Spend a Day at Björklunden Celebrating the Arts on August 7th!
Björklunden is teaming up with the Door County Jazz Festival and Door Shakespeare to present a full afternoon-into-evening of arts and culture including remarkable jazz, delicious barbeque, creative conversation, and live theater. Join us for a free Door County Jazz Festival concert at 4:00pm in Vail Hall featuring the Luedtke, López, and Fernandez guitar trio from Lawrence University's Conservatory of Music, and stay for dinner from Savor food truck. Then head over to the garden for a Door Shakespeare’s Will in the Woods conversation with Gale Childs Daly followed by the performance of her adaptation of Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations. Find more details below.
The concert and conversation are free, and you can receive a 50% discount for Door Shakespeare's performance of Great Expectations if you are coming from the Jazz Festival performance.
This Day of Arts initiates a yearlong celebration of 50 years of stewardship of Lawrence University's beloved northern campus, Björklunden. Fifty years ago, this marvelous property officially changed hands from donors Donald and Winifred Boynton to Lawrence University. The Björklunden 50th is an opportunity to honor this unique place of learning, reflection, and community engagement through programming that showcases Lawrence's mission, values, and enduring commitment to the arts, environmental sustainability, and lifelong learning. We look forward to celebrating these efforts to sustain and nourish the arts at Björklunden with you!
4:00-5:30 PM Door County Jazz Festival - Björklunden's Vail Hall - FREE CONCERT
The inaugural Door County Jazz Festival presents the “Luedtke, López, and Fernandez Guitar Trio” (sponsored by the Lawrence University Conservatory of Music). The Luedtke, López and Fernandez Guitar Trio features Cooper Luedke on bass, Josué Ríos López on guitar and Quintin Fernandez on drums. All three study at the Lawrence University Conservatory of Music, which is celebrating the 150th anniversary of its founding. No RSVP or tickets are required for the Jazz Festival performance.
5:00-6:30 PM SAVOR Barbeque & Taphouse food truck
Dine between the Jazz Festival and Door Shakespeare at the SAVOR Barbeque & Taphouse food truck, providing mouth watering barbeque in a beautiful lakeside setting.
6:00-7:00 PM Will in the Woods - FREE EVENT
Gathering with friends, family, and theater patrons prior to the show for a lively and interactive discussion. These events help us get closer to the theatrical traditions, techniques, and themes of the shows in the 2025 summer season. Prior to the evening's production of Great Expectations, join a conversation with playwright Gale Childs Daly who adapted Dicken's novel for the stage. In order to prepare for your visit, registration is required. Please call 920.854.7111 or email info@doorshakespeare.com.
7:30 PM Door Shakespeare Presents Great Expectations
Door Shakespeare celebrates their 30-year anniversary performing in the historic Boynton Garden with the presentation of Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations, adapted for the stage by Gale Childs Daly. A life changing encounter launches Pip’s journey in Great Expectations, where he finds love, forgiveness, and redemption. For those who attend the Jazz Festival concert, a 50% discount will be offered for your performance. Inquire at the box office, call 920.854.7111, or email info@doorshakespeare.com for further information.
Detailed information:
More About the Door County Jazz Festival Musicians:
Cooper Luedtke is a student at Lawrence University, working towards a Bachelor of Music degree with majors in Double Bass Performance and Music Education. His studies include performing, composing, and analyzing various musical styles alongside talented collaborators and respected instructors, while also learning to give back the quality education he has received through teaching. He has studied with Andrew Anderson, Mark Urness, José Encarnación, Patty Darling, and Bill Carrothers. Cooper is inspired by the rich history of the musical traditions he studies, as well as by the communities and individuals that have stewarded and developed these traditions, and seeks to spread joy and curiosity through performing and advocating for the value of the fine arts in education.
Josué Ríos López is a Mexican American musician from Dallas, Texas and a graduate from Lawrence University with a Bachelor of Musical Arts with a cognate in creative writing. During his time at Lawrence he participated in various academic ensembles under Patty Darling, Jean Carlos, Jose Encarnación, Bill Carrothers, Matt Turner, and Steve Peplin. In 2023, he won a DownBeat Award for his work with the Lawrence University Jazz Band directed by Jose Encarnacion. Josue has been an integral part of the student-lead musical community participating in over a dozen successful on-campus acts over the last four years. While at Lawrence, he got to study and perform various styles of music including Jazz, Rock, RnB, Salsa, Mariachi, and Contemporary Improvisation. For the past two years he has been working at the Appleton Music Academy as a private instructor in guitar and piano and will continue to teach there for the following year. Over the last year Josue has recorded various projects with bands and artists like Noir, Lyle’s Tree, Roach, Miranda Lile, and his own work under the name Red Teddy.
Quintin Wade Fernandez is a drummer, producer, and mixing engineer whose work flows across jazz, indie, R&B, and folk. Based between Appleton and the Menominee Reservation in Wisconsin, his musical journey began before memory—rooted in a deep love for rhythm and a calling to serve the music, the listeners, and the collaborators who bring it to life. At 22, Quintin holds a dynamic career that spans national and international touring, his path has taken him from concert halls and castles to living rooms and cultural institutions, including recent work with the Smithsonian. His recordings reflect a wide-ranging versatility, having contributed to projects in genres from jazz to post-hardcore to pocket based music, always with the same attention to feel, texture, and honesty. Whether behind the drum kit, at the mixing board, or helping artists find their voice in the studio, Quintin approaches each project with care, curiosity, and respect for the art of listening.
More About Gale Fury Childs Daly:
Gale Fury Childs Daly is a playwright, director, teacher, text coach, and actor, and is the author of Door Shakespeare’s production of Great Expectations. A graduate of the Goodman School of Drama at the Art Institute of Chicago (now DePaul University), Daly has worked at the Goodman Theatre, the Alley Theatre, the Great Lakes Shakespeare Festival, the Great River Shakespeare Festival, and the Pacific Conservatory of the Performing Arts, among others. Join Ms. Daly this evening for a conversation about her adaptation of Great Expectations.
Great Expectations Synopsis:
Pip, a young orphan living in the marshlands of Kent, is raised by his stern sister and her kind-hearted husband Joe, the village blacksmith. Life is simple and predictable—until one day, in the quiet of the churchyard, Pip is confronted by a terrifying escaped convict. Though the incident fades into his past, Pip’s secret act of helping the man lingers in his life for years to come.
Not long after this encounter, Pip is summoned to the decaying estate of the wealthy and reclusive Miss Havisham. At Satis House, he meets Miss Havisham’s beautiful but distant adopted daughter, Estella, and his desire for something more is ignited. Pip grows increasingly ashamed of his humble background and hopes to become a gentleman.
Years later, when a mysterious benefactor offers Pip the opportunity to move to London to receive an education, he believes his grand future is finally unfolding. With the guidance of the formidable lawyer Mr. Jaggers, his accountant, Mr. Wopsle, tutor Matthew Pocket, and the steady friendship of Pocket’s son Herbert, Pip enters a world of refinement far greater than he ever expected.
But as he rises in society, Pip discovers that his success is built on uneasy ground. The truth about his benefactor forces Pip to reckon with the assumptions, ambitions, and affections that have guided his path. When Pip’s social standing is threatened because of his benefactor’s past, he leans on Herbert and Mr. Wopsle to help secure his benefactor’s safety and his own. As secrets unravel, Pip confronts the complex web of identities, loyalties, and betrayals that bind him to Estella, Miss Havisham, and a past he can no longer ignore.
Told through the lens of Pip’s memory, Great Expectations is a richly woven tale of aspiration and ultimately redemption. Dickens asks us to consider: what truly defines a life well lived?
