Cynthia Coulthurst is "Rose"
Charles Bucks-Hammonds is "Herbie"

Katerina Kobylka and Gretchen Powers
share the role of "Louise"

Phil Hartley is "the Stage Manager" and "Willy"
Lee Tritz is "Rose's Father"


Jody Steinke is "Mazeppa"
Anne VanLysal is "Electra"
Anne Hartley is "Tessie"

Mike Fait is "Yonkers"
Kris Gasch is "Tulsa"

Lucie Garski is a "Showgirl"
Jenni Guggenheimer is "Renee"
Michelle Ross is a "Showgirl"

James Malouf is "Georgie" and "Phil"
Mark Grundman is "Jocko" and "Pastey"
Jimm Zabel is "Mr. Goldstone"

Samantha Jokipii, Tanya Dhein,
Stephanie Hoerth, and Aly Barrett
are the "Hollywood Blondes/Toreadorables"

Glen Beaver is "Mr. Weber" and "Mr. Bougeron-Cochon"
Chuck Huhnke is "Cigar" and "Rich Man"
Al Davis is "Kringelein"

The talented GYPSY KIDS!!!
Left to right: Hannah Seidel, Todd Pitsch, Andy Van Lysal,
Hannah Pitsch, Chris Powers, Courtney Molski,
Rebecca Hartley, Maria Hartley, Celia Nalbach,
Bridget Culbert, Ashley Wessling, Ben Wessling.

Josh Ulrich is the Musical Director

Cathy Meils is the Artistic Director

A Note From Director Cathy Meils

They say 90% of directing is casting. From my vantage point as both a former casting director and the current artistic director of Gypsy, I have to agree. Casting a show is about more than finding the best actor. If that were the main criteria, we'd see the same handful of actors in every show. Instead, it's about finding the best actor for the role.

Community theatre has another mission that's equally important: encouraging new actors to experience the fear and thrill of acting, while expanding the network of actors and crew members a community organization needs in order to thrive.

With all that in mind, I went into the auditions for Gypsy ready to make exciting discoveries that WRCT would share with its audiences. Nearly three months later, we're about to introduce to you some new faces alongside longtime WRCT veterans and a group of blossoming younger talents.

When over a dozen qualified women turned up to audition for the part of Rose, the uber-Stage Mother of all time, there was one actress who stood apart as the competition they would have to beat. Cynthia Coulthurst was auditioning for WRCT for the first time, but she was no newcomer to theatre. A background as a professional actress in Milwaukee, followed by a stint at the helm of the community theatre in Wausau, made Cynthia a formidable contender. When she opened her mouth to sing her first audition piece, the sound was bouncing off the walls. With Gypsy, we welcome Cynthia into the WRCT family. I hope you'll join all of us in applauding her performance.

I needed a leading man who could match Cynthia's dramatic strength, with a measure of solid gentleness. In the role of Herbie, Chuck Buchs-Hammond proved once again why he has been a WRCT mainstay for decades.

Casting the title role was my biggest challenge. Gypsy ages from insecure primary school tot to confident young woman and international burlesque star. The script calls for two actress apiece to play Gypsy and her sister (and young vaudeville star) June -- one as a child and one as a young adult. But auditions yeilded actresses in three age categories. I decided to portray June and Louise as a primary school age tots, a budding adolescents, and emerging young women.

In doing so, Gypsy would still have to believably play from pre-teen into her 20's, with the major emphasis on her teenage years. Two high school students offered strong, though decidedly different protrayals of Gypsy, and an impossible choice. Thus, you'll have the opportunity to see both Gretchen Powers (who starred as Anne Frank two seasons ago) and WRCT newcomer Katerina Kobylka alternating in the title role.

They join a cast of over three dozen actors, along with another couple of dozen crew member, musicians and artistic personnel working together to bring you Gypsy.

A Broadway show in the classic sense, Gypsy is laced with familiar songs ("Together Wherever We Go," "Everything's Coming Up Roses') and grounded in the gripping story of a mother with bigger than life dreams for her children and herself. The ultimate backstage story of sinking to the depths and rising to the heights, Gypsy earns its laurels once again.