Audio By Carbonatix
When Charles Packard of the Aurora Fox Arts Center first arrived in Denver, he noticed that everyone was from somewhere else. That observation inspired his search for shows about rural towns that offer a glimpse of small-town American culture, shows that could potentially remind an audience of their roots. He found what he was looking for in Guys on Ice, a musical about Marvin and Lloyd, two ice-fishing buddies and homegrown philosophers who explore life, love and Leinies while they fish. “It’s a sweet show,” explains Packard. “It was developed by the American Folklore Theatre; they run a summer theater in Wisconsin. They write all original musicals, mostly based on life in and around that area. That part of the country has its own really unique culture — and ice fishing in general is surrounded by its own unique culture. The only people who understand people who ice-fish are people who ice-fish.”
With musical numbers like “The Wishing Hole,” “Fish Is the Miracle Food” and “The One That Got Away,” Guys on Ice is part anthropological study and part musical comedy: “I’m really taken by these guys,” says Packard. “It’s a rare glimpse at a platonic male relation-ship, just friends who need each other. It’s two guys sitting on the ice all day, and it’s so many things that typical culture isn’t: They aren’t headed anywhere, they aren’t wrapped up with anything; it’s two guys deliberately closing in on each other so they have to talk about things that wouldn’t normally be out in the open. It’s full of heart, and after ninety minutes of sitting with these guys, you understand so much about that region and so much about what men need from their friends. It’s a wacky musical that touches on rural nos-talgia and family history.”
Guys on Ice opens today in the Studio Theatre at the Aurora Fox Arts Center, 9900 East Colfax Avenue in Aurora, with a limited run through December 22; get tickets, ranging from $13 to $26, at aurorafox.org or call 303-739-1970.
Fridays, Saturdays, 7:30 p.m. Starts: Dec. 13. Continues through Dec. 22, 2013
