Category Archives: Arts
2006 Will McLean Song Contest Winner and Finishers
Here are the winner, 2nd, and 3rd place finishers of the 2006 Will McLean Best New Florida Song Contest
Winner Mike Jurgensen “The Ghost of James McNeil”
2nd place David and Mary Anna Evans “Land of the Flowers”
3rd place Larry Mangum “The Last Troubadour”
Back to the list of winners by year
or
Click here to go to the Will McLean Festival website
2007 Will McLean Song Contest Winner and Finishers
Here are the 2007 winner, 2nd, and 3rd place finishers of the Will McLean Best New Florida Song Contest
Winner Elisabeth Williamson “Florida Cracker Girl”
Just before the 2007 Will McLean Festival, Lis talked with Donna Green-Townsend at WUFT about her first-time win of the Will McLean Song Contest
2nd place Al Scortino “Spanish Gold”
3rd place Scott Morris “While Osceola Cries”
Back to the list of winners by year
or
Click here to go to the Will McLean Festival website
The Bills
Aired on WUFT on November 13th and 16th, 2005
The Bills from Canada Bring Their High-Energy Style of Music to North Central Florida
The Bills (formerly named the Bill Hilly Band) from Canada brought audiences to their feet at both the Gamble Rogers Folk Festival in St. Augustine and the Riverhawk Music Festival near Dade City in November of 2005. The band is known the world over as one of the most boldly innovative roots bands and has received two Juno Award nominations in Canada. While in Gainesville The Bills stopped to give a performance and an interview in the WUFT studios. Donna Green-Townsend has this band profile. 
Dracula– two versions
Dracula
Just in time for Halloween, the Hippodrome brings you a story you think you knew… until now! In the Hipp’s Dracula the audience members will be immersed in a world of danger, lust and temptation as they witness an epic battle of good versus evil with only one possible outcome.
The young solicitor Jonathan Harker travels to Transylvania for work, but after meeting Count Dracula and his lovely Vampyrettes, he begins to lose his sanity. Back in England, he finds himself in Dr. Seward’s asylum providing clues about Count Dracula for Seward, Professor Van Helsing, and the boisterous American Quincey Morris. They must also try to save the bitten Lucy’s soul while Mina fights strange temptations.
Dracula was also presented on the Hippodrome State Theatre Stage in 2005, albeit a more traditional version….and when Dracula was being portrayed by a character with the last name of “Bloodworth,” let’s just say the audience experienced some chilling moments.
2005 Will McLean Song Contest Winner and Finishers
Here are the winner, 2nd, and 3rd place finishers of the 2007 Will McLean Best New Florida Song Contest
Winner Bruce Tetley “Dodgin’ A Hurricane”
2nd place Cathy DeWitt “My Heart Belongs to Florida”
3rd place (tie) Lucia Jenkins “Here To Stay”
3rd place (tie) Bob Patterson “Lullabye of the Rivers”
Back to the list of winners by year
or
Click here to go to the Will McLean Festival website
The Big Bang
The Big Bang
Two wacky off Broadway creators, “Jed” and “Boyd”;, are in the borrowed Park Avenue penthouse of Mrs. Sidney Lipbalm to perform their new creation, an epic musical that spans the history of the world from the Big Bang to the present, for potential backers. Their play is budgeted for $83.5 million with a cast of 318 performers and 6,428 costumes.
Two zany creators accompanied by a third on piano perform eighteen side-splitting musical numbers, singing, dancing, narrating, and portraying every major figure in world and pop history (Adam and Eve, Attila the Hun, Julius Caesar, Napoleon, Plato, Jesus, Cher, to name a few).
2003 Will McLean Song Contest Winner and Finishers
Here are the 2003 winner, 2nd, and 3rd place finishers of the Will McLean Best New Florida Song Contest
Winner (tie) John Hammond, Bettina Makley “The Hawk”
Winner (tie) Jeffrey Smith “Up Where The Suwannee River Flows”
2nd place Bryan Rivers “Walking Florida”
3rd place Mike Jurgensen “The Golden Fleece of Tarpon Springs”
Back to the list of winners by year
or
Click here to go to the Will McLean Festival website
2002 Will McLean Song Contest Winner and Finishers
Here are the 2002 winner, 2nd, and 3rd place finishers of the Will McLean Best New Florida Song Contest
Winner Amy Carol Webb “Turtle Tears”
2nd place Steve Sternberg “Apalachicola Blues”
3rd place Amy Carol Webb “Rivers Roll On”
Back to the list of winners by year
or
Click here to go to the Will McLean Festival website
2001 Will McLean Song Contest Winner and Finishers
Here are the 2001 winner, 2nd, and 3rd place finishers of the Will McLean Best New Florida Song Contest
Winner Robbin Bach “Ichetucknee Blues”
2nd place Marie Nofsinger “Sweet Home Florida”
3rd place Lucinda Kidd Hackney “Gator In The Slough”