1. First – tell us a little bit about yourself, Mike Siracuse!!!
I am originally from Buffalo NY, and landed my first hotel desk job at the Holiday Inn near the Buffalo Airport. I moved away to Normal IL in 1982 taking a promotion to front office manager for a new hotel we purchased which was a Sheraton Inn. From there, I changed jobs and started working as a General Manager for a group that was building brand new Hampton Inn hotels, and I moved to Luisville, then Lexington, Ky. All in all, I opened 4 new Hampton Inns in Illinois and Kentucky. From There, I moved to Lansing in 1991 and have been here ever since. I started with the Riverwalk Theatre in 1995 and have stayed here since!
2. You’ve been at the Riverwalk for 15 years – over the course of that time, what is the strangest thing you’ve ever seen at the theatre while you’ve been there alone? (There is a myth that all theatres are haunted!) Please elaborate as much as you can! And who have you "seen" at the theatre when you know you've been alone?
I was doing a mailing in the lobby about 2 years ago, and I was diligently working away, and kept noticing movement just outside of my peripheral vision. It was enough to make me look up. Each time I looked up, there was no one there, and it was getting aggrevating… So finally I said, “Knock it off Jack!!!” as I just felt it was Jack Dunlevy playing tricks and chuckling the whole time! (It stopped).
3. How many times have you been on stage at the Riverwalk? Twice. I played the rude ticket taker at the greyhound bus terminal for “The Trip to Bountiful” in 1997, and I was a horse in “Equuis” in 2001. Bountiful wasn’t too much of a problem, but It was impossible to do my job up front dressed as a horse, so that was the last gig.
4. How old were you the first time you made a stage entrance (if you started when you were younger), and when was the last time, and what shows? The VERY FIRST time was in 1997 for Bountiful, and the LAST time was for Equuis.
5. What do you enjoy most about being the House Manager for the Riverwalk? It is so SOCIAL. I love visiting with everyone. Its like MY party, and I’m making my rounds around the room as Host for every performance.
6. What REALLY grates on your nerves in the line of duty? Answering to things that are not under my control. Ie: the parking lot….. when our neighbors (whom we share the parking lot with) have an event on a day that we have a show, not only do the patrons come to me and complain, but so do the volunteers… the same volunteers who have been here longer than me, and KNOW why its so busy in the lot, but feel compelled to ask me anyway. It is very frustrating and I’m sure my answers have been rather “short” in the past.
7. What is one of your most touching moments while at the Riverwalk? Not sure how to answer this one… Touching how? I can say that I am most touched when we loose someone who we all love to be around, and they die. It is very hard to take sometimes. I have lost many friends over the last 15 years, and I miss them all! My mother passed away in 1999, and from that moment on, whenever someone I am close to dies, I ask her to introduce herself, and show them around. I’m sure she’s going to give it to me good when its my turn, as I’m making her work so hard in the afterlife!
8. Is there a show that sticks out in your mind as being “cursed”? If so, why? YES! Boomers, in August of 2004. There were several illnesses during rehearsals, to the point that most rehearsals were missing SOMEONE, then we lost all power on the entire eastern half of the country on opening night, so that didn’t happen, and then 2 days later, we had a tornado warning! No show ever had that much to deal with!
9. How have you seen Riverwalk evolve since you began, to where it stands now, and what was your role in its growth (from your perspective)? When I first started, we did approx 7 main stage shows and 2 fundraising events per season…. We now are scheduled for 27 total events in the upcoming year, which includes main statge, black box, fundraisers, music concerts, and play readings. We’ve expanded and improved our green room and workshop, built a props loft, and a furniture warehouse, a black box stage, the rehearsal hall, a board room, and renovated our lobby, restrooms, and concessions area. Not to mention we bought the building to boot! That’s a lot of change, and evolving in my mind. We also used to pay others to do our box office reservations for us, and we started our own operation in 2000. We went from no website to one that Bob Gras designed and we used for 10 years, and we are now on facebook, have our own e-mail, and are re-vamping our website as we speak. I was knee deep in most of it, but most prevalent was the box office, as I installed the software, and manage the box office and personally answer the majority of the reservation calls. I also managed all of the online reservations which are at the moment stalled due to the website problem.
10. Why is theatre important to the community? I feel that a community theatre is a place where all members of the community are welcome to come and play, doing what we all have in common….. Theatre! I tell people its like our “Club” where anyone can join, and when they do, they inherit a HUGE family who welcomes them with open arms. As a result, we have a large presence throughout the community and get involved in so many things! We are involved with the Renegade festival & Silver Bells, and we open our doors to groups who want to perform and co-produce shows on our stage, like the singers on the grand, the doowops, Peppermint Creek Theatre co, All of Express Children’s theatre, and even LCP did a show here back in the 90’s. I think our little theatre gives the folks in our community an option of getting involved, whether as a participant, or an observer.
11. What is your opinion of actors as a “type” of people (have you ever eaten with one?)
I Love actors! What a fun, dramatic group of people that are just like me! LOL! I always said that life is a huge DRAMA, and thank God we are all actors, so we can all play the part correctly!
12. Is there actually “risk” (as far as content – i.e. nudity in “Equus”) involved in putting on a show? If so – what is it for the theatre, the actors and the community? Whenever you do a show, you have to look at the whole PIE. The Pie is the entire group of people that could come and see it.. When you add nudity, or a focused theme ie: Gay, opera, ethnic, etc… you remove slices of the pie. The more slices you remove, the less audience you will have. If you do a show that the entire pie would love (not possible) you will have a large audience, and great participation. When you limit the number of slices in that pie, so do you limit the revenues produced, and the number of butts in seats.
Down & Dirty Questions
1. Favorite line of any show? “La Cage au folles”, “Have you ever seen so many legs in the air?”….. “I’ll bet YOU have” as she is pointing at someone in the audience.
2. If you could play a character of any show, what would it be? Mayella Ewell in “To Kill a Mockingbird”
3. If you could direct any show, what would it be? I would love to direct a talent show. Like “Riverwalk Idol”
4. Have there been any lyrics of a song you can’t get out of your head from a show that randomly haunt you, like while you’re brushing your teeth or getting dressed or trying to read, for example? Almost every musical comes to mind….. I find myself waking up at 3am and the songs in my head are driving me crazy! Hairspray comes to mind, and we haven’t even done it yet…… that’s just from the movie!
5. If you could do anything else to the theatre space, what would it be? New heating and air conditioning system so that we could operate them silently DURING a performance, and better sound.
6. Why is theatre important to you, specifically? Are you kidding? For the past 15 years its been my life… not only what I enjoy, but my livelihood too.
7. What stereotypes do you battle about theatre people and annoy you? I really dislike DIVAS. We are all in this together, and have a common purpose… those who think its all about them just P*** me off.
8. So rumors have it that you tackle people for opening candy and answering cell phones during performances - is this true? I actually did it as a joke in front of the audience once, and got a standing ovation! I just put that in my curtain speech so that it didn’t sound like such a hard ass rule.
9. You've been the House Manager for 15 years at the Riverwalk - congratulations! And - any advice you would have to pass on to others about working with people? Leave your petty, pre-conceived notions about people outside of the job, and get along with everyone, no matter who they are. I learned a long time ago in the service industry that you accomplish a lot more with sugar. Its not that I’m phony mind you, I CHANGE my attitude to meet the situation.. Attitude adjustment really works when you are dealing with so many different types of people…. No one is right, and no one is wrong.
10. Thank you for your time, and one last question: what are you most proud of as the theatre Manager of the Riverwalk? I am most proud of what we as a group have accomplished here. SO MUCH to be proud of, and so proud to be a part of it.
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