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8th Wonder to open sophomore summer stock

By D. A. Blackburn

While high temperatures and humidity mark the end of the year for most theaters, one young local company is embarking on its second season of summer stock programming, with an exciting line-up and an admirable cause.
"A faculty buddy of mine at EMU, Phil Simmons, and I wanted to start a summer stock around Southeast Michigan, because there's not a lot of summer theater stuff, especially musical theater stuff, and so we got together with Brian Carbine and started 8th Wonder," said co-executive director and music director R. MacKenzie Lewis.
Their motivations, however, ran deeper than merely adding another summertime opportunity to the theater landscape. All active members of Eastern Michigan University's theater faculty, they felt it was important to provide learning opportunities as well, and moreover, use the company's profits to subsidize music and theater scholarships at the school, which have suffered with dwindling state support.

Though all involved felt a bit of trepidation about launching a new company in the middle of the state's economic crisis, 8th Wonder provided a workshop opportunity for students ages 15 to 22, and a 13-performance run of "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" in their first season.
For 2009, the fledgling company has expanded its offerings. "We plan to do three shows this summer. The first one is 'Video Games: The Rock Opera' (July 10-18) which I wrote the music to, and then the second slot was slated to be a cabaret workshop, but that was where we got hit with the economy the most. There just wasn't interest for that. So our plan is to do a staged reading of a Joe Zettelmaier play as our middle slot. And then our third show is 'Big River,' (Aug. 7-16) which is kind of the Huck Finn, Tom Sawyer musical," said Lewis.
This season's workshops will culminate in the 10-performance run of "Big River," which uses a cast large enough to accommodate all participants, as well as seasoned area professionals.
According to Lewis, the company has taken care to plan a season for diverse tastes. "One of the goals with 8th Wonder was doing new works and new pieces, and having an outlet for that, so we knew we wanted to do 'Video Games: The Rock Opera,' because it was already completed and we just had to do some revision. But we knew that if we only did new stuff, it was not going to get as big a draw as if we did popular stuff. The other thing we wanted was to have a really family-friendly show. Phil Simmons and Brian Carbine had both been in separate productions of 'Big River' in the past and just loved it, and so they brought it up because they knew it's widely popular. Everybody loves Tom Sawyer. Everybody loves Mark Twain."
With such broad appeal in their programming, and a convenient performing space at The Village Theater at Cherry Hill in Canton, it's likely that 8th Wonder will be helping lots of students with tuition next semester.

8th Wonder Productions
At The Village Theater at Cherry Hill, 50400 Cherry Hill Rd., Canton. Season opens July 10-12 & 16-18. $17. 734-394-5300. http://www.8thwondertheatre.com

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