'Battling Bullying' initiative to bring author to Saginaw, Midland and Bay Counties in April

by Janet I. Martineau

Concerned about statistics indicating one in seven school students is either a bully or a victim of bullying, four Great Lakes Bay region organizations are teaming up for an unusual  “battling bullying” initiative.

Titled the Great Lakes Bay Great Read, the multi-faceted program is targeted at 80 middle school classrooms in Bay, Midland and Saginaw Counties. 

The students will collectively read the award-winning book “Touching Spirit Bear,” told  from the viewpoint of a bully; attend a presentation by the author of that book, Ben Mikaelsen, and then embark on a field trip to see an art project created by a man in response to his lifetime of being bullied.

Their parents and other concerned citizens also will have an opportunity to hear the author, who says he was both a bully and bullied during his school years.

“And in addition, the teachers in those 80 middle school classrooms will attend an in-service workshop with two speakers,” says Carolyn Wierda, the interim associate dean in Saginaw Valley State University’s College of Education.

“Deborah Smith, an associate professor of teacher education at SVSU, will talk about  using books to teach about social issues. And Kim Sumerix, a therapist with Child & Youth Services in Midland, will provide examples of how teachers can respond to bullies.

“We have heard from so many teachers who want more help with the issue of bullying,” says Wierda, “so we want to be able to offer them some guidance which they can then take back to their schools to share with other teachers, along with additional literacy strategies.”

Partnering with SVSU on the Great Lakes Bay Great Read project are Saginaw Township Schools Community Education, Bay City Public Schools and Creative 360 in Midland.

Author Ben Mikaelsen

Creative 360, a non-profit arts group, owns and operates what is called the John Pratt Mosaic House, on the western edge of Midland County. 

A victim of mental illness most of his life, and picked on because of it, in his adult years Pratt created colorful mosaic scenes on the exterior of the family home in a prime example of what is called folk art. He used broken glass and plates, bottle caps, nuts and bolts, and found objects.

“All of the events will be offered free, to the schools and to the public,” says Steve Elliott, director of Saginaw Township Schools Community Education. 

“So far we have raised $24,000 from area foundations to pay for the cost of bringing the author here, the venue rentals for his nine presentations, the teacher in-service session, and some of the 2,500 copies of the books which will go to those 80 classrooms.

“Now we are appealing to Great Lakes Bay Region businesses and groups to ‘sponsor a classroom’ to pay for the bus transportation to see Mikaelsen, the remainder of the books, and the bus trip and art supplies linked to the Pratt house visit.”

Mikaelsen is coming to the area April 17-19 -- speaking to students during the day and the public in the evening on  April 17 in Midland, April 18 in Bay City and April 19 in Saginaw.

The students in the 80 classrooms will receive copies of his book on March 1, the same day as the in-service training for their teachers at SVSU. “So far we have 58 classrooms signed up so there is room for more,” says Wierda.

And the Pratt House tours and art project connected to it will take place mid-April through May.

“I have conducted more than 60 student tours to the Pratt property through the years,” says Jan List, a volunteer with Creative 360, “and it is remarkable to witness the reaction. We have done a lot of the tours for at-risk or special needs students, and they so totally connect with this man who was picked on like they are.

“They seem to ‘get’ the idea that sometimes the best way to respond to being bullied is to immerse yourself in a creative way, like John did. With the art project connected to their visit, we give them materials to make their own small mosaics.”

Among the financial  support received so far are grants from Citizens Bank Wealth Management, FORCE through the Saginaw Community Foundation, Midland Youth Violence Prevention Partnership, Rollin M. Gerstacker  Foundation,  Harvey Randall Wickes Foundation, Bay Area Community Foundation, Dow Corning and Jury Foundation.

For more information about possible donations and school sign ups, contact Elliott at (989) 399-8029 or saelliot@stcs.org.

SVSU hosting showing of award-winning documentary 'Shakespeare Behind Bars' and visit by its founder

Special event:

“Shakespeare Behind Bars” 

viewing of award-winning documentary

and talk-back with director Curt Tofteland

7pm Tuesday, Feb. 14

Rhea Miller Recital Hall, SVSU

Free

by Janet Martineau

“Murderers. Fugitives. Thieves....Shakespeare would have loved these guys.”

That quote on the jacket of an unusual award-winning documentary says it all. And at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 14, theater and film fans alike will witness it first hand when it is shown in the Rhea Miller Recital Hall at  Saginaw Valley State University. Free and open to the public.

And sitting in the audience with them that night ... artistic director Curt L. Tofteland, who 17 years ago began in a Kentucky men’s prison the program from which the documentary takes its name, “Shakespeare Behind Bars.”

In that program, each year real-life murderers, child molesters and robbers rehearse  and stage one of the Bard’s plays and, in some years, even “tour” it to other prisons. 

Viewers of the documentary meet them the year they produced  “The Tempest.”

Scene from "The Tempest" in a Kentucky prison

Big, burly, tattooed men. Black and white. Young and old. Having committed crimes, in some cases, that turn the stomach. Cast in both male and female roles, as they were in Shakespeare’s era when women were barred from the stage. Learning lines and speaking the difficult Elizabethan lingo with a side order of raw emotion.

“I have always believed that art, theater and the works of Shakespeare communicate what it means to be a human being,” says Tofteland in a phone call. 

“Rehabilitation is impossible for inmates, because they got to where they are by acting out of the morals and ethics of what they knew in their lives.

“But habilitation ... it is possible.”

Tofteland, in an interview, likes to word play like that ... no surprise, since he has acted extensively himself, is a poet and a playwright, directs and was for 20 years the artistic director of the Kentucky Shakespeare Festival, the nation’s oldest free Shakespeare festival.

“I am also a programming junkie, and every program I have created is to fill a need in the community. I never first create a program and then look for a need to present it. The United States has 6 million in correctional institutions; 1 in 50 Americans; more than any other nation. Even more than were jailed during Stalin’s reign.

“It is estimated 3 percent of the population in our prisons cannot be ‘healed.’ So you keep them safe in a humane setting. But what about the rest of them? We need to get them into programs like this, educate them.”

And before any naysayers get revved up to complain about tax dollars going for this "silly" Shakespeare program in prisons....it is fully paid for through private dollars Tofteland raises.

Tofteland is headed to SVSU for a three-day residency. In addition to the showing of “Shakespeare Behind Bars” and talking with the audience following it,  he also will work with SVSU students during a play rehearsal, in an intermediate acting class and for a theater majors master class.

Richard B. Roberts, an associate professor of theater at SVSU, says he first saw “Shakespeare Beyond Bars” five years ago and then later met Tofteland during a theater festival.

Curt L. Tofteland

“I have been trying to get him to come to SVSU ever since,” says Roberts, “to have our students see how theater does matter, how it can make a difference, and get a chance to talk with him about it.

“And I wanted the public to see it too. This film also applies to social workers, the criminal justice people. I hope lots come. I was on the edge of my seat watching it.”

The documentary received its world premiere, in 1995, at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival, where it was nominated for a grand jury prize. 

Since then it has played more than 40 film festivals around the nation, Canada and Great Britain and has won 11  awards.

“I still get e-mails weekly from all over the world,” says Tofteland, “and I try to get to as many college campuses as I can. Churches are also picking up on it; churches with social justice agendas.

“I have also had screenwriters approach me about making a film about my life, but this project is not about me. It is about the guys you see in the documentary .... and about the women’s prisons and juvenile facilities were we also do the program.”

As Tofteland explains it, 20 to 25 carefully selected inmates rehearse each year’s chosen play for nine months. Besides “The Tempest,” over the years they’ve also worked on “Othello,” “Macbeth,” “Winter’s Tale,” “Hamlet,” “Julius Caesar,” “Twelfth Night” and “Merchant of Venice.”

The schedule is rehearsal two days a week initially, for 90 minutes each day, then accelerated closer to show time.

“So what that adds up to is 225 hours of me working with them...and then they independently rehearse another 225 hours on their own wherever they can find a space at the prison (outside in the yard; in maintenance rooms). So each play is a 450 hour investment on their part.”

The filmmakers for the documentary shot 153 hours of footage, which was culled down into the 93 minutes on the DVD. 

And what is most remarkable on that DVD is not just the rehearsal process, and the presentation of the play, but private moments during which the men reveal to the filmmakers (and viewers) their crimes. Those moments come well into the film; after we have gotten to know them as thespians, as human beings we like.

“Everything you see (their emotion) is genuine,” assures Tofteland. “Yes they also happen to be good actors, but I know these guys, they are like my brothers. And their grief is real.”

He knows it is real, he says, “because with this program I had the biggest epiphany of my life. I thought empathy was innately born in all of us and that people who did not have it chose to be jerks.

“Now I have learned it is not innate. It comes with your development, how you are raised, and these guys were not raised with it. The good thing is it can be learned.”  And, he says, the words and situations in Shakespeare teach volumes about empathy as well as the rehearsal process filled with intense exploration of the characters. “It’s not presenting the play that is important; it’s the process.”

Tofteland left Kentucky and his work there three years ago and lives in Michigan, in Holland, where his wife is teaching in a college. In 2010, Shakespeare Behind Bars became a 501 (c) 3 non-profit and continues to spread its mission into prisons around the nation.

Tofteland is now working at a correctional facility in Muskegon Heights and on Feb. 12 a  new program he developed there will celebrate its first anniversary.

“It’s a leadership training program -- still using art and theater but to teach these guys to be leaders and create circles, and step back in society and work with gangs, youths, to give them the right direction.

“They focus on answering four questions about themselves: who am I, what do I love, how will I live my life knowing I will die, and what is my gift to humankind.”

And he also is penning a book about Shakespeare Behind Bars, with 12 of his Kentucky  actors each writing a chapter. In his 13 years there, Tofteland says, he worked with 200 men. And long-time studies of those who were eventually released, he says, found only 3.5 percent were repeat offenders -- a statistic far below the average.

Over the years, Tofteland says, his presentations about the program have brought in the doors family members of crime victims. He has even received threats.

“My heart breaks for the victims of these crimes even though I believe in redemption and .the power of good for the people who committed them. For me it’s love the man, hate the crime.”

He then recounts a person telling him “my two sisters were murdered...and thank you, thank you for doing this. It has begun my journey towards healing.” And a reporter “who wrote an amazing article” despite the fact a theater-loving friend had been murdered.

“I love doing this work because I see the miracles.”

SVSU lands regional theater festival for a second stint

by Janet I. Martineau

They’re headed here again -- 1,500 college theater majors for a five-day festival hosted by Saginaw Valley State University.

“It’s unusual to get asked to host this again so soon; usually it’s six to eight years between,” says Richard B. Roberts Jr., associate professor of theater at SVSU.

He is talking about the Kennedy Center/American College Theater Festival that after eight regionals like the one at SVSU culminate in a national festival taking place at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.

SVSU is in Region III, with participating colleges and universities from Indiana, Illinois, Ohio and Wisconsin as well as Michigan. Competition can be intense to host the regionals. SVSU got the nod in 2009 and 2010 -- a first for a Michigan school in 25 years. And recently came word they were picked again for 2013 and 2014.

“As I said from the last one, I have never worked harder or had more fun,” says Roberts of the early January festivities.

The upwards of 1,500 theater students are joined by 150 theater professors and theater professionals and collectively view eight full productions, “An Evening of Scenes,” and assorted 10-minute plays as well as attend 100 workshops.

The students also compete for nearly 40 awards -- in acting, directing, reviewing, costuming, playwriting, sound, lighting, make-up and tech -- from which the regional winners are sent on to the finals at the Kennedy Center.

The last two Region III festivals pumped an estimated $2.5 million into the Great Lakes Bay region economy since the students, professors and others attending book rooms in area hotels and frequent restaurants and shops. They are not housed at SVSU.

“The Saginaw County Convention and Visitors Bureau is projecting $3 million for the economy for the 2013 and 2014 festivals,” says Roberts.

Of the eight regionals, Region III attracts the most attendees.

In 2010, SVSU’s hosting of the event won and All-Area Arts Award from the Saginaw Arts and Enrichment Commission.

Pit and Balcony's "The Underpants" delivers naughty giggles

review by Janet I. Martineau

A boorish macho husband, a pair of plunging panties, two (and maybe three) room renters with ulterior motives, and the wild and crazy Steve Martin combine to make audiences giggle like school children at Saginaw’s Pit and Balcony Community Theatre.

And mostly it’s all in the mind with double entendres galore.

We’re talking about “The Underpants,” which opened this past weekend and runs next weekend as well. It’s based on a German farce/satire written in 1910, “Die Hose” by Carl Sternheim -- with a 2004 adaptation by Martin.

Would love to compare the two scripts -- the 1910 one and the 2004 one -- because this one sounds like all Martin. Comedy light but a little bit naughty too. Clever word play (like a nitwit character “not having a nit to knit wit”). No lasting substance and sometimes a tad plodding. Politically incorrect.  But good for a few giggles during these winter months,

Basically the storyline is as follows: A super uptight, macho, wife-belittling  German bureaucrat has his own underwear in a bunch because when he and his frau attended a parade for the king her panties suddenly fell to her ankles for all around her to see.

He is sure his job will be threatened by this should word spread; she assures him she had them back up before anybody saw anything; but when some men seek to rent an advertised room in their house, it is clear she was not as quick as she thought.

One is a poet, who will interrupt any rising passion to run off to his room and turn it into a poem. Another is a sickly Jewish barber seeking to hide his ancestry from the militant macho husband by spelling his name Cohen with a K and kosher with a C.

Enter a busybody female neighbor who urges the wife to engage in an affair with one of them since her husband is such a brute.

And that’s about as far as we should go with this description since there are a few twists and turns that are delightful.

Robin Devereaux-Nelson directs with Alex Alexandrou as the husband, Mary Lee as the wife, Michael Curtis as the poet, Jay Glysz as the Jewish barber, Liz Williams as the busybody and Paul Lutenske as a mysterious (and late to the action) man also seeking to rent a room.

Sunday’s performance needed more energy, especially given the fact this is a FARCE, and a more connectedness, engagement between the actors. They do not meld yet like a well-oiled machine. Oddly, too, three of them do not play their roles quite broadly enough given their stereotypical characters; it’s a matter of needed inflections, shadings. detail.

Collectively their timing is good, with lines as well as entrances and exits. But not razor sharp.

That said, the performances of Curtis and Lutenske sparkled, with Williams a close third. Curtis’ poet is a silky smooth sensual character, just delightful with all the right moves. His voice also so totally captures the character.  And Lutenske’s way with body English and expressions are hilarious, and then he open his mouth and plops down a line perfectly.

Bravo to the detailed set and its design, by Gary Reid, Suzie Reid and Mary Swift. It looks very real and livable and 1910ish.

Duet rocks Saginaw Choral Society Members' Recital

review by Janet I. Martineau

It’s always fun, attending the annual Saginaw Choral Society Members’ Recital, anticipating which number will rock ya.

The "Suddenly Seymour" number

They’ve done this program eight years now, presenting upwards of 20 numbers featuring choir members and their kin -- solos, duets, trios, quartets, etc; instruments as well as vocals since many are fine instrumentalists as well.

More often than not, more than one of the acts rock ya.

And so it went Friday night (and probably Saturday afternoon) in this year’s installment at new digs, the acoustically gifted First United Methodist Church in Saginaw Township.

Totally nailing it, with the powerhouse delivery of a tornado, were tenor Jim Smerdon and soprano Nina Lasceski in “Suddenly Seymour,” from the musical “Little Shop of Horrors.” Complete with a fun dramatic delivery. Wow they were sensational.

On a softer note was Ah Tempo! (a male sextet) on Kevin Memley’s arrangement of that old classic “Danny Boy” -- with the piano accompaniment, played by Betty Meyer, a seventh voice; a true seventh voice in a gorgeous melding of vocals and keyboard rarely witnessed.

Those were the two standouts, but there were other notables as well:

...Sopranos Haley Honsinger and Nancy Stevenson with Lauren Hill’s “Tell Him,” showcasing lovely duet work.

... Flutist Robert Hart and organist Nicholas Schmelter’s performance of portions of Telemann’s Sonata in G Major. This may have been a matter of where one was seated, as in the middle of the front row for this audience member. Thus the organ’s two sets of pipes were at the almost-immediate left and right with Hart between them but further back, providing a surround sound that delivered goosebumps. 

That same seat (usually we sit at the back) also accorded oneness with the various pianists (either soloists or accompanists)....making them standouts in every single number.

... Deanna Popielarz on flute, Jane Bellen on oboe and Catherine McMichael on piano on the sprightly and peppy Trio for Flute, Oboe and Piano by Dring.

The 28-member vocal ensemble at work

... And twice a 28-member ensemble performed, to perfection with direction by Glen Thomas Rideout. “All My Trials” was the standout of the two with “The Rainbow Connection” from a Muppet movie just a cute and fun closer.

If there is a slight complaint, it is that this year’s installment was a tad on the too serious/religious side, except for “Suddenly Seymour.” Memory serves, hopefully accurately, that in years past the performers cut loose a little more.

As usual the dessert smorgasbord reception was a sweet ender

New "Celebrity Corner " TV series heads out to Great Lakes Bay restaurants

by Janet I. Martineau

Television premiere:

“Celebrity Corner”

6:30pm Sunday (Jan. 29)

Channel 19/35

Chances are, in the next five months, you might end up appearing on television if you dine out at a Great Lakes Bay region restaurant.

Hint: Molly’s Bistro in Midland is a possibility in March. Frankenmuth’s  Bavarian Inn is for sure in February.

“She’s is singer and performs there,” says Saginaw filmmaker Ricardo J. Verdoni of Molly McFadden, who owns and operates Molly’s with her husband Brian.

Verdoni is the creator of “Celebrity Corner,” a half-hour series spotlighting the region’s arts, entertainment and business enterprises and shot on location in restaurants. It debuts this Sunday (Jan. 29) at 6:30pm on Delta College’s Channel 19/35 and is slated to run in that fourth Sunday slot for six weeks, says Verdoni.

The Laurie Middlebrook Band

David Oppermann, the long-time leader of the New Reformation Dixieland Band, hosts each segment -- interviewing the restaurant patrons and the arts/entertainment/business guests.

“The idea is everybody on this show is a celebrity,” says Verdoni, “even the people eating. And I think I may increase the time we spend with them in each segment because Dave is such a natural with them. He can get anybody to talk. And he does not need a script. I just give him some background and off he goes.”

The guests in Episode One are Brett Mitchell, the conductor of the Saginaw Bay Symphony Orchestra; Laurie Middlebrook, a country music singer/songwriter/band leader; JoAnn Crary, CEO of Saginaw Future, and Tricia Arner, director of the mobile Saginaw Area Foundation for Eye Care.

And the restaurant is Horizons in Saginaw Township, where Oppermann drops in on members of the 1949 class of Saginaw High School enjoying their monthly lunch.

Mitchell chats about his conducting gigs in Houston, Washington D.C., St. Paul and France and the fact the Saginaw orchestra is recording record audiences these days. Cow girl Middlebrook is seen with her horses.

Arner says the mobile eye bus visits 20-25 sites each year, its volunteer doctors and staff providing eye care, including surgery,  to people who cannot otherwise afford it. And Crary says yes jobs are in short supply, but the Great Lakes Bay jobless rate is 8.1 percent to the nation’s 9 percent and then lists a half dozen promising careers in the area.

Thankfully, Verdoni has for years taken his camera everywhere he goes, so he has an ample supply of stock footage on most of his guests or their businesses....and if not, he shoots some for the new series. Middlebrook is seen in several concerts and Mitchell too.

“I don’t like shows with talking heads, so this one will not be that.” He also found that the   four guests being interviewed in the first installment seemed  more relaxed chatting in the restaurant setting rather than a more formal studio, so he plans to continue that as well -- even though there is at times some noise bleed.

February’s show will head out to the Bavarian Inn, and among the guests are Dorothy Zehnder, the no-spring-chicken founder who still runs the place, as well as Judy Zehnder who oversees the Bavarian Lodge.

Also on Verdoni’s radar, along with Molly’s Bistro, are the Bay City Players -- the state’s oldest community theater. “And I won’t limit the show to just Saginaw, Midland and Bay City. There’s Chesaning... Birch Run.”

Verdoni is an avid supporter of the Great Lakes Bay region and says he pursued doing this show “to show the quality of life, the good stuff in our communities. So many people just don’t seem to know what is happening here.”

Earlier he filmed and aired “Saginaw Celebrates Summer,” a span of three months during which there are dozens of entertainment options.

Channel 19/35 plans to air the six installments of “Celebrity Corner” and then see what the ratings are. Verdoni, who owns and operates Verdoni Productions, adds that he retains the rights to each installment and is open to showing it for clubs and other interested groups.

Rotary clubs in sister cities of Saginaw and Tokushima come to the aid of Japan's earthquake/tsunami survivors

by Janet I. Martineau

Nearly a year after the devastating 9.0 earthquake/131-foot tsunami that hit Japan, a 51-year-old international friendship between two “sister cities” is aiding its still-homeless survivors.

An automated external defibrillator 

A collaboration involving 12 Rotary Clubs in Saginaw, Michigan, and Tokushima, Japan, raised $76,500 to purchase 36 automated external heart defibrillators for use in temporary shelters housing nearly 13,000 people displaced by the double disaster last March.

Eight of the machines already are in use in four cities with the remaining 28 headed to two other cities by the end of January.

“The six cities where the defibrillators from our project are headed have a population of 370,000, and around 28 percent of the survivors living in their shelters are over the age of 60,” says Thomas W. Cline, a member of the Rotary Club of Saginaw and who served as the liaison between the two sister cities of Saginaw and Tokushima.

Adds Dr. Bala Srinivasan, a retired physician/cardiac anesthesiologist and member of the Saginaw Valley Rotary Club, “Elderly people are prone to irregular hearts which are corrected or converted to regular heart beats by the use of defibrillators, with minimal side effects.

“With the added stress of this big natural calamity, many of the elderly there are even more prone for this cardiac problem, and we are grateful to be of some help.”

Called AEDs, the units contain simple audio and visual commands and are designed for use by laymen rather than the more sophisticated manual and semi-automatic machines used by health professionals.

Tokushima lies about 460 miles south and west of the earthquake epicenter in Sendai, and as luck would have it has a sister city relationship not only with Saginaw but also Sendai.

So when Srinivasan, then president of the Saginaw Valley Rotary Club, suggested last March that the Rotary Club of Saginaw approach its “sister” Tokushima West Rotary Club, asking if there was any aid it could provide, the wheels were set in motion.

“Tokushima conferred with Sendai and discovered the area around it was  in need of  the defibrillators,” says Evelyn Mudd, who was president of the Rotary Club of Saginaw at the time.

“When representatives from our sister city visited Saginaw in May,  the two Rotarians in the group attended a meeting with representatives from the three Saginaw Clubs (Saginaw Sunrise being the third) and an agreement was reached as to details. After that it was a matter of just coordinating everything.”

Mudd recalls late night calls between Michigan and Japan, due to the time differences, as well as translation assistance from Yoko Mossner, a native of Japan living in Saginaw, and William Mahar, an American Catholic missionary living in Tokushima.

Of the total $76,500 project, the three clubs in Saginaw collectively raised $10,000, nine Rotary clubs in Tokushima and one in Sendai itself raised $21,937, two Rotary districts in the two nations raised $20,000, and Rotary International chipped in $24,562.

The city of Tokushima has a population of 267,347 and the city of Saginaw 51,508.

The quake and tidal wave claimed an estimated 6,548 lives in the area where the 36 machines will see duty, says Cline, with 1,257 missing. 

Cline says most of the shelters are in schools as well as public halls and citizen centers as clean-up and reconstruction continues.

“Shelter living is in a dormitory setting; large rooms where people place matting on which they place bedding,” he says. “Attempts at privacy are made through curtains, or cardboard partitions.  They are served food at central locations.

“The under 60 adults who have employment go to work from the shelter.  Those over 60, and the unemployed under 60, remain at the shelter.  

“And bear in mind that the loss of housing normally includes the loss of all possessions.”

The project is, says Cline, just a matter of “friends helping friends.”

Rotary International, recognized as the world's first volunteer service organization, was founded in Chicago in 1905.  The Rotary Club of Saginaw was the 93rd club founded and in 2014 celebrates its 100th anniversary. There are now more than 34,000 Rotary Clubs in 200 countries and geographic areas.