1987 - Guys & Dolls

Members of the cast who are still members of the group include (in order of appearance at the time!) Ray Owen, Andrew Glass, Peter Dierbach, Fiona Schaller, Maggie Weiss, Juliet Breuer, Cari Zöllner (sadly Cari passed away in 2020) and Britta Dierbach. Three of the musicians are still members, Tim Socha, Sheena Socha and Hanns Zöllner.

In 1987 Peter Ohrlein and Alma Suter started the English-speaking theater group in Zug. Rarely, if ever, were there any plays performed in Zug in English, so they agreed it would be fun to put a play together. Soon they decided to stage 'Guys and Dolls'. They wanted to produce a musical because they felt this form of drama would attract a wider audience due to the music. 'Guys and Dolls' has interesting characters and excellent music, and it is very popular in the English-speaking theatre then not well-known on the Continent.

After combing Zug for a theatre, we settled on the Loreto, and in the spring we met with the board of the Zug International Women's Club to seek their support. A flyer announcing the project was sent out at the end of May to see if we would find a sufficient number of people to participate. The response was far greater than we had anticipated, approximately 70 people turned up at our first organizational meeting in June. Auditions were held soon thereafter, and before the beginning of the summer holidays all roles had been assigned.

The cast consisted of people within or connected with the Women’s Club as well as those totally outside it. In September our guys and dolls began rehearsing twice a week. An additional rehearsal per week was added after the Christmas holidays, not to mention the numerous Saturday morning and Sunday evening rehearsals of the dancers. As opening night drew nearer, rehearsals grew in number and intensity.

Of course there were many headaches and disappointments in organizing this production of ‘Guys and Dolls’. but they were more than matched by times of elation and fun. We could not have possibly done all the work ourselves.

Committees took over the work involved in making costumes, in training voices and dancers, in preparing music, lighting, sets and props, and in arranging finances.

Obviously, despite the blessing of the Women’s Club, we could have done nothing without the generous financial support of our patrons who had faith that our hopes and plans would result in an successful production. Incidentally, our production is totally not-for-profit; any funds earned in excess of expenses will be used to help finance future productions.