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This is your place TSP members and Alumni - let us know what you're doing and where! Contact the Website Administrator here with your information.
• TSP Alumni in Urinetown at Riverview Theatre
• TSP Alumni nominated for local awards
• Paul Lockwood on TV
• Paul Lockwood in the news
Members of the cast include:
Kaylie Diel (State Fair) as Little Becky Two Shoes; Dave "Doc" Lindquist as Caldwell B. Cladwell (Phantom, Diary of Anne Frank, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Fiorello); Meagan Little (State Fair) as Hope Cladwell; Will Loftus (State Fair) as Bobby Strong;
Rob Scharlow (Phantom, Arsenic and Old Lace, Sabrina Fair) as Officer Lockstock, Kim Scharlow (Fiorello, Arsenic and Old Lace, Sabrina Fair) as Little Sally; Katelin Stack (Sabrina Fair) as part of the ensemble; Barbara Tipton (I Hate Hamlet) as Soupy Sue;
Sarah Weinstein (Singin In the Rain, The Man Who Came To Dinner, The Mousetrap, Sabrina Fair) as Ms. Pennywise;
Urinetown the Musical
One of the most uproariously funny musicals in recent years, URINETOWN is a hilarious tale of greed, corruption, love, and revolution in a time when water is worth its weight in gold. In a Gotham-like city, a terrible water shortage, caused by a 20-year drought, has led to a government-enforced ban on private toilets. The citizens must use public amenities, regulated by a single malevolent company that profits by charging admission for one of humanity's most basic needs. Amid the people, a hero decides he's had enough, and plans a revolution to lead them all to freedom! Inspired by the works of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill, URINETOWN is an irreverently humorous satire in which no one is safe from scrutiny. Praised for reinvigorating the very notion of what a musical could be, URINETOWN catapults the “comedic romp” into the new millennium with its outrageous perspective, wickedly modern wit, and sustained ability to produce gales of unbridled laughter.
For more information visit Riverview Theatre
At the end of each season, WMTC staff and cast members nominate people from several areas for their "Best Of" awards. Rob Scharlow is one of this year's Best Actor nominees for his portrayal of Tito Merelli in Lend Me A Tenor. His wife Kim has been nominated for Best Actress for her turn as Maggie. Also nominated from Lend Me A Tenor was Gina Belt for Best Artistic, (Artistic Director) and rounding out the Tenor nominations was Sara Weinstein for the Rising Star Award.
Best of luck to all!
Pencil in man's TV debut
By - JENN WIANT Northwest Herald
WOODSTOCK – Paul Lockwood has wanted to be on a TV game show for the past 40 years.
The Woodstock resident’s dream comes true today when he appears as a contestant on “Merv Griffin’s
Crosswords.”
The episode, which was filmed in November, airs at 2 p.m.
Lockwood cannot reveal how he did before the show airs, but win or lose, he said, just being on the show
fulfilled his lifelong dream.
“I was already a winner just going out there,” he said.
The show paid for his airplane ticket to Los Angeles, hotel and transportation, Lockwood said, unlike most
game shows he has experienced.
And Lockwood has experience: He has tried out for “Wheel of Fortune,” “Jeopardy,” “Who Wants to be a
Millionaire” and “Let’s Make a Deal.”
He said most shows required the contestants to get to the studio on their own dime.
Lockwood, a technical writer who performs in shows at the Woodstock Opera House and who is president
of Woodstock’s TownSquare Players, became interested in game shows as a child. He still has an essay
he wrote when he was young about what he wanted to do when he grew up.
“I wanted to host a television variety show, and I wanted a segment of that variety show to be a game
show for kids,” Lockwood said.
“Even back then, I was thinking of game shows and how much fun it would be to be on a game show and
win a nice chunk of money or go on a trip.”
Over Columbus Day weekend, Lockwood auditioned for the show at NBC’s studios in Chicago. A few days
after completing 29 crossword clues and a brief taped interview, he received a call saying he had been
selected as one of 50 contestants.
Taping the show took a full day. Lockwood was not as nervous as he expected he would be in front of the
cameras.
“It was a lot of fun,” he said. “It was everything I expected and more.
“I [did] get a chance to show a little of my personality and a little intelligence.”
The winner of today’s episode of “Crosswords” goes to the final round and must finish the last few clues of
a crossword puzzle in 90 seconds to receive $5,000 and a trip to Hawaii, in addition to money earned
during the show.
All other contestants receive a Merv Griffin’s “Crosswords” watch.
If he won, Lockwood said, he probably would use the money to take his wife on a trip to Europe.
Lockwood must wait at least a year before trying out for another game show, which is something he plans
to do.
“I would do it again in a heartbeat, if I could,” he said.
Woodstock resident locks up game show appearance
By MIKE NEUMANN The Independent
Television audiences will see Woodstock resident Paul Lockwood live out a dream Tuesday, Feb. 26.
It’s not a cliché dream, like becoming a famous rock star or a professional athlete.
And although the dream came true in Hollywood, it doesn’t involve becoming a famous movie star or a
recognizable celebrity, either.
In late November, Lockwood, president of the Woodstock theater group TownSquare Players, was flown
out to California to participate in “Merv Griffin’s Crosswords.” The game show is aired weekdays at 2 and
2:30 p.m. on NBC 5 in the Chicago area.
Lockwood has been attempting to find his way onto a game show stage ever since he was living in the
Orlando area.
“I took a ‘Jeopardy!’ pretest and failed miserably,” Lockwood laughs of his first attempt. “These were all
Final Jeopardy sorts of questions. You needed to get seven out of 10 correct, and I didn’t get any.”
His next stab at the game-show dream was with the wacky “Let’s Make a Deal.” Lockwood rented a Tin
Man costume and put the words “Oi’l Make a Deal” on it. He was successful at getting on the show’s
trading floor but was placed behind a cone-head Elvis, which Lockwood said made him blend into the
background.
After moving to the Chicago area, Lockwood stuck with his dream. He went to a “Wheel Mobile” event on
the south side of Chicago, where 1,500 people stood in line awaiting a chance to audition for “Wheel of
Fortune.”
“I went down, waited in a very long line to be one of the people to be brought up to give an interview and
to guess a letter,” Lockwood said. “Unfortunately, they bring in 1,500 people and they only bring up five or
six at a time.”
Throughout the day, only 50 to 60 potential contestants were auditioned for the show. Lockwood was not
one of them.
“Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” was Lockwood’s next attempt. He traveled to Indiana to take a test to
become a finalist for the regular version of the show and a special movie version. He passed neither. A
second chance to qualify took place at Medieval Times. This time, Lockwood passed the test for the
special movie edition and was interviewed by a production assistant.
“I thought, ‘This will be something,’” Lockwood said. But he wasn’t called.
Columbus Day weekend, Lockwood learned of the auditions for “Crosswords.” Unlike most other game
shows, this one paid contestants’ transportation and meal expenses. This time, however, Lockwood was
unsure if he’d audition.
“For this, it was pretty much the only day that week I didn’t have a rehearsal or a meeting,” Lockwood
said. “I was becoming a stranger at home.”
Lockwood boarded a train that day, however, and decided to give it a shot.
“Even though I don’t solve crosswords every day, I have done a number of crosswords in my life,”
Lockwood said.
He was brought into a room with a large group of other potential contestants and asked to solve 29
crossword clues.
“I felt pretty good after it was done that I got a good chunk of them right,” he said.
Producers came back into the room and called about 30 people in for a brief interview. Lockwood was
asked to stand in the hall until it was his turn to interview. Coincidentally, the show’s host, Ty Treadway,
happened to be at the auditions that day. Lockwood quickly struck up a conversation with him.
“One question I asked was if at the end of the third round, if there ever was a tie score. Then I said, ‘Of
course with you hosting the show, every game is a Ty game,’” Lockwood said, noting his appreciation of
puns.
Treadway joked that producers should “get him (Lockwood) on the writing staff.”
Lockwood suspects his banter with Treadway could have pushed him over the top for a spot on the show.
For the show itself, Lockwood said he was surprisingly calm. Although he was required to sign a document
stating he would not reveal how well he did, Lockwood did give some general notes about his
performance, which will be aired at 2 p.m. Feb. 26.
“The only person who knows (if I won) is my wife,” Lockwood said, noting that he feels he showed some
wit and intelligence during the taping.
Lockwood said he has never seen or read a play by Anton Chekhov, which comes into play in the game
show.
“So something that happens on the show, it was outside my scope of experience,” he said.
Those tuning in should not turn off the program if they don’t see Lockwood immediately. He noted that
three “spoilers” are added after the first round. The spoilers have the opportunity to steal other opponents’
positions, including the money accumulated up to that point. At the end, the player with the highest total
goes to a bonus round to complete a crossword to earn an additional $5,000 and a vacation.
“It’s a very different kind of show,” Lockwood said. “You can do very well and still not win.”
There are also “Crossword Extra” features in the game, which allow players to wager any amount of
money they accumulated, similar to that of a “Daily Double” in “Jeopardy!”
“In order to win big money you need to be willing to bet big bucks,” Lockwood said.
He added that his philosophy going into the game was that if he was in the lead, he would not bet an
extreme amount of money. “You’ll see whether or not I follow my philosophy. It’s not always the easiest
thing to do.”
This article was published in the February 20, 2008 edition of The Woodstock Independent.
More media coverage
would help
Paul Lockwood
When the
Northwest Herald
published its entertainment
priorities for 2010 last
February, it recommended that
county residents increase their support
for events at our local venues,
including theWoodstock Opera
House.
As president of TownSquare
Players Inc. (TSP), one of two
Woodstock Opera House resident
theater groups, I sincerely hope this
priority won’t take two more years
to accomplish.
When I moved to Woodstock
seven years ago, WoodstockMusical
Theatre Company’s “Cinderella”
was the first show I was cast in. If
my “fairy godmother” could wave
her magic wand for me to grant my
“entertainment” wishes for
McHenry County, I’d ask her to:
Have the media actively cover
local theater.With the exception of
WMTC’s holiday show, all of the
shows staged by TSP and WMTC
run for at least three weekends. A
review immediately after opening
night could significantly increase
both our visibility and our chances
of recouping our expenses.
Chicago newspapers
typically run
timely theater reviews,
and the Woodstock
Independent sends a
reviewer to
WMTC/TSP shows,
but it is the only newspaper
to do so. I’d love
to see another newspaper
or radio station assign
a McHenry
County “arts” beat reporter
who could do
behind-the-scenes interviews with
actors/directors before a show open
and a review of the show afterward.
Increase the number of season
tickets/series subscriptions at our
local venues. Staging plays and musicals
isn’t cheap. Both TSP and
WMTC typically have a lot of expenses
(storage and rehearsal space,
performance rights, set construction
materials, props, etc.) incurred
long before individual show ticket
proceeds are passed along. Season
ticket sale profits are available earlier.
The benefit to the theatergoer is
that you get the same seats for each
performance and you get the chance
to see an excellent variety
of shows instead of having
to pick and choose
based on limited information.
This season alone,
the shows have run the
gamut from a hilarious
mistaken-identity comedy
(“LendMe a Tenor”)
to a family-friendly
Rodgers and Hammerstein
musical (“State
Fair”) to a romantic comedy
(“Sabrina Fair,” the
play on which Audrey
Hepburn’s “Sabrina” was based) to a
classic Stephen Sondheim musical
farce (“A Funny Thing Happened on
the Way to the Forum”).
Get more people of all ages to experience
– and support – live, local
theater. Playwright Thornton
Wilder once said that theater is “the
greatest of all art forms, the most
immediate way in which a human
being can share with another the
sense of what it is to be a human
being.” Of course, Wilder was right.
TSP, WMTC, Marco Woods
Productions, McHenry County
College, the new Riverview Theatre
Company, Judith Svalander Dance
Theatre, and others are providing
quality entertainment on a regular
basis, much of it featuring area residents
whose only payment is audience
reaction during a show, applause
at the end, and an occasional
compliment afterward.
We’re always looking for talented
people on stage and backstage,
but we also appreciate our
donors and regular audience members.
Please pick a way you can help us.
This article ran on 2/23 in one of the NW Herald’s “Hometown Priorities” sections.
If you would like to read the entire piece, it can be found here
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