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PACKER FANS FROM OUTER SPACE
Book and Lyrics by Frederick Heide and Lee Becker
Music by Frederick Heide
Additional Music by James Kaplan
When a Wisconsin fruit farmer is called to help Packer aliens
save their planet, his Bear-loving wife fears for his sanity.
Stirring melodies and interstellar romance team up in the world’s
first sci-fi football musical comedy, straight from the sunny
shores of Green Bay!
A Note From The Authors
In the spring of 1952, at least three reports of strange objects
over Wisconsin skies appeared in The Door County Advocate. The
superintendent of Peninsula State Park actually called the Advocate
to describe one of these "flying saucers," estimated to be almost
800 feet long. CLICK TO SEE THE ARTICLES BELOW
Not long after -- on November 8, 1953 -- the Green Bay Packers
and the Chicago Bears played a historic, though little remembered,
game. The game in November of '53, though less vicious than some,
captured our attention thanks to an outcome which has never been
repeated. The story of Packer Fans From Outer Space takes place
on the weekend of that game.
What connection is there between flying saucer sightings over
dairyland and an oddball football game? Frankly one didn't leap
into our minds, either -- it had to crawl there on hands and knees
over 6 arduous, exhilarating years of readings and rewrites. But,
as the immortal Vince Lombardi once said, the greatest accomplishment
is not in never falling, but in rising again after you fall. He
also said you've got to do things according to your own personality.
And we definitely did. We hope the result is the most entertaining
sci-fi football musical you've ever seen!
Go, youse Packers, go!
Doc Heide
Lee Becker
AFT DESIGNERS CREATE FANTASTIC WORLD IN HIT PACKER MUSICAL
When Doc Heide and Lee Becker wrote their hit sci-fi football musical “Packer Fans From Outer Space,” they created major challenges for the show’s design team.
Build a football that talks.
Construct a set that converts from a Wisconsin outhouse to a spaceship in seconds flat.
And make costumes worthy of two different alien races of football warriors.
The show’s authors believe their team rose to the challenge.
“They’ve taken our unbelievable premise and somehow built a completely believable world from it,” Heide says.
Audiences will see it all when American Folklore Theatre (AFT) opens “Packer Fans From Outer Space” on September 26 at the spectacular MT in downtown GB.
In the show, Galactic Packers come to Earth in 1953 to convince a Door County fruit farmer to help save their planet from their mortal enemies, the Space Bears. When the farmer tells this to his wife, she thinks he’s losing his mind.
A trio of designers was responsible for taking the show’s world from page to stage.
Molly Kaplan had to build the talking football. James Maronek dreamed up the show’s elaborate set. And GB native Kelly Fitzpatrick whipped up costumes for the Galactic Packers and Space Bears.
Kaplan, 29, got the daunting task of creating the Spheroid, a metallic football that appears to “talk.”
She was perfect for the job. Kaplan was already part of the AFT family. Her husband, composer James Kaplan, wrote some of the show’s music and plays piano in the pit band. She was also professionally qualified, having just completed an MFA in prop design at the University of Illinois.
Kaplan molded the body of the Spheroid out of a type of plastic used to make toy soldiers. It fell to AFT colleagues Neen Rock and John Sarris to design wiring.
“They figured out the circuitry and wrote it on a napkin at a bar one night after rehearsal,” co-author Lee Becker said.
Soon the Spheroid was able to light up when it “spoke,” even when no one was holding it. An offstage actor (Kari Damien) provides the Spheroid’s “voice.”
“It’s remarkable,” said Heide. “It actually looks like a football is talking.”
To create the show’s set, AFT tapped designer James Maronek. His innovative sets for AFT shows such as “Guys on Ice” and “The Bachelors” have been seen by tens of thousands of fans around the state.
“He’s the master of creating a set that transforms into another set,” said Becker. “That’s just what we needed for ‘Packer Fans.’”
In Maronek’s set, an outhouse spins 180 degrees to become the entry portal to an alien spaceship. Walls painted to look like an apple orchard open up to become the spaceship’s 3-dimensional interior.
Long associated with the Goodman School of Drama, Maronek has won Joseph Jefferson awards for both scene and lighting design. His many projects include the set for the Broadway musical “Do Black Patent Leather Shoes Really Reflect Up?”
“We are honored to work with a designer of this caliber,” Heide commented.
The show’s unusual costumes were designed by Kelly Fitzpatrick, who hails from the Packers’ hometown.
Fitzpatrick used rare green fluorescent spandex and gold lame to build costumes for the Galactic Packers. “They’re so bright, you almost need sunglasses to look at them,” co-author Heide quipped.
For the Space Bears, Fitzpatrick attached black fur to football helmets an mechanic’s jump suits. Orange styrofoam was added to look like spiky armor.
“When the Space Bears enter, little kids huddle closer to their parents,” Heide said.
A lifelong sci-fi fan, Fitzpatrick is former Costume Director for the Milwaukee Repertory Theatre. “The Space Bears are my homage to ‘Muppets’ creator Jim Henson,” Fitzpatrick explains.
“When she told us she was a fan of ‘Star Wars’ and ‘ The Lord of the Rings’ we knew our costumes were in the right hands,” Becker says.
Becker and Heide couldn’t be happier with the work of their design team.
“George Lucas has Industrial Light and Magic,” Becker said, “but our crew accomplished their special effects without computers.”
Lee Becker and Doc Heide, back in the late 90's, at The Ridges, Door County, WI. Two playwrights,
blissfully unaware that the draft of
PFFOS on which they were currently
working was fundamentally flawed.
 This website is dedicated to the memory of Fred Alley (1962-2001),
whose inspiration and guidance helped make this show possible.
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