Rotary musical keeps 'em young
BATAVIA -- Paul Gunderson enjoys going from working at a wastewater treatment plant to playing characters such as looney Franz Liebkind for a simple reason.
"It keeps me sane," he said with a grin, while dressed in a plaid shirt, shorts with suspenders, white knee socks and a German helmet. "I never feel old."
Franz is the whacky Bavarian who sings with his pigeons and writes the play "Springtime for Hitler," which is at the center of "The Producers," this year's production by the Rotary Club of Batavia.
"The Producers," a zany farce featuring off-color jokes and a musical within a musical, is being produced by Rotary and Encore! Theatre Arts, a Batavia-based musical theater company. The show is set for 7:30 p.m. tonight through Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday in the auditorium at Batavia High School, 260 State St.
The show features characters Max Bialystock and Leo Bloom, who plot to get rich by overselling interests in a Broadway flop. That premise leads into over-the-top accents, stereotypes and theater insider jokes.
Gunderson grew up in Skaneateles and recently moved to Corfu for his job with Ecovation, a company that subcontracts with O-at-Ka Milke Products Co-Operative for wasterwater treatment services. By night, though, Gunderson has been a longtime community actor, earning awards from the Theater Association of New York State, the Eastern States Theater Association, and Syracuse Area Live Theater.
He purposely auditioned for the role of Franz, who makes producers Max Bialystock and Leo Bloom sing, dance and do a bit of a knee-slapping and hand clapping routine -- plus take a Siegfried oath before he agrees to sign over the rights of his play to the scheming pair.
It was well suited for Gunderson, he said.
"I've seen the show. I just love the role," he said. "Because he's crazy. It's an alter ego, I can relate to him."
Likewise, Susan Bateman pursued a favorite role for herself. She was sick with bronchitis during auditions and couldn't breathe let alone sing or dance, she said. But she was very persistent in getting at least one particular role. She got her wish.
Getting Around Corfu - News
"But not around my friends. I definitely have a prankster side." Despite her earnest pursuit of getting a full-time job teaching at a four-year college, her minor is in theater. It has been an interest ever since she was at Elba High School.
There was the effervescent Robin Gourlay, a friend who had helped enormously in getting the thing off the ground; Elena and Spiros from Start TV; the unflappable Charis, and, resplendent in their bright red T-shirts, his team, which consisted of a
Our arrival in Corfu was like being born for the first time." I'm not sensing any rebirth in Daisy and Leo, but they do seem to be in heaven. Bel and I are getting a sense of the ethereal in the monastery at Paleokastritsa, lighting a candle and
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