The 1,300-member Film Fest family - Record Eagle

BY SARAH ELMS selms@record-eagle.com | Posted: Friday, July 31, 2015 4:30 pm

TCFF WATER MANAGER

Traverse City Film Festival water manager Jessica Abfalter unloads water from a truck at the festival warehouse, which will be distributed to festival venues as needed. Abfalter said Lars Hockstad Auditorium ran out of the 120 jugs it began the festival with, and will be getting a delivery to make it through the weekend.

TRAVERSE CITY — People from all over the country flock to the Traverse City Film Festival for the movies, but Jessica Abfalter blocks out her schedule to dive into the behind-the-scenes hustle and bustle.

"Everybody thinks of the festival and they think of the Open Space and the front of the house, but I like the nuts and bolts of it," she said.

Abfalter is one of 1,300 volunteers who sell tickets, scoop popcorn and keep the six-day festival running smoothly. She runs on little sleep for more than a week, but it's worth it to her.

"My first year I worked probably 8 in the morning to 2 in the morning every day of the festival," she said. "The public knows it starts on a Tuesday, but for me it starts on the Friday before, not including all the phone calls and emails that happen all summer before the festival."

Abfalter has been the festival's water manager since 2010. Her job is to make sure all volunteers, patrons and filmmakers stay hydrated while keeping plastic out of landfills.

She's led the shift from serving bottled water to offering filtered water in biodegradable cups at the festival. Today, plastic water bottles are tough to come by at any theater or event.

"It is one of the most personally fulfilling things I do," she said. "There are hard moments. There are times where I feel like I utterly hit the wall, but it's personal growth."

Volunteering is a family affair for Kirk, Karmon, Abbey and Molly Hull. The Traverse City family runs the festival's newest venue, The Buzz, from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. all week long.

"We have a lot of fun doing it," Kirk Hull said. "Interacting with all the patrons, It's just fun to be part of the community and meet people from all over the world."

Abfalter said the neat thing about an event the size of the Film Festival is there are volunteer opportunities that fit every interest and schedule.

There are families like the Hulls who stay in one venue and people like Abfalter who float from place to place, and the festival wouldn't be possible without them.

"It's not just a whole bunch of people who love movies, it's a bunch of people who love Traverse City and this area so much that they want outsiders to have the best experience possible so they come back and they bring their friends," Abfalter said. "It's this family of people who love northern Michigan."

TC Record Eagle: Raising the curtain on 'Curtains'

BY MARTA HEPLER DRAHOS mdrahos@record-eagle.com | Posted: Thursday, July 23, 2015 9:15 am

Raising the curtain on 'Curtains'

Olivia Ursu and Luke Speicher, center, dance with their cast members during rehearsal at Ballet Etc. on Wednesday. Miracle Productions, a summer theater program, will present "Curtains" beginning July 25 at Northport Community Arts Center.

TRAVERSE CITY — Miracle Productions is getting a new home — at least for now.

The Traverse City-based company known for its Broadway musicals featuring talented college students from the area will stage its first show at the Northport Community Arts Center starting Saturday and running through Aug. 2.

“For their musicals in the past they’ve always done community theater,” said Pat Gallagher, Miracle’s director and producer. “They want to try some professional musical theater and Miracle gets to kick that off for them."

Casting the professional production company in its performing arts series is an experiment, said Lisa Drummond, NCAC operations manager. The 450-seat theater usually presents at least one community theater production per year, and all sell well, she said.

“We have the capacity to put on professional performances," Drummond said.

Still, she said, it's too early to consider equity productions.

"We're excited about what's coming up, but nothing has been decided about the future," she said. "We'll see how this goes."

Miracle, whose past homes include the City Opera House and Milliken Auditorium in Traverse City, is made up of area high school alumni who return each summer to perform with the company for experience and a stipend. Most are college students or recent graduates.

This year's cast of 19 includes graduates from schools across the Grand Traverse region.

They'll perform "Curtains," a send-up of backstage murder mystery plots, set in 1959 Boston. The play-within-a-play follows the fallout when the not-so-talented diva in a western show called “Robbin’ Hood” is murdered during her opening night curtain call. It’s up to Lt. Frank Cioffi, a detective and music theater wanna-be to save the show, solve the case and maybe even find love before the show reopens.

“It’s got a lot of show-business shtick,” said Gallagher, who gets help with artistic direction, choreography and lighting design from her daughter Erin Peck, director of Traverse City West Senior High musicals, Interlochen Arts Camp instructor and Dance Arts Academy teacher.

This is the fifth — and probably last — Miracle show for Sarah Mikulski, a former Traverse City Central and Western Michigan University student who will attend graduate school at Manhattan School of Music in the fall.

“I think once I get to New York, I’ll probably stay there,” said Mikulski, whose opera, musical theater and dance training made her the natural choice to play ingenue Nikki.

She said working with this summer's newer, mostly younger crop of Miracle actors is fun but bittersweet.

Gallagher calls Miracle a "training ground" for young performers, who have gone on to appear on Broadway, in regional theater in Chicago, New York and Los Angeles, at theme parks and with cruise lines. One former Miracle player even has his own tour and show.

"Curtains" runs Saturday and again July 30 and Aug. 1 at 8 p.m. and Sunday and Aug. 2 at 3 p.m.

Tickets are available by calling 231-386-5001.

Record Eagle "Cheers" - 9 March 2015

To the community center at Lake Ann United Methodist Church, which plays host to a new neighborhood center, the first of five that Great Start Collaborative members hope to form across Antrim, Benzie, Grand Traverse, Kalkaska and Leelanau counties in the coming months. 

The centers are part of the collaborative’s latest project called 5 to One, which aims to improve kindergarten readiness, improve access to child care and parenting education and reduce abuse and neglect. 

The Consumers Energy Foundation recently donated $50,000 to 5 to One to help get each neighborhood center off the ground.

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From the TC Record Eagle - Committee recommends funding History Center

Committee recommends funding History Center

By BRIAN McGILLIVARY bmcgillivary@record-eagle.com | 

Posted: Friday, September 12, 2014 2:12 pm

Committee recommends funding History Center

The History Center of Traverse City could receive a taxpayer subsidy to help manage the city-owned Carnegie Building shown above.

TRAVERSE CITY — City commissioners will consider an initial $12,250 subsidy to maintain the Carnegie Building for the History Center of Traverse City and several other organizations that rely on the 110-year-old structure.

The History Center has an agreement to manage the city-owned building on Sixth Street and the more than 10,000 artifacts in the city's Con Foster Collection, but can't afford to maintain the building. Center officials notified the city commission it will give 30 days notice to end the agreement and vacate the building unless they receive financial help to cover costs such as utilities.

"We would prefer to be in the building and we have made significant investments in the building," said Steve Morris, board treasurer for the History Center. "But the History Center needs to protect itself. It does not want to default on its financial obligations."

Commissioners meet Monday at 7 p.m. in the Governmental Center to consider a recommendation from a committee of Commissioners Jeanine Easterday, Ross Richardson, and Gary Howe to fund direct building costs through Dec. 31.

Laurie Gabel, immediate past president of the American Association of University Women, told commissioners at their Friday committee meeting their decision will affect more than just the History Center. The American Association of University Women is among four nonprofits that rent office space from the History Center and face possible eviction should the History Center cancel the agreement with the city.

"The History Center has worked hard to make it a very viable, active building for a lot of users," Gabel said. "We struggle with why the city ... which owns the Carnegie Building, feels no sense to support it financially."

The Central Neighborhood Association also uses the building for meetings, and the city uses half the building for elections. The closure also would impact planned holiday exhibits such as the annual Festival of Trains and the rental of meeting rooms by other community groups.

City Manager Jered Ottenwess said it would be simpler and more straightforward to subsidize the History Center through the end of the year than take over building operations. He determined the minimum direct cost of the building at about $49,000 and recommended a direct payment of $12,250. He said the cost of the subsidy would be similar to what the city would pay to directly maintain the building.

The proposed payment amount will be based on actual utility costs and could increase, depending on weather conditions.

Morris called commissioners' recommendation "a good first step."

"Is it enough to cover all of the investment we've put into that building over the last two years — no," he said. "But is it enough to allow us to continue operating through the end of the year — yes."

The committee will meet every other week while it sorts out a long-term plan for the building's use and management. Commissioners hope to provide an initial recommendation to the full commission by mid-November.

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