Openings and Celebrations

Great River Shakespeare Festival

Friday, June 29: The Great River Shakespeare Festival opens Friday with Macbeth at Winona State University's Performing Arts Center, with a reception following the performance.

Saturday, June 30: As You Like It (see As You Like It primer below) opens Saturday. Following the show, the cast, crew, and audience will walk by candlelight to the Lake Park band shell to join a concert by blues artist James Armstrong. Armstrong's concert begins at 9:00 and is free and open to the public.

Macbeth and As You Like It play in repertory through July 29.
Visit the Great River Shakespeare Festival for schedules: Great River Shakespeare Festival

Commonweal Theatre

July 6 – 8, Impossible Dream Celebration: a weekend of events surrounding the opening of the new theater: The Commonweal.

Friday, July 6, special opening of Wait until Dark. By invitation only.

Saturday, July 7, Public opening of Wait until Dark. 8:00 pm.

More Celebrating July 7:

Ribbon cutting at 1:30 p.m.
Community Block Party 1:30 - 4:00 p.m.
Community Dance with the Parisian gypsy jazz sound of the La Crosse Hot Club, following the evening performance.

Wait Until Dark plays in repertory through the summer with The Mystery of Irma Vep
Visit the Commonweal for schedules: Commonweal Theatre

The Mystery of Irma Vep

By Charles Ludlam, directed by Craig Johnson
Commonweal Theatre, June 14, 2007

Commonweal’s summer comedy offering, The Mystery of Irma Vep, is a zany and delightful look inside a clichéd Victorian estate with a cast of six characters performed by two actors. Director Craig Johnson calls Irma Vep a “campy,” work from the “rag-tag world of Off-Off Broadway” from the early 80s.

The play has little in the way of plot or character development, but instead relies on melodramatic scenes that foreshadow events that often never occur. This unconventionality is part of what makes Irma Vep so much fun. The other part is the acting of Eric Knutson and Scott Dixon.

Both actors play two principles: Knutson plays the estate’s maid, Jane Twisden, and the estate’s lord, Edgar Hillcrest; Dixon plays the estate’s caretaker, Nicodemus, as well as the new lady, Enid Hillcrest. This setup causes problems as the story must be told with only two characters on stage at the same time. It’s the sort of puzzle that might challenge Marilyn vos Savant: each of four main characters can only interact with two of the three other characters, but only one at a time, so who is the werewolf?

But soon the audience forgets the puzzle, and by intermission, might even be convinced that Jane and Edgar (both played by Knutson) did share the stage a couple of times. Sometimes the actors let the audience in on the joke by reminding one another that they really can’t talk to a certain character or by stalling to give the other actor time to make the appropriate costume change. But at other times, the joke is on the audience. I’m sure I’m not the only audience member who expected more actors to come out for the curtain call. And at one point in the play, a character enters the stage almost instantaneously after her counterpart’s exit—causing a small gasp from the audience.

One particularly campy scene finds Nicodemus speaking with Enid. To accomplish this, Dixon stands in a doorway and alternately speaks to himself, offering a shoulder with Enid’s dress to the audience and then the other shoulder with Nicodemus’ black coat while plucking the wig on and off to fit the speaker. But as the conversation continues, the trick becomes more and more real. Irma Vep’s irresistible charm lies with this ability to make fun of itself while selling the audience on the story and the characters.

The success of the play sits largely with the actors’ ability to sell the tricks. Knutson’s portrayal of Jane is particularly outstanding, as is Dixon’s Nicodemus. Special backstage credit goes to Justin Madsen and Alexandra Gowdy-Jaehnig who facilitated the costume changes and, appropriately, join Knutson and Dixon for the curtain call.

One caution in choosing a seat for Irma Vep: you might want to avoid the secret passage.

The Mystery of Irma Vep plays at the St. Maine through July 5.
The Mystery of Irma Vep opens at The Commonweal July 13 and plays through September 2.

Visit the Commonweal for schedules: Commonweal Theatre

As You Like It: A Primer

To help prepare for the upcoming Great River Shakespeare Festival and to help get over those who-was-that-again and what-did-he-say-about-his-brother and why-was-she-banished questions that can distract an audience member in the first few scenes of a Shakespeare Comedy, Minnesota Theatre offers its primer on William Shakespeare’s As You Like It.

As You Like It is a comedy

With a play billed as a comedy, Shakespeare’s audience would have had certain expectations about the makeup of a comedy. Shakespeare, looking for box office success, usually met those expectations. Not only would a comedy be funny, but it would often move from an urban to a pastoral setting, few will die, individual mishaps won’t spoil the fun of the play, and the hero will not only end the play happy, he or she will end the play getting married. Often the marriage happiness is so contagious that nearly everyone on stage will get married.

So with a happy ending assured, Shakespeare’s original audience could sit back and enjoy the word play, cross dressing, and other foolery without worrying about that powerful Duke on his way to the forest to cut everyone to bits for having too much darn fun while being banished. So we don’t have to worry about it either.

The Plot

I’ve just mentioned the powerful and mean Duke. Here’s the back-story: Duke Senior, the good Duke, and all his people have been driven out of the court by his brother Frederick—the usurper Duke. Duke Frederick is mean, but he loves his daughter Celia and even allows the banished Duke’s daughter Rosalind to stay in the court because Celia and Rosalind are great friends.

At the beginning of As You Like It, Duke Frederick changes his mind about Rosalind because he is mad that people keep running away from the court to join up with his banished brother in the forest. He banishes Rosalind, and Celia chooses to forsake her father and runs away with Rosalind.

In another spat between brothers, Orlando learns that his brother Oliver means to kill him, so he sets out to join up with the banished Duke. But just before leaving, Orlando has a brief encounter with Rosalind, and becomes sick with love.

That’s pretty much the plot. Bad guys stay at court; good guys leave for the forest where life is pretty good, rules are suspended, and everyone eats well.

Woman Dresses as a Man

Shakespeare returns to one of his favorite tropes: he has a woman dress as a man. In As You Like It, Rosalind decides that it would be safer if she traveled as a rough countryman, so she takes on the name and appearance of Ganymede. And as a man, she meets Orlando who is wondering the countryside writing love poems to her. Predictably, Rosalind will advise Orlando how to pursue his suit and even convinces him to say his love words to Ganymede with a vague promise that those words will somehow get to Rosalind.

It is interesting to note that modern audiences see a female actor playing a woman pretending to be a man. Shakespeare’s original audience—because all parts were played by men—would have seen a male actor playing a woman pretending to be a man. And while it might have seemed more natural to watch a male actor portraying a man, it is likely that the actor would have been a boy. This would make jokes about a lack of beard or other masculine trappings funny on several levels. But I digress.

Other Interesting Characters

Touchstone the Clown. Anytime Shakespeare includes a fool or clown, pay attention: there’s often wisdom with the wit.

Jaques. He spends the entire play wallowing in “melancholy,” shunning the company of the happy banished band. He won’t be cheered, but he does get to deliver one of Shakespeare’s most famous speeches: “All the World’s a stage, / and all the men and women merely players.” Look for it at the end of Act II.

Charles. Listed in the Dramatis Personae as “wrestler to Duke Frederick.” This is the only play I know that boasts a wrestler, and while it’s probably not worthy of note, I am noting it. Actually, much could be written about Charles: Charles is instrumental in Orlando and Rosalind meeting; Frederick has a wrestler who kills opponents while Duke Senior is wrestler free. Can’t wait to see who gets to play Charles.

The Plot (Again)

For those of you worried about the plot and the mean Duke traveling to the forest with his brutal army to end the happy party of the banished Duke: don’t worry. And for those of you who still worry, Shakespeare conjures up a third brother to Orlando in Act V who suddenly appears in the forest with news of the advancing Duke Frederick:

And to the skirts of this wild wood he came; Where meeting with an old religious man, After some question with him, was converted Both from his enterprise and from the world, His crown bequeathing to his banished brother, And all their lands restor’d to them again That were with him exil’d.

No need to worry: make way for the weddings, sit back, and enjoy a great play produced by the Great River Shakespeare Festival in their fourth season.

The Great River Shakespeare Festival launches its fourth season in Winona with previews on June 28 and June 29 of Macbeth and As You Like It. The two plays run through July 29.

Visit the Great River Shakespeare Festival for schedules: Great River Shakespeare Festival

Crimes of the Heart

By Beth Henley, Directed by David Gardiner
Commonweal Theater, June 12, 2007

The Commonweal chose Crimes of the Heart, the first play performed by the fledgling company in 1989, to close its run at the Historic St. Maine. Set in Mississippi of the mid 1970s, the “crimes” include attempted murder, suicide, and the breaking of sexual and racial taboos of Mississippi society.

The play focuses on the three adult Magrath daughters, now aged 24 – 30, who have each developed coping mechanisms to deal with first the abandonment by their father, then the suicide of their mother, and finally the benevolent yet twisted parenting by their grandfather. The three daughters are reunited in the kitchen of the house where they were raised on the occasion of the younger daughters attempted murder of her abusive husband.

Even with such heavy subject matter, the play moves quickly with ample humor, offering insight into the human spirit’s ability to cope and respond. Crimes of the Heart is a well-crafted play that doesn’t leave the audience in the depths of despair, but it doesn’t pull any punches either. It earned playwright Beth Henley numerous awards, including the New Your Drama Critics Circle Award for best new American Play and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1981.

The play also serves as a showcase for four of the company’s best female actors. These characters already seem familiar to the Commonweal audience: we’ve seen them play similar characters in Steel Magnolias and other works set in the south. Perhaps that’s an advantage of a repertory company; we can find an intimacy with the characters early in the play.

Jill Underwood plays a shy 30-year-old Lenny who has stayed home to take care of her aging grandfather. Underwood plays Lenny’s lack of self-esteem so convincingly that the audience feels her heartbreak and squirms along with her on-stage discomfort. Stef Dickens plays the tough middle sister who escaped west to Hollywood as a blues singer. She’s the sister who gets everything she wants: clothes, candy, men, but like all the sisters, her outward appearance masks an inner pain and vulnerability. Stela Burdt plays the younger sister everyone calls “Babe.” Burdt’s portrayal is remarkable as Babe is both childish and sophisticated: she convincingly tells everyone that she shot her abusive husband because “she didn’t like his looks,” and her main activity upon getting out of jail—in fact after shooting her husband, too—is to make fresh squeezed lemonade, with extra sugar.

Adrienne Sweeney plays the sugary sweet, busybody cousin to the three sisters. So convincing is her performance that from her first scene on stage, much of the audience would like to knock her upside the head with a broom for her wonderful pettiness.

The kitchen setting (designed by Kate Sutton-Johnson) not only captures the period, but it stands as a reminder of what the Commonweal has been able to achieve within the confines of the St Maine. The pre-show music, ranging from southern fiddle tunes to blues and pop, is worth coming early for and even passing on the brownies next door to listen during intermission.

The Commonweal Theatre’s Crimes of the Heart runs in repertory through July 1.

Visit the Commonweal for schedules: Commonweal Theatre

Suzan-Lori Parks premiers in Lanesboro this week.

The Commonweal Theatre in Lanesboro will premier eight pieces of Pulitzer Prize winner Suzan-Lori Parks’ year-long play 365 Days/365 Plays June 12 – 17.

Philosophizing elder (Lisa Weaver); Father and son watch TV (Eric Graves, Justin Madsen); Businessmen ask "what if" questions on a plane (Jerome Yorke and Eric Knutson). June 12, 2007 (photos Robert Stuber)

365 Days/365 Plays is being performed by theaters and universities across the country in an unique rolling premier. The work consists of a short play written for every day in a calendar year beginning in November. More than 700 theater groups around the world are participating in what organizers call “The 365 International Festival.” This includes 30 theaters in Minnesota.

The commonweal will present their 8 installments of 365 Days/365 Plays in several settings inside the new theater building. Guest artist, Liz Engleman directs. Commonweal is thrilled with the opportunity to present this groundbreaking modern playwright. “We’re showcasing the versatility of this playwright by exploring the versatility of the space,” said Hal Cropp, Commonweal’s Executive Director.

The plays start at 7:00 Tuesday through Saturday and 1:00 on Sunday, lasting no more that 20 minutes each performance. Admission is free, and attendees will have plenty of time to catch the 8:00 or 2:00 performances of Crimes of the Heart or The Mystery of Irma Vep running in repertory next door in the St. Maine Theater.

Parks won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2002 for her work Top Dog/ Underdog. Other plays include Fucking A, Imperceptible Mutabilities in the Third Kingdom, The America Play, Venus, The Death Of The Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World, and In The Blood. This is a great opportunity to see one of the most respected, innovative, and thought provoking playwrights working today.

Read today’s play at American Theatre: 365 Days/365 Plays
Visit the Commonweal for Schedules: Commonweal Theatre

Jon Hassler Theater stages Grand Opening

The Jon Hassler Theater in Plainview, Minnesota opens their 8^th season with Grand Opening June 16. Based on Hassler’s novel of the same name, Grand Opening explores small town America of the 1940s through the eyes of a Minneapolis family who moves to the fictitious town of Plum, Minnesota, full of optimism and faith in small town values. Jon Hassler, the theater’s namesake, grew up in Plainview and based much of this novel on his experience there.

This production of Grand Opening will be the Jon Hassler Theater’s third; appropriately, the theater opened with Grand Opening in 2000. While I’ve never seen a production of Grand Opening, much of the novel remains vivid to me years after reading it. It rings true to my 20 years of living in Southeastern Minnesota. While the book captures the charm of small town life, it also exposes the dark underbelly of small town America, much like Sinclair Lewis’ fictitious Gopher Prairie, Minnesota of the 1920s (based on Lewis’ childhood home of Sauk Center, Minnesota) in his novel Main Street.

Hank and Catherine Foster have bought one of the town’s two grocery stores (thus the Grand Opening) and moved to Plum with their 12-year-old son Brendan and Catherine's elderly father. What they didn’t realize is that they have bought the town’s Catholic grocery store, and that the divide between Catholic and Lutheran is as strong and virulent as the separation between black and white in other cities. With their faith in good rural values and honest rural people, the Fosters manage to offend nearly everyone in town.

Perhaps the most interesting part of the story follows Brendan Foster’s unique exposure to small town Minnesota. His one-sided friendship with Dodger Hicks, who attaches himself to Brendan, provides some of the most memorable moments of the novel. Like his namesake, Dodger is a kleptomaniac and is constantly in and out of trouble (he even gets sent to Red Wing for a time—the children’s reformatory feared by children throughout Minnesota), and his eccentricities threaten Brendan’s attempts to fit in with his new society. Dodger is the odd childhood friend who won’t go away: his simple-minded loyalty to Brendan and Brendan’s family is unshakable. This relationship between the two boys underscores one of the themes of the novel: the American dream and all of its participants are flawed, but once we discover that, we still must move on to find love, family, and community. In this world, holding a Grand Opening is an act of faith.

Grand Opening runs June 15 – July 15
Visit the John Hassler Theater for schedules: Jon Hassler Theater