'Fiddler on the Roof' takes the Peoria Players stage

Laura Garfinkel hadn't directed a play for more than 20 years and musicals weren't her forte. Yet, when Peoria Players approached her about submitting "Fiddler on the Roof," one of the most beloved musicals in theatre history, she jumped at the opportunity.

"I knew I wanted to get back into directing since I retired (from Bradley University) but I wanted to have a chance at a show that was universally loved and was something people would want to see," Garfinkel said. "I would say 'Fiddler' fits the bill. And with the support I've received her at Peoria Players and the cast I was able to assembly, I think it will be a great way to return. I'm excited."(Photos by Jenny Parkhurst) Longtime Peoria performer Lee Wenger portrays the lead role of Tevye in the Peoria Players Theatre production of "Fiddler on the Roof."

When that cast is headed by one of Peoria's most beloved performers, it's easy to see why she is excited.

"Fiddler on the Roof" opens a nine-show run at 7:30 p.m. on Friday at the theatre at University and Lake. Tickets are on sale now at $18 for adults and $12 for patrons 18 and under and can be ordered by calling the Peoria Players box office at 688-4473.

Lee Wenger, who has spent most of his life entertaining Peoria audiences in a variety of stage and emcee roles, heads the cast in the role of Tevye, the patriarch of a family that is representative of life in early 1900s Russia as well as life anywhere today.

"It's the universal theme of family and tradition that really is timeless," Garfinkel said. "Tevye tries so hard to hold on to his traditions and those of his Jewish culture and his daughters want to go against those traditions. They don't want to marry the men chosen for them by their parents, as is tradition; they want to marry the men they love. There are a lot of parallels in life today of children wanting something different from the ways of the past."

"Fiddler on the Roof" is a musical that has been performed around the world. It's music is universally known, as well, with songs that include "Tradition," "Matchmaker, Matchmaker," "If I Were a Rich Man" and "Sunrise, Sunset."

The music was written by Jerry Bock, with lyrics by Sheldon Harnick and book by Joseph Stein. The musical played more than 3,000 performances on Broadway, becoming the first to reach that milestone and winning numerous Tony Awards. Later revivals also captured several awards.

The show also was considered a star vehicle for those who portrayed Tevye on stage or in film, even in community theatre, Wenger said. What caused him to audition for the role after so many years, he said, was not only that it is such "an actor's role" but the chance to sing songs he enjoys in a show that audiences love.

"But since I've gotten into it now, it strikes me how touching a story it is. This is not a Jewish show, it is an everybody show. It really has a universal theme and I have found, since I have a daughter of my own, that I can relate to Tevye as the father of a daughter," he said.

"I just really want to move people with my performance. I want them to feel about this story the way I do," he added.

Tevye, portrayed by Lee Wenger, and Tevye's eldest daughter, portrayed by Rebekah Dentino, share a moment during a recent rehearsal of Peoria Players' production of "Fiddler on the Roof."His busy schedule prevented him from being in the show in years past, Wenger said, "but this time it is being directed by my good friend of 30-plus years, Laura Garfinkel, with music directed by Suzie Somerville Brown and choreography by Lise Higgins, two people I really wanted to work with. It all just worked out this time."

Other cast members include Carolyn Briggs-Gaul as Golde, Tevye's wife; Anita Rowden as the matchmaker Yente and Larry Betzelberger as Lazar Wolf. Tevye's daughters are portrayed by Rebekah Dentino (Tzeitel), Emily Hardesty (Hodel), Chloe Van Slyke, (Chava), Rachel Kocher (Shprintze) and Anna Hsu (Bielke).

The men the three eldest daughters love are played by Lance Franken (Motel), JackAnthony McIntire (Perchik) and Peter Jackson (Fyedka).

Others in the cast of 37 include Seth Katz, Michael Wohl, George Maxedon, Lori Maxedon, Mary Sierra, Carole Rogers, Lynn Seitzman as Fruma Sarah and Jim Willard as the Rabbi.

Stacey Brewer is the fiddler on the roof. According to an entry in Wikipedia, the musical's title stems from the painting "The Fiddler" by Marc Chagall. "The Fiddler is a metaphor for survival, through tradition and joyfulness, in a life of uncertainty and imbalance."

Garfinkel said everybody involved with the show, from Brown to Higgins to stage manager Theresa Black to all of the cast, "has been kind and supportive to me and to each other. They have been a pleasure to work with."

Her toughest decision was casting Tevye because of the talent that auditioned, she said. "But Lee Wenger is simply brilliant. He was born to play Tevye, as far as I'm concerned."

The show begins at 7:30 p.m. on Friday and Saturday and at 7:30 p.m. on May 8, 9, 10 and 11. There will be three matinees at 2 p.m. on Saturday, Sunday and May 12.(Photo by Jenny Parkhurst) Shown in the nightmare scene from the Peoria Players production of "Fiddler on the Roof."

Historical operation at OSF gives Korean toddler a new life

A little girl tasted a lollipop last Friday. It was her first taste of a treat most children take for granted.

For 2½-year-old Hannah Warren, that taste was made possible by an historical operation performed in Peoria on April 19 at the Children's Hospital of Illinois. In short, she was given a tissue-engineered, bioartificial windpipe in an operation that was the first of its kind in the world to be performed on a child.

The surgery gave Hannah the trachea she has lacked since her birth in Seoul, South Korea. She suffered from tracheal agenesis, where the trachea failed to develop, and a transplant was the only way she could live a normal life or even survive.

The trachea implanted in the child was constructed using her own stem cells and it will enable her to live as normal a life as possible, said surgeons who performed the operation.

(Photo courtesy of Children's Hospital of Illinois) Hannah Warren smiles without a tube in her mouth and leading to her lungs for the first time in her young life after groundbreaking surgery performed April 19 in Peoria. Her parents, Darryl and Young-Mi Warren, brought to child from Seoul, South Korea, where she was born without a trachea, for the operation. That included Peoria pediatric surgeon Dr. Mark Holterman, who first met Hannah when she was but a month old and has been working ever since to help the child born with a normally fatal condition. He was in Seoul on a business trip and was asked to visit with Hannah and her parents— father Darryl, who is Canadian, and mother Young-Mi, who is Korean.

"I came back to Peoria trying to figure out how to fix her. We often find a birth defect there is no solution for, but if we can use our own natural cells we can have a chance to find a way to fix it," Holterman said.

He called in Dr. Paolo Macchiarini, professor of regenerative surgery at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm who had created new trachea for adults affected by cancer or other disease. Together they worked to build one for Hannah from "non-absorbable nanofibers and stem cells from her own bone marrow," hospital officials said during a news conference Tuesday at OSF HealthCare in Peoria and broadcast around the world.

Hannah was brought to Peoria March 29 with her family and the nine-hour operation was performed April 19. It included opening the child's neck, chest and abdomen to insert the three-inch trachea and open paths to her lungs and stomach, said Dr. Richard Pearl, surgeon-in-chief at Children's Hospital as well as professor of surgery and pediatrics at University of Illinois College of Medicine at Peoria.

"The post-op course has gone relatively well," Pearl said, noting the child underwent the equivalent of three major operations, something that would cause substantial surgical stress and require significant rehabilitation. But he also noted that because the trachea was made using her own stem cells and no donated organs, this procedure "virtually eliminates the chance of rejection by her immune system."

Pearl reminded the news conference audience that because of her condition Hannah has never been able to breath on her own, or even eat; tubes and machines have done it for her. "She has to learn to do things for the first time," he said.

(Photo courtesy of Children Hospital of Illinois) Dr. Mark Holterman, the pediatric surgeon whose efforts resulted in toddler Hannah Warren receiving a bioartificial trachea built using her own stem cells, holds the child shortly after she arrived in Peoria March 29. The survey was performed April 19.Macchiarini termed the procedure "a miracle" because of Hannah's age. He praised the Children's Hospital of Illinois and its personnel as "world-class and incredibly dedicated to saving children."

He further praised OSF HealthCare for waiving the costs of the expensive procedure but for allowing it to be done at the Children's Hospital, which is part of OSF-Saint Francis Medical Center. Permission came after the Peoria Diocese determined that since them stem cells would be from Hannah herself the procedure would not violate Catholic moral directives regarding stem cell research.

Without OSF waiving the costs the family would not have been able to afford the groundbreaking surgery.

"What a wonderful gift of this hospital. They made the choice to save the life of this child," Macchiarini said. "I cannot express enough what this means to me as a scientist, a man and a father. If we can do something to save just one simple life, that of a child especially, it is worth all the money in the world."

Deal to restructure stadium debt approved

A plan to refinance Peoria's professional baseball stadium was approved Tuesday by the Peoria City Council.

With only at-large Councilman Gary Sandberg dissenting because of his disapproval of using taxpayer money to bail out private business, the council voted 9-1 to forgive the remaining $1.2 million the stadium owners owe for bonds the city issued 12 years ago to pay for infrastructure around the downtown ballpark. The city will end up pay off the remainder of the bonds out of its general fund.

With the council's approval, the Peoria Chiefs ballclub, the Class A affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals, also will receive a reduction in outstanding bank debt, new investment income from its group of owners and $2 million over 10 years from Caterpillar Inc. for the naming rights to the stadium, once known as O'Brien Field.

The agreement is worth a total of $7.35 million to the ballcub.

Mayor Jim Ardis pushed for approval of the agreement, which was announced last week, sayind he believed the council would see the importance of approving this agreement and keeping professional baseball in Peoria."

Without the council's approval the entire deal would have fallen through. That would include a $1.2 million reduction in bank loans that would occur when Morton Community Bank would take over the loan from a consortium of seven banks that made the original loan a dozen years ago.

Also out would be $2.7 million in new investment from the group of 50 owners, most of them local.

The city's bond was issued for $1.675 million at 4.25 percent interest, to be repaid over 20 years at about $150,000 a year.

Part of the agreement with the city would include allowing others to use the stadium for other events, such as concerts, when the Chiefs or Bradley University teams are not using it. Bradley, as per the agreement, will pay $250,000 over the next 10 years to rent the stadium for its games.

Ardis said he pushed for approval of the agreement because the Chiefs are important to the entire region, even beyond the $180,000 in annual property taxes the stadium generates. "This ballpark is an amenity to this city and it fits well with the new construction downtown and the Warehouse District," which surrounds the stadium, he added.

Ardis said he has heard from others, including officials at the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Peoria, that having professional baseball in a city this size is an important tool in recruiting teaching and research talent to Peoria.

Baumgartner said the same is true for Caterpillar. "It goes to the issue of quality of life. Having activities for young professionals is important in our recruiting efforts," he said.

Our Favorite Things: Restaurants in (and Around) Peoria

As Peorians we are fortunate to have a preponderance of very good restaurants to choose from, something those of us from small Midwestern towns certainly appreciate. No matter your tastes, there is at least one good restaurant to serve it, if not many – from straight meat-and-potatoes Midwestern fare to ethnic flavors to more avant-garde, modern cuisine.

So this week we asked our murder of writers to tell us about their favorite restaurant in Peoria. Notice we didn’t ask for “the best” restaurant. The reason is, while great food might attract you to a restaurant, the entire experience is what determines whether or not you will return again, let alone come back over and over. So, here’s our list of Our Favorite Restaurants in (and around) Peoria. Enjoy!

Sky Harbor Steakhouse
Paul Gordon
There are a lot of restaurants in the Peoria area of which I am quite fond, but if I had to pick one it would be Sky Harbor. From the quality of the food to the reasonable prices to the friendliness of everybody there it is top-notch. The Klusendorf family has always treated my family and friends extremely well and they have been a good friend to Corn Stock Theatre, where I spend a lot of time. The steaks sizzle when brought to the table, always cooked to your order, and whatever rub they use should be packaged and sold. If you haven’t tried this local treasure, check them out. Just be aware (or perhaps, beware) owner Daryl Klusendorf plays the banjo. If you go there on your birthday, you will be serenaded. Embarrassing? Nah, just a lot of fun.

The Lariat Steakhouse
Steven Streight
My favorite restaurant meets the criteria of being (1) cozy, quiet and romantic, (2) incredible food, (3) extensive menu (4) friendly service, (5) nice and unique decor, (6) reasonable prices, and (7) local, family owned business.

For my tastes, that restaurant would be The Lariat Steakhouse.

This is the restaurant that you can enjoy for a casual lunch, a special occasion dinner, a company banquet, client meeting, and a place to take friends and relatives from out of town, to impress them with a genuine Peoria tradition, as it is one of three oldest, continuously operated restaurants in Peoria, IL.

The Lariat Steakhouse
Matt Richmond
There is only one possible answer to this question: The Lariat Steakhouse. This restaurant is the best of all possible worlds. To wit, a checklist: Damn good steak? Check. Dark as shit inside? Check. Seasoned waitresses who look at you funny if you try to get cute? Check. Western dude-ranch décor? Check. Bucket full of mushrooms soaked in salty beef broth? Check. Costs less than a car payment for a kickass dinner? Check.

I had a step-grandpa once. Grandpa Edwards. He was an old-school hardass who caught giant catfish, brought them home and crushed their skulls with a #@!%ing sledgehammer. His hands looked like sweet potatoes. The Lariat is the only restaurant I can ever remember him going to willingly. You gonna argue with that?

One World
Lindsey Tanner
Walk in the door caught between West Main and North University. Enter a dim lit eatery with a kickback, coffee shop vibe. Pass the dessert counter to be seated in the west room, along the art-scaped wall. Settle into the lunchtime conversation around you, synced to the chime of forks-to-plate, and ice stirred in a tall glass of tea. Pick up your menu and it won't take you long to realize you'll be back— likely that night.

Skim: Bacon Cheese Fries, a bowl of soup, the Southwestern Salad, with an incredibly addicting cilantro dressing, a bite that ranks it above the traditional ranch garnish (and don't bother to ask for it on the side — you'll use it all). Keep reading: Cuban Pork, Herb Chicken Focaccia and Broiled Tilapia. Find wraps and flatbreads, and flame-broiled beef burgers, with uptown flare or stray from tradition with the Portabella Brioche. Browse your options: pizza gone thin, gone gluten, replace pesto with sauce or go gourmet with Chicken Alfredo or BBQ Chicken. Check the Three Cheese Blend Quesadilla, the Hungarian Stuffed Pepper, Baked Penne or Eggplant Lasagna. A hand-cut pork loin, Latin or Texas style, your choice.

The name of the place suddenly makes sense. The richest tastes, from the farthest places in the world, hosted by a single corner cafe. With a menu of that caliber somehow perfection in preparation and presentation is never sacrificed. Go ahead and fight to settle the internal turmoil over two, continent-apart dishes — it's probably easier than trying to re-arrange your Saturday morning so you can order from the breakfast menu.

Noodles & Company
Shaun Taylor
My favorite restaurant in Peoria is the newly opened, Noodles & Co. I know it isn't a sexy choice per se, but I love it because it reminds me of my hometown of Rockville, MD and they have great noodles. I've tried just about everything on the menu, but my go-to is the Japanese pan noodles with steak. Throw a little Sriracha on top and you've got a great meal at a great price. My runner up would have to be pad thai with shrimp!

Steak ‘n Shake
Terry Towery
I was born in Fulton County and lived there until my family moved to northern Illinois in 1970, the summer after sixth grade. In the years prior to our move, my mom and dad would load us in the car every Saturday and drive to Peoria Heights, where I received my weekly allergy shot from Dr. Endres (whose office, as I recall, was next door the old Pabst Brewery on Prospect). While the shot itself isn't exactly a shining memory from my childhood, stopping on South Adams Street on the way out of Peoria and eating at Steak 'n Shake sure is. In those days, there were still car-hops and I remember the girl bringing our double steak burgers, fries and chocolate malts on a tray which she attached to our partially rolled down window. When we were finished, my father would turn on his headlights and the girl would come and took our tray away.

To this day, when I want a taste of my childhood, I hop in the car and head to Steak 'n Shake. While the decor has changed, and car hops are a thing of the past, the food is as satisfying now as it was in 1968. And the memories, of course, are priceless.

Ludy’s Kickapoo Creek Saloon
(No website but you can find them on Facebook)
Stuart Clubb
Burgers, Chicken strips or the Texas Toothpicks – doesn’t matter. When I go there, I know it will be some of the best food because that usually means I had just made a long hike at Jubilee Park prior to the dining experience. It is a reward after enjoying nature and enjoying nature is reward in itself – so Ludy’s is the cap to a wonderful day. You come as you are (usually very hungry after hiking) and leave full and happy. Simple and wonderful.

Rhythm Kitchen Cafe
Kevin Kizer
As the host of the rarely watched/quickly forgotten Kizer: Party of Four videos, I have been lucky enough to have the best off the menu of several great restaurants. A couple of them are even still in business. Choosing my favorite restaurant in this town is nearly an impossible task. I’ve had great meals in great environments – One World, Kelleher’s, The Publik House, Stephanie*, ye ol’ Riverstation, the Fish House, Jonah’s, just to name a few. But the place I’m going to go with (in a much less dramatic fashion than my dear friend Matt Richmond) is the Rhythm Kitchen Music Café.

For years, I worked in the same building as or next to the Rhythm Kitchen and grew to love it for breakfast, lunch, dinner and beyond (when there’s live music). Shelly Lenzini opened the restaurant in 1999, bringing modern, homemade fare in a relaxed social setting to the riverfront. And she won me over immediately – there was a particular tuna dish on the lunch menu that I favored. One day I strolled in for lunch, took a look at the menu, my eyes eagerly going to that familiar spot on the page – but the desired tuna dish was nowhere to be seen. After recovering from a small gasping-and-swooning incident that upended several tables and disturbed quite a bit of silverware, I gathered myself as well as I could and queried the aforementioned proprietor about its absence. She quickly assuaged my fears – true, the tuna dish was not on the menu, but she would make it for me anytime I would like. On that shining day she made a customer for life.

* remember THAT place?