By Tim Arnett
WABASH,Indiana – Auditions began Saturday afternoon on the original musical called “Light Up The Town” written by retired music teacher and local composer Suzie Jones. The musical revolves around the installation and turning on of the lights atop the Wabash County Courthouse in March 1880. Jones said that the musical work took her around 10 years to complete and features actual historical figures in Wabash circa 1880.
MiBash News had a chance to talk to director Kim Grogg-Marin at the first day of the audition on Saturday. Wabash native Grogg-Marin came back to town this weekend from New York City where she currently works as a cabaret singer. In fact, she will be singing at Carnegie Hall in June as part of a Cole Porter celebration.
A theater major at IU Bloomington, she moved to New York after graduation to try her hand at performing. She was later a teacher in an private girls school for 10 years in the Big Apple where she taught all the theatrical productions. After she left teaching, she went back to her stage career where she was involved in many productions especially in summer stock and road shows.
Grogg-Marin directed the first of Jones’ musicals on two separate occasions in 2003 and 2008. After this weekend, she will be back in town once again for the beginning of rehearsals around July 4th through to the final stage performance on August 14th. The musical requires some 30 cast members, which is 55 people less than in Jones’ first musical. Grogg-Marin on how the casting went in years past and how it is going this year.
She also brought Adam Michael Carey in from New York to help at the auditions. He is a writer and a self-described “script doctor” who went to New York from his native Michigan as a performer. Now, he said, he has developed a passion for writing.
Grogg-Marin also encouraged those who participate in shows at the Ole Olsen Memorial Theatre to come to Wabash to audition today, saying that its an easy car drive between Peru and Wabash. Today is the final day to audition from 3:30 until 7 pm in the Honeywell Center’s Crystal Room. “Light Up The Town” will run August 12th, 13th and 14th in the Ford Theater at the Honeywell Center.
