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