extended sports coverage for the B-B-E community brought to you by the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper in Brooten, MN. (Address: P.O. Box 250, Brooten) http://www.bonanzavalleyvoice.com. ALL VIEWS posted are strictly and without exception the opinions of the newspaper owner and no one else; they're written in first hand format. Please submit feedback in writing to the address posted above. **This is Minnesota's oldest varsity high school sports blog. We hope to keep it going into the future!
Friday, November 15, 2024
Fall musical's opening night was incredible (VIDEOS*)
The musical students did an outstanding job tonight performing the opening show of "Lucky Stiff" at Olson Auditorium tonight. The two-act show lasted a total of 1 hour, 50 minutes including a 15-minute intermission.
**Hot off the computer! Here's an iMovie creation featuring images and video from the musical opener:
Here's a four-minute long video featuring the cast and crew greeting fans after the show concluded tonight:
Now begins the backbreaking work on my part of combing over all the video and photos!
I'll go back and post this video which was recorded near the end of rehearsal on Wednesday this week:
Tonight's crowd was "okay" and I am estimating we had about 120 to 130 in the seats. I'll get a firm number tomorrow from Director Steph DenHartog. Seating capacity at Olson Auditorium is around 270. What this means is that the total weekend had the ability to draw in over 800 people. Many seats went unsold tonight.
Click here to see my web article that highlights tonight's show: https://shorturl.at/BJm6v. As of late Friday night, just 49 tickets have been sold for the Saturday night show. We need to double that! And then bring in another 100 at the door to purchase tickets...there's no reason we can't get 200 or more in the auditorium on Saturday night.
The final show is at 2 p.m. on Sunday. As of Friday night, just 40 tickets have been sold for Sunday.
Here's a video clip featuring the first 50 seconds or so of the opening scene on Friday night:
Saturday morning update... no additional tickets have been sold since last night. As of 11 a.m., 49 tickets have been sold out of a possible 270 for the Saturday night show. Disappointing! Also, for Sunday's afternoon show (2 p.m.), ticket sales stand at 40 as they were last night. This makes for just 89 tickets sold out of a possible 520 for the final two shows.
Saturday afternoon...tickets sold for tonight's show have increased to 60. That is good!
More musical coverage! The show is really, really coming along! (VIDEO)
This week's Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper contains ample coverage of the upcoming fall musical at B-B-E high school's Olson Auditorium. If memory serves me correct - and it does not always do that! ...this week's Voice contains Q and A profiles of 8 cast members of 'Lucky Stiff'.
To see additional musical coverage, and to read about what the musical is about, you can click over to the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper website: https://www.bonanzavalleyvoice.com/section/bbe. I hope to do a quick count of the current number of presale ticket sold for the three nights of the musical. (Ticket link is below)
Here's a video recorded at tonight's rehearsal:
This show is VERY good! They are REALLY coming together! You do NOT want to miss it!
UPDATE on ticket sales: as of Wednesday night, 138 presale tickets have been sold. I find this encouraging. I badly want more sold, however, as we need to show a great response for the musical and give our Fine Arts students the support they've earned. The Olson Auditorium seating can comfortably hold over 800 across three shows. We have many, MANY seats to fill this weekend!!
Thursday night update...
The show had 143 seats sold as of this evening!! This is terrific! You can catch another update with a new rehearsal video from this evening by clicking here to redirect to the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper: https://shorturl.at/LBktv. I also have a small photo album that feature photos taken at tonight's rehearsal. They are from both Act I and Act II, and a link to click on and find that photo gallery is here: https://shorturl.at/S9WmC.
B-B-E's Fall Musical is next weekend! 100 tickets sold so far! (VIDEO)
Today at Olson Auditorium, the cast and crew of the B-B-E Fall Musical "Lucky Stiff" held their 40th rehearsal of their season. Their practices plus a lunch break lasted over four hours as they continue to refine what is going to be a terrific show! You don't want to miss it! Friday, Saturday, Sunday, November 15-16-17, with shows at 7 p.m. on Friday and Saturday and then 2 p.m. on Sunday.
I'm thrilled that, as of last night, over 100 musical tickets have been sold. They have room for over 800 across all three musical nights. To see additional musical coverage, and to read about what the musical is about, you can click over to the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper website: https://www.bonanzavalleyvoice.com/section/bbe.
Here's a 10-day old video from rehearsal on November 1:
In that video clip, assistant musical director Brystin LaMont, who is B-B-E's band teacher, is shown helping cast work through different moves in one of the scenes.
Today has marked the end of an extremely rare four-day break from blogging here. Now it's "Back in the Saddle" time with a mountain of work ahead for this week!
I want to share a website for Glacial Ridge Hospice Care related to an ad that was on page 4 in last week's Voice; this promotes the Tree of Life event coming on Thursday, November 21. Their link is: https://glacialridge.org/hospice-palliative-care.
Yes, indeed! It is time to ramp up B-B-E fall musical promotion! In a big, BIG way! I've got a ton of work to catch up on after exhausting myself on a 14-page Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper issue. This week's paper was QUITE lacking on musical coverage. Unfortunately, it has only two musical student profiles included...and then a large splash of ink on page one.
Here's a glimpse of the new musical posters that will soon be seen everywhere across Jaguar Country!
In other news...
You can click on the following link to see news articles at the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper website. The latest one added features a video recorded at Harold Jacobson's funeral on Saturday in Swift Falls: https://www.bonanzavalleyvoice.com/section/news.
The musical is coming! the Musical is coming! (VIDEO)
This blog post will be expanded out tonight and tomorrow (Tuesday) to promote B-B-E's fall musical called 'Lucky Stiff' - coming to the Olson Auditorium theater stage at B-B-E high school on Friday, Saturday and Sunday - November 15, 16 and 17. You can purchase tickets and read more on the musical by clicking over to the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper website: https://shorturl.at/x1LQC.
The easiest response to someone asking, "What's the musical about?" is to tell them that it's a high school musical version of the hit 1989 movie "Weekend at Bernie's" that grossed a whopping $30 million that year on a $15 million production budget.
Here's a video clip featuring a glimpse of musical rehearsal back on Friday, October 25:
I strongly encourage you to come out and watch at least one of their shows! If you don't take in any of the musical nights, you are cheating yourself and the musical students! Don't be that person!!
Tuesday updates...ELECTION DAY!
My Bonanza Valley Voice SmugMug events albums are being updated this week. I'm getting mostly caught up through a couple weekends ago...you can see local events (community and school-related) photo albums by clicking here: https://bonanzavalley.smugmug.com/2024-B-B-EBonanza-Valley-area-events.
I have a whopping 12 event folders of separate, distinct events that have taken place across the past couple of weeks that I want to get included in this week's issue. That's about as high as I've ever seen it. October included a crazy number of local events. We are lucky to live in an area with such a high level of activities that we can participate in!
TUESDAY NIGHT election results...
You can follow local election results at the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper website...click on this short link to redirect your web browser to my election night article: https://rb.gy/99srez.
Glowing success for Musical's second night! Don't miss the final show!!!
It never gets old to write about when our local students do well in their school activities.
The second night of B-B-E's fall musical The Addams Family - School Edition was once again terrific! To read about the opening night, click over to the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper website: https://tinyurl.com/5x8u4bn3. Information is included in that web article about purchasing advance tickets online. You can also purchase at the door, although try to arrive by 1:30 p.m. today to select your seat(s)...the final show is today at 2 p.m. at Olson Auditorium!!
Here's senior Maddy Carroll during one of her feature moments as her character, Uncle Fester, sings a love song to the moon
Maddy was outstanding in her role as Uncle Fester during her first time on stage. She was part of the musical's cast in 2021 and 2022. Maddy also fulfilled the role of the grim reaper, and she put an enormous level of energy and personality into that role as well.
What these musical/theater students have pulled off is truly amazing to witness first hand. The musical's cast is the youngest and most inexperienced we've ever had on stage at B-B-E. You would never realize that by watching it.
The entire show, including a 15-minute intermission, lasts about 2 hours, 10 minutes. As I stated in large, bold print on page one of the November 16 Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper: you can support our Fine Arts programming to the same extent we support our sports teams!! The musical cast and crew have worked hard this entire fall, since the first week of school, and they deserve your support. As of 11 a.m. today, roughly 200 seats remained unsold for today's final musical show. I counted 78 presold tickets. Let's fill up the rest of those seats!!!
Sunday afternoon intermission update! we have over 200 here at Olson Auditorium watching the final show!!! Terrific turnout!
The fall musical posters that are going up around the community today. Taking a page from the great Bud Heidgerken...we will promote, promote, promote! (Click on the photo to enlarge.)
Troubling news for the Fine Arts at B-B-E...at 8 a.m. today I did an analysis of the ticket sales for our upcoming fall musical at Olson Auditorium. Out of a total of approximately 800 seats available across three nights, 85 percent of the tickets are unsold. This would be equivalent to the boys' basketball team having just 90 fans for a home game (in a gym that comfortably seats 600).
B-B-E's fall musical is a delightful and hightly entertaining show called The Addams Family - School Edition that will show on Friday, Saturday and Sunday this weekend. The Friday and Saturday shows are at 7 p.m., and the Sunday show is at 2 p.m. This creates three convenient opportunities to take in the musical. You could even easily, without a doubt, go to the state football game on Saturday and make it back for the Saturday show if you wanted to. (I will do that, you can too!) If the night shows don't work, you can't tell me that you can't make it on Sunday. What on earth could possibly be that important on Sunday afternoon that would prevent you from going to the final show? You can't use the Minnesota Vikings as an excuse, either, because they kick off with Chicago at 7:20 p.m. CST. So, that excuse is out.
If we can't give our musical kids a proper crowd, then what's the whole point? Can you imagine putting a fall's worth of work into a show, and then you end up just showing it to mom and dad and maybe a couple siblings and a grandparent or aunt and uncle. That's it. Really? Hardly anyone from the general community is coming? Because when I look at ticket sales right now, that's what I am being told.
I know families with young children would have to consider how to make the musical work. It's a show that younger elementary kids could see, but with the lack of activities at night this weekend - getting a babysitter is not out of the realm of possibilities! We need to fill out our theater for these musical shows. What type of turnout would make me happy? Well, that's not that hard to figure out. Looking out in the crowd and seeing more empty seats than filled seats is really, really disappointing. In fact, it really hurts a theater student if they see that. It's very depressing. That is something that would be unacceptable. Think about this: right now, 85 percent of the seats are empty!!! Come on!!! We can do better!
You can pre-order your tickets and pay in advance! Pick a night and get it done. Click over here to take care of that: https://tinyurl.com/2kztc3fa. And Yes, you can purchase your tickets when you get to the auditorium. It is recommended that you arrive at 6:30 p.m. or earlier if you haven't prepaid your tickets. Ticket prices: adults $7, children/students $5 and senior citizens also $5.
I spent the better part of my Wednesday night at musical rehearsal, and the kids looked great while going through scenes mostly in street clothes. They are working on timing and some of the mechanics of stage movement, but it has really come together nicely in the past week. Overall, the cast is young, and many of the upperclassmen have three or fewer years of stage experience. They have overcome that in big, big ways. I am supremely proud of what they've accomplished this fall. The 2022 fall musical Anastasia featured the kids I will always refer to as the "Big Three" with Paige Klaphake, Dylan Hirman and Tiyana Schwinghammer. Those three had many, many years of stage experience. They were instrumental in fueling a resurgence in theater interest after the pandemic halted the possibily of a 2020 fall musical. This year we have two students who I am calling the "Big Two" because of all they've done for the theater program. They are the only seniors on the musical roster: Jeffrey Cihlar and Maddy Carroll. They're both simply the nicest kids you could know, and they have brought a friendly and energetic presence to the stage. Any student organization needs that from upperclassmen. This is Jeffrey's second musical, and this is Maddy's first musical, although Maddy was on the stage crew in 2021 and 2022.
Here's a video from rehearsal last night:
I actually have more exciting college athlete notes to go through and write about, but that is going aside for now. I need to figure out how we can sell more musical show tickets.
Huge shout out to Palmer Creations of Glenwood for their super quick turnaround on printing musical posters!!! They are going up around the community today and tomorrow.
This will be the heaviest lift of the year since May.
For the first time since the May 26 issue was published, the Bonanza Valley Voice will expand to 16 pages this week. It's sort of a nightmare right now. We'll see how the night goes.
The nerves and anxiety of that combined with other anxiousness about the upcoming fall musical and the state semifinal football game have created a difficult week. I continue to plead with and encourage everyone to purchase your musical tickets! Get them now! Learn how by clicking here: https://tinyurl.com/2kztc3fa.
The list of college athletes from B-B-E who are excelling at the next level is too numerous to really properly cover. However, currently, two members of the Class of 2023 are making an impact on their college teams early in their respective freshmen seasons. Tiyana Schwinghammer, who I wrote about on Saturday, had another strong game tonight in the Northland Community and Technical College's women's basketball home opener, which they won 83-56 against a North Dakota team from Bottineau. At MSU-Moorhead, Abby Berge has averaged 17 minutes per game while scoring 15 points overall in two contests for the Dragons. MSU-M just lost a heartbreaker 63-57 in overtime to No. 10-ranked University of Central Missouri in Claremore, Oklahoma on Saturday afternoon.
Here's a pick-me-up: Superintendent Walsh recently spoke with one of his former student-athletes he coached earlier in his career. This person is now a high school game official, and he told Walsh specifically that the B-B-E football team displayed exceptional sportsmanship during the game he officiated. This was either in Swanville in the regular season or at Fargo, because it involved Upsala/Swanville Area. I may clarify that with Walsh if I remember to. Regardless of which game it was, it was terrific to hear this at tonight's school board meeting. This type of good news is what helps power me through tough days and nights like tonight.
This is a great opportunity to donate to a local, worthy cause! Click on the following link to see more: https://bit.ly/3VDe6HG.
Today got chewed up by spending a few hours fixing the latest vehicle that powers the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper's ground game: a 1999 Buick LeSabre. This has replaced a vehicle that had been powering The Voice on a constant basis since August 2018: a 2006 Dodge Grand Caravan. That minivan was retired just shy of midnight on Saturday, August 20 after I was part of all the fun that we knew as Sedan Daze. I acquired the LeSabre from my stepson Aspen (B-B-E Class of 2019) this past summer after he upgraded to my mom's Chevy Impala. The '99 Buick did not miss a beat this entire fall...until Thanksgiving Eve. That day a brake line went out. I discovered it while parked behind my newspaper office. Crazy. Just 11 days earlier that Buick was at Xcel Energy Center, so I'm really lucky I didn't lose the brake line down there. Thanks to the help of Chris Jensen Auto Repair in Belgrade, the car is "good to go" with fully functioning brakes and a fresh oil change. It was last changed prior to the amateur state tournament trip to Dundas on August 27, almost 4,000 miles ago.
This was just a flat out awesome and thoroughly entertaining scene to take in!
Savannah Finken starring as Countess Lily in this scene from the latter part of Act II:
More to come. I'm back in the saddle again working on digital media from the musical. I made every attempt I could to push this week's Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper to 16 pages, but it wasn't meant to be. We got to 14 pages, and that was enough work for one issue. This week's newspaper features 26 photos from the musical. When is the last time you heard of a newspaper publishing 26 pictures from a high school play? And just imagine: I wanted to publish even more if I had an extra couple of hours to work up two more pages.
**I'll get two new musical clips posted in a new blog post on Thanksgiving Day.
We had a very emotional ending to the B-B-E fall musical chapter as the cast and crew concluded this chapter of our 2022-2023 school year with heartfelt good-byes for the three seniors last night. Anyone who's ever been a part of theater on that stage going back to when it was built in 1972 would be proud. It was really something else. You had to be there to know what I'm talking about.
UPDATE: the total of photos I've got surpasses 1,100 from the three nights of the musical! Crazy. I've dug quite a hole by taking that many pictures. I have no idea how many will make it to print. We'll see.
Because of our Miss Brooten royalty commmitment with the Willmar Christmas lighted parade tonight, I missed Act I of the second showing of the B-B-E fall musical Anastasia at Olson Auditorium. The timing worked out great to arrive at the high school tonight with just enough time to set up my cameras for Act II. And WOW it was worth it. Tonight's performance was a home run and then some! Act II pulls at you in many ways, giving you emotional highs and lows. The story line pins your ears back.
Musical photo count: from Acts I and II on opening night plus Act II tonight, I have 495 photos. Uffda!
***Here's a video clip from Act II tonight...this is just a small part of this scene, and it was outstanding!
The ballet dancer is Hannah Hirman, a B-B-E sophomore who was also a starter on this fall's B-B-E Jaguars girls' tennis team. The musical cast includes three of the 10 starters on our tennis team.
This is a video clip from late in Act II on opening night:
That four-minute clip features many of the lead characters. The storyline was beginning to wrap up in that scene called "Hotel Rooms" with the song Once Upon a December (reprise). In Saturday night's musical performance, the leads were at their best. Act II popped! I'll be working on a highlight reel after church on Sunday morning.
*Here's a clip from the fans meeting the cast and crew after Friday night's performance:
More to come in a new blog post, where I'll get a highlight reel posted from tonight's Act II performance.
A third video was added to this blog post early Saturday afternoon.*As of 2 p.m. on Saturday, they have 61 presale tickets sold. They have many open seats to fill tonight!!! Let's do this!
That was a terrific musical performance to take in! Those who were able to see it in person at Olson Auditorium saw something quite magnificent! The fall musical 'Anastasia' lasts a full 26 scenes. The student cast and crew pulled off a tremendous feat tonight.
Here's a short clip featuring one of my favorite scenes:
**And here's a short clip from the opening scene of Act II tonight:
AND here's a video from late in Act II:
Additional coverage on opening night is posted at the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper website (short link): https://bit.ly/3ghyIXb. A video featuring a few highlights is included.
Click on the following link to watch an interview with one of the seniors in the musical, Paige Klaphake: https://bit.ly/3hKYkfi.
Opening night is tonight! I hope you already knew that. They have sold 100 tickets as of 5 p.m. tonight!! That is awesome! I sure hope we can fill Olson Auditorium for at least two of the three nights! There's no reason we can't.
**Friday night intermission update: we have a very nice crowd tonight! At least 180 are in the house. Act I was terrific!!!!!
**Here's a video from one of the final scenes in Act II tonight:
I'll be repeating this over and over this weekend: don't cheat yourself out of a wonderful experience by missing this musical!!! Don't be that person. I'll be working overtime this weekend on promotion of the musical. The kids have earned it! I glanced at the B-B-E school Facebook page and only saw one musical post in the month of November among a couple dozen sports-related posts. We can all do better!
B-B-E musical cast and crew sing 'Fight Song' (VIDEOS)
They had a lot of fun with this one tonight...singing Rachel Platten's 'Fight Song' on the theater stage.
VIDEO:
B-B-E high school's Olson Auditorium was rocking tonight! The energy and enthusiasm was as high as it's ever been as the fall musical cast and crew are now within 24 hours of their opening showing of Anastasia on their theater stage.
To read more on the musical, you can click over to the Bonanza Valley Voice website: https://bit.ly/3V2YLRb. At that web article, you can find a link at the end to purchase tickets for any of the shows this weekend. You can read about 12 of the musical's cast members in the November 10 and November 17 issues of the Bonanza Valley Voice print edition. These 12 students are either new to the stage this year or they are veterans who were not profiled in the newspaper's fall 2021 musical coverage.
**Here's a clip from Wednesday night's dress rehearsal:
I hope to see you this weekend at Olson Auditorium!! *As of late Friday afternoon, 90 tickets were pre-sold for the Friday night (tonight) show...and I saw that about 38 have been sold for tomorrow night's show. The seating capacity of Olson Auditorium is over 250.
Fall musical group holds sneak preview for middle schoolers (VIDEO)
A super-excited Tiyana Schwinghammer runs through her fellow cast and crew members of the fall musical following the sneak preview held today at Olson Auditorium.
Order your tickets online by clicking through to that web article on the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper website. **Show times are 7 p.m. on Friday and Saturday and then 5 p.m. on Sunday! (This week's print newspaper had those times mixed around on page one...a regrettable error.)
**Here's a video from Act II performed this morning at Olson Auditorium:
Please spread the word and share this information on social media as much as you are able to.
The musical is coming! The musical is coming! (VIDEO)
The fall musical is coming to Olson Auditorium at B-B-E high school. The cast and crew have been working diligently for over two months now in preparation for the big weekend! That weekend is almost here!
Below is a video clip recorded at rehearsal tonight from a scene late in Act I:
Please order your tickets! And don't be bashful about coming to more than one night! They perform at 5 p.m. on Friday and Saturday (November 18-19) and then finish up with a 5 p.m. show on Sunday, November 20.
**TO ORDER TICKETS...click through to the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper website and find the link near the end of the web article: https://bit.ly/3EA8HLS.
Just two more rehearsals! Yes, just two more rehearsals until the cast and crew of the B-B-E fall musical will perform the Little Shop of Horrors on their opening night (Friday).
*Here's senior Billy Tensen giving his thoughts after tonight's rehearsal at Olson Auditorium:
More to come. We are putting out a 12-page Bonanza Valley Voice this week, although we have content that could easily get us past 14 pages. Just not enough hours in the day to put it all together.
Community announcement: the Belgrade V.F.W. Saboe-Leverson Post No. 1825 in Belgrade invites everyone to their upcoming meat raffle. It will be held on Friday, November 19 at 6:30 p.m. Bring your dollar bills and be ready to have a good time!
