Information, reviews, and miscellaneous shorts focusing on professional, nonprofit theater—from a Southeast Minnesota perspective.

Friday, May 25, 2012

Pillars of Society

By Henrik Ibsen, Adaptation by Jeffrey Hatcher, directed by Hal Cropp
Commonweal Theatre (April 14, 2012)

Only a few weeks remain to see Commonweal’s Ibsen offering, Pillars of Society, the season’s best area offering of 2012 to date. (Pillars plays Thursday and Fridays through June 8).

Pillars of Society, one of Ibsen’s lesser performed plays, marks the beginning of Ibsen’s move from the melodrama that dominated theater of the 19th Century to the realism that marks the drama of the 20th Century. The play predates his ground breaking A Doll’s House, and can seem more clumsy and forced than the later plays. However, there is something about this production that gets beyond this clumsiness, bringing Ibsen’s exploration of the public and private lives to the center of the production. The success of the Commonweal production has a lot to do with Jeffery Hatcher’s adaptation of the script. In his third adaptation of Ibsen’s work for the Commonweal, Hatcher again demonstrates his ability to get to the heart of Ibsen’s story and the familial, economic, and political tensions that drive Ibsen’s work.

The public theme of the play centers around Karsten Bernick, the owner of a large ship-building company and a self-described leader or “pillar” of the community. Scott Dixon plays Bernick as a devout servant to his community-yes he has profited from the ship yards and his position in the community, but it is all for the greater good of society. Bernick feels he has sacrificed for the community and is deserving of the town’s accolades as well as certain perks that come with responsibility. It is a position that we see all too many corporate executives and politicians caught up in today: because of their perceived personal sacrifices and the overall benefit to society from their deals, trades, and vision, they don’t believe that have to follow the same rules as common people. So complete is their belief in their value to society, they view their excesses not as their just due but as part of their sacrifice on our behalf.


Scott Dixon, Stefanie Dickens Underferth, Catherine Glynn, Jeremy van Meter. Photo Jason Underferth.

While it is hard for Bernick to see the hypocrisy of his position, it is clear that it is his family that he has sacrificed. And perhaps this is the trademark of Ibsen’s modernism: the public persona of an individual must be looked at through the lens of the personal, even if that persona is clueless about the personal as Bernick seems to be in Pillars. As the play evolves, the list of people Bernick has sacrificed for his personal gain (and the betterment of society) continues to grow: spouse, sister, brother-in-law, sister-in-law, past mistress, workers at the ship yard. Yet Ibsen, and this production, don’t simply paint Bernick as the bad guy: he’s a recognizable human who is susceptible to the all-to-human expectations, foibles, and delusions that prevent a person from honestly seeing themselves.

While the story is the Norwegian ship magnet’s, Americans threaten the equilibrium and in many ways steal the show. Off stage, the American sailors in port scandalize the small coastal town. On stage, the arrival of Lona Hessel from her self-imposed exile in America shakes up the ordered Scandinavian household. The tall figure of Catherine Glynn, who makes her Commonweal debut as Lona, dressed in red, sweeps onto the stage, inflaming the past jealousy of her sister and the long buried passion of Karsten Bernick. Glynn plays this pivotal role brilliantly, not only making the Bernick family squirm with her lack of decorum and willingness to confront the truth, but she also causes a bit of discomfort among the Minnesota audience.

Ibsen uses America (the sailors and the returned family members) as a dramatic device to shake up both the town and the Norwegian family depicted in the play. It is also a great bonus for us as we get a glimpse of how Americans were stereotyped by Europeans at the turn of the 19th Century.

Commonweal’s Pillars of Society is a great play. It is full of humor, heartbreak, betrayal, and forgiveness. It’s many ideas and questions are relevant in our own public and private lives; I find myself thinking about the play frequently, many weeks after I saw the production. Unfortunately, we only have a few more weeks to enjoy this production.

Pillars of Society plays in repertory with The 39 Steps through June 8.
Visit the Commonweal for schedules and tickets: Commonweal Theatre (www.commonwealtheatre.org)

Monday, April 2, 2012

2012 Ibsen Festival

The Commonweal jumps into its 2012 season with its 15th annual Ibsen Festival. The festival features the premiere of Jeffery Hatcher’s adaptation of Ibsen’s Pillars of Society. Pillars of Society is directed by Executive Director Hal Cropp, and features resident company member Scott Dixon as Karsten Bernick, a respected shipbuilder with a hidden past. The cast also includes Katie Berger, Gary Danciu, Stef Dickens, Catherine Glynn, David Hennessey, Carla Joseph, and Jeremy van Meter.


Enemy of the People, 2011. Photo Jason Undererth.
Pillars of Society is the third Ibsen adaptation created for the Commonweal by Jeffery Hatcher as part of a series of new versions of Ibsen’s plays developed for the American stage, beginning with John Gabriel Borkman, last season’s An Enemy of the People, and slated to continue through 2014 with new imaginings of A Doll’s House and Brand.
The Ibsen Festival offers events and presentations throughout the weekend to satisfy a variety of interests. Guests may attend lectures, film presentations, musical concerts, and artist displays.
The Commonweal is proud to welcome Professor Errol Durbach, Professor Emeritus of Theatre Studies at the University of British Columbia and vice-president of the Association for the Advancement of Scandinavian Studies in Canada, as keynote speaker. Professor Durbach is the author of Ibsen The Romantic, A Doll’s House: Ibsen’s Myth of Transformation, and a collection of edited essays in Ibsen and the Theatre. He has also adapted Peer Gynt (2006) and The Master Builder (2009) for performance.
Building on the themes of Pillars of Society, the Commonweal Theatre will be partnering with The Lanesboro Arts Center, Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum, and The Minnesota Marine Art Museum to explore the Norwegian immigrant experience in America. Events officially begin Friday evening, April 13 and run through Sunday, April 15.

Weekend Highlights:

Visit Commonweal’s website for a full and up-to-date listing of events: Commonweal Theatre (www.commonwealtheatre.org)

Friday, April 13

John Gabriel Borkman, 2010. Photo by Nyna Ramy.
Opening Reception: Maritime Art Exhibit
6:30 pm, free, Commonweal Theatre
Exhibit showcasing some of the world’s finest maritime art. These reproduction prints are on loan from the Minnesota Maritime Art Museum and include a selection of “traditional” marine paintings, Hudson River School works, and Impressionist and Post-Impressionist works that explore the ongoing and historic human relationship with water.

Over the Back Fence
7:30 pm, $5, St. Mane Theatre Theatre
This community variety show features a house band, musical guests, comedy, drama, skits, and audience participation. The theme for the evening…Moon over Norway!

Pillars of Society
7:30 pm, $20, Commonweal Theatre
The Commonweal is proud to present Jeffrey Hatcher’s world-premiere adaptation of one of Ibsen’s rarely-produced works. This final preview performance features a post-show discussion with the director and cast.

Saturday, April 14

Pastries and coffee
9:30 am. Free, Commonweal Theatre
Start your day with Scandinavian pastries and coffee at the Commonweal Theatre Events Hall.

Pannel Discussion: To America: The Immigrant Experience
10:00 am, free, Commonweal Theatre
Author of Linka’s Diary: A Norwegian Immigrant Story In Word and Sketches and head of the Luther College History Department, Professor Marv Slind will moderate a panel discussion examining the history of Norwegian immigration to the United States. Additional panel guests include a Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum guide and a participant in the Giants of the Earth Heritage Center oral history project.

Seminar: From There to Here: Finding Your Immigrant Ancestors
1:00 am, free, Commonweal Theatre
Featuring genealogical researcher Janis Martin.

Lecture: Errol Durbach. “Tragic Ibsen?: The problems of staging Ibsen in the modern theatre”
2:00 pm, free, Commonweal Theatre
Author of Ibsen the Romantic and A Doll’s House: Ibsen’s Myth of Transformation and the writer and editor of many articles on Ibsen, Professor Durbach has translated and adapted several of Ibsen’s plays for production, including Peer Gynt, which won the most outstanding production award in Vancouver for 2006. He has translated and adapted numerous works by Ibsen, most recently completing an adaptation of Ghosts. He will discuss the challenges encountered in the process, focusing on the stagecraft, the symbolism, the light, its classical affinities, and the attempt of the modern theatre to break free of the melodrama that threatens to undermine one of the greatest tragedies of the 19th Century.

Concert: Natalie Nowytski with Dee Langley
4:00 pm, free, Commonweal Theatre
Natalie Nowytski, master vocalist of traditional Eastern European folk music, is an award-winning composer and performer who sings in more than 40 languages. Natalie will be joined by internationally renowned composer and accordionist, Dee Langley, both of whom are members of the Twin Cities-based Balkan group, Orkestar Bez Ime, winner of the 2011-2012 McKnight Fellowship for Performing Musicians. They will share their love for traditional folk music with ancient vocal styles and authentic instrumentals, recounting stories of immigration and exploring the history of “New Americans” through the music of their homeland.

Enemy of the People, 2011. Photo Jason Undererth.
Art Exhibit Opening & Reception: “Land by Hand: Fiber Artists Explore Place.”
6:00 pm, free, Lanesboro Arts Center
Opening reception for “Land by Hand: Fiber Artists Explore Place.” The Commonweal Theatre is proud to sponsor this striking exhibit which explores the concept of land and place through the medium of fiber arts.

Pillars of Society
7:30 pm, $30, Commonweal Theatre
Celebrate the opening night of Pillars of Society! After the show, join the cast and crew for an opening night reception.

Sunday, April 15

Pillars of Society
1:30 pm, $30, Commonweal Theatre
The Commonweal is proud to present Jeffrey Hatcher’s world-premiere adaptation of one of Ibsen’s rarely-produced works.
Visit the Commonweal for schedules and tickets: Commonweal Theatre (www.commonwealtheatre.org)

Sunday, April 1, 2012

The Metal Children

By Adam Rapp, directed by Megan K. Pence
Commonweal Apprentice Company
March 30, 2012


The Commonweal’s apprentice company production has proved to be a rewarding investment of my theater-going time the past 4 years. While The Metal Children may not rank with last year’s Metamorphosis, it remains a compelling piece of theater, doing what art at its best should do: ask the important questions.

In Rapp’s play, a small town in the Midwest is banning a book called The Metal Children, and the High School English teacher who uses the book has invited the author to town to defend the work. This sets up a classic confrontation between the artistic, freedom-of-expression, led by the author, against the small-town evangelical church and the small-minded school board. However this classic standoff doesn’t really take place—the author of the book seems clueless as to how to defend the book.

The play centers on the young adult fiction author Tobin Falmouth, played by Gary Danciu.  Danciu spends most of the play struggling to clear the fog from his head: early it is an alcohol and drug induced haze, later it is a daze caused by cracked ribs and an inability to come to terms with a world where an entire town has taken his fiction seriously. The audience waits for the protagonist to wake up and act heroically. It doesn’t happen.

High school senior, Vera Dundee, played by Rachel Kuhnle, on the other hand, is willing to defend the book and is clear about what the book means and what it calls her to do. Kuhnle has captured the often militant surety of a cause that young adults often embrace. She has hints of adolescent sweetness, but chillingly acts out a zealous response to Falmouth’s book.

Like all good theater, this play has my mind returning to the play in the days since I saw it. Rapp and director Pence keep the meaning ambiguous, not allowing for easy, comfortable compartmentalizing of the play: Is this play about the importance and power of literature? Is the play about censorship? Is the play about the responsibility of the community to guide its youth? Is this a play about the role of religion in the public schools? Rapp seems to keep the audience off balance with a musty controversy that most of the audience likely entered the theater thinking they understood.

When I do think of the play, I often think of the post show conversation with the company more than the play itself. I can’t help but think that the company was a bit disappointed by the questions and comments from those who stayed to discuss the play. One group of questions expressed frustration that Falmouth remained largely detached and missed his opportunities to do the right thing. As audience members, we are hoping for the protagonist to rise to the occasion, but the verisimilitude of the play would make this unlikely. Falmouth does grow in the play: he is able to move from a self-absorbed despondency to a self-absorbed sobriety and productivity. Taking on the full responsibility of an altruistic adult would have been too much to ask in the short arc of the play. Likewise, Vera has significantly matured in the year since the showdown over the book. But she too has only come so far. She is sobered by the impulsive choice she made and is now making adult responses to her situation. Yet she hangs on to her infatuation with Falmouth’s fictional characters. Roberta Cupp (Carla Joseph) speaks eloquently for her church, which is leading the charge against the book. She is able to have brief moments of human connection with Falmouth, but not the breakthrough that the audience longs for.

Another set of audience questions placed the blame on the high school English teacher for not properly guiding the students through a potentially dangerous book. I think this response is an understandable one: to blame the book would be to come down on the side of censorship, so it must be someone’s fault. After all, 40 girls ran away from the small town, many intentionally becoming pregnant, and one girl commits suicide. But if it is the English teacher’s fault that the 40 girls ran away in response to the book, then it must be the religious community’s responsibility that Tami Lake’s understanding of a different book caused her to turn toward suicide.

Rapp’s treatment of the interactions of characters on stage maintains a reliable verisimilitude, even while the play is surrounded by the inconceivable in a way that the audience doesn’t question. For example, a full-sized statue of Tami Lake appears just after she commits suicide. Forty-girls from a small town high school are moved by a work of fiction enough to secure a mortgage on a farm in Montana and move there before any of their parents are able to stop them. And most fantastic of all, everyone in the small town seems to have read the book and knows more about what is in the book than the clueless author. Even those who hate its content readily tell the author what a great writer he is—the vigilante thugs even quote from the book. This tendency of the audience to accept the fantastic perhaps leaves the audience willing to blame someone—the author, the church, the school—for actions that are highly unlikely while missing the point of the teen suicide which is all too common.

While Rap’s play, and presumably Commonweal’s interpretation of the play, doesn’t provide answers to the questions and doesn’t provide us with a feel-good protagonist who saves the day, there is a pivotal scene where the English teacher, Stacey Kinsella (Brandon Grayson), lying on what might be his death bed, asks Falmouth to read a specific passage from his book. In the passage, a girl tells her father that she is pregnant. The scene is full of both fear and hope, as the girl’s future lies with the father’s response. We never learn what the father says, but from what the play does disclose about the book, the father missed his opportunity.

Friday, March 9, 2012

John and Jen at the Jon Hassler Theater

John Hassler Theater

The Jon Hassler Theater will host Nautilus Music Theater's production of John and Jen for four shows over the last two weekends of March. John and Jen (music by Andrew Lippa, music by Tom Greenwald) explores the complex relationships between brothers and sister and parents and children.

Set against the changing background of America between 1950 and 1990, Nautilus' production is a truly original musical, a tour de force for two actors who move from childhood to adolescence to adulthood and beyond, as they explore family connections, broken commitments, and the healing of the human heart.

John and Jen is staged by Ben Krywosz, and features Keri Rodau and JP Fitzgibbons, with Mindy Eschedor at the piano. Critics and audiences called this production "lovely, sweet, affecting - top-quality singing and acting - the score is emotionally ravishing and gorgeous beyond words - absolutely knockout performances - funny, poignant, smart - sung and acted to perfection - you'll hum a few new tunes on your way out of the theater."

John and Jen runs March 23, 24, 30, 31.

Visit the Jon Hassler Theater online for schedules and tickets: www.jonhasslertheater.org
Phone the Jon Hassler Theater at 507-534-2900.

Thursday, March 8, 2012

Gruesome Playground Injuries in Lanesboro March 16

By Rajiv Joseph, directed by Eric Decker, live music by BE
A Vertigo Theatre Factory (Rochester) presentation
St. Main Theatre, Lanesboro, MN

In Gruesome Playground Injuries, accident-prone Doug hurts outside: bloody facial gashes, eye wounds, chipped teeth, and legs broken. His life-long friend Kayleen hurts mostly inside. The play takes them through childhood to adulthood on a strange but absorbing journey of pain, friendship, missed signals and bad timing. NOTE: Not recommended for audiences under the age of 16.

March 16, 8:00 p.m. St. Maine Theatre, Lanesboro
Tickets $15/$12 student. 507-467-2446.
Seating in the St. Mane Theatre is handicapped accessible.



Vertigo Theatre Factory’s production of Gruesome Playground Injuries also appears in Rochester:

March 8, 9, 10 Rochester Civic Theatre Lobby, 20 Civic Center Drive, Rochester
March 30, 31, Barnbar, Rochester

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Commonweal Apprentice Company Presents: The Metal Children

As has become the custom at the Commonweal, the Commonweal season begins with a full production by the resident apprentice company. The production comes as the capstone of a 10-month residence at the Commonweal for the 5 actors, directors, production team members, ticket-takers, box office workers, and practitioners of every job conceivable at the Commonweal. All five members of the company have been busy on stage and off during the 2011 season.

It has also become customary that the apprentice production stands up very well on the Commonweal stage. The shows are challenging, thought provoking and very well played. This year’s production of The Metal Children promises to continue this custom.

The Metal Children Gary Danciu and Rachel Kuhnle in Adam Rapp’s The Metal Children by the Commonweal Apprentice Company. Photo by Jason Underferth.

The Metal Children, written by Adam Rapp, follows a washed up young-adult novelist as he leaves his NYC apartment for the American heartland after his book, The Metal Children, is banned by a small-town school board. There he finds something more bizarre than fiction—extreme politics, radical teens, and vigilantes in Porky Pig masks—all because of his book.

Megan Pence, who served as assistant director for two productions last season, will direct. She finds that “what’s interesting about The Metal Children is how one artist’s creation can spur a multitude of consequences. An author writes a book, and it reaches further than he ever could have imagined.”

The 2012 Apprentice Company includes Pence, Gary Danciu, Brandon Grayson, Carla Joseph, and Rachel Kuhnle—all seen on the Commonweal mainstage during the 2011 season. The set, costumes, props, and sound design are also handled by the five apprentices with the addition of guest lighting designer Michael Dold, who is a senior at St. Mary’s University in Winona.

The Apprentice Program at the Commonweal Theatre is a ten month commitment designed for recent college graduates or young professionals with commensurate experience who would benefit from a prolonged relationship with a small professional theatre company. Focused primarily on experiential learning through a traditional mentor/apprentice relationship, the program affords artistic opportunities, regular classroom instruction, and administrative responsibilities in the areas of Marketing, Development, and Production.

The Metal Children has a limited run of 8 shows, Thursdays - Sundays, March 22 - April 1.

Visit the Commonweal for schedules and tickets: Commonweal Theatre (www.commonwealtheatre.org)

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Leading Ladies

La Crosse Community Theatre
By Ken Ludwig; directed by Anne Drecktrah

Leading Ladies

La Crosse Community Theater opens Leading Ladies, Friday, March 9 in La Crosse. In this comedy two struggling English actors, Jack and Leo, pose as long-lost nephews to inherit the estate of a rich old woman who has just died. Their trouble begins when they arrive to find out that the long-lost nephews are actually nieces, and the old woman isn't as dead as they thought!

Cast members include Katie Clausen as Meg, Kevin Laumbach as Leo; long-time LCT actors Michael Marcou as Jack, Megan Larson as Audrey, Dennis Kuhn as Duncan, Susan Fox as Florence and Daniel Schneider as Doc; and Daniel Rapoport, who is making his LCT stage debut, as Butch.

Set and lights designed by Andrew Brackett and costumes by Mandy Parmeter. The production is rated theatre PG.

Performances are on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 2:00 p.m. For more information visit www.lacrossecommunitytheatre.org.