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LEE
BECKER
PACKER PLAYWRIGHT GOT HIS START PLAYING POULTRY
When actor/playwright Lee Becker lived in New York City, he was a core member of an improv company that won national and international championships. But he had to return to his home state of Wisconsin to play the role for which he is still often recognized in supermarkets, Mildred the Chicken.
 "Folks point to me in the market and say, 'You're the chicken'. And I point and say, 'That's the chicken, I'm Lee’ ," he quipped.
Becker moved to Manhattan in the early 1990's to help co-found Comedy Sportz - NYC, which won tournaments from Milwaukee to Montreal.
One afternoon he received a call from Fred Alley, co-founder of Door County's acclaimed American Folklore Theatre (AFT). Alley had seen Becker perform improvisational comedy, as well as Shakespeare while visiting NYC.
"He said he had the perfect role for me," Becker recounts. "Playing the voice of an invisible chicken in the world premiere of 'Belgians in Heaven'. At first I turned him down, but Fred wouldn’t take no for an answer. He really believed this was where I belonged."
Nine years later, Becker can still be found performing with AFT. And now he's being recognized for yet another nonhuman role.
For the second year in a row, he's strapping on shoulder pads to play a Galactic Packer in AFT's hit musical comedy. "Packer Fans From Outer Space".
The show opens Friday, September 26 for a 3-week run in downtown Green Bay's spectacular Meyer Theatre. It's already drawn over 25,000 people at AFT's outdoor theatre in Peninsula State Park.
Becker co-authored "Packer Fans From Outer Space" with AFT co-founder Doc Heide, who also wrote "Belgians in Heaven."
Heide wanted to write a show about Packer aliens, and asked Becker on board in 1996.
"It was brave of Doc to ask me," Becker said. "I'd written sketch comedy, but never a musical. But I'm a huge Packer fan raised on 'Star Wars'. How could I say no?"
"Packer Fans" was to become the central focus for Becker's creative energies for the next 6 years.
Soon he was flying out to the San Francisco Bay Area to write with Heide, who teaches there during the school year. Some years Becker slept on the floor of Heide's Berkeley apartment for months at a time.
During the day, the duo roamed Pacific Coast beaches and forests writing draft after draft of the show. They'd continue to work late into the night at coffeehouses and cozy Asian cafés.
"This project really broadened my horizons," Becker said. "At the same time that I was learning how to write a play, I learned how to distinguish a panang curry from a Massaman curry."
Becker and Heide have worked on the show in places as far-flung as Redwood National Park, the canyons of Utah, and the museums of Manhattan.
But the final draft of "Packer Fans From Outer Space" was penned in Wisconsin, which Becker once again calls home.
Becker moved from New York City to Milwaukee in 1997. "I had a fantastic time out there," he recalls. "But more doors were opening back home. Fred was right. Wisconsin is where I belonged."
Becker, 35, was raised in Wisconsin and was valedictorian of Mount Horeb High School in 1986. He attended UW-Madison before moving to the East Coast.
Since returning from New York City, Becker has worked extensively with AFT around the state.
He plays Ernie the Moocher in AFT's wildly popular ice-fishing musical, "Guys On Ice". Created by Alley and composer James Kaplan, "Guys" has become the top grossing show in Madison history, where it will run again this December at the Barrymore Theatre.
Becker is also a founding member of Wisconsin's Door Shakespeare, where he has worked frequently, both as an actor and as musical director.
This fall, thousands will see him dressed in fluorescent green and gold as a Galactic Packer in "Packer Fans From Outer Space" in Green Bay. But Becker is still happy when people point and say. "He's the chicken."
Whether poultry or Packer, Becker has a lot to crow about.
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