ists rose on the tiny, enchanted village of Brigadoon on June 11, 12, 17, 18 and 19, 1999 for Northwoods musical enthusiasts when the Three Lakes Theater Company entered its fifth year of existence.  And what a year it was.

Under the direction of creative director Mari Lynn Garbowicz and musical director Lori Hunter, a cast of over 40 people danced and sang to nearly sold-out crowds all five nights.

Garbowicz, a Three Lakes special education teacher, has led the Three Lakes Theater Company in four other productions including Peter Pan, Oklahoma, Cinderella, and the 1998 sold out production of Fiddler on the Roof.

"We have a group of dedicated professionals who give hundreds of hours of their time to make the show come alive. Without them Brigadoon would not become the magical story it is," Garbowicz said.

The professionals to whom Garbowicz refers come from all walks of life.  This cast boasted of teachers, a shipping manager, a construction worker, a nurse practitioner, grandmothers, mothers-to-be and a host of others who share a love of singing and acting.

Musically, the vocal part of the show couldn't have been in better hands. Hunter found the music of Brigadoon to be quite different from that of Fiddler, the Company's 1998 show.

"The minor melodies throughout Fiddler reflected an underlying sadness, while the mysteriousness and vitality of the Brigadoon arrangements reflect the joy of living and loving," said Hunter.

"We added new voices (to the cast) and they rose to the challenge of the difficult music," said Hunter of the vocal and musical numbers, one of which boasts 13 different key changes.

Cast members began meeting in early April to perfect both the music and dialogue of Brigadoon, the first big hit for the magical team of Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe.

Inspired by Germelshausen, a German story by Friedrich Gerstäcker, Brigadoon revolves around two American tourists, Tommy Albright and Jeff Douglas, who stumble upon a misty little Scottish town.

Tommy soon falls in love with a local lass, Fiona MacLaren, but as the two men quickly discover, this mysterious little town only emerges from the mists one day every hundred years.