Julius Caesar

By William Shakespeare, Directed by Rick Barbour
Great River Shakespeare Festival Apprentice Acting and Intern Company
July 24, 2007

The now traditional introduction of the cast of characters that begins all Great River Shakespeare Festival productions seemed as if it would never conclude on Tuesday night as the Apprentice Acting and Intern Company presented Julius Caesar for the first of two performances. The cast of Senators, conspirators, soldiers, and citizens—with many actors taking on two, and three roles told the the story of the plotting and successful murder of Julius Caesar and the ensuing fight for control of Rome that takes place after his grizzly death. The story is full of clasping of hands and heart-felt declarations of love and loyalty to each other and to Rome. It also contains delicious deceit and political betrayal.

Philip Zimmermann as Julius Caesar and Caesar’s ghost, and even Caesar’s statue, carries the name of the play well, though his character is involved little with the development of the plot—he is the unwitting object of it. Led by the tenacious Anna Sundberg as Caius Cassius, a group of Senators plots against Caesar to prevent him from becoming “too strong.” Like all politicians, they assure themselves that their motives are not for personal gain, but for love of country. And to this end, and for political cover, they mus convince the honorable Brutus to join the conspiracy. David Utter plays the honest friend of Caesar and the recipient of Caesar’s famous words, “Et tu, Brute?”

Julius Caesar has an amazing amount of words, words that have entered the day to day lexicon of modern America and words put together in speeches lengthy, bold, and pretentious. These Apprentices and Interns had to learn all of these words while understudying the main festival productions, putting up posters, setting up tents, selling coffee and cookies, directing traffic, lifting barges, and toting bales. Anyone involved with the festival will tell you that these young actors, stage hands, and technicians have been working hard this summer.

Julius Caesar depicts a politics familiar to anyone following American politics—though the falling on swords and spilling of blood are generally metaphoric in today’s picture. Mark Anthony’s funeral speech for Caesar—“Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your ears!”—signals a turn in the play by using a brilliant rhetorical device that has often been imitated. Stepping up after Brutus has convinced the citizens of Rome that Caesar’s death was necessary to protect Rome, Chris Lysy as Mark Anthony turns their affection back against Brutus with his humble repetition of Brutus’s honor:

He was my friend, faithful and just to me;
But Brutus says he was ambitions,
And Brutus is an honorable man. (III.ii.84-86)

Along with the blood, nearly every character is smeared with politics in the hand clasps, oaths, and love of country. My anthology calls this The Tragedy of Julius Caesar. But it’s more truly Brutus’s tragedy, and even more truly, it’s the tragedy of those who mistake political ends for moral ends. It might be a preview of the upcoming presidential elections.

This is a production that you’ll want to skip work on Friday afternoon to see. It’s great acting, great production, and great theater. Congratulations to the Apprentices and Interns for a job well done.

Julius Caesar plays Friday at 3:00 p.m.

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

Shakespeare Festival Events this Week

The Great River Shakespeare Festival enters the last week of season 4 with a very full slate of events, including two performances by the the apprentice company, a free Prelude Concert, and a company talent show.

Tuesday, July 24

7:30 pm: Julius Caesar Apprentice/Intern Project

(Talent Show/prelude moved to Friday, 2:00)

Wednesday, July 25

1:00 pm: Reading of Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia by members of the Acting Company

7:30 pm: As You Like It (Company conversation following performance)

Thursday, July 26

7:30 pm: Macbeth (Company conversation follows performance.)

11:00 pm Thom Pain (Based on Nothing) Performance of a new one man show by GRSF Acting Company member Jacques Roy. (Note: due to mature subject matter, this performance may not be appropriate for all audiences.)

Friday, July 27

2:00 pm: Company Talent Show/prelude Concert. On the WSU green, free.

3:00 pm: Julius Caesar (Apprentice/Intern Project)

8:00 pm: As You Like It

Saturday, July 28

10:00 am: Festival Morning conversation at the Blue Heron Coffeehouse.

3:00 pm: As You Like It

6:30 pm: Prelude Concert: Chris Koza, on the WSU green, free.

8:00 pm: Macbeth

Plus, Theatre du Mississippi’s "Drops and Drama III" at 1:00 and 3:00 pm.

Sunday, July 29

1:00 pm: Front Porch Conversation with Michael Gerson.

4:30 pm: As You Like It (Season Farewell Ceremony immediately following)

Minnesota Theatre Shakespeare synopses and reviews

Synopsis: The Tragedy of Macbeth: A Primer
Review: The Tragedy of Macbeth

Synopsis: As You Like It: A Primer
Review: As You Like It

Visit the Great River Shakespeare Festival for schedules and tickets: Great River Shakespeare Festival.

Community Theater Productions

If you know of an upcoming production, let me know the pertinent information by e-mailing Minnesota Theater at rjstuber@gmail.com, or post a comment below.

Thoroughly Modern Millie

Music by Jeanine Tesori, lyrics by Dick Scanlan, book by Richard Morris and Dick Scanlan. Directed by Judy Brone.
Fountain City River Players
July 25, 26, 27, 28, 29; 7:30 p.m.
July 29; 2 p.m
Fountain City Auditorium
Fountain City, Wisconsin

The Fountain City Players have built a reputation for putting on great summer musicals utilizing the area’s best young actors. Modern Millie is guaranteed to be a lot of fun.

Tickets available at Hardt’s Music, Midtown Foods (at the Winona Mall), Fountain City Kwick Trip and Waumandee State Bank, or by calling (608) 687-7174.

The Music Man

By Meredith Wilson
Phoenix Theatre production
July 19 – 21; 7:00 p.m.
July 21; 2:00 p.m.
July 26 – 29; 7:00 p.m.
July 29; 2:00 p.m.
Sheldon Theatre
443 West 3rd Street
Red Wing, Minnesota

Tickets at 800-899-5759

Two Summer Productions at the New Commonweal

The Commonweal opened it’s beautiful new theater building on July 7 with a new summer thriller, Wait Until Dark. Written in 1964, and produced as a movie starring Audrey Hepburn in 1967, the play tells the story of a blind woman who becomes entangled in a scheme to procure her seemingly ordinary doll. Thinking she'll be an easy target, the three con men underestimate Susy's resourcefulness. (Read more about Wait Until Dark from the Commonweal.)

The Mystery of Irma Vep has made the transition from the St. Maine theater to the new Commonweal. Read Minnesota Theatre’s review of Irma Vep.

Irma Vep plays Tuesdays, Fridays, and Sundays, through Sepetmeber 2
Wait Until Dark plays Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays through October 28.

Visit the Commonweal for schedules: Commonweal Theatre

Community Theater Productions

Summer is a time for community theater, and southern Minnesota is bursting with a wide range of opportunities to see your neighbors ply the boards on stages big and small. The more I look, the more productions I see. I know I'm not finding all of them, but I'll try and list what I can. If you know of an upcoming production, let me know the pertinent information by e-mailing Minnesota Theater at rjstuber@gmail.com, or post a comment below.

How to Talk Minnesotan

By Howard Mohr; Directed by Myron Schober, musical direction by Dianna Poppe
July 18, 19, 20 – 7:30 p.m.
July 21, 22 – 2:00 p.m.
Rushford High School
Rushford, Minnesota

Rushford Area Society for the Arts (RASA) presents its 28th annual summer theater production. The productions are always good and tickets go fast. (RASA notes that the theater is air conditioned.) For more information, visit RASA at SMPAN

Tickets available at About a Buck in Rushford or by calling 507-251- 9599 for reservations.

Old-time radio at the Jon Hassler Theatre

Rochester Radio Theatre Guild
July 20 – 21, 8 p.m.
Jon Hassler Theater
Plainview, Minnesota

The Rochester Radio Theatre Guild will present radio classics, including “Fibber McGee and Molly,” “The Mysterious Traveler” and a Stan Freberg sketch “Max's Delicatessen,” as well as commercials, jingles, and sound effects. The guild is celebrating its 20th anniversary season.

Tickets are $12 and can be reserved by phone at (507) 534-2900 or 1-866-548-7469.

How to Succeed In Business Without Really Trying

Music and Lyrics by Frank Loesser; book by Abe Burrows
Ye Olde Opera House
July 18 – 22; 8:30 p.m.
155 W. Main
Spring Grove, Minnesota

Call (507) 498-JULY for reserved tickets.

The Music Man

By Meredith Wilson
Phoenix Theatre production
July 19 – 21; 7:00 p.m.
July 21; 2:00 p.m.
July 26 – 29; 7:00 p.m.
July 29; 2:00 p.m.
Sheldon Theatre
443 West 3rd Street
Red Wing, Minnesota

Tickets at 800-899-5759

Thoroughly Modern Millie

Music by Jeanine Tesori, lyrics by Dick Scanlan, book by Richard Morris and Dick Scanlan. Directed by Judy Brone.
Fountain City River Players
July 25, 26, 27, 28, 29; 7:30 p.m.
July 29; 2 p.m
Fountain City Auditorium
Fountain City, Wisconsin

The Fountain City Players have built a reputation for putting on great summer musicals utilizing the area’s best young actors. Modern Millie is guaranteed to be a lot of fun.

Tickets available at Hardt’s Music, Midtown Foods (at the Winona Mall), Fountain City Kwick Trip and Waumandee State Bank, or by calling (608) 687-7174.

As You Like It

By William Shakespeare, directed by Paul Barnes
Great River Shakespeare Festival, July 11, 2007

The Great River Shakespeare Festival populates the three worlds of Shakespeare’s As You Like It with numerous memorable characters including a wrestler, a clown, two pairs of feuding brothers, a lord who refuses to be happy, and lovers almost too numerous to count. Shakespearian comedies often move between urban and rural settings, and this holds true with As You Like It. But while the text identifies only two locations, the court and the forest, this production correctly identifies the rural as two distinct locations: the deep forest and the edge of the forest. Each of these three worlds have their own feel, their own rules, and special characters who seem to thrive there.

Chris Mixon plays Duke Frederick’s thuggish and arrogant wrestler, standing as a representative of the world of Duke Frederick’s court. (Frederick, played by Christopher Gerson, and Oliver, David Graham Jones, also represent the court well, but Mixon’s Charles is truly remarkable.) With Frederick’s purse to lure challengers, Charles takes on all comers, promising dismemberment or death to those who try their luck. Mixon’s performance, perhaps modeled after a World Wrestling Federation bad guy, is simply a lot of fun, and the match with the young Orlando (Andrew Carlson) is both humorous and dramatic. It’s a fine work of fight choreography, superbly executed. The world where a trained fighter dismembers the desperate peasants for entertainment is the world of Duke Frederick’s court, an unnatural world where brother has turned against brother, and fear and repression reign.

The second world of As You Like It, the forest of Arden, is populated by Frederick’s brother, the usurped Duke Senior and his supporters. Despite claims by Charles that these men live “like the old Robin Hood of England,” they are presented as living sparse and rustic, more melancholy than merry.

Much of the melancholy comes from Jonathan Gillard Daly who plays Jaques, a man who refuses to be happy. Jaques has many of the play’s most memorable lines, including the famous, “All the world’s a stage, / And all the men and women merely players.” Jaques concludes this famous speech with seven despairing descriptions of successive stages of life, starting with, “the infant / Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms.” Gillard Daly plays the part with the same fierceness and conceit of his superb portrayal of Malvolio in last year’s Twelfth Night but without the arrogance or ambition. While the play doesn’t tell how Jaques came to his state of melancholy, Jaques observations capture the reality of the “merry” life in the forest and provide a balance to the sugary sweet final scene.

Rosalind and Celia create a distinctly more happy world on the edges of the forest. They have run away from the court to live with Rosalind’s father, Duke Senior. But before they find the Duke, they ask for shelter at a sheep farm. They like the farm so much that they buy it. In this world, love is the major concern, and a woman dressed as a man controls the action.

Rosalind, delightfully played by Carla Noack, originally disguises herself as a man for safety. But once safely arrived in this midway rural setting, and with no real need to continue the disguise, she and Celia do not pursue the search for Duke Senior. Instead, Celia seems to be learning how to run a sheep farm, and Rosalind, dressed as a man, conducts the multiple love plots that seem to be the business of this pastoral, including her own. It is not too far fetched to believe that Rosalind stays in this world between court and exiled court because she experiences a freedom and a power that she has never had in the court—a freedom and power that she is likely to lose once she puts on her woman’s clothes and weds. Noack’s is top shepard of this truly pastoral realm.

Daniel Kallman has composed several wonderful songs utilizing lyrics included in Shakespeare’s text. The first songs are sung by Doug Scholz-Carlson as Amiens, a lord in Duke Senior’s stark camp. Later he sings a rousing duet with Kern McFadden as Touchstone, which will be taken up by the whole cast for the final weddings. Music clearly was part of Shakespeare’s productions, yet the music is not preserved. Bringing this music back into the plays continues to be an important contribution from this company.

Shakespeare doesn’t provide a lot of plot or character development in As You Like It. He does provide words: love poetry that is moving and love poetry that is laughable; melancholy reflections on the state of humans and exclamations on the possibilities of love; wise words to defend foolish ideas, and foolish words to defend wise ideas. The cast of this production of As You Like It clearly likes all these words, and they do a remarkable job of making sure that the audience understands and enjoys them, too.

See also, Minnesota Theatre's As You Like It Primer

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

The New Commonweal Is Open!

The Commonweal Theatre opened its new building with a day-long community celebration on July 8, 2007. Events included a ribbon cutting, tours of the new building, childeren’s activities, free food and street fair with live music, and a post-performance dance with music by the La Crosse Hot Club.

Now in it’s 19th season, the Commonweal has built a tremendous, community-based professional theatre in Lansboro, Minnesota. Congratulations to the Commonweal and to Lansboro on the completion of their New House.

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

The Tragedy of Macbeth

By William Shakespeare, Directed by Doug Scholz-Carlson
Great River Shakespeare Festival, July 5, 2007

Perhaps the most heart-felt ovation on this Thursday night production of Macbeth came as the actors entered for the prologue and introduction of characters, a device that has become a tradition with the festival since its use in year one. Before a line is uttered, the audience spontaneously offers a heartfelt welcome back to Winona, and on Thursday, the welcome continued to build, briefly delaying the start of the production. Macbeth, along with the Great River Shakespeare Festival company, merits this applause for its luscious sets, lighting, and music and the incredible acting by the its talented cast.

Returning for their fourth season, Kim Martin-Cotton and Christopher Gerson play the leading roles as Lady Macbeth and Macbeth. Their first on-stage interaction is filled with a lustful physicality that fits a soldier’s return home after a long absence. Not only does this scene shake the audience out of an expectation of how Shakespearian monarchs (or soon to be monarchs) should act, it establishes the passionate connection between the two, adding a passionate subtext to the events that will follow.

Dressed in a floor-length, blood-red gown, Martin-Cotton’s rich voice evokes a lusty life force transferring her procreative potential to the task of giving birth to her royal aspirations. Her performance transforms her injunction to the spirits—“unsex me here, / And fill me from the crown to the toe topful / Of direst cruelty!”—from a cold negation of her nature to a re-focusing of her hot-blooded passion.

Gerson’s Macbeth is swayed by her passion, adding it to his own desire to believe that the predictions of the three Wyrd Sisters are his fate. While Lady Macbeth’s identity with blood eventually overwhelms her—“Yet who would have thought the old man / to have had so much blood in him?” she wonders of the king she had murdered after sliding into insanity—Macbeth is undone by what he feels is a betrayal by his fates. Yet this betrayal is overshadowed by his despair over the death of Lady Macbeth:

Out, out, brief candle!

Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player,

That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,

And then is heard no more. It is a tale

Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,

Signifying nothing.

Gerson’s agonizing and angry delivery of these lines, delivered before he learns of his full betrayal at the hands of fate, shows a realization that attaining the crown was a shared ambition, and the crown is empty without Lady Macbeth. Conventional wisdom says Macbeth is about cold ambition, yet Martin-Cotten, Gerson, and the rest of the company have succeeded in showing that this ambition is hot and complex.

Kern McFadden plays a memorable Banquo—both dead and alive, and Arthur Moss wears Duncan’s crown well, showing himself to be a lovable and clueless monarch. Jonathan Gillard Daly is wonderful as the porter but is oddly doubled as one of the murders while still playing the porter. Laura Coover’s channeling of the three apparitions as Wyrd Sister 3 is particularly memorable.

The Wyrd Sisters (Director Doug Carlson indicated that the Folio the company used for the play never calls them witches) stand as one of the highlights of this production with rich costuming, lighting, and song. The sisters’ presence on stage begins even in the prologue as they include the rest of the cast in a ritualized circle. They become a fixture in the backdrop during many pivotal scenes early in the play and maintain a presence on stage later in the play. This increased stage time, along with the heightened dramatics, promises a heightened significance. Yet, this promise is left unfulfilled. The prominence of the Wyrd Sisters might be an attempt to emphasize the role of fate or the supernatural in the events of the play. But both of these would undermine the rich context that Gerson and Martin-Cotten have created. Rather, I find the Wyrd Sisters’ prominence in the play ambiguous, as if the production has not made up its mind about who or what the Sisters are or why they are in the play.

I left Thursday’s production feeling that the play was somehow flat. I can only describe the elements of the play as top notch—the acting, lighting, music, staging—yet for me, something didn’t quite work. I wonder if my perceived “flatness” has to do with the disconnect with the Wyrd Sisters I tried to describe above, or if it relates to some of the choices over doubling characters (using one actor to play a second smaller role—used as a practical matter with a small cast, but sometimes used to suggest a relationship between the characters being portrayed by a single actor). I’m thinking particularly of the Porter’s double as a murderer and Lady Macbeth’s doubling as the messenger who warns Lady Macduff of her impending doom. In both of these doublings, the smaller characters maintain their original character, so Lady Macbeth actually delivers the warning, and the lame and wise porter becomes a brutal murder. I found that instead of adding interest or significance, these doublings tended to distract, and in the case of Lady Macbeth, distorted her character.

With minor complaints from this past Thursday’s show, this staging of Macbeth is a very strong presentation of this wonderfully horrid story. And if past year’s are an indication, the Great River Shakespeare Festival’s Macbeth will get better and better as the season progresses.

Macbeth plays in repertory with As You Like It through July 29
Visit the Great River Shakespeare Festival for schedules: Great River Shakespeare Festival

The Tragedy of Macbeth: A Primer

The Great River Shakespeare Festival’s tragedy selection again offers ample opportunity for spilling blood on the stage, and even if you are not a fan of blood, its haunting look at human greed and ambition make it one of Shakespeare’s most popular offerings. While the Great River Shakespeare Festival has presented several tragedies, Macbeth may be the darkest. This characterization may be best illustrated by a brief comparison to Richard III.

In Richard III, Richard begins the play corrupt and deformed (a physical symbol of his moral deformity). Accepting that Richard is amoral allows the audience to become conspirators in his sinister and evil steps toward achieving the crown. Macbeth on the other hand, begins the play a respected war hero, loyal to the king, and content with his place in the governance of Scotland. In the end, his campaign for the crown is as ruthless and full of bloodshed as Richard’s. But Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, and the audience are all horrified by the turn in character required to get the crown. With Richard, the audience is fascinated, and to some extent won over, by the reckless bravado; with Macbeth the audience sees the process of choices that lead respected people down the bloody path to ruin, and they respond with the implication that they could have made those same choices.

The Story

The Scottish army has just won back-to-back wars behind the valor of Scotland’s generals, Banquo and Macbeth. The King rewards Macbeth for his service with an additional landed title: Thane of Cawdor.

But before the generals meet the king to receive their rewards, they meet three witches who greet Macbeth with the prophecy that he is Thane of Cawdor and will be King of Scotland. Macbeth thinks little of the witches words until he finds out that he indeed has been named Thane of Cawdor. This naturally leads him to wonder about the third prophecy.

Macbeth writes to his wife of the witches’ prophecy. Together, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth decide that becoming King is their fate, and they must take bold action to make it happen.

The Characters

Duncan—the current King of Scotland (Along with promoting Macbeth, he promotes his son, Malcolm, to be next in line for the throne, which rubs Macbeth and others the wrong way.)

Macbeth—an army general, Thane of Glamis, later Thane of Cawdor, later King of Scotland.

Lady Macbeth—wife of Macbeth.

Banquo—army general, hero of the recent war. He meets the witches with Macbeth and the witches prophesy that Banquo’s offspring will one day be king.

Macduff—one of a number of the king’s noblemen. Unlike many of the others, Macduff is suspicious of Macbeth and flees Scotland for England. A spirit conjured by the witches warns Macbeth to beware of Macduff.

Three Witches—women that Macbeth encounters in an open place who are able to foretell the future.

The Witches

Witches were a hot topic in the first decade of the 1600s in England, and today they continue to be one of the most interesting parts of Macbeth. Shakespeare’s audience would have held a variety of understandings about who or what witches were or whether they existed or whether they were simply the wild imaginations of superstitious people. On the European continent, there was a strong sentiment that witchcraft was real, that witches worked as extensions of the devil, and that they undermined the natural order of things. Persecutions of people (mostly poor women) as witches was very strong on the continent and in Scotland. Some in England would have held these same views, though England was much more skeptical of the existence of witches as evil, even though England had an anti-witchcraft law of their own on the books dating back to 1563.

James I (who was known as James IV when he was King of Scotland) assumed the English throne in 1603 and was King when Macbeth was first performed (probably 1606 or 1607). James had been a virulent prosecutor of witches in Scotland and six years before becoming King of England had authored an influential book vilifying witches called Daemonology. James not only identified witches as demonic, he saw them as an assault on the king—as a form of treason.

A close read of the scenes involving the witches find few clues as to what Shakespeare may have thought about witchcraft. Certainly, James I would have watched Macbeth and seen his version of witchcraft on stage. But it is probable that skeptics of witchcraft or believers in a witchcraft not inherently evil might have been satisfied as well. (There is much in the play to please James: The throne returns to his ancestor at the play’s end, and Macbeth is Shakespeare’s shortest work, perhaps appeasing James’ stated preference for short works.)

Believers in a demonic witchcraft would naturally see the witches as tricking Macbeth and maybe even “bewitching” him into his fateful, traitorous path. Skeptics could see that the witches offer prophecy in good faith, and if there is evil, it resides with the decisions Macbeth makes—based on his misunderstanding of the witches’ words and his own ambitions. Still others, as Shakespeare scholar William Carroll speculates, “must have ‘believed’ in witchcraft as a dramatic proposition that, like men dressed as ghosts or boys dressed as women, was simply another dramatic given that an audience had to grant to a play in order for it to work.”

Portraying the witches on stage, and the apparitions they call up, offers producers of Macbeth a wide range of choices. With the supernatural implications, I expect the Great River Shakespeare Festival will take full advantage of the opportunity to pull out all the fireworks.

Why see Macbeth?

Adherents to theorys about Tradgedy claim that plays such as Macbeth are somehow redemptive and cathartic because the tragic character meets his or her doom, and order is finally restored. Macbeth certainly meets this criteria, but on a more immediate level, Macbeth is a gripping story, told with great language, and presented here by a talented theatre company.

Macbeth plays in repetory with As You Like It through July 29
Visit the Great River Shakespeare Festival for schedules: Great River Shakespeare Festival

Information on James I and concepts of witchcraft in the 15 & 1600s are taken largely from William C. Carroll's William Shakespeare Macbeth: Texts and Contexts.

Gilmore Creek Summer Theatre

Gilmore Creek Summer Theatre Company opens its inaugural season this weekend with the musical Lend Me a Tenor. The company will open its second offering, a celebration of Jerry Herman’s music, Showtune, the following week. The two plays will run in repertory through August 5.

With the addition of Gilmore Creek, Southeast Minnesota has the honor of being home to two professional summer theaters.

Lend Me a Tenor
By by Ken Ludwig; Directed by Steve Snyder
Opens July 6 with preview on July 5

Showtune: Celebrating the Words and Music of Jerry Herman
Conceived by Paul Gilger; Directed by Judy Myers
Opens July 13 with preview on July 12

Visit St. Mary's University Page Theater for schedules and ticket information

Read about Gilmore Creek Summer Theatre Company in the Winona Daily News (June 5)

Theatre du Mississippi Summer: Prelude Concerts and Drops and Drama

Theatre du Mississippi is busy this summer presenting its third annual installment of Drops and Drama as well as producing 5 concerts in conjunction with the Great River Shakespeare Festival.

One scene from "Drops and Drama III"

Drops and Drama III

Theatre du Mississippi has prepared another new “Drops and Drama” production that will feature many of the theater drops from the historic Masonic Temple. The theater’s 90 drops were hand painted in 1909 and powerfully create numerous scenes from classical theater. This new show is written by Lynn Nankivil, narrated by Ray Felton, and will include recorded dramatic readings from the classics by Great River Shakespeare Festival apprentice actors.

Saturdays through July 28
Shows at 1:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m..
Historic Main Street Theatre
255 Main Street
Winona, Minnesota

Prelude Concerts

Theater du Mississippi is also producing musical events in conjunction with the Great River Shakespeare Festival (including last Saturday’s James Armstrong Concert). Four prelude concerts are free and open to the public and start at 6:30 p.m. in the commons area in front of the Performing Arts Center at Winona State University.

Cam Waters
Friday, July 6, 6:30 p.m.

Liz Queler & Seth Faber
Saturday, July 14, 6:30 p.m.

Curtis & Loretta
Saturday, July 21, 6:30 p.m.

Chris Koza
Saturday, July 28, 6:30 p.m.

Visit Theater du Mississippi’s Web for performer bios.

Grand Opening

By John Hassler, Directed by Sally Childs

John Hassler Theater, June 28, 2007

When the Foster family arrives in Plum and the grandfather asks the name of his new town, he repeats the word sceptically, “Plum,” to the nervous laughter of the Plainview audience who knows that Plum is the pseudonym for Plainview, the town where author Jon Hassler grew up. In a sense, the audience is watching a play about themselves, or more precisely, a play about their grandparents. Outside the theater, the Catholic and Lutheran Churches still stand at opposite ends of the main street, and while the religious polarization presented in the late 1940s play seems silly today, life in a small town can still be difficult for the newly arrived and for the misfits.

In Hassler’s adaptation of his novel Grand Opening for the stage, he moves the misfits to the front of the story. For example, Rufus Ottman is on stage for the opening and closing scenes—and many of the scenes in between. Now in his 40s, Rufus doesn’t speak and has the vacuous look of someone with severe mental impairment. Many of the town’s people call him a “moron,” while his mother says he is simply “happy.” Kent Griffin does an admirable job of portraying Rufus, who is often led on stage and left to watch the goings on at Hank’s Grocery during the day. The community keeps an eye on him, gently leading him back to his mother or back to his favorite spot at the grocery when he wanders too close to danger. Yet others ask: “if this town can take care of Rufus, why can’t it make room for me?”

Other newcomers and misfits don’t fare as well in Plum. Sixteen-year-old Dodger Hicks (Nick Lange) is shunned by Plum’s adults because his parents aren’t married, his father is in prison, his mother entertains men, and Dodger tends to steal things. He is ridiculed by the children because he is several grades behind in school. Because he wants to belong so desperately, the other children prey on his vulnerability. Dodger’s parental instability (and implied childhood abuse) find little sympathy in Plum.

Another misfit, Wallace Flint, carries scars from childhood abuse and neglect along with epilepsy. Once a promising high school intellectual, Wallace has settled into a cynicism that easily moves into nastiness. Ethan Scot Savage marvelously captures that nastiness in the role, sneering his way into disfavor and ruining any chance of acceptance or support. Even the mostly sympathetic Plum resident, Stan Kimball (played by Merle Savage), shuns Wallace—as does Hassler and the audience. Yet the question must be asked: had the community taken care of Wallace as they’ve taken care of Rufus, would he have turned into such a bitter young man?

Catherine Foster’s (Mary Chick) membership in the misfit club comes not just from being an outsider from the big city, it comes from her desire to find and cultivate art and literature in the small town. The town however, doesn’t see itself in need of reforming. They are happy with their bookcase-sized library and the school board’s lack of interest in raising the intellectual level of its pupils. (There is a certain irony to be sitting in this theater in the Rural America Arts Center—surely the culmination of the efforts of people like Catherine, presumably over the objections of people like Mrs. Kimbal who insist that one author is sufficient for for the moral upkeep of the town’s literary interest—dedicated to bringing arts and letters to rural America, to Plum).

While these serious questions and critiques of small town Minnesota are prevalent in the play, Grand Opening is full of humor and delight. Mark Colbenson’s Grandfather character often steals the show with his stories, his confusion over where he is, and his faux gallantry toward the ladies of Plum. At times he seems to have lost any sense of appropriateness—he tells a morbidly funny story about a tragic train accident from his railroad days during a funeral service, for example. Merle Savage’s Stan Kimball is equally funny as he balances his role as the town’s only atheist and undertaker with being married to the leading Lutheran busybody.

With the addition of short narratives delivered directly to the audience by Brendan Foster, the story becomes Brendon’s. Played by 11-year-old Collin Chick, Brendan is presented with a series of choices which weight his moral standing against his acceptance into the social structure of Plum’s young. Chick plays the role well, and his breaks in character to deliver these monologues help Hassler underscore his major themes.

Director Sally Childs and the rest of the cast and crew have put together an enjoyable piece of drama that is well worth the drive to Plum (Plainview), Minnesota. The community actors do an exceptional job of bringing Hassler’s characters to life, and Grand Opening offers a unique opportunity to watch a play while sitting in the very same town being presented on stage. In fact, Wallace Flint, Hank Foster, or Mrs. Kimball may be sitting right behind you (so don’t laugh too hard if they aren’t laughing).

Grand Opening plays at the John Hassler Theater through July 15
Visit the John Hassler Theater for schedules: Jon Hassler Theater