Wallis, Wang to Lead in Annie Get Your Gun

Company’s Ninth Production to Open in Three Lakes Thursday Night 

With less than 48 hours until the curtain rises on the Three Lakes Theater Company’s ninth production, Annie Get Your Gun, the routines of leads Cynthia Wallis and Mike Wang are about to change, or perhaps return to normal, depending upon your viewpoint.

Since mid-March the duo has been working hard to memorize thousands of lines and 18 songs showcased in the two and one-half hour Irving Berlin production which runs June 19, 20, 21, 26, 27 and 28 at the Three Lakes School Auditorium.

Wallis, who plays the naïve sharpshooter Annie Oakley, begins her daily routine at 4:45 a.m. Upon hearing the blaring of her alarm, the 47-year-old mother of two heads for her Nordic Track and a 45-60 minute physical and line-learning workout.

“I take weekends off,” laughs Wallis about her daily routine. “I learned the lines a page a time. Then I would sit with a blank piece of paper over the script and try to remember my lines, usually after everybody went to bed and the house was quiet.”

Even a family vacation didn’t stand in the way of Wallis memorizing her lines. I already had my script with me, and while we drove, my daughter Erin cued me,” she continued.

Northland Pines Middle School math teacher Mike Wang has also relied on family for help in becoming Frank Butler, the arrogant, chauvinistic star of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show.

“I really study them (the lines) and have my wife Cindy read or cue me.  I haven’t resorted to writing my lines.  I find that getting into the scene helps make the lines fit,” explained Wang.

But learning the lines is not the most difficult part of being in a production according to the pair.

“The most difficult part of having a lead is time—time that is taken away from family.  Traveling and spending time at home has gone into knowing lines and practicing dance routines,” said Wang, who estimated that he’d spent over 30 hours last week alone on preparing for the production.

Wallis agreed that her time with family, especially husband Barry of 20 years has suffered, “We don’t see each other very much—passing each other in the car pretty much.  We usually catch about ten minutes in the morning.”

Yet the Sugar Camp Elementary School secretary couldn’t ignore the ‘itch’ to get back on stage any longer.

“I guess I’ve had the itch since Cinderella, but the kids were littler—and the musical is a big time commitment,” noted Wallis who played the Step Mother in the TLTC’s second production and Ado Annie in Oklahoma! “Since then I’ve coached softball and basketball. I thought it was time to do something for me.”

While Wang acknowledges the time commitment that being in the show entails, he’d been looking for an involvement opportunity for some time, having seen South Pacific and Fiddler on the Roof. “Being from around here, I was familiar with the TLTC’s production in the past.  I had an interest, but never the time.  This year, our summer schedule opened up. As a result, my wife, Cindy, and I both made the commitment to being in the musical.”

Role Playing

Learning lines is but one part of having lead roles the size of Annie Oakley and Frank Butler.  Perhaps the most important part of selling the show to audiences involves becoming the characters.  And just how similar are Wang and Wallis to their stage personas?

“I’ve had fun with Frank Butler, even though I didn’t know much about him” grins the 38-year-old UW-Platteville graduate. “He’s arrogant, chauvinistic, passionate and complex.  So figuring out what he thinks and how he changes has been interesting throughout the rehearsals.”

“I believe that I’m not arrogant, but I am confident,” he continues, “so I hope I can exude some of his different qualities. I wasn’t familiar with his character at all.  He’s much more stubborn than I am and seems to be very self-centered. Frank’s world revolves around Frank.”

Actively involved in teaching middle school students, advising the student council, coaching varsity girls basketball, and singing at the Evangelical Free Church in Conover, Wang believes his student’s may be surprised at who he becomes on stage. “I care about people differently than Frank does.”

For those unfamiliar with production’s storyline, Annie and Frank’s relationship vacillates between love and mini-warfare.  She is smitten at first sight, while he is convinced that only a girl as “soft and pink as a nursery” who “faints when she sees a mouse” will do for him.

However, Butler’s arrogance is lost on the unsophisticated Annie, who according to Wallis maintains a much simpler view of the world.

“She’s a down home country girl whose determined to get anything she wants regardless of her gender,” explains Wallis, who also admits to being rather unfamiliar with the character. “But it’s my kind of part.”

Like Oakley, Wallis grew up hunting and fishing with her brothers and sisters in the woods surrounding Sugar Camp. 

The similarities between the two are marked.

“I grew up with three brothers, and I always wanted to do the ‘boy’ chores—like chopping and stacking wood and throwing out hay for the animals,” explains Wallis who chafed at doing the ‘inside’ girl chores, much like Oakley bridles at Butler throughout the show.

Like her on stage counterpart, Wallis doesn’t take well to being regulated to a second place status.  “I don’t let them get the best of me—still to this day,” she smiles.

The chemistry between these two completely different on stage characters didn’t develop without effort though.

“I knew who she was before practice began,” explains Wang.

Yet knowing someone was is much different than falling in love on stage.

“The first couple of practices were uncomfortable—we knew we had to get much closer, and that’s very difficult at times,” notes Wang with Wallis smiling and nodding in agreement. “We were both a bit squirmy about it.  It’s been a long, but good process.  Hopefully the chemistry will help make our characters more believable.”

Page last updated on 06/04/2008