Tim and Caroline Good

Tim and Caroline Good who are featured in July's Blithe Spirit!

We recently sat down with Tim and Caroline Good during a break in rehearsals for Blithe Spirit to find out a little more about them.

PCPH: Hi, Caroline. Can you tell us how you first became involved with Putnam County Playhouse?

CG: In 2004, Deb Grammel, the chairperson of the Children's Workshop Committee, asked us to help with their program. I had created a program I called "Shakespearience" that she was interested in where kids would rehearse a condensed version of a Shakespeare play while participating in interactive presentations about various aspects of Shakespeare's history, theatre, and daily life by costumed leaders. So, that first year, Beth [Girton] Bax directed the elementary grades in The Tempest and Tim directed the junior high in Twelfth Night, while I organized the programming. Then I had the opportunity to play my first role at the playhouse, the Baroness in The Sound of Music [directed by Ernie Ford in 2006] after which I was invited to join the board -- and I've been involved ever since.

PCPH: Which brings us to Tim, so you started together?

TG: We moved to Greencastle in the summer of 2002, and in the summer of
’03 I had the opportunity to do a youth workshop at the Playhouse. We
did my adaptation of Alice in Wonderland, then the next summer did
Caroline’s adaptation of Twelfth Night, and we were off to the races.

PCPH: So have you always enjoyed working together?

TG: I think the first time was in high school when she was in The Mikado and I played my trumpet in the pit. That would have been 1981 or so, at
Ottawa High School in northern Illinois. Our first time onstage
together was probably Carousel at our summer youth theater in the same
town.

CG: Well we talk shop all the time! Tim and I were in swing choir together in high school, did Grease together (Tim was Kenicke and I was Sandy when I actually gave Patty a black eye -- and 3 stitches), Carousel (chorus - Tim especially "liked" the clambake song), Music Man (Harold and Marion), and he has directed me in Redhead, The Importance of Being Earnest, and Little Women. We've done six Youth Theatre Workshops together, too. I'd have to say Music Man was my favorite - Tim used the words from "Till There Was You" when he proposed -- 17 years later. Though we must admit is especially fun playing Charles and Elvira's bantering [in Blithe Spirit].


PCPH: Tim you wear both the acting hat and the directing hat - which do you enjoy more?

TG: Not acting. I have degrees in directing and experimental theater,
earned a living for many years in scenery and lighting, I adapt
stories, novels, and memoirs into scripts, and I started two improv
troupes, but acting in a scripted play has never been one of my
primary interests. I do it from time to time because I think it’s
good for me as a theater artist and teacher.

PCPH: Would you tell us a bit about your jobs at DePauw University?

CG: I've been teaching acting and first-year seminar courses on theatrical topics since 2004. Now, I also teach voice and movement classes that I truly love. Watching my students find a myriad of ways of expressing themselves through their voices and their bodies with confidence and creativity is very amazing! I stepped into the part-time costumer position in addition to my teaching in 2005 and now have quite a buzzing costume shop under the Moore stage. We build many of the costumes for the four mainstage shows and coordinate the opera each year. As a bonus, I get to costume each show Tim directs - it's a good thing we get along so well!

TG: I get to work with active and stimulating colleagues and students
every day, which is obviously a great blessing. I teach in the
Department of Communication and Theater, and my varied assignments
keep my brain sharp. For instance, last year I was able to teach
beginning acting, research methods, advanced design, and African
Atlantic theater. This fall I am directing a script that I adapted
from the memoir Holocaust survivor Gerda Nothmann Luner, for which I
am also designing scenery and lighting. I am working on a new project
with the Putnam County Museum, along with a grant from Arts Illiana
and Beth Bax’s GHS Theater classes, to collectively create a new play
by, for, and about people of Putnam County, to be presented this
coming November.

PCPH: That sounds like a most ambitious and worthwhile project, Tim, and we certainly wish you the best with it.
Caroline, returning to Putnam County Playhouse for a moment, what has been your favorite role you have played here?

CG: Easy - Aldonza [in Man of La Mancha directed by Jack Randall Earles 2009]. She had great songs and a fierce spirit that softened throughout the play. It was a huge challenge and stretched me musically and acting-wise trying to find all the right notes and the moments that tied her story together. Thank you, Jack, for the opportunity to explore her. [BLUSH - you did the role beautifully]. Although, I would have to say that Elvira [in Blithe Spirit] is probably a very close second. She's fun and naughty, mysterious and elusive - I hope I can pin her down soon! [I have every confidence that you can!]

PCPH: Tim, you work in all aspects of theatre it seems, do you have a preference for plays or musicals?

TG: Musicals are such an enormously difficult undertaking that I’m a bit
amazed than anyone ever does them. They are one of the unique
American artistic creations though. If you have the proper personnel
and time commitments, musicals are very rewarding. Straight plays
have rhythm and music in a different way, and it is up to the artists
to work with the playwright to realize the ideals therein. The
rhythms and tempo of the words is especially important in a play like
Blithe Spirit.


PCPH: Caroline, how is working in community theatre at PCPH different than working in theatre at a college level?

CG: It's similar in that the expectations are in line with the resources available. Although we have high expectations, we don't push the students to do the impossible and are able to create art that is entertaining without having to keep our eye constantly on the box office receipts. It's also similar in that each play, or musical, brings a new community together to make a story come alive. It's different in that, at DePauw, we mainly choose productions that will stretch the students artistically, those that are participating and those in the audience. It's more educational, training and technique-on-the-job so to speak. We try to expose them to pivotal plays in theatrical history as well as more edgy plays that have a strong message. They often have the opportunity to work on an original play as well.

PCPH: Tim, what would be your dream show as a director?

TG: The Greencastle Service Theater is a dream that I would like to see
grow. This is part of what I am doing with the Putnam County Museum
this fall, using artistic techniques to address concerns of our
specific community. I would like to see this grow into a company of
local volunteers who would train ourselves in basic techniques of
theater, studio art, music, dance, and creative writing (perhaps film,
video too? there would be no artistic limitation). Then we could
respond to requests for workshops, assistance in creating new plays or
other works of art, and/or creating new works ourselves based on
requests from local groups. This would be similar to the work of
Meredith Brickell’s recent Putnam County Empty Bowls project, and I am
interested in teaming with other like-minded people to establish an
ongoing center for such work in Putnam County.

PCPH: It sounds fantastic! And how about you, Caroline, as an actor - is there a dream role in your future?

CG: Hamlet - but I'm a girl so it's rather unlikely. "Realistically," Titania in Midsummer Night's Dream - cool language and way cool costume! I am fortunate enough to be invited to Mrs. Funk's 8th grade class each year to talk about acting Shakespeare when they study the play and I always love to throw in a little Titania for them. "Out of these woods do not desire to go..."

TG: [I look forward to playing] Grandfather. I’ll spoil my grandkids rotten someday. But in the theater, there are a few roles that will get my attention, such as The
Baker in Into the Woods, Judas in Jesus Christ Superstar, Arvide in
Guys and Dolls, any of the Shakespearean fools, such as Feste in
Twelfth Night. I would love to do one of the great couples roles with
Caroline someday, such as Music Man or King and I or On Golden Pond,
or the Albertsons (the “Lunts of Blaine”) in a stage version of
Waiting for Guffman.

PCPH: LOL - I’m afraid I know what part I would be cast in for that show! Caroline, tell us about your family.

CG: We have five very creative and crazy children. Keri, our oldest, is heading to Wittenberg University in the fall to study health sciences - she hopes to be a physician's assistant She's been onstage in several PCPH shows and workshops and sang the national anthem at many a sporting event. Our son Jon is 16, dying to drive, and is a great asset in the sound and lights department. He most recently designed the lights and some of the sound for Twelve Nights in the Caribbean [2010 PCPH Youth Theatre Workshop] and even helped with the lights for Blithe Spirit. Lauren, the quiet one, likes to be onstage and has been in several shows and workshops at school and PCPH. She plays guitar and piano and has a beautiful soprano voice like her older sister. Our smaller set, Charlie and Fiona, are "onstage" most of the time. Fiona just debuted in Twelve Nights as Young Viola and Charlie hopes to take the stage during the Children's Workshop - his dream role is to play a frog.

PCPH: Thanks, Tim & Caroline Good for sharing some time with us! I know audiences will enjoy seeing you together in

Blithe Spirit.


Break a leg!