“Guys and Does” Returns to Northern Sky
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Northern Sky Theater is highlighting its fall season with the return of Guys and Does, a quirky comedy musical celebrating Wisconsin’s deer-hunting culture.
Written by Frederick “Doc” Heide and Lee Becker, with music by Paul Libman, Guys and Does broke Northern Sky box office records with 54 straight sold-out performances in its premiere season in 2009. It returned in 2010 and 2011 before embarking on a successful statewide tour and has come back for another round of applause with its original three-man cast (Heide, Becker and Doug Mancheski).
Guys and Does follows Nekoosa paper mill worker Fritz Dingleheimer (played by Heide) as he embarks on a trip up north with his daughter’s oddball boyfriend, Duane Puddles (played by Becker), a terrible hunter whose hobbies include knitting, self-help books, and watching Oprah. This setup introduces the show’s first relatable conflict, Heide explained.
“For people of a certain age, those of us who are old enough to have grown children, there’s always the potential issue of: what do you do if your son or daughter is dating someone you’re not entirely on board with?” he said. “…So there’s a lot of humor in the first section of the show somewhat derived from my character’s skepticism about him while at the same time recognizing you gotta be open to him because your daughter’s involved with him.”
Northern Sky actors Doug Mancheski, Frederick “Doc” Heide and Lee Becker return to the stage in this fall’s production of Guys and Does. Photo by Len Villano.
When the men arrive at their northwoods retreat and a Texas big-game hunter by the name of Joe Jimmy Ray Bob Johnson III (played by Mancheski) shows up in pursuit of the most exotic game he can find, the play takes a look at the deeper elements of hunting and its role in history, particularly manliness, bonding and the Native American understanding of nature. Add in a few surprise characters and 20 musical numbers ranging from sensitive (Duane’s “I Can’t Kill Bambi’s Brudder” and “Knitting Love Song”) to manly (Joe Jimmy’s “Another Notch In My Gun” and “Slapjack Duel”), and Guys and Does becomes a play that can help bridge the gap of understanding between hunters and non-hunters.
Heide explained that when he and Becker researched the show (they both hunted as children but didn’t continue into adulthood), he was surprised to learn that hunting was “the most revered human profession up until the 20th century.
“This is what people did to get food before we had a contemporary system for that so hunters were heroes in our societies and we were saddened that now a lot of folks are somewhat skeptical about hunting and think, why would you kill defenseless little deer?” Heide explained. “I think what people often aren’t aware of is that state governments that have looked into this have concluded that hunting is actually perhaps the optimal way to preserve the ecology because deer are rampant and overrunning many ecological systems in America.”
As it happens, Guys and Does was the focus of a first-of-its-kind scientific study done by Heide (a clinical psychologist) and his colleagues at the California School of Professional Psychology in San Francisco to determine whether musical comedies could change people’s behaviors and attitudes. In 2012, the study was published in the academic journal Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, and confirmed that after seeing the show, people came away with a greater understanding and acceptance of hunting.
Heide explained that the study stemmed from his interest in Entertainment Education, a scientific field that embeds education in various forms of entertainment media (film, theater, television, radio, comic books, internet and mobile devices) to affect people’s attitudes and behaviors toward various social and health-related issues, including literacy, drunk driving and AIDs.
With tens of thousands of people having seen Guys and Does on stage, Heide can add hunting to that list.
“Here you have the opportunity to help improve the world thousands and thousands of people at a time,” he said. “I’m just really drawn to that as somebody interested in social justice and making the world a better place to live. This happened to be the show that we were working on when we became aware of that theory so we kind of designed the show to incorporate that theory. It works; it did indeed affect people’s attitudes in a positive direction.”
Guys and Does runs through Oct. 15 at the Door Community Auditorium, 3926 Hwy. 42 in Fish Creek. Show times are 7:30pm weekdays and at 4pm and 8pm on Saturdays. Reserved tickets are $29 for adults, $18 for students, and $14 for children 12 and under. Tickets can be purchased at the Northern Sky box office at the Green Gables shops in north Ephraim, by phone at 920.854.6117, and online at NorthernSkyTheater.com.
