May was a great time for homegrown music.
June is shaping up to be the month for homegrown theater.

Rubber Chicken Theater presents
“American Buffalo” by David Mamet

June 3-5, 10-12, 17-19
7pm at The Venue at Mohaupt Block.

Directed by Minden Anderson
Featuring Tony Barrett, Brian Matuszak, and Tate Haglund-Pagel

(218) 213-2780, www.RubberChickenTheater.com

Featuring Rockin’ Johnny Rocker, Morning Drive Homicide Detective
Father Stu, Naked City Hall and more general silliness.

Broadcast live from the Shack in Superior on KUWS 91.3FM.

Friday, May 7 at 7pm
Celebrity Guest: Matt Perrine from the Budgeteer News
Musical Guest: River (Ryan Jordan and Paul Vogel)

Be a part of the live studio audience for just $5.

(218) 213-2780, RubberChickenTheater.com.

Rubber Chicken Theater presents “The Great American Trailer Park Musical”

April 9-10, 16-17, 23-24, dinner seating at 6:30pm
April 11, 18, and 25, dinner seating at 12noon

Agoraphobia, 80s nostalgia, road kill, strippers and disco. It’s everything a musical should be.

Call The Shack at (715) 392-DINE for reservations. Hurry, they go fast!

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Cheryl Skafte as Don Ness.
John Munson as Rockin’ Johnny Rocker, Morning Drive Homicide Detective.
Christa Lawler as Christa Lawler. And music from Sara Thomsen.

That’s a lot of entertainment for just five dollars.

The Rubber Chicken Radio Hour, broadcast live on KUWS 91.3FM this Thursday at 8pm. (But all the fun is had in the live studio audience at The Shack in Superior…) Call (218) 213-2780 for tix.

Free ticket! This Thursday, Jan. 28 only!

Mention this Super Secret Email and get TWO tickets for the price of ONE!

Cracked Egg Improv, a tiny wing of Rubber Chicken Theater, is back to making it up as they go along this Thursday at 7pm at Dubh Linn Comedy Pub, 109 W. Superior St. in downtown Duluth.

Five dollars gets you TWO tickets to this week’s shows. Plus, hold onto that ticket stub for a half price drink after the show.

See both you, and your friend, there!

The Rubber Chicken Radio Hour has a new permanent home at The Shack in Superior.

Thursday, February 18, from 8-9pm is the first live broadcast from the new venue.

Eat, drink, watch a live comedy show on the radio…all for just $5.00.

The Celebrity Guest for this show is Duluth News Tribune Arts & Entertainment Reporter Christa Lawler.

Musical guest is singer-songwriter Sara Thomsen, with an easygoing performance style that is full of humor and depth.

For more information on The Rubber Chicken Radio Hour, Rubber Chicken Theater, or anything Rubber Chicken-related, please call (218) 213-2780, check out the website at www.RubberChickenTheater.com, or email Brian@RubberChickenTheater.com.

Rubber Chicken Theater heads down I-35 to stage An Evening of Gilbert and Sullivan on February 11, 12, and 13 at 7:30pm and February 14 at 2:00pm at the Encore Performing Arts Center and Gallery in Cloquet, Minnesota. Tickets are $15 for adults and $12 for students and seniors.

Act One will be a Rubber Chicken Theater Special Educational Feature: “How to Recognize a Gilbert and Sullivan Opera!”, hosted by a Super Secret Celebrity Guest.

Act Two will be the hilarious comic opera “Trial by Jury”.

Starring Chris Nollet, Jill Hoffman and lots more super talented singer/performers!

Tickets and Info: (218) 213-2780, www.RubberChickenTheater.com

Two down-on-their-luck tramps, Vladimir and Estragon, fill their days as painlessly as they can as they wait for someone named Godot to show up. Godot, they believe, will be able to explain their interminable insignificance, or put an end to it.

“Waiting for Godot” can be interpreted in so many different ways that it has roused audiences to enthusiasm and anger ever since it debuted in France in 1953. (It has been voted the most significant English language play of the 20th century, which is pretty good for a play originally written in French by an Irishman.)

Starring Cracked Egg Improv performers Lawrance Bernabo (who also directs), Ric Stevens, Taylor Martin-Romme, and Ben Cohen. Jake Kmiech from The Marshall School rounds out this talented and demented cast.

Tickets are just $10 and can be reserved by calling (218) 733-7555.

We’re doing the show at the Play Ground in Duluth’s Technology Village. January 7-9 and 14-16 at 7:30pm.

Just wondering if anyone else remembers the big snowstorm of ‘83? It actually hit the night before Thanksgiving. I was working at what was called the Duluth Arena then and we got snowed in. I got to pull my car inside and sleep in the auditorium mezzanine. It was pretty sweet. We took an Arena ice truck and tried to get to Superior for some beer, but had to turn back. We did manage to walk down in the middle of the blizzard and eat at Godfather’s on London Road, right before they closed up shop. I remember we even managed to throw a snowball or two at Jack McKenna’s weather window on Michigan Street.

Good times.

The coolest thing about this monster blizzard was the thunder and lighting. That was the first time I had ever seen that, and I don’t think it’s happened since.

Rubber Chicken Theater presents their Second Annual Holiday Comedy Revue, entitled “Have Yourself an H1N1 Christmas, or, Snufflin’ in a Swine Flu Wonderland”.

December 11-12, 18-19, 26 and 31 at 7pm at The Venue at Mohaupt Block, located at 2024 West Superior Street in the West End of Duluth, right next to Anderson Furniture. Tickets are $15 per person. The Venue has a full bar, so folks can enjoy beverages before the show and at intermission. Oftentimes, the show is much funnier after a visit to the Venue bar.

We’ll examine the disagreement between Fond-du-Luth Casino and the City of Duluth, take a sneak peek at a UMD faculty Holiday Party hosted by Rod Raymond, and try to help out the Proctor Police Department by finding a winning bidder for their motorized recliner that looks an awful lot like a La-Z-Boy, but is not.

Audiences will also get a chance to see the debut of the new horror film “Parabolic Activity”, starring local meteorologists Dave Anderson and George Kessler. Be sure and look for the Super Secret Celebrity Cameo in the shocking twist ending.

“Have Yourself an H1N1 Christmas” will be written and performed by Greg Anderson, Minden Anderson, Taylor Martin-Romme, Brian Matuszak, Anna Vogt, and Sharon Dixon Obst. Jerry Bacon and Anders Hultstrom are overseeing the technical elements and Linda Bray is the piano accompanist extraordinaire. Additional material is being written by Cheri Tesarek and Nathan St. Germain.

INFO: (218) 213-2780, Brian@RubberChickenTheater.com

In conjunction with UW-Superior Alumni Days Events, and in honor of Professor John D. Munsell’s induction into the UW-Superior Communicating Arts Wall of Service, Rubber Chicken Theater is working in cooperation with University Theatre to present an All UWS Theatre Alumni production of the comedy The Fourth Wall by A. R. Gurney. The Fourth Wall will be performed at the Experimental Theatre inside the Holden Fine and Applied Arts Center at UWS.

The show will be performed on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, October 8, 9, and 10 at 8pm. Tickets are $15 for adults, $10 for students and seniors, and $5 for current UWS students and can be reserved by calling (218) 213-2780 and are also available at the door. (more…)

Joyful and unashamedly vulgar, The Great American Trailer Park Musical has been called South Park meets Desperate Housewives, and Jerry Springer set to music by theater critics around the country. This rollicking musical is set in Armadillo Acres, one of the most exclusive trailer parks in Florida. When a stripper named Pippi moves in, on the run from her permanent-marker-sniffing ex-boyfriend named Duke, she gets sympathy from the park’s ruling clique of Betty, Linoleum and Pickles—until she comes between the QVC-loving agoraphobic Jeanne and her tollbooth collector husband Norbert.

The show will be staged September 17, 18, 20, 25-27, and October 2-4. (No performance on Saturday, September 19.)

Sunday matinee seating begins at 12:00 noon and tickets are $30.00, all other performances have dinner seating beginning at 6:30pm with a $35.00 ticket price. Tickets must be reserved in advance by calling The Shack at (715) 392-DINE (3463).

This show does contain adult language and situations.

Starring Tammy Ostrander, Sharon Dixon Obst, Sarah Larson, Elizabeth Nelson, Jerry Bacon, Luke Moravec, and Bridget Ideker.

Sponsored in part by B-105, today’s best country and your all-time favorites

On Saturday, October 3, make it a beautiful fall day of crunchy apples and corny jokes as KUWS Radio and Rubber Chicken Theater invite you to ride in style to Applefest in Bayfield aboard the Rubber Chicken Charter.

The Rubber Chicken Charter will leave from Wessman Arena on the campus of UWS at 11:00am, and gets back to Superior at 10:30pm. There will be plenty of time in beautiful Bayfield to enjoy the sights and sounds of Applefest, then, at 5:00pm, you will be in the audience for the LIVE broadcast of The Rubber Chicken Radio Hour. The show will be performed smack dab in the middle of Applefest, right on the main stage. The show will feature local musicians from Big Top Chautauqua, a Brett Favre apple sketch or two, and other fun surprises.

Cost to ride the Rubber Chicken Charter is just $20. Seating is limited, so reserve your spot today by contacting Kim Gustafson at KUWS Radio (kgustafs@uwsuper.edu, 715-394-8530). Credit cards are accepted.

Every 2nd and 4th Thursday of the month at 8pm, starting July 23rd, come to Dubh Linn Comedy Pub and watch us make it up as we go along. Just five bucks. That is a lot of intentional comedy for five bucks. (I know, I know. You get more from City Hall every day and that’s free, but what can you do?)
www.RubberChickenTheater.com or (218) 213-2780 for more info.

The Chicken Hat Plays July 10 & 11 at Proctor Area Community Center – 7PM Both Shows

Rubber Chicken Theater presents 16 world premiere plays, all created in one weekend….It’s The Chicken Hat Plays, sponsored in part by Pizza Luce.   (more…)

Funny jokes, men in dresses, silly puppets, The Egg Man himself….there’s something for everyone!

May 22-24 and 29-31 at the beautiful Scottish Rite Auditorium.
Fridays at 7pm, Saturdays at 3 & 7pm, Sundays at 3pm

Written and Directed by Chani Ninneman
Original Music by Patrick Colvin

Tix & Info: (218) 213-2780, www.RubberChickenTheater.com

Sponsored in part by the Lake Superior Zoo, Perfect Duluth Day, and also made possible in part by a grant from the Arrowhead Regional Arts Council (www.ARACouncil.org) through an appropriation from the Minnesota State Legislature.

The next live broadcast of The Rubber Chicken Radio Hour will be Wednesday, April 29, from 7-8pm at The Thirsty Pagan in Superior, Wisconsin. The show will be broadcast live on KUWS 91.3FM, but being in the studio audience to see how it all comes together is the most fun, and admission is FREE…but you really should buy a pizza and a beer or two.

The Celebrity Guest for this show is Super Dave Anderson from the Northland’s News Center. Musical guest is Jim Madison, guitarist/singer/improvisational musician extraordinaire.

Some of the sketches in this edition of The Rubber Chicken Radio Hour include a behind-the-scenes peek at why Mark Winson decided to leave Mayor Don Ness after only two months, and how Dennis Anderson decides to spice up his newscasts after hearing about the success Pat Kelly had with The Full Monty at the Duluth Playhouse (The Full Denny, anyone?)

“QED”, starring Brian Matuszak & Cheryl Skafte, and directed by Minden Anderson.
March 20-22 at the Shack
Good food, great show!
Call (715) 392-3463 and reserve your spot soon!

“QED” by Peter Parnell
March 13-15 and 20-22
Starring Brian Matuszak and Cheryl Skafte
Directed by Minden Anderson
Physics can be fun! At least when taught by Richard Feynman, the real-life Nobel Prize winning physicist who also frequented topless bars, played bongos, and appeared in college theater productions. Oh yeah, he also figured out the atomic bomb and the space shuttle Challenger explosion.
Call (715) 392-3463 for tickets and a delicious dinner!

Rubber Chicken Theater and The Shack Dinner Theatre partner up for the show “QED” by Peter Parnell.
Starring Brian Matuszak and Cheryl Skafte
Directed by Minden Anderson
March 6-8, 13-15 and 20-22 at the Shack.
Tix: 715-392-DINE
Info: 218-213-2780, www.RubberChickenTheater.com

As Starfire says: “It’s only a bridge. Get over it!”

Rubber Chicken Improv has been strutting its stuff on local stages now since the troupe started up last year. The group has been performing shows at venues around the Twin Ports and even took on Dudley Riggs in the Twin Cities last November at a local fundraiser. (Mayor Don Ness was on hand to present the trophy to Rubber Chicken for besting the Minneapolis improv troupe in one of the shows!) And now, Sharon Dixon Obst and her crew of improvisational comedians would like to share their funny business with folks in the Northland.

Every Sunday from 2-6pm at the Proctor Area Community Center, Sharon and her improvisational troupe get together in a relaxed and friendly environment to work on their art, learning new improv games and becoming more closely knit as a team. These meetings are free and open to the public, no matter what the age or the profession. ”Even if someone has no intention of joining us onstage, learning improv has many benefits,” said Obst at a recent rehearsal. “Anyone, in any walk of life, can use the skills improv teaches, such as creative problem-solving, building teamwork, and speaking effectively in front of a group.”

Some participants who have learned from Rubber Chicken Improv include a medical administrator, a high school principal, a doctor, and communications instructors. ”It’s open to anyone and everyone who wants to give it a try,” said Obst. ”So come on and join us this Sunday!”

As mentioned, Rubber Chicken Improv is being headed up by Sharon Dixon Obst. Sharon graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Superior and has been working steadily in theater since she took her first acting class 32 years ago. She has been a writer, a performer, a producer, a director, an acting/vocal coach and teacher in the Duluth/Superior area for the past 16 years. Sharon has also been a guest lecturer at The College of St. Scholastica on Improvisational Theater.

To make reservations for the Sunday Improv Get-Togethers, please call (218) 213-2780, or email Brian@RubberChickenTheater.com.