Wharton Center for Performing Arts — Attraction in East Lansing

I remember my graduation day.

I walked across the stage of the Wharton Center.

My father, Ed, and my mother, Joan, sat in the audience.

The department of Arts and Letter couldn't fill the Wharton Center Auditorium seats with graduates and guests.

Uncle Tom saw me soon after the graduation and expressed deep hurt that I hadn't invited his wife and he.

I apologized. I wasn't the first college graduated in the family started by Harry and Stella Dombecki.

I was the second college graduate in the family.

Uncle Gerald had graduated with not one but two graduate degrees after serving in the army as a interpreter of Russian.

Uncle Tom won a degree later in life.

But he was hurt because he had helped me out.

I needed a car for driving to my student teaching assignments.

He helped me find a Mercury Monarch.

I purchased it for six hundred dollars.

We fixed a seal leak and did all the brakes.

Even though it had a bad paint job, it drove beautifully.

I never should have gotten rid of it.

It was like driving for free.

I just added gasoline and changed the oil.

I once rotated the tires.

His wife and he deserved to be there that day.

I sat by an old friend, Miss Cathy Phillips, who in time became your friend.

I met Miss Cathy because she dated Gray, who lived in my house when we lived in the Fraternity houses.

We always took the time to talk when we saw one another walking on campus.

Another friend, Tina Frandsen, sat beside me.

We had attended a number of classes together and became friends.

She gave me extra soup at the coffee house, a beautiful place on M.A.C. that no longer exists: Hobies.

When I walked across the stage, the German professor who announced names read mine with the J as a Y. William Yuntunen.

This pleased me father.

He knew this to be right.

He explained to me that my last name would be said with a Y in Finland.

It was a little gift from my culture, my forgotten and supressed culture, on my graduation.

We all drove to the house on the farm to relax.

Then, we all drove together to Gracie's Country House in New Lothrop for a big steak dinner.

Gracie's bought its meat straight from the farm, so it was fresh and well-marbled.

Dad always had money in his pocket for this kind of celebration.

I have no idea how he did it.

The next week, I went to Warren to stay at his house on Doepher.

I looked for a job.

I worked in a warehouse picking out cases of cigarettes for delivery to thousands and thousands of small party stores.

I found a teaching job in the middle of summer teaching night school at Hamtramck High School.

I met a woman named Jean Denomme soon thereafter who hired me for a full time teaching job with the Detroit Public Schools

I sold the Monarch and bought a Blue Cavalier.

I drove the Blue Cavalier all over the city of Detroit, serving the school board.

I taught in factories old and new.

McGraw Glass made glass for Chrysler. It was a newer plant.

The Budd Detroit Stamping Plant had metal dies from punching out the Model T.

Every now and then, the plant stamped out replacement parts for the Model T.

I was pretty happy with the job.

My job and my happiness lasted almost ten years, which became a record.

Now, I'm happy with almost any job.

It's been thirty years since I walked that stage.

I think this is the year when I finally bring all of my lessons together into a masterpiece.

I have told myself every year for...

First let me say that my wife and I enjoyed the show (Phantom of the Opera) and thought it was a decent experience. The acting. singing and set design was phenomenal. But we both came away a little underwhelmed.

The audio overall was too quiet in my opinion. Also, sometimes, the dialogue was difficult to hear. I overheard people behind me saying they couldn't hear any dialogue at all and had no idea what was going on. The music would many times drown out the dialogue. That is surprising to me as I was expecting a large orchestra, or at least a basic one playing the music, but I don't think it was more than 10 people strong, which I was rather let down by.

Overall I was pretty disappointed by the audio and music in general. It was my first time at Wharton and I'm not sure it would be worth it again, especially when I paid nearly $100 per ticket for mediocre seats and pretty poor audio quality. Some of the best moments audio-wise came from the 'surround sound' effect. But I also noticed that effect came from speakers haphazardly mounted on each pillar and are clearly a part of the traveling show, and not part of Wharton Center's normal equipment.

I don't mean to be so negative, but I suppose I expected a 5 star experience from Wharton Center, having never been there before, but I would tell friends and family based on what I have seen that it is more like a 3 star venue, not really worth the high prices they charge. Their money would be better spent going to a higher quality...

I really want to give the place five stars. It's a quality built building. A very nice parking ramp where you can enter right from into the building. with a very nice atmosphere, beautifully well-built building. the working staff is Pleasant personable and on point of their particular assignments making sure everyone who comes through the doors for the shows is well taken care of as far as basic directions and getting them to their seats, so on and so forth. The seating in stage area really is beautiful and easy flowing wide open staircase and easy access visibly and walking to your row. Why I give them four stars is because if you're sitting anywhere on the wings, you can't see a quarter of the stage. there's no clear field of view from the Outer Edge seating. That's really the only drawback about going to see a show here. Get a seat in the middle!! I would have gotten you pictures of the actual show and stage, but this particular show had a lot to do with lighting and shading shadows and mirrors! So there is no way I was going to pull a phone out with any kind of light that would have definitely potentially disturbed anyone around me watching the show. otherwise, I would have got you some nice pictures of the stage show, but in this instance, it just wouldn't have...