that.

Since we're a credit union, we always wanna know about financial tips and what is one that you wish you would've known 18.

Dani Scott: If you can't pay for it twice, don't buy it.

Cierra Ziliak (Host): Oh, that's, that's good. Smart.

Emily Durchholz: I would've looked more closely at student loans.

Cierra Ziliak (Host): Right. Yeah.

Dani Scott: I'm still looking at mine.

Emily Durchholz: Oh, me too. Read the fine print. Yeah.

Cierra Ziliak (Host): Yes, yes. No, those are both good ones.

Sami Etienne (Host): Well, we thank you guys so much for being on here. I feel like we are just getting to know each other, but after today, like, I really feel like that we know you guys and we're so grateful that like we've built this like connection between us now.

We've got some exciting things coming up. We're gonna have, like a Halloween party this fall and Dani's gonna be there. I don't know. Hopefully you come.

Emily Durchholz: I may be, we'll see. perhaps I'll be a wrangler.

Sami Etienne (Host): Yeah. So, um, lots of exciting things coming up. The civic theater's gonna be super busy, lots of shows. So if you're listening to this, get your season tickets, buy your tickets, go to their website, which is,

Emily Durchholz: It is EVV civic.org.

Sami Etienne (Host): EVVcivic.org. So thank you guys so much.

Dani Scott: Thank you. Thank you.

Emily Durchholz: Thanks for having us. We've had a great time.

Dani Scott: Oh yeah.

Sami Etienne (Host): Until next time.

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